If you've been following along, you will no doubt remember that I was rolling out a new menu incorporating local and seasonal ingredients at the restaurant I work for, The Galway Hooker Irish Pub. When the new web site is up, I'll post a link. Well, having just past week four of this great project, it's time for a little reflection.
It took a few days of bumps and grinds, and continues to somewhat, to prefect it, but it's coming along nicely.
If I'm honest, rolling out a new menu of this magnitude for the first time in almost three years of this place during the busiest month of the year was probably not one of my finest choices culinarily, but I digress. My mentality was "Maximum Exposure" and I sure got it, lol. If I had waited a few weeks and rolled it out in January, I would have had less than half of the exposure and, besides, what fun would it be to roll out a menu during the SLOWEST month of the year, lol, I have to keep my boss on his toes, right? (Sorry Chris, didn't mean to stress you out, lol).
Week one was a little crazy. We had a celebrity comedian working the comedy zone upstairs and, well, it was a bit of a nightmare. Ticket times were horrible and, well, a few people were pissed off, including my staff and I. The only thing to do was to learn from it, prep more and be READY! And by the end of the week, we were. Nothing like a little embarrassment to get you motivated.
The next week went a lot smoother. As any decent chef would agree, it's all about mise en place or having your things in their place.
Fast-forward a couple weeks and my guys have a much stronger grasp on things. Shoot, some of these guys never saw a micro-green before in their life before they met me! lol. Aside from having to gently remind the boys how I want the plates to look, I think we've made huge head way in getting the new menu out.
This past week, we've been busier than I expected and the menu is getting rave reviews from just about everyone. Of course, there's always the one or two that just cant be satisfied no matter what (makes you wonder why they even leave the house, really) but I take them to a grain of salt and just try again when they come back.
I'll post a few pictures when I get them.
2 comments:
I am one of the people that was not satisfied by the new menu. This is not because I am impossible to please, but because your old menu was, in my opinion, much better. The dishes your restaurant used to serve were original, full of flavor and unique to the area. My in-laws would drive two hours down to the lake just to have your seafood combo and jalapeno mac and cheese. When I looked at the new menu I was saddened more than anything, but my wife and I were determined to try it. We have not been back since and what used to be our number two restaurant (KIllington's) is now where we dine.
I hope your new menu finds the success you are hoping for and that your restaurant continues to thrives.
Mark, thank you SO much for your comments. I would like to discuss the issues you are having with our new menu. Let me buy you a beer and try to make it right. You can shoot me your email or phone number through my contact info.
Thanks again for your valuable feedback!
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