My feet hurt, but other than that, things are going well. I had forgotten that there is actually a lot of walking involved in running a restaurant, especially one with a cafe attached to it and a good five miles of floor space between the two. We are through our first week, and have both managed a day off, much walking and many different lunches. This is the best part about owning a restaurant: you get to eat things that aren’t toasties.
Not a toastie. Doesn’t even have cheese in it. Strange.
Not that I haven’t still managed a few toasties as well. We have a few on the menu, and it’s important to make sure that they are delicious. We also have to make sure that this new-fangled cooking method “electricity” is as good as everyone makes out. You’re not allowed to bring LPG and a gas hob inside. I’m not sure it would fit in aesthetically, but if we could, we probably would.
Everything else is different as well. It’s a culture shock. The Jabberwocky, like all the best bits of street food, is rough around the edges. He breaks down, he’s ancient and he’s fundamentally home made. The Mock Turtle is crisp and new and stylish and modern. I have to vaguely do something to my hair before leaving the house, rather than just packing it under a hat. I also view people at ground level, rather than from above.
The days are shorter, but there are a lot more of them. In street food, our biggest events are music festivals. Take Lunar as an example, as we are going back there this year. Last year the Beast arrived on a low-loader, so things were a little more logistically complicated, but in essence the process is as follows:
Lunar Festival. Angellica Bell interviewing us for the Telly. We’re so famous.
Tuesday – Wholesale shop, first deliveries arrive, cleaning the van: 6 hours
Wednesday – First trip on site, moving larger items and getting the gazebo sited. Cooking. 6 hours
Thursday – Everything else moves on site, setup is finished, toastie making begins. 8 hours
Friday – Wake up on site, toastie making, being on TV, visitors arrive and we open to the public. 13 hours – No sleep because the music goes on till 3am
Saturday – Up in time for breakfast, serving and preparing toasties all day. 15 hours – No sleep because the music goes on till 3am
Sunday – Up for breakfast again, serving until finish. 15 hours – No one cares about the music any more. Sleep just fine.
Monday – Take it all to bits and drive it home again. 8 hours
Total: 71 hours standing up. Total toasties consumed: approx. 9
When I spell it out like that it’s actually quite a long week. but on the other hand we will do that for a week, and then the following week we might only have a Seasonal Market and a wedding, maybe 30 hours work in total. The restaurant business doesn’t hold for such inconsistencies.
Every day: First on site. Looking keen. Running around all day doing front of house stuff: Chatting, delivering food, making coffee, fixing the slightly temperamental tills, answering questions about the Mock Turtle. At the same time trying to get to the shops for that thing we forgot, working on a new flyer to promote us to local businesses and trying to chase all the things that need chasing. 9 hours, 12,000 steps
Our tills are one of the things we bought. In the nicest possible way, they’re a bit street food.
Total: 54 hours a week, about 5 miles a day. But only maybe half a toastie consumed.
Technically fewer hours. Still more tiring. It could be something to do with all the walking. My suspicion is that I’m just not getting enough cheese.
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