Lists….

Do you love lists?  

You have to make lists to be successful-just read any success/leadership book. As a personal tool I use them more and more because I am so easily distracted. Perfectionism can be debilitating.  I once read a quote that says Lance Armstrong doesn’t have to do lists – he just does them. Interesting. Lists as a tool in my restaurant I feel differently about.

“You need lists in a restaurant. How else will anyone know what to do?”  If you know me, you know that quote didn’t come from me. It came from one of my servers. D bar Desserts is a small restaurant. Very small. In my mind you should be able to look around and do what needs to be done-especially if you have to do it every day. I learned early on that doesn’t work in a restaurant. Lists provide organization, direction, efficiency, accountability and consistency.

I also feel they take the soul out of a task or situation or restaurant or organization. That is of course, not always true but it is always how I feel when I have to make a new one. It is a huge step towards a corporate mentality – inherently stepping away from mom and pop family owned small business which I’m.

Opening and closing lists are my least favorite and the most necessary. My fear is that I will put together that list and everyone will turn off their brains and robotically go about carrying out the tasks on that list. Anything that needs to be done that is not on the list doesn’t get done. In fact the list almost gives you permission not to do it. If there is a booger (is that how you spell that? I don’t think I have ever written it before) smeared on the front glass door and it is not on the list for closing will anyone clean it? Probably not. These are the thoughts that keep me up at night. Thanks to the advice of a customer who very simply asked how many things are on the list -to which I replied 17-she suggested: “why don’t you make #18 be: look around, find something that is not on the list that you know needs to be done and do it. Genius!!! Especially if they actually do it! J

I hope and pray to solve all my restaurant challenges in such a simple and beautiful way.

kg

Shame on me!

I finally post a blog after, I don’t know how long, then promise “tomorrow I will post…” and I don’t post – terrible!

I gotta be honest though – I didn’t think anyone would notice or care. Much to my surprise, they do. A lot of people left me encouraging messages and some scolded (much deserved I feel) to keep on posting. Yay!  I will. Who knew?

So back to our topic: I am restless.  I want more out all of us at d bar (except maybe for Bailey – I don’t know how she could do more. She is simply amazing.).

I have all kinds of quotes and mantras floating around in my head about excellence. The one I use the most at d bar is: excellence is in the details - focus on the details and excellence will follow. I have been fortunate enough to work with some of the best there are when it comes to excellence: Charlie Trotter, Jacquy Pfeiffer, Norman Love, and Steve Wynn to name a few. I am not as good as they are at bringing a team of people together to pursue excellence. I don’t know if I ever will be. I am, however, never going to stop trying.

The caveat with my little ditty about excellence is that it presumes all the big things are already in order. You know, the big things: when the floor or bathroom is dirty you clean it, when a table needs to be bussed you do it – whether it is in your station or not. As a cook you taste everything you prepare. Every time.  What if these things are not in order? Does everybody feel like they are the only ones who notice that things are not right? Are we all constantly, secretly finger pointing?

Some people care about doing a good job more than others. Some just don’t care. Can you make them care? I have always presumed everyone wants to do the best they can in all things. That is not the case. Some people live for doing just enough to get by. I don’t understand it. Did the Four Seasons hire all the good ones already? Of course not!

Perhaps I need to cowboy up on my leadership skills.

The other things on my mind are corn (really good this year-corn dessert on its way at d bar!), peaches (why I haven’t had any really good ones from Colorado yet) and how aggravating I find opening and closing duty lists. Tackle it in my post tomorrow. This time I really will. Thanks to all those who wrote me for keeping me in line.

kg

what do you do when you realize it has been like a year and a half since you posted on your own blog!?! i guess like most things when you own a restaurant you cant let it get you down-just aknowledge the issue, work to make it better, follow-up and follow through right? so here we go...

i have wondered for quite a while if posting is worthwhile. who will read it. does anyone care about our little posts in the vast new sea that is online blogging these days. maybe that is not the question to ask. i think it has value if for no other reason than to give myself a place to think things through. sometimes you need to say it out loud to know if it makes sense(or maybe see it written). are there mistakes when posting? hmmm. guess i will find out soon enough. i'm just going to write what is on my mind.

lets call this one the introduction. tommorrow will be my first what's on my mind blog post. at the moment what on my mind is restlessness. d bar is 2 years and 2 months old. i want more. i want improvement. i want excellence. i want to amaze. i want to always exceed expectations. easier said than done in the restaurant biz!

guess we'll get in to that manana.

here we are more than a week later and no new posts! geez. as it turns out i didn't even do the last blog post correctly i created a whole new blog. i will try again. we are closed on sunday and i will post a food network challenge item or two then.
last weekend after we finished shooting challenge i went to do the Southwest Florida Food and Wine Festival. great event and we raised a ton of money for childrens hospital. i got to work with a dear friend, old boss and mentor Norman Love. the dinner we did on friday raised money for children's oncology and that dinner alone raised $50,000. i had a fun idea to auction off Norman and I doing a 5 course dessert experience in someone's home for up to 12 people during the live auction and it ended up going for $15,000! so psyched to be giving to the children's hospital in that way.
next week D bar is participating in the Taste Test series at The Lab at Belmar. check it out if you can. a really cool event I am looking forward to. here is a link to find out some details:
 http://www.belmarlab.org/calendar.php?year=2009&month=3&day=12#3.12.2009
on march 28th i am doing an event called Afternoon Delight at BAC (Builders Appliance Center) sponsored by the Junior League of Denver. should be great fun and great food! here is a link to check that out:
http://www.jld.org/?nd=kitchen_tour

here we go...

i guess this will be my first official post. i finally found some time to get with Brent our web guy and learn how to do it. lucky for me it is a great interface and even a guy like me can do it easily. first and foremost i must mention how grateful we are for the business we have. times are tough but d bar is busy - thanks to each and every one of you for your support. along those lines i send out another sincere thank you to everybody who chose to spend their Valentines Day with us. Thanks!

Denver restaurant week is next week. a complicated situation that i will get into in my next blog either tomorrow or tonight after service. in short i will let you know we will do something fun for 5280 restaurant week. btw we shoot challenge next week in Denver. i will keep you up to date on the details dont worry.
kg

I will be posting updates and stories about what we are doing and what we are thinking here at D Bar.