Things are really busy these days. My support team is pushing me to develop content for my web page. I am a restaurant operator above all else and managing The Hub is a full time job.
Our restaurant suffers from the same maladies as most. What they say is true. If it weren't for all the problems in dealing with the help, this would be a great business. We are constantly dealing with turn-over in the ranks of the unskilled. Most of our positions that require talant are filled and remain so. The turnover is at the bottom of the pyramid.
I read what the restaurant consultants say about how we need to learn to deal with young people in a different way than we did years ago, but I am convinced the problem is not with us learning to deal with them. My experience is that most of the kids I find applying for work in my restaurant are seriously ignorant.
Parents are letting their kids advance from grade to grade without mastering basic skills which are the building blocks for learning everything else.
School systems are advancing kids from grade to grade for a variety of reasons. They don't want to screw up their success statistics when measuring against other schools. They say that failing a child traumatizes the child. I guess they are more concerned about the trauma than the ignorance.
Teacher unions force school systems to keep ignorant teachers.
The end result is that the bright or above average kids succeed in spite of their education and the less bright kids "pass" on into society oblivious of their ignorance. You know what they say, "Ignorance is Bliss."
In my business, the ones that apply for work are the ones that don't have a clear view of where they are going in life. The reason is probably that they don't know where to begin. They are not trained for anything. They can't even take care of their own basic needs.
Enough of the ranting about that.
On a more positive note, my most senior cook returned to work this week after four months recuperating from a fractured knee cap. The thought of how much that must hurt makes me cringe.
Welcome back Brian.
I referred to the web site above. We are officially thehubinsnohomish.com for anyone who might care. The site is under construction at this time. My dear friends in the Tillicum Kiwanis of Snohomish are the instigators and facilitators. They are great friends and have the skills to turn what I have to say into a doable deal.
My restaurant has been a part of this community for 58 years now. It has a long and colorful history. My family has been involved in the community for a long time. For this reason, I am attempting to write about our history for the web site. I suspect it will be too unwieldly for a basic setup, but I think John Bruce and Jim Rahm will be able to overcome my wordiness with technology.
I sent my menu to John yesterday so he could evaluate the possible ways to display it. There are so many doodads a web site developer can employ to make them do all sorts of things. I had never thought about pixel density when developing the look. For each setting it affects the displayed material. Not everyone is looking at the internet the way I do.
At any rate, I am having to consider a lot more than I knew in determining how my site should look. The more people that know about it and have access to the previews, the more input I get that will need to be worked and forwarded to John and Jim.
I am confident that my circle of advisors won't rest until they have badgered me to death.
The summer has not turned out the way I predicted it would when it began in June. In the past two months I have been making a lot of lemonade.
School starts in my community next week. That will be the beginning of a better season.
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Monday, July 2, 2007
Introducing you to Steve and The HUB
This Blog is an effort to communicate with friends of The HUB and Steve.
The HUB is a restaurant in Snohomish, Washington.
Steve is the owner with his wife Noreen. They have owned the restaurant for twenty-two years.
Steve loves the restaurant business but has other interests as well. This space will allow Steve (me) to talk about food, customer service, tipping practices which are restaurant related to politics on all levels, community activities ranging from our little town to the county and state.
I will introduce readers to my family, my staff, my friends and customers and others that may not be personal aquaintances but are thought of as friends and then the others that we are not fond of at all.
My interest in politics has roots in community activism. I served as a volunteer on the City Board of Adjustment between 1986 and 1989. I was hooked then and ran for city council in 1989. I served on the council between 1990 and 1997. During that time, I was elected to the position of Mayor three times. In a city like ours, that constitutes two year terms as city council president. I really enjoyed my years on the council. I learned a lot and met a bunch of really nice people who were as passionate about their city as I was about mine.
My business is a small seventy seat restaurant in Snohomish, Washington. The current restaurant was built in 2003, but our origin was as an old fashion drive in. My mother and father owned and operated the old place from 1960 until 1985. I grew up in that old place and when they decided to retire, Noreen and I decided to step up our committment to the HUB. We bought the drive in from my parents in April of 1985 and have been on a roller coaster ride since then. We knocked down the old building in 2003 to build the new restaurant that would allow us to provide the products and services we always wanted to in the old place, but couldn't.
We have one daughter, Shelly. She has no husband, but two young sons. Occasionally, I will mention our little grandsons Big Boy and Auggie Doggie.
Our restaurant has a staff of about twenty. Occasionally, I will talk about groups of staff members or individual staff members. Some of them have become great friends, others have become a pain.
Our restaurant serves a market of about thirty thousand. In that market, we have a customer base of about six thousand customers we know by name. The compelling reason we stayed in the restaurant business is our ongoing relationships with our customers. My family is pretty small, but my restaurant family puts me in league like a good Italian family.
Our restaurant is a place where we can meet old friends, make new friends and introduce old friends to new friends. This place is much more than a food place.
During the next few days I will try to assemble my thoughts about why I think I need a blog. I will try to set it up so I can ramble a little and you can respond to my rambling. I look forward to the possibilities.
The HUB is a restaurant in Snohomish, Washington.
Steve is the owner with his wife Noreen. They have owned the restaurant for twenty-two years.
Steve loves the restaurant business but has other interests as well. This space will allow Steve (me) to talk about food, customer service, tipping practices which are restaurant related to politics on all levels, community activities ranging from our little town to the county and state.
I will introduce readers to my family, my staff, my friends and customers and others that may not be personal aquaintances but are thought of as friends and then the others that we are not fond of at all.
My interest in politics has roots in community activism. I served as a volunteer on the City Board of Adjustment between 1986 and 1989. I was hooked then and ran for city council in 1989. I served on the council between 1990 and 1997. During that time, I was elected to the position of Mayor three times. In a city like ours, that constitutes two year terms as city council president. I really enjoyed my years on the council. I learned a lot and met a bunch of really nice people who were as passionate about their city as I was about mine.
My business is a small seventy seat restaurant in Snohomish, Washington. The current restaurant was built in 2003, but our origin was as an old fashion drive in. My mother and father owned and operated the old place from 1960 until 1985. I grew up in that old place and when they decided to retire, Noreen and I decided to step up our committment to the HUB. We bought the drive in from my parents in April of 1985 and have been on a roller coaster ride since then. We knocked down the old building in 2003 to build the new restaurant that would allow us to provide the products and services we always wanted to in the old place, but couldn't.
We have one daughter, Shelly. She has no husband, but two young sons. Occasionally, I will mention our little grandsons Big Boy and Auggie Doggie.
Our restaurant has a staff of about twenty. Occasionally, I will talk about groups of staff members or individual staff members. Some of them have become great friends, others have become a pain.
Our restaurant serves a market of about thirty thousand. In that market, we have a customer base of about six thousand customers we know by name. The compelling reason we stayed in the restaurant business is our ongoing relationships with our customers. My family is pretty small, but my restaurant family puts me in league like a good Italian family.
Our restaurant is a place where we can meet old friends, make new friends and introduce old friends to new friends. This place is much more than a food place.
During the next few days I will try to assemble my thoughts about why I think I need a blog. I will try to set it up so I can ramble a little and you can respond to my rambling. I look forward to the possibilities.
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