What I Cooked: 5/7/15

After the Cinco de Mayo festivities, it was time to travel to a new continent.  Pasta is always a winner.  I had spaghetti, bacon, and spinach on hand. In twenty minutes we were eating a comforting, creamy homemade Alfredo.  Want to try it?  Chop the bacon and saute until crisp. Drain most of the fat from the pan and add two cups of heavy cream.  Simmer until the cream thickens.  Stir in the spinach until wilted.  Add the cooked, warm spaghetti and a little reserved pasta water.  Toss to coat.  You're done.  If you're feeling ambitious, you could add a simple salad on the side, but this is really meant to be a quick one-pot meal.

Still Life, Connecticut Style

Food memories are some of the strongest.  As a lifelong food traveller, I have had the pleasure of enjoying many cuisines and loving most of them.  And yet, the taste of home for me is always one of the most satisfying.  On a recent trip to Connecticut I was able to indulge in two of my favorite baked goods: Portuguese rolls and chocolate chip cookies.  

If you haven't experienced the airy goodness that is a Portuguese roll, I'm sorry and I hope you get to the northeast to try one.  I didn't realize that they were not available to everyone until I moved to California and my queries were met with a puzzled, but pleasant "what?"

Thankfully, the folks at Chaves Bakery in Bridgeport, CT are keeping the tradition alive.  What started out as one family bakery is now a chain of nine stores where you can still hear Portuguese spoken between the staff and customers.  Aside from the rolls and other freshly baked breads, they stock an amazing assortment of traditional Portuguese pastries including pasteis de nata, custard-filled pastry cups.

But really, I'm just there for the rolls.  These pillows of deliciousness are good at any time of day.  In the morning, they are typically slathered with a slab of butter and make the perfect accompaniment to a cup of tea or coffee.  You can also gild the lily with an egg and ham or bacon, but it's really not necessary.

At lunch, Portuguese rolls make a terrific foil to lunch meats and even messy meatball and chicken parmesan sandwiches.  They soak up sauce, but don't get mushy.  In a pinch, you can freeze them and they toast up beautifully.  Whenever I am in town, I pick up a dozen to take home.

All in all the perfect food.  And for dessert, you can have a bakery chocolate chip cookie.   My formative years were spent in Connecticut and there were many summer days spent on the porch of my grandmother's beauty salon, listening to gossip and watching the world go by.  Aside from the old-fashioned coke machine, with bottles, not cans, the best part of spending the day at the salon was its perfect location across the street from Ann's Bakery.  Ann's is no longer in business, but the legacy of their chocolate chip cookies live on in other bakeries around Bridgeport.

They also made beautiful cakes and pastries, but as a kid, I went for the cookies.  So what was so great or different about them?  The picture tells the story, but I will try to add color.  They are big.  In fact, at Chaves Bakery, home of the Portuguese rolls, you can get the cookies in small (normal size), medium (saucer-sized), and large (salad-plate).   And, they are somehow a little salty and sweet at the same time, but never too sweet. And the dough has a sandy, crumbly texture which is so different from super-buttery, chewy texture of most bakery cookies today.

You can't go home again, but you can make a pilgrimage for your favorite foods.  We still need to talk about hot dogs and lobster rolls.  A post for another day...

A cautionary tale: How LEKR's tenets of restaurant success could have saved Straw Valley

Recently, I learned that Straw Valley, a restaurant we reviewed on this blog, had closed. Honestly, I am saddened but not surprised. Straw Valley failed to execute on the three tenets of a successful restaurant: identity, consistency and hospitality. At LEKR we reinforce these concepts with our clients every day. In fact, prior to engaging with a client we confirm that they apply these tenets to their business or will work to fix the weak spots. If your business falls short on any one of these principles, your long-term prospects are dim. The demise may not be immediate, but it will come. Let’s use Straw Valley as a cautionary tale to illustrate the wrong turns that can doom your restaurant venture. And product vendors, they apply to you too.

We work with restaurants of all types and sizes, from local casual joints to elegant, destination dining establishments.   What do the successful ones have in common? A strong identity. Identity is more than the name on the door or the chosen décor. Identity is the essence of your restaurant. At its core, your identity is your brand, but also your excellence. What do you do better than anyone else? When a prospective diner thinks of a specific cuisine, your restaurant should be the only one that comes to mind.

Straw Valley suffered from an identity crisis from the beginning. First, there was Straw Valley, then Black House at Straw Valley, the fine dining outlet of the complex. There was an oyster bar, a coffee bar, a beer garden, yoga classes in the courtyard, DJs on weekend evenings. Was it cruise ship or a restaurant?

I say this as a supporter of the restaurant. The space, awkwardly placed on the frontage road behind 15-501 in Durham, is gorgeous. Once inside the gate, you feel like you are in a very sophisticated island location, far away from Durham. However, I feel like the plan may have been overwhelmed by the challenges of the space. Perhaps the chef really wanted a small fine dining restaurant, perfect for the Black House, but needed to monetize the rest of the space to make ends meet. So arose the coffee/oyster bar which benefited from a pretty patio in nice weather, but the narrow interior bar and few tables, were not really conducive to long visits. And then there’s the beer garden/dining patio which never quite found its footing. Casual cocktailers were interspersed with tables of Black House diners enjoying multicourse meals. And the beer garden music and atmosphere had to be tempered to accommodate the diners.

We visited the oyster bar, the Black House for lunch and dinner, and the beer garden for a DJ event. Any of these concepts might have stood well on their own, but the lack of focus would be a challenge for any chef and management team, and clearly pushed this team to its limit.

This leads to the next principle: consistency. Whatever you decide to serve, it needs to be the same every time. This is not an unattainable dream, but a requirement for any successful restaurant. Consistency converts casual guests into regulars who will provide the foundation for your restaurant and enables a renewable greenfield of new customers who will keep your business growing.

In the age of social media and self-appointed food critics, consistency is more important than ever. What if a Yelp guest stops by on an “off night?” Those reviews live forever and can damage your reputation in a click. While you may not put much stock in the quality or credibility of those reviews, the general public does. The moral of the story is that you cannot afford to be off on any day.

Straw Valley unfortunately suffered from inconsistency. Our first visit to Black House was amazing. The next visit, I ordered the same oysters with the citrus sorbet and the melting sorbet drowned the oysters. Not good. The fried whole fish could be delicious or incredibly salty.

Many chefs scoff at fast food restaurants, but the best are worth looking at for their ability to produce consistent food at a high volume. Yes, much of that food may be processed, but chains like In-and-Out Burger manage to create a cult following with a limited menu that is executed perfectly. People crave it because they know that the burger and fries will provide the same tasty bite every time. In-and-Out has carved out a strong identity in a crowded burger market and maintains that identity with consistency. People know that there will be few choices. Burgers with or without cheese, fries and shakes. Single or Double, Large or Small. That’s it.

One of my pet peeves is a restaurant that has a menu that seems to criss-cross all the continents. You may consider yourself an expert in many cuisines, but the people you hire are less likely to be so. And they will be charged with cooking your recipes day in and day out. Consistency is in their hands. So focus your menu, hire the best, pay them well, and you will be rewarded.

And now, the last, but in many ways most important, pillar of a successful restaurant: hospitality. I feel that many restaurants pay lip service to hospitality, but don’t understand what it means and how crucial it is to their business.   Unprofessional service, indifferent kitchens, and lackluster maintenance tell your customers that you don’t care about them. And then you expect them to return? Would you?

Somewhere along the line, restaurant service in the US changed into a friend-making endeavor to the detriment of the dining public. Instead of focusing on the fundamentals of service and the customer’s needs, we are treated to an introduction worthy of online dating, complete with name, favorite dishes on the menu, and even recently, the type of car that the server’s father drives. Really? Shouldn’t it be about the guest who has chosen your establishment for an evening out? In real life (as opposed to restaurant life), interrupting people’s conversations, sticking your hand in their plate and putting your hands on the rim of the glass would be faux pas, but we see this regularly.

The kitchen should pay attention to detail and the staff should quickly and cheerfully rectify any mistakes. This is closely tied to consistency. If I get a salad with pieces of brown lettuce, I know that the kitchen is not on point. Clearly they don’t care about me and whether I return. This has happened to me more than once and no, I didn’t return. And yes I told the server, who offered a lackluster apology. As anyone who has watched Top Chef knows, you need to taste your food before you serve it and make sure the plates look great before they leave your kitchen.

Lastly, how your restaurant looks and feels is as important as what you serve. This is part of hospitality. You are welcoming me into your restaurant “home” and want me to enjoy my experience.

Hostesses need to understand the meaning of their title. They are often the first impression of restaurant and a nonchalant attitude can turn off a diner. If the host staff cannot even muster a smile, it does not bode well for the rest of the meal. And don’t even get me started on the bathrooms. I have stopped eating at certain restaurants because of the restroom situation.

As with anything, the devil is in the details. Servers need to understand that side work is not something you do when you get bored chatting with your co-workers. It shows you care! Sticky tables, dirty condiment bottles, and spotty wine glasses are all signs of a restaurant that doesn’t care about you.

At Straw Valley, the staff was friendly and solicitous for the most part, if not completely professional. One evening, we rented a cabana with a group of friends for the DJ event. We settled in and ordered wine. The waiter came back with wine in plastic cups. Where were the wine glasses? Being “saved” for the dining room. They were a “little short.” Well when I pay for a place to sit, and a $12 glass of wine, I want a proper glass. Go to the WalMart across the parking lot and buy some glasses if you’re running out.

We often hear restaurant owners lament their ability to hire good staff. It takes commitment on both sides. Hire people who want to learn the business, give them clear direction on their role, and hold them accountable. That wine glass situation? I know our server did not offer plastic cups of his own accord.   The manager who told him what to do is responsible for the lapse in service.

As the old song says, “Little things mean a lot.” I have eaten at thousands of restaurants and the ones that I go back to again and again pay close attention to LEKR’s three tenets of the restaurant business. Whether you are just starting out, or have been in business for years, it’s always a good idea to check yourself and your employees against these criteria. The payoff is increased business, guaranteed.