Egg burgers... Brunch Anyone???

Brunch is totally a spring concept to me. My partner thinks that is a bad business ideology but I cannot seem to wrap my head around it. So now I count the days until the spring when I can reintroduce my seriously delicious egg burgers. Yum! My favourite, Turkey burger with arugula, red onions, vine ripe tomatoes, swiss cheese topped with one over-easy egg, drip drip dripping....yummy...

Jack of all trades

Lawyer by day, Restauranteur by day and night, Cook on some days, Auntie on the weekends, Daughter, Sister, Friend, Woman. I've listed the things that make me who I am these days. They say Jack of all trades, master of none. 

Well, let me say that if all I manage to master is being a daughter, sister, friend and auntie, I'll be one complete woman. 

The rest, Lawyer, Restauranteur are only means to my end.

Sour Grapes

Today my friend stopped by the shop and was thoroughly pleased with the way we arranged our cafe. She thought it was just the place to keep her in Brooklyn. Being a Brooklynite, she thought there was a need to have more places like Homage.

She thought it was part of my sweet success story. Hmmm. Of course, its great to actualize a dream I told her, but I had to tell her my most recent sour grapes story...

600 Dollars. That's what the Judge said. At a recent hearing. Apparently the thermometers I used for cooking were not up to par with what the Department of Health required. Mind you, I had 3 thermometers in my kitchen that were quite functional and that I showed to the inspector after he came to inspect our restaurant. He thought I needed a digital thermometer of some sorts and told me I would have to attend a hearing and see an Administrative Judge.

I arrived at the Department of Health at 10am, because that was the time I was given for my hearing. At 12 noon, we were told to leave the building and return in an hour because the workers were on their lunch break. Great. At around 3pm this wiry woman ushered me, a 'Homage Representative' into a small office to attend my very first Hearing. Did I mention that I was a Lawyer?

Well on that particular day I was a Restaurant Owner who the Judge (wiry woman) thought was chop liver because she did not give me a chance to explain that I in fact had 3 thermometers in my restaurant that were up to par. She proceeded to read me different lines from the 'Health Code' for about 15 minutes. 

Of course the Inspector was present and mumbled incomprehensible things to the Judge after being questioned about my thermometers. I had even brought evidence in the form of receipts to show that the 3 thermometers I possessed were bought from a reputable restaurant wholesale store and that said receipts were dated before the actual inspection.

Moot. The Judge felt it necessary to punish me and fine me in the amount of $600 for not possessing a digital thermometer. Sour grapes.

Free loaders..

Learned something today. There are some very dishonest customers out there. The ones who order, then call to say the order was messed up. Okay, being the one trying to please all my customers, I ALWAYS offer to re-do the order. For no extra charge. 

On certain occasions, like today, I get the feeling that people try to get one free meal. Today my delivery guy asked for the first 'messed' up order and customer says oh, I gave it to my neighbour.....mmmm?!?!

Homage. The Meaning

Homage.

Historically and during the feudal period, homage referred to a public avowal of allegiance by a vassal to his lord or an act done or thing to show the relationship between lord and vassal.

These days homage is used to refer to respect, honour, tribute, allegiance, things of the sort.

Folks are always questioning Homage and how and why I chose that name. Well, I could go into great details about my search for the perfect name. Heneq. Heqet. Copper. At one point I was determined to call it Foggybottom. Yep! Foggybottom. How about this? Foggybottom Cafe. Foggybottom Burgers. I ran the name by a couple of friends and I leave it up to you to imagine their comments. So okay. Then I got stuck on Chittybang. Chittybang Cafe. Chittybang burgers. I thought of a thousand things that would make that work. T-shirts that said Banging! Pretty waitresses with pony tails and t-shirts that said chittychitty bang bang! Okay....So you know what happened to those ideas....

So my designer, great artist, paint on canvas and illustrated above, was busy painting one night when I stumbled in to check on his progress. He had painted 'Black Magic' where we now have the infamous 'Homage' and I told him ahhh, not to my liking.

Came back the next day and instead of Black Magic, he had painted the word Homage. Long story shortened, my parents and family came over to see our work in progress and someone thought I had decided upon Homage. Well, the rest is history. That night, my Dad's birthday, November 27, 2007, I decided upon Homage.

Yelped!!

I have a love-hate relationship with yelp. Want to know why? Just check out www.yelp.com. Type in Homage Burgers in Brooklyn...hmmmm.

I am also a yelper but mind you, if I don't like the food I'm having, I either (1) order something else or (2) do not go back to the restaurant. Simple!

So for some reason I do not think that my customers know that I obsessively check yelp. Very much like my obsession with FB.  If I'm not face-booking, rest assured I'm yelping. And I yelp for several reasons including, to check up on my esteemed competitors, to see what people are thinking about Homage and primarily to take these constructive criticisms lightly and in turn improve upon the quality of service and the food I serve.

So forgive when I gripe about this particular customer who I well know and who knows me by my first name...(go back to the yelp page you just closed and look for the customer who says, 'one of the owners, Sandra'......)Yes, that's me! 

Well, here is my version of the story. It was a summer evening, I remember quite well because we were still trying to get our backyard to where we wanted it. I had spent most of the day painting the picnic benches into a beautiful, almost-midnight blue. By dusk, I was so tired that the only thing I had the energy to do was to sip on an ice-cold cranberry lemonade. So here I was in my dimly lit Homage backyard and in walks this older Caucasian man who decides that it was his night to talk to a very tired restauranteur. Conversation was great but by the time we were done it was almost time to close and so we took the conversation into the restaurant.

It was at this point that this very inquisitive and quite attractive female decided to peek in to find out exactly what Homage was about. She looked at our menu and was quite pleased that we had tuna burgers. Her fave, she had said that night. Mind you, I told her we were just about closed but nonetheless I would have my chef make her her 'fave burger'.

I explained to her that we typically have pesto on our tuna burgers unless our customers would have otherwise. I assure you, she said, no pesto sauce please.....No pesto sauce please....

Just for a day...

I just want to run away for a day...Off into the sunset.

Heart-strings and aprons

I woke up with breakfast in bed. Was looking forward to today and quite frankly, wouldn't have minded staying home with a classic black and white movie, take-out and a foot rub. I honestly think Valentine's Day is 'too much ado about nothing'. 

So, we basically had Homage covered for the day...All we had to do was to open up for the guys and be on our merry ways. Well 4 hours and maybe 25 burgers later the guys hadn't shown up nor called. Everyone seemed to want Homage for Valentine's brunch, and, without a chef, that simply meant Sandra had to put her heart on hold and tie her apron strings!!!

I guess we'll just have to close early today. Moral of the story? Chefs have Valentines too. They're so fired!

Mascara and High Heels

'Hello, Homage, May I take your order?' Familiar voice responds, 'Hi, its me'....At first I was like, okay???? But then I thought hey, it's not so bad, there's nothing potentially stalking about a recognizable voice that meant BEEF BURGER DELUXE, medium well, not well (okay I heard you and I know your voice, you order every day, hallo?), herb fries, extra mustard, extra mayo,...

And then tonight I got a chance to put a face to that voice. He was one of our seated customers tonight. The cutest customer, ever! With the cutest girlfriend in tow. Where was my mascara when I needed it most? I'm definitely wearing heels the next time I work at Homage!!!

Dram Shop Actions

I could not sleep that night. I was haunted by images of swaying girls, scantily clad wrapped around their dates whose fingers were wrapped around a blunt. Ahhhh, it was the first week after opening my restaurant and a friend of mine threw a party to which I was not invited! Okay.......it was a little hard to swallow but i found myself getting out of the bed at 230am that morning to do a drive-by at the place I now call Homage. 

These were the questions that haunted me:

1. What if the neighbours were annoyed by the loud music and called the cops?

2. What if the party people were smoking marijuana?....neighbours calling cops again.

3. What if they all got totally inebriated and something really bad happened?.....law school classes on Dram Shop and potential liabilities on my part.....

4. What if, what if????

So I drove by and parked up front. Everything was cool. Nothing out of the ordinary. 

PS. 

The State of New York's Dram Shop laws make it difficult for bar owners and restaurants to defend against civil actions stemming from alcohol related injuries or death. To figure out exactly when to stop serving alcohol to a patron in order to avoid civil liability or death sustained by a third party is a difficult exercise in and of itself. The standard applied by the courts as to what constitutes 'visible' intoxication is a complex, varying one. What is absolutely clear is that a detailed, immediate investigation must be conducted of all customers and employees of a restaurant/bar upon learning of an alcohol related accident.