Twelve noon and already customers are pouring in. I get a quick kick in the crotch right away: an order for porc mignon, two boudins, a liver and a pheasant all on one table.
~ Tony Bourdain, Kitchen Confidential
Saturday was an amazing day. In the morning, I suddenly had a zing! an oh-my-God, that-was-the-ONE-card-in-the-deck-I-needed moment. I was getting ready to go help my friend, Monica (no web site), at her catering gig, and it -- inspiration? a moment of grace? -- struck me. I had been thinking about (and talking about, here at Every Meal A Feast) my fantasy to own and run a restaurant. Now the trouble with a restaurant is that you need a lot of, well, stuff: a building, pots and pans, ovens, plates, dishes, refrigerators, permits, tables, chairs, a wine cellar, and so on, ad finitum (or so it seems). It's a lot of coin, in other words. And then it hit me. My friends at the Wine Country Inn have a full kitchen. They have a gorgeous dining room. Because they make and serve a full gourmet breakfast to their guests each day, they have all the "stuff" you need to cook and serve and clean and store. And here's the zing!: It all sits empty every night. That's right; they only do breakfast and some afternoon appetizers. What if I went in there in the evenings and put together a little prix fixe menu, served in-room or in the dining room? I figure I could run things, be the host. I'd need a chef, and a hostest/waitress, probably one runner/dishwasher/cleaner-upper person. That's all. Maybe some young chef, hungry to make a mark. He/she could work out some kinks, experiment a little, get a little resume time in....
Why not? The Inn has 30 rooms. That's a total of 60 people. Most would venture out, but those who wanted to relax, hang out at the Inn.... Something small, limited menu, a limited wine list... only our friends, wines I'd know inside and out. Maybe a little Ghost Horse cab, some Carter Cellars. Maybe during the week we'd even open it up to non-guests, get some local money, if you know what I mean.
D'Artagan arrives, my specialty purveyor, bearing foie gras, duck legs, and an unexpected treat -- a 200-pound free-range pig, whole, which Jose...has ordered for use in pâtés and tête du porc by the charcutier.
Can someone please tell me, why not?
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