………….and the winner is. Blog 46

Hello everyone. Well the up and down roller coaster ride of Glenn Sheridan continues. I can say lots about my life but one thing I can’t say is “It’s boring”.  Monday, the night of the business awards, I woke up and was very excited.  I tried to dumb myself down as I didn’t want to be let down if I didn’t win best new business that night. So I tried to do my regular Monday chores witch consists of cleaning the Resto and doing orders.  But it was no use. When you are excited about something it’s hard to repress. I think Jake was excited to.  He was up for an award as well. His company, the Clarion Resort Pinewood Park was up for Business of the Year. It was kind of apropos, as the last time Jake and I were up for an award at the same time, was when I was at the Pinewood. We won Business of the Year (over 51 employees) for Northern ON.  Now we were up for two different awards on the same night in respective companies. I’m glad we weren’t going head to head but in a way I kinda wish we were. Jake and I have a healthy fun rivalry between us stemming back from the Pinewood days.

So I had bought tickets for all my staff to come to the dinner.  Like I said in the last blog,  it is them who got me to the nomination so I wanted to have them come along and share in the moment. I also had a little pre party at the resto at 4:30. The nominees had to be there for 5:00pm but the rest of my staff couldn’t come till 6:00pm. So they all had a few pops at the resto while I went to meet the sponsors. After everyone arrived and we sat down for dinner, I got nervous. Not just about whether I’d win or not but the whole evening. I’ve been to these events before but always as the employee. I would be the one getting a little too excited and losing control (if you know what I mean).   Now I was the boss. I was terrified my staff would put me through the same embarrassment that I have put many employers through in the past. We were definitely the most rowdy table there.   I’m happy to say though; the staff was extremely well behaved. Looking through the program, I noticed that we were up first. Damn. I hate going first! I wanted to see how everyone else did it. But then again, I always do things my own way anyway.  And if we ended up winning, we would be setting the bar for the evening.

Now, to the awards. The nominations were read and the winner is……………. Le Bon Marché!!!!! My heart stopped. And the screams and cheers went up.  Now I had to get up and speak to a room of 170ppl! As anyone who knows me will tell you, inside (way deep down) I’m extremely emotional. Sadly most people see the anger part ha ha ha. I had a speech prepared and I put it on the podium and just read it verbatim. I never even looked at the crowd. Not because I’m scared of speaking in public, but because I didn’t want to burst into tears if front of them. (After all, there were some hot chicks there ha ha ha). So we got the award and we relaxed for the rest of the night. After the awards we went to a bar to really celebrate. Jake doesn’t think it’s a good idea to party with staff.   I disagree! I used to think like that, but now I believe that showing your staff that you are one of them is important. So I went out for a couple of swallies and left.

Tuesday we had a good day business-wise although I was extremely busy. The phone was ringing off the hook with congratulations, ppl wanting interviews and I was receiving emails galore. I was almost overwhelmed. I can’t imagine what the real famous Chefs go through everyday. I was happy Thursday when things calmed down and I could get back to being a quiet restaurateur.

Everything is back to normal now and we ended up having a pretty good week. The word is around now that we won.  Now we’ll be under the gun. We’re New Business of the Year now and we need to act appropriately. Any boxer will tell you that getting the championship belt is easy. Retaining it is the hard part. We need to take the ball now and not drop it for anyone. There are numerous accolades to go for and we will go for all of them.  However, I must admit, that for me personally, I only want one title in particular. I want 4 diamonds! I want it so bad I can taste it. I’ll apply for the critics to come sometime in January. They would come 3 times over the course of 2012 and we would find out in December of 2012 how we rate. That’s far away though. I need to start thinking about the winter menu first. Yes, I know, we just started the autumn menu but these things take a lot of time and a lot of planning. I feel the next menu will be simpler. I’m very proud of the menu we have right now but it maybe a little too much for most ppl. I’ve been investigating and I have an idea. I need simpler items that everyone will understand but than make it higher class. Things like beef bourguignon, French toast, coq au vin, Chasseur are simple but can be made to really wow patrons when they come in. But that’s a couple months away.

I want to talk about fine dining here for a sec. What is fine dining? Fine dining is giving the guest an experience that they will talk about for a very long time. Give them an experience they don’t get to have everyday. That’s what we try to do at LBM. But if the customer doesn’t understand the food then there’s no point. As I’ve said in the past, I don’t believe in the hundred mile diet. I believe in the good food diet. I believe Maskovy duck is superior and that’s why we have it. It comes from France. The duck breasts you eat at LBM are female and they are superior to male duck breasts. Sea bass is not the same bass you get out of Lake Nippissing. It is a huge fish and it has a different texture and flavour. It is an amazing piece of food. The sauce we put on it is red wine reduced to syrup and then emulsified with butter. It is a tricky sauce to complete as it splits very easily. If we sauce it too soon it will split, if the plate is too hot it will split. So to get it to your table perfectly is a tricky situation and is completed by professionals. We all strive to be the best every meal we serve. And when we get it wrong, we take it hard. And I take it personally. However, I also know when someone has a legitimate complaint and when someone is just out to get something for nothing.  Our pasta is fresh and made in house. If you’re used to eating pasta out of a box then please, don’t tell me our pasta is like you have at home. I know it isn’t.

So my last two blogs have been a little on the sappy side. This one may be a tad harsh. These blogs are personal and they’re how I feel on the day that I write them.  I’m a perfectionist and that’s a tough thing to live with especially when you don’t have endless funds to do exactly what you want. You do the best with what you have and when you want the best, it still isn’t enough.

So one week left in Oct. and next week is inventory. I love it -because it lets you know how you did as a profit or loss for the past month. Then I guess we move into the Christmas season. The 22^nd of Oct marked the 8^th month we’ve been opened. I made it longer then Conan did on the Tonight Show ha ha ha ha. And the $40 million he made a year. Quite honestly, I don’t think I could afford the pay cut hee hee hee.

Till next week

Rusty Chemise.