Tag: restaurants

SOLON— Happy hour turned into dinner hour as a group of participants in the local food system spent the inaugural Friday afternoon at Big Grove Brewery. It was farmers night out. The new restaurant got a collective thumbs up from the group.

My happy hour choice was a beer brewed in the building, one of two on the menu. I haven’t developed a lexicon for beer criticism, but it was reminiscent of the Stone City Brewery fare, cloudy and strong. It was called Big Grove IPA, and the happy hour special had us buying two glasses at a time and passing them as people joined us at the table.

Our group included suppliers to the restaurant, and the first thing we did was try to figure out how the chefs would use the pound of thyme that was picked that morning. We couldn’t tell from the menu.

There is some vegetarian fare on the menu, and I tried the tomato and eggplant caponata, which is grilled focaccia topped with an eggplant ragout, sliced tomatoes, Parmigiano Reggiano and fresh basil. For only eight bucks, we can afford to return.

Every seat was filled, with people waiting. Even the outdoor patio was full, despite the 100 degree heat. Looks like Big Grove Brewery is off to a good start.

SOLON— In a small town any new restaurant gets a try from locals and last night we had dinner at The Dock on Windflower Lane. Billed as “Fine Dining and Spirits,” there were white tablecloths set out amid decorations reflecting proximity to a place where fish live and boats tie up. Despite nearby Coralville Lake and Lake Macbride, where fish live and boats do tie up, the experience was not intended to be local. The main sign on Highway 1 offered Seafood, Steaks and Pasta, and there were a number of additional signs the size of political yard signs stuck in the ground along the way to get the attention of passers by.

Whenever a new restaurant opens, we check out the menu for the ovo-lacto vegetarian in the house. On-line there was no mention of vegetarian fare of any kind, and while that is a sign, vegetarians know that in the Midwest, sometimes they have to choose some combination of salad and side dishes to fill up the plate. When asked, the server did not have an answer about the offerings for vegetarians, leaving an uncomfortable silence, which my dining companion filled by making some suggestions. Many of the 14 other dining places in our small town acknowledge vegetarians do exist and offer entrees for them. Nonetheless, when my omnivore friends come calling, there is no reason to rule out The Dock.

There were three seating choices: “high,” “low” and outdoors. The high seating was in close proximity to the bar where television sets were mounted to the wall, and a person could hang out, appreciate the work of the resident mixologist and catch a popular televised event. The low seating was in a dining room where the tables were a bit close together. I bumped a person at the table next to us when moving my chair. We didn’t try the outdoor seating, but might have had the greeter mentioned it upon arrival as it was a beautiful summer night.

When asked about specials, the server indicated there were none, attributing it to the fact that the chef was serving on reserve duty that weekend. He seemed a nice young man, but apparently had not been trained to market the offerings of the kitchen, chef or no. In fact, our dinner conversation turned to how the food came from farm to plate, trending toward late 20th century consumerism, where diners sought specific items, the act of purchase having hegemony over any celebration of food. Not a place a restauranteur wants customers to be.

The food was good, and reasonably priced, and that is a positive. However, rather than the good food, the restaurant’s operational issues dominated the evening. When one dines out once or twice a month, that matters.

Dining out is about expectations met, and The Dock has some work to do to earn repeat business. First, and foremost, the staff needs training. Everyone we encountered was friendly and sought to be helpful, but management hadn’t done their work. Staff is at the core of a positive restaurant experience, and while they promptly replaced the dirty forks on the table,  there shouldn’t be dirty forks, prompting diners to recall the Monty Python sketch on the subject.

An example of a mismatch between the kitchen offerings and the menu is that a side of coleslaw is listed on the online menu for $2.50. In the restaurant, the price had gone up to $3, and they were no longer offering it, the server said, indicating it should be taken off the menu. We agreed. Set aside that local cabbage is in season and abundant. All of this is an easy fix, the responsibility of management.

So at the end, the food was good and reasonably priced at The Dock, but they have some work to do to stay open in what is becoming a very competitive Solon restaurant scene.

SOLON— While stopping in town to pick up a gallon of milk, I spotted something in the door of the restaurant previously known as Reggie’s Weenies. Salt Fork Kitchen, hoping to be open Sept. 1.

I checked with the Secretary of State, and Eric Menzel of Sutliff Road near here registered Salt Fork Kitchen, LLC. on July 8. It’s hard to read the sign, but it looks like they intend to compete in the breakfast business, cater and make other food related offerings.

A quick Internet search revealed the following by Pascale Brevet in The Atlantic:

I met Eric Menzel, a doctor of anthropology in his thirties who turned to farming because he couldn’t find the high quality of food he was looking for. Eric helps Bill (Ellison) on the farm and gets to use part of Lois’s (Pavelka) historic farmland in exchange. He organically raises chickens for eggs and meat, and in season he cultivates a vegetable garden. He sells at the nearby farmers’ markets and supplies restaurants. Eric worked as a chef for many years to help pay for his studies. He loves food and experiments with Bill and Lois’s cows’ milk. I tried one of his fresh cheeses. Similar to a ricotta, it had a slight tanginess nicely offsetting the richness of whole milk. The creamy yet pungent Camembert-like cheese I tried on my second visit was delicious too, and it made me nostalgic for France.

Whether the town of Solon, population 2,037, can support three new restaurants is an open question. The Dock recently took over existing space in a strip mall on Windflower Lane and turned it into a white tablecloth place with resident mixologist, Mick Malloy. The Dock is open now. Big Grove Brewery started brewing their first beer this week and brought executive chef, Ben Smart from The Herbfarm outside of Seattle, Wash. The Herbfarm was one of the first restaurants in America to focus on regional foods from local sources, and is widely considered one of the top 50 restaurants in the U.S. They also brought Doug Goettsch from the Culinary Institute of America in Napa Valley, Calif. With all of this talent, the food in town is expected to be good.

Here’s to the prospect of excellent dining during the coming months. I hope they aren’t relying on our family’s once per month eating out habits to survive.

LAKE MACBRIDE— A friend worked at a fast food restaurant and spoke about their policy of replacing food items that were wrong when the order was prepared. For example, if a person asked for a burger with no pickles, and pickles were found when the package was opened. The restaurant replaced such items without hesitation, and free of charge. After all, he said, “the customer is always right.” He added, “…but they lie.” Customers frequently abuse the well-known make it right policy to get extra food. He knew because of his experience of properly preparing an order, only to have the customer return with half-eaten food, wanting a replacement for reasons that can only be described as lame.

Complaints are up at large franchise fast food restaurants, and given the scale of some operators, it is no surprise. In order to run a global restaurant business, with thousands of outlets, a company has to focus on the service delivery process. There is plenty of room for deviation from corporate standard operating procedures.

A focus on process means well-defined procedures for everything. With high employee turnover, some believe if the service delivery process is bulletproof, any employee, with limited experience, can step in with minimal training, and make sandwiches that delivery corporate quality.

Customers learn to work such delivery systems to their advantage. My friend was just calling out what in other social circles is an accepted practice of getting what one can from society without ethical concerns.

It may be a bit scandalous to say, but often the customer is not right. It is one thing for a starving person to work the system to get an extra sandwich from a company that can afford to provide one. It is quite another to go through life expecting that what are exceptions should become rules for exploiting businesses for personal gain. Whatever is wrong with corporate businesses, there is something more fundamentally wrong with a culture that produces both employees that are rude and deceitful customers. It is tough to blame that on corporations.

As a business owner, it can be comforting to focus on process. It is abstract, and works toward efficiency, employee safety and improved margins. But not everyone owns a business, and that leaves those of us in the fray of daily restaurant operations to fend for ourselves.

Bad customer service and deceitful customers are two sides of the same problem. Some of us are loathe to complain about service, because of the time it takes  and the negativity it can introduce into daily life. The customer who lies about a sandwich order for personal gain is an example of what is worst in society. The idea that we are not in life together, but that it is each individual for him or herself, any semblance of a moral compass abandoned.

We are on our own in society, emphasis on our. There is a proper place for honesty in our relations with people. It is something we can and should work on everyday, even in ubiquitous settings like fast food restaurants.