Restaurants are like movies. The restaurant business is a collaborative art form that requires talented people to transform an ethereal concept into something substantial and real. A script will only ever be a script until the vision and passion of a director, cinematographer, producers, cast, and crew transform the words on the page into a movie. The same is true for restaurants. No matter how many dishes you’ve cooked or recipes you’ve sketched out on a notepad, a restaurant isn’t a restaurant until there are cooks in the kitchen, a staff on the floor, dishes on a table and a paying customer at the door.
Restaurants–like movies–become something different once life is breathed into them. How the whole thing turns out is really up to something bigger than just one person. It takes a village to make a restaurant.
I may have moved across the country to learn how to make movies, but over the years I’ve come to understand that what’s kept me in Los Angeles is my desire and passion to make restaurants. Sure, I still have plenty of filmic stories percolating in my mind—the magical coming of age story, the comedy about bloggers, and the redemptive love story–but it’s the bustle of dining room service that captures my attentions and creativity.
I love the thrill of making restaurants come to life and sustaining them through the long haul. I relish in the potential of restaurants, the personality of a dining room, and the feel of a kitchen as it pushes out plate after plate on a busy night.
Dining rooms are full of passion, drama, characters, and unexpected plot twists and turns. In the best of times– when I’m working in restaurants peopled by an army of talented people–I relish in the camaraderie. I love how a team of professionals can band together, problem solve better than MacGuyver ever did, and keep the whole process from going off track. Even in the worst of times, struggling restaurants have a kind of beauty to them. Success that can be found after a long bout of breakage, waste, inconsistent food, employee shortages, and financial woes are some of the most gratifying.
Continue reading “Service 101: Restaurant Openings”
