Things I Know Now That I Didn’t Know Pre-COVID
The one-year anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic’s aggressive foothold in the United States is fast approaching. A year of cancelled plans, shuttered restaurant dining rooms, and missed celebrations with friends; of postponed weddings, remote schooling, and working from home. On this day in 2020, none of us knew what we were in store for, but we could tell that this was not like SARS or Ebola — illnesses covered at length in the media, but with little impact on our day-to-day lives. I first knew that this was serious when SXSW was cancelled just a week before it was due to begin. We had many more questions about the virus…
4 Life Lessons from Behind the Bar
No, not namby-pamby lessons like the importance of teamwork or communication. I mean, I did learn those things during my years as a server and bartender, but I’m talking actual life lessons here. These are hard-earned, sometimes painful truths gleaned from deep within the bowels of this wild industry. The kind you remember after the tears have dried and you’ve moved on to a completely different stage of life. I haven’t stepped behind the bar in about six years, but there are some lessons you just don’t forget. 1. It’s okay to ask for help The hardest shift I ever worked was an AM shift at a neighborhood bar in…
Restaurants: A Love Letter
Restaurants, I miss you. I miss the anticipation of a night out. Putting on real clothes instead of my “daytime pajamas.” Swiping on some lipstick and mascara. Looking through my jewelry to pick the right earrings, even though I almost always settle on the same pair. I miss cocktail menus, full of delicious elixirs I could make myself, but won’t. At home, it’s always red wine, bourbon on the rocks, dirty martinis, or White Claws (pink grapefruit only!). But at a restaurant, it could be a frosé, icy and refreshing. Or an Old Fashioned with fancy bitters and rich syrupy Luxardo cherries. Or something herbal with an infused simple syrup…
SXSW Canceled – The View From Austin
For the first time in 34 years, SXSW is canceled. Concerns about COVID-19 have led the City of Austin to shut down the annual festival one week before it was due to begin. Is it the brave and responsible action of a city concerned for the safety of its citizens, at the cost of hundreds of millions of dollars in the local economy? Or is it a weak capitulation to an overblown media frenzy, compounded by the signatures of 50,000 frightened people? In either case, it must have been an agonizing decision to make, and I’m glad I wasn’t the one to make it. As hard as SXSW has tried…
What One Restaurant’s Strange Language Can Teach Us About Business
When I was hired as a server at Houston’s Restaurant at the ripe old age of 20, I had to learn their special vocabulary, both written and verbal. Many eye rolls ensued. But now that I’m older and maybe wiser, I have a better understanding of the purpose of this vocabulary. And I can see how effective it was. I’ve talked about working at Houston’s before and there’s a good reason — it was undoubtedly the most efficient place I’ve ever worked. Looking back, I think a huge part of the restaurant’s success was the shared language and the benefits that language provided. Whether your business is a restaurant or…
What a Difference a Decade Makes
It’s New Year’s Day, 2020. I’m sitting at my very messy kitchen table, sipping a glass of champagne. Kirby is playing video games. The dog is whining because no one is throwing her ball. Tomorrow, I will earn money by writing, mostly about and for restaurants. Life is good. At the start of the decade, I was 24 and not very happy. Now, I am 34 and very happy. In 2009, I was a Boston bartender with no idea what to do with my life and a deep-seated aversion to commitment. Now I’m an Austin writer who is still figuring things out but has made a life-long commitment to another…
The Art of Not Writing
There is a big difference between writing for other people and Writing for yourself. Writing for other people involves assignments, deadlines, and consequences for not meeting those deadlines. I am pretty good at it. But when it comes time to capital-W-Write for myself (by which I mean working on my own fiction and non-fiction) I have one exceptional talent that I’d like to share. It’s called Not Writing. I am world-class at Not Writing. Believe me, if there’s a topic to not be written about, I will Not Write about it with a passion and dedication that’s hard to match. I am so skilled at Not Writing, in fact, that…
