Sustained

Friday morning...

Meeting at 9:15am this morning, and my chef and I are here 30 minutes early attempting to get some last second research in. Artisan popcorn, if it exists, is what Barton is looking for. So we are here early doing whatever research we can and calling places across the country, though maybe we should return to this later, as it isn't even 8am yet where we are calling!

I have spoken to a company in Tennessee, who we will be getting ham skins from in order to make "cracklins," kinda like pork rinds but made differently. Can't work in a southern influenced restaurant without such a thing, and I ain't complaining!

We received 1,400 pounds worth of small wares for the kitchen yesterday as well. That includes ladles, spoons, knives, hotel pans, cast iron pans (YES!!!) etc. for operating a kitchen. Today we are expecting our first food delivery as well. Produce will not be coming in until much closer to the opening date but a lot of our bulk items (like dry goods) are expected to be here in the next few hours.

Random story about when I left here last night. I started out with a few drinks from Bourbon, which is just down from Blue Ridge. From there I met up with one of my friends from Staten Island from The Higher Concept, who took me to meet up with several of his friends. I only mention this because I had to listen to a sales pitch in the middle of dinner from a food purveyor.

She ended up being with her boyfriend, whose father owns a large food distribution company in Baltimore. It was great because she gave a whole yarn about how they were all about sustainability with their products. I tried not to laugh, since it is because of people like Barton Seaver, who've been living and preaching this stuff for years that companies are even catching onto this now. I enjoyed it, and will use her business card as a makeshift coffee table coaster...

Oh well, gotta start the meeting, ciao!