Before we built our new restaurant, we knew we needed people working for us we could trust.
Early in our plan, we included Mary Jane Hamilton in the team.
Mary Jane is not a blood relative but she is like a blood brother/sister. We are related through marriage on one level. (Her brother was married to my mother’s sister)
Mary Jane and Noreen have been fast friends since Noreen and I were married more than thirty years ago. They discovered each other at a family gathering hosted by my aunt and uncle. They were smokers and the smokers had been banished to the basement. The relationship started around an ashtray and has evolved all these years. Sisters of the Smoke.
Isn’t it curious, they were both feeling a little out of place at a Christmas dinner and they ended up with a bond of friendship that has lasted more than thirty years?
Over the years, Mary Jane was a friend and employee at the Hub. She was working in the old drive in on that February day in 1982 when the runaway truck crashed into the building. Mary Jane was the one who alerted the two ladies seated at the corner front window table of the impending crash. And even though they were injured by the flying debris, they were not killed. If it had not been for her heads up alert, they would have been directly in that truck’s path and certain death.
The front of the truck stopped halfway across the seating area. The two ladies managed to get away from the table but not quite out the door and were struck by flying debris and pinned against the opposite side wall of the dining area by tables and video games.
Generally, we don’t require that our employees be heroes, but we were lucky enough to have one in the house that day. If you asked her about it today she would probably tell you it was “no big deal” but two lives were saved by her alertness and quick thinking.
Not long after that event took place, MJ left the Hub and went to work for John Fluke Manufacturing Co. She worked there for fifteen years until the business sold to the Daniher company and her management position was phased out.
We were beginning talks about building our new restaurant in 1999 so I told her I had work for her as a manager but it would have to wait until we actually built the new Hub. She took a job at Bartell’s Pharmacy with the idea that it would be short term. As it turned out, it was four years.
When the plan for the new Hub was actually coming to fruit, she had to decide whether she wanted to stay at Bartell’s or throw in with us. We were very lucky to have her choose us.
I think everyone around us was excited about being involved with the next chapter in the history. There was a lot of public display of affection prior to our closing and when the new building was being built, there was significant public appreciation that we were coming back.
Mary Jane’s decision to leave Bartell’s and throw in with us was pivotal in getting our restaurant off the ground. It would have been difficult for us to focus on the many aspects of the opening had it not been for MJ. Having her on the team gave me the freedom to focus on the kitchen.
From the time construction began in April of 2003 until the August 18 opening we did a lot of planning and preparation for the launch. Mary Jane, Noreen and I spent countless hours working on the plan.
In the month prior to the opening, hiring staff was our primary task. We collected between fifty and sixty applications for three types of positions; cooks, servers and drive thru. We expected to hire four cooks, four drive thru servers and twenty table servers. The process of reviewing the applications, deciding who would get interviews, the questions we would ask during the interviews and then finally deciding who would get offers for jobs was grueling. Even when you break it down into smaller bites, it is a hard job.
Our plan was for MJ, Noreen and I to interview each candidate in a group with one of us asking questions while the other two observed how the applicant responded to the question. We took turns asking. We each took our own notes and at the end, we compared notes and made recommendations. At the end of the interviews, we had three piles of apps; “Keeper”, “Maybe” and “NO WAY!”.
After the interview process, the list of “Keepers” was not near long enough to fill the positions.
In all fairness, the “Keeper” list was really short. We would probably have to take all the “maybe” folks; and if we didn’t get enough takers, we may even have to reconsider some of the “NO WAY!” applicants. As it turned out, we did take a couple “No Way” folks. Filling that many positions with really qualified people was beyond hope.
Mary Jane had been a department manager at Flukes so she had some experience in interviewing and hiring staff, but Noreen had not been involved too much over the years. That experience at Flukes gave her some tools that were valuable in developing our team.
After all the interviewing and hiring was done, we assembled the recruits for some preliminary briefing. It was a rag-tag bunch. I can remember on more than one occasion glancing around the room with raised eyebrows. These folks would be the face of the new HUB in Snohomish.
Looking back today, I am absolutely convinced that “ignorance is bliss”. Not knowing what was ahead for us allowed us to move forward at that point.
NOTE: You have to understand that the process of building our new restaurant took almost four years from the time we first sat down with the Kirtley-Coles. When you have been involved in every minute detail and decision, you have developed a fairly comprehensive vision for what you want. The fact that we are mortgaging our future for almost a million bucks only adds to the pressure. The idea that I would delegate authority to others just as we are reaching the home stretch would be unlikely. Therein was the problem for Noreen and Mary Jane. I had been so intimately involved with the minutia I was not prepared to deal with the overload of decisions that were coming. My plan and my expectations did not turn out according to plan. Because of my stubbornness and insecurities, I did not empower MJ and Noreen to solve problems as they came up and as a result, we stalled badly. Being so stubborn, I was reluctant to admit my mistakes and insisted on sticking to a flawed plan. It was only after they demanded the freedom to be managers that we could advance. That was my shortcoming.
Both Noreen and Mary Jane knew me well enough to understand how much of me was invested in my plan and even though they knew my plan was flawed they did their best to execute the plan. As it turned out, we abandoned my plan and they had to develop plans that fit the needs of their department. The framework they developed in those first couple months is still the basis of how we operate today.
Mary Jane demonstrated heroic actions that day in 1982 when she saved the lives of those two ladies in the old HUB. Her contribution to our new restaurant did not save any lives from violent death, but the value of her contribution was no less heroic. Her taking charge of the service staff allowed me to work in the kitchen when I really needed to.
Noreen and I have owned the HUB since 1985 and in that time, we have looked at the personal relationships we developed with our customers as being one of the greatest rewards of the work. It should not go without saying that we have been fortunate to develop some special relationships with staff members as well.
We have picked some dogs over the years, but we have also been lucky enough to have some great employees. We will be forever grateful for the contribution Mary Jane Hamilton made to our business. Thank You MJ!
Friday, August 15, 2008
Thursday, August 14, 2008
TALES OF MARTY Part 2
The next day, he just appeared at the front counter at 7:30. Nobody could actually remember seeing him arrive. He was just there. “I know I am early, I like to be early. Where do you want me?”
“We’ll get to that in a bit, first, we need to handle the paper work.”
I sat him down with our company handbook so he would know the rules of the road. What we expected of him and what he could expect from us. I could have sworn he was an Evelyn Wood speed reader. He was covering those many pages at a startling rate.
At the end, we have a form that highlights the really important sections of the employee manual. The form requires that the employee acknowledge that they read and understood what was in each of the sections. Martin initialed all the sections and signed the form.
As with all new employees, we tour them through the building to familiarize them with where everything is. At different places along the way, I would stop and describe how and why we do things a certain way. Martin was expressionless during the whole tour. I can’t say he heard a word I said.
He was ready for work.
Martin came to work in blue sweat pants, a clean white t-shirt and black tennis shoes.
We use what is called 4-Way aprons in our restaurant. That means there are four different clean faces on each unit. You turn them around and refold them to get a different face. You strap the thing around your middle, run the apron strings around you and tie them in a bow.
When Martin put that first apron on, we knew we would be amused with this character. His barrel chest and large belly did not lend themselves to conventional expectations. Martin’s shape suggested that the apron would either be worn below the gut or above the gut. It was clear that below the gut was out, that left above the gut.
Imagine a large round ball. You are trying to figure out how to strap an apron onto it. Now, that was comical.
As Martin was trying different approaches, we both had to laugh. I thought it was a good sign that Martin could laugh. In the end, the apron was strapped on and he looked like a very pregnant woman with an apron. It was almost up to his armpits. It had to be high or it would slide down the front. But it was secured in place and that was what we were looking for.
I took Martin over to the prep area where Linda H was working to introduce her to Martin. Her eyes got big when she got a good look at him, but she stepped right up and reached out to shake his hand and welcome him to the party.
That act broke the ice for Martin and Linda. It wasn’t long before she had him comfortable in the job. We gave him different jobs to do to measure his skills. In every case, he was more skilled than our other cooks. From that standpoint, we were feeling okay.
The fact that he could cook breakfast meant that Linda wouldn’t be the only one in the house with that skill set. I was certainly relieved about that since I hadn’t cooked eggs since 1973.
Understand, we have only been open about a week. Linda was still learning to do things my way, the other cooks were learning, but if you don’t have cooking skills, the first thing you need to learn is the basics before you can learn my spin on the food. If I wanted Martin to be of value, I would need to spend time with him to see what he needed to get up to speed.
It was apparent from the first day, he knew his way around a kitchen. There were times when he wanted to push me out of the way because his experience gave him the ability to know most of the steps, the thing he lacked was the specific knowledge of our products. If there is one thing that differentiates our restaurant from others is the way we do our burgers. If I had one thing to teach Martin, it would be cooking burgers my way.
For much of the time he worked for us, we struggled with his tendency to cook food his way rather than my way. Many times our customers commented about how we had changed the burgers and I traced the problem back to Martin.
It was only after he had worked for us for six months that I figured out that Martin was “special”. Up until that time I thought of him as quirky, but I never thought of him in that way.
One example I can use was when he came to me to request time off for a Special Olympics event. He needed a weekend off for a basketball tournament. I knew of members of our family that worked with Special Olympics projects and how they needed volunteers to work with them to manage events. I thought Martin was volunteering to help. It was after the event that he described the games and how his team fared that I discovered he was a competitor and it began to dawn on me.
That would explain a lot. It didn’t change the fact that he was “that” way, but I could understand the reasons better.
After we had been open for a couple months, we decided we needed white shirts for all the kitchen staff. We wanted to project the right image to the public when they saw our staff members in the building.
We asked the laundry company to get the pertinent information for the staff members and have enough shirts for each cook to have one clean shirt for every day. If cooks have a clean shirt every day, they will look sharp. That was the plan.
With Marty, his shirts were pretty large and his shape didn’t lend itself to tucking in the tails so he looked more like a guy in a white smock. After a while, he told me the aprons didn’t really fit to well. Could he work without an apron?
I guess if the expectation was for the staff to be sharp, we had already failed on that mission.
What Martin really needed was a raincoat. As he worked along, his shape got in the way of a lot of kitchen stuff and you could expect that Martin would have his clean shirt in sad shape within an hour of the start of his shift. One day it would be ketchup, the next day it would be mustard.
Martin never spilled stuff on his shirt that would be clean up easily. In the Charlie Brown comic strip they had that character called “Pig Pen”. We had Marty. He could trash a clean shirt before you could blink.
Part of the process of getting to know a new employee is that question and answer patter while you are working side by side. You ask simple questions to make conversation.
“So, Martin, are you from around here?”
“No, my family is from Michigan.”
“Do you see them often?”
“Sure, we all live here in Snohomish. Well, not my kids.”
“So you have kids?”
“Yeah, I have two daughters, one is a brain surgeon, the other is a lawyer. They live in Michigan still.”
“Do you see them often?”
“No, I haven’t seen either of them in ten years or so.”
Martin was 41 years old when he came to work for us. Figure out the math on that one.
“Oh, that is too bad.”
That was the first sign that Martin had a creative imagination. The thing about Martin was that over his several years working for us, his “stories” stayed consistent. The details of his stories were the same even after multiple telling.
One thing about Martin that we determined to be true was his passion for bowling. He bowled regularly at several locations. If I ever went to any of his locations, the people all acknowledged that they knew him or knew of him. He was one of those bowlers that showed up with a suitcase full of bowling balls and other “equipment” so he would be prepared for changing lane conditions.
One winter day we were working together and the conversation was about how much snow there was in the mountains at the time. Marty told me that he was excited about it too because on his day off, he was planning a helicopter skiing trip somewhere in the Cascades. “Yeah, me and my friend will jump out of the helicopter as it hovers near the top of this mountain. You know there is no place for it to land so we have to get our skis on before we jump and then hit the snow and be skiing.”
I think my eyes grew pretty large upon hearing that story. Martin’s physique doesn’t bring to mind Jean Claude Killy. But what the heck, there are some wide bodies that ski. Sounds good to me.
“That must be exciting and expensive!”
“Yeah, me and my buddy we do it all the time.”
“Isn’t that expensive? How do you pay for it?”
“With the Microsoft money.”
“You have Microsoft stock?”
“Oh yeah, when I was in high school, I took ten thousand dollars and bought shares. I think I have a couple million dollars worth today.”
“That’s incredible. So when you want to go skiing, you just sell a little?”
“Well, I have the money in a trust, but I’m loaded.”
“So why do you drive a broken down old car and live paycheck to paycheck?”
“I just want to be a normal person.”
I can tell you there was nothing “normal” about Marty.
I look back on the several years that Marty worked for me and he is one of the most memorable employees I ever had. Whenever I think about Marty a smile comes to my face. He was truly an unforgettable character.
Since he came to work for us at a critical point in our history, his contribution is particularly meaningful to me. I really appreciated his help at a time when I needed a cook. There wasn’t a time when I gave him an assignment that he didn’t throw himself into it 100%. From the time he came to work until he went home, he was working. I didn’t have to check on him to make sure he was working.
As a matter of fact, there were times when I would find ten times more produce prepped for dinner than we needed. “Say Martin, what’s the deal with all the salad in the cooler?”
“Oh that, I was just working along and forgot to stop.”
“So what are we gonna do with all this salad mix?”
He had this look on his face like I had asked him the most profound question.
One day, Martin came to me to talk.
“I’m giving you my two week notice. I am going to work for a company in Kirkland doing janitor work. I will be managing the night shift for this company and will be supervising 200 employees. I hate to leave you out on a limb, but this is a great deal for me.”
And Marty was gone.
“We’ll get to that in a bit, first, we need to handle the paper work.”
I sat him down with our company handbook so he would know the rules of the road. What we expected of him and what he could expect from us. I could have sworn he was an Evelyn Wood speed reader. He was covering those many pages at a startling rate.
At the end, we have a form that highlights the really important sections of the employee manual. The form requires that the employee acknowledge that they read and understood what was in each of the sections. Martin initialed all the sections and signed the form.
As with all new employees, we tour them through the building to familiarize them with where everything is. At different places along the way, I would stop and describe how and why we do things a certain way. Martin was expressionless during the whole tour. I can’t say he heard a word I said.
He was ready for work.
Martin came to work in blue sweat pants, a clean white t-shirt and black tennis shoes.
We use what is called 4-Way aprons in our restaurant. That means there are four different clean faces on each unit. You turn them around and refold them to get a different face. You strap the thing around your middle, run the apron strings around you and tie them in a bow.
When Martin put that first apron on, we knew we would be amused with this character. His barrel chest and large belly did not lend themselves to conventional expectations. Martin’s shape suggested that the apron would either be worn below the gut or above the gut. It was clear that below the gut was out, that left above the gut.
Imagine a large round ball. You are trying to figure out how to strap an apron onto it. Now, that was comical.
As Martin was trying different approaches, we both had to laugh. I thought it was a good sign that Martin could laugh. In the end, the apron was strapped on and he looked like a very pregnant woman with an apron. It was almost up to his armpits. It had to be high or it would slide down the front. But it was secured in place and that was what we were looking for.
I took Martin over to the prep area where Linda H was working to introduce her to Martin. Her eyes got big when she got a good look at him, but she stepped right up and reached out to shake his hand and welcome him to the party.
That act broke the ice for Martin and Linda. It wasn’t long before she had him comfortable in the job. We gave him different jobs to do to measure his skills. In every case, he was more skilled than our other cooks. From that standpoint, we were feeling okay.
The fact that he could cook breakfast meant that Linda wouldn’t be the only one in the house with that skill set. I was certainly relieved about that since I hadn’t cooked eggs since 1973.
Understand, we have only been open about a week. Linda was still learning to do things my way, the other cooks were learning, but if you don’t have cooking skills, the first thing you need to learn is the basics before you can learn my spin on the food. If I wanted Martin to be of value, I would need to spend time with him to see what he needed to get up to speed.
It was apparent from the first day, he knew his way around a kitchen. There were times when he wanted to push me out of the way because his experience gave him the ability to know most of the steps, the thing he lacked was the specific knowledge of our products. If there is one thing that differentiates our restaurant from others is the way we do our burgers. If I had one thing to teach Martin, it would be cooking burgers my way.
For much of the time he worked for us, we struggled with his tendency to cook food his way rather than my way. Many times our customers commented about how we had changed the burgers and I traced the problem back to Martin.
It was only after he had worked for us for six months that I figured out that Martin was “special”. Up until that time I thought of him as quirky, but I never thought of him in that way.
One example I can use was when he came to me to request time off for a Special Olympics event. He needed a weekend off for a basketball tournament. I knew of members of our family that worked with Special Olympics projects and how they needed volunteers to work with them to manage events. I thought Martin was volunteering to help. It was after the event that he described the games and how his team fared that I discovered he was a competitor and it began to dawn on me.
That would explain a lot. It didn’t change the fact that he was “that” way, but I could understand the reasons better.
After we had been open for a couple months, we decided we needed white shirts for all the kitchen staff. We wanted to project the right image to the public when they saw our staff members in the building.
We asked the laundry company to get the pertinent information for the staff members and have enough shirts for each cook to have one clean shirt for every day. If cooks have a clean shirt every day, they will look sharp. That was the plan.
With Marty, his shirts were pretty large and his shape didn’t lend itself to tucking in the tails so he looked more like a guy in a white smock. After a while, he told me the aprons didn’t really fit to well. Could he work without an apron?
I guess if the expectation was for the staff to be sharp, we had already failed on that mission.
What Martin really needed was a raincoat. As he worked along, his shape got in the way of a lot of kitchen stuff and you could expect that Martin would have his clean shirt in sad shape within an hour of the start of his shift. One day it would be ketchup, the next day it would be mustard.
Martin never spilled stuff on his shirt that would be clean up easily. In the Charlie Brown comic strip they had that character called “Pig Pen”. We had Marty. He could trash a clean shirt before you could blink.
Part of the process of getting to know a new employee is that question and answer patter while you are working side by side. You ask simple questions to make conversation.
“So, Martin, are you from around here?”
“No, my family is from Michigan.”
“Do you see them often?”
“Sure, we all live here in Snohomish. Well, not my kids.”
“So you have kids?”
“Yeah, I have two daughters, one is a brain surgeon, the other is a lawyer. They live in Michigan still.”
“Do you see them often?”
“No, I haven’t seen either of them in ten years or so.”
Martin was 41 years old when he came to work for us. Figure out the math on that one.
“Oh, that is too bad.”
That was the first sign that Martin had a creative imagination. The thing about Martin was that over his several years working for us, his “stories” stayed consistent. The details of his stories were the same even after multiple telling.
One thing about Martin that we determined to be true was his passion for bowling. He bowled regularly at several locations. If I ever went to any of his locations, the people all acknowledged that they knew him or knew of him. He was one of those bowlers that showed up with a suitcase full of bowling balls and other “equipment” so he would be prepared for changing lane conditions.
One winter day we were working together and the conversation was about how much snow there was in the mountains at the time. Marty told me that he was excited about it too because on his day off, he was planning a helicopter skiing trip somewhere in the Cascades. “Yeah, me and my friend will jump out of the helicopter as it hovers near the top of this mountain. You know there is no place for it to land so we have to get our skis on before we jump and then hit the snow and be skiing.”
I think my eyes grew pretty large upon hearing that story. Martin’s physique doesn’t bring to mind Jean Claude Killy. But what the heck, there are some wide bodies that ski. Sounds good to me.
“That must be exciting and expensive!”
“Yeah, me and my buddy we do it all the time.”
“Isn’t that expensive? How do you pay for it?”
“With the Microsoft money.”
“You have Microsoft stock?”
“Oh yeah, when I was in high school, I took ten thousand dollars and bought shares. I think I have a couple million dollars worth today.”
“That’s incredible. So when you want to go skiing, you just sell a little?”
“Well, I have the money in a trust, but I’m loaded.”
“So why do you drive a broken down old car and live paycheck to paycheck?”
“I just want to be a normal person.”
I can tell you there was nothing “normal” about Marty.
I look back on the several years that Marty worked for me and he is one of the most memorable employees I ever had. Whenever I think about Marty a smile comes to my face. He was truly an unforgettable character.
Since he came to work for us at a critical point in our history, his contribution is particularly meaningful to me. I really appreciated his help at a time when I needed a cook. There wasn’t a time when I gave him an assignment that he didn’t throw himself into it 100%. From the time he came to work until he went home, he was working. I didn’t have to check on him to make sure he was working.
As a matter of fact, there were times when I would find ten times more produce prepped for dinner than we needed. “Say Martin, what’s the deal with all the salad in the cooler?”
“Oh that, I was just working along and forgot to stop.”
“So what are we gonna do with all this salad mix?”
He had this look on his face like I had asked him the most profound question.
One day, Martin came to me to talk.
“I’m giving you my two week notice. I am going to work for a company in Kirkland doing janitor work. I will be managing the night shift for this company and will be supervising 200 employees. I hate to leave you out on a limb, but this is a great deal for me.”
And Marty was gone.
Monday, August 11, 2008
TALES OF MARTY Part 1
We opened our new restaurant on the 18th and we were already short a cook since LW had quit before we opened. We were taxing the remaining cooks by being behind the 8 ball all day every day.
I think it was about the 28th of August when Noreen came into the kitchen to inform me that there was a big guy out front that says he is a cook and he is looking for work. Do I have time to talk to him? He’s filling out an application and will be done in a couple minutes. “Sure when he’s done, tell him I will be with him shortly.”
I really needed a “cook”, I’ll make time.
Noreen came back. “He’s done with his application. Here it is. I told him you would talk to him shortly, he is at table 7.”
I came out of the kitchen, scanned the room for table 7. I wasn’t sure exactly which table was table 7. Noreen pointed to the one by the corner window. “It’s that one!”
Sitting there at that table was a really scruffy looking guy who looked like had gotten in a fight with a hair ball and had lost. He had a big bushy beard and hair everywhere except on top of his head. Oh, and he weighed about 350 pounds. The fact that he was only about five foot eight made his weight that much more significant. This guy was a big hairy dude.
“So, you are a cook?”
“Yes sir I am.”
“Tell me something about your cooking experience.”
“Well, I just left a job at the Holiday Inn at 128th. I was the night cook and I was the only cook in the kitchen after 10 pm. I can cook breakfast, lunch and dinner. I can do every job in the kitchen.”
“That’s quite impressive, why is it that you are unemployed?”
“Well, I got burned out. I was working sixty, seventy hours a week and I was having to do all the prep in the kitchen by myself. I just got tired.”
“No doubt, I would too if I had to do all that. So why do you want to work for me?”
“I’m ready to go back to work after a couple days off. I saw your new place. I thought I’d stop in and see if you need help.”
Can you imagine what is going through my mind at this point? I really need a cook and one is falling into my lap out of nowhere. Based upon his application and his responses to my questions, he can even cook. So why am I feeling uneasy about this character?
If you can remember William Conrad off the old “Cannon” tv series, you will recall a very large barrel-chested guy with a big bushy mustache. If you squint a little when you look at Martin, you can see “Cannon”. Only he is not wearing a spiffy private detective outfit, he is wearing a ratty old t-shirt, blue sweat pants and sandals. Oh, and his eyes are darting around everywhere, looking at everything except me.
I am not saying that I was scared, but this big hairy dude could be described as scary.
You know that saying, “Beggars can’t be Choosers.” That is where I found myself at that moment. I really needed a cook and not too many were beating a path to my door.
“So, when are you available to start?”
“I can go to work right now if you need me to.”
“So what kind of pay are you looking for?”
“You pay me whatever you think I am worth.”
“So how about I start you out at $10 per hour and if you are really a cook, I will raise your pay appropriately?”
“You want me to start right now?”
“Why don’t you come back tomorrow at 8:00 am; Black pants and a clean white shirt?”
“I don’t have black pants.”
“Okay, whatever you have, clean pants and shirt, 8 in the morning.”
It is important to say at this point in this story. Marty looked a little scary and he acted a little scary, but he was very forthcoming about his previous jobs, his run-ins with former employers and co-workers. He made the fact that he had worked at a lot of places seem okay. He had an innocent quality about him in spite of the other stuff. I am really squinting by now. I need a cook.
I went back into the kitchen, Linda Holland was standing back there with that look of “Well, did you get us a cook?” all over her face.
“Help is on the way, I got us a cook. And I think he can cook! He will be back tomorrow morning.”
Linda Holland was/is no spring chicken. She rates a section in the story all by herself, but I don’t think it would be as amusing as Martin’s. Her story will be told with the tragedies.
“That’s great, maybe we can get some work done now!”
And so begins the Tales of Marty.
The conclusion to the Tales of Marty will follow shortly.
I think it was about the 28th of August when Noreen came into the kitchen to inform me that there was a big guy out front that says he is a cook and he is looking for work. Do I have time to talk to him? He’s filling out an application and will be done in a couple minutes. “Sure when he’s done, tell him I will be with him shortly.”
I really needed a “cook”, I’ll make time.
Noreen came back. “He’s done with his application. Here it is. I told him you would talk to him shortly, he is at table 7.”
I came out of the kitchen, scanned the room for table 7. I wasn’t sure exactly which table was table 7. Noreen pointed to the one by the corner window. “It’s that one!”
Sitting there at that table was a really scruffy looking guy who looked like had gotten in a fight with a hair ball and had lost. He had a big bushy beard and hair everywhere except on top of his head. Oh, and he weighed about 350 pounds. The fact that he was only about five foot eight made his weight that much more significant. This guy was a big hairy dude.
“So, you are a cook?”
“Yes sir I am.”
“Tell me something about your cooking experience.”
“Well, I just left a job at the Holiday Inn at 128th. I was the night cook and I was the only cook in the kitchen after 10 pm. I can cook breakfast, lunch and dinner. I can do every job in the kitchen.”
“That’s quite impressive, why is it that you are unemployed?”
“Well, I got burned out. I was working sixty, seventy hours a week and I was having to do all the prep in the kitchen by myself. I just got tired.”
“No doubt, I would too if I had to do all that. So why do you want to work for me?”
“I’m ready to go back to work after a couple days off. I saw your new place. I thought I’d stop in and see if you need help.”
Can you imagine what is going through my mind at this point? I really need a cook and one is falling into my lap out of nowhere. Based upon his application and his responses to my questions, he can even cook. So why am I feeling uneasy about this character?
If you can remember William Conrad off the old “Cannon” tv series, you will recall a very large barrel-chested guy with a big bushy mustache. If you squint a little when you look at Martin, you can see “Cannon”. Only he is not wearing a spiffy private detective outfit, he is wearing a ratty old t-shirt, blue sweat pants and sandals. Oh, and his eyes are darting around everywhere, looking at everything except me.
I am not saying that I was scared, but this big hairy dude could be described as scary.
You know that saying, “Beggars can’t be Choosers.” That is where I found myself at that moment. I really needed a cook and not too many were beating a path to my door.
“So, when are you available to start?”
“I can go to work right now if you need me to.”
“So what kind of pay are you looking for?”
“You pay me whatever you think I am worth.”
“So how about I start you out at $10 per hour and if you are really a cook, I will raise your pay appropriately?”
“You want me to start right now?”
“Why don’t you come back tomorrow at 8:00 am; Black pants and a clean white shirt?”
“I don’t have black pants.”
“Okay, whatever you have, clean pants and shirt, 8 in the morning.”
It is important to say at this point in this story. Marty looked a little scary and he acted a little scary, but he was very forthcoming about his previous jobs, his run-ins with former employers and co-workers. He made the fact that he had worked at a lot of places seem okay. He had an innocent quality about him in spite of the other stuff. I am really squinting by now. I need a cook.
I went back into the kitchen, Linda Holland was standing back there with that look of “Well, did you get us a cook?” all over her face.
“Help is on the way, I got us a cook. And I think he can cook! He will be back tomorrow morning.”
Linda Holland was/is no spring chicken. She rates a section in the story all by herself, but I don’t think it would be as amusing as Martin’s. Her story will be told with the tragedies.
“That’s great, maybe we can get some work done now!”
And so begins the Tales of Marty.
The conclusion to the Tales of Marty will follow shortly.
Thursday, August 7, 2008
The HUB in Snohomish, Five years Later
August 18 will mark our fifth year in the New Hub in Snohomish. We are pleased to celebrate that anniversary along with another historic landmark for us, our 48th year in Snohomish.
Noreen and I have owned the Hub since 1985 when we bought it from my parents who owned it for 25 years. That is a long time for all of us. The anecdotal history of the restaurant is partially documented in the HISTORY section of our web page. Go to thehubinsnohomish.com and click on HISTORY. The old drive in was a pain in the butt, but it produced some great memories.
Our new restaurant is no elegant fine dining place, that isn’t who we are. Unlike the old place it has lots of seats and air conditioning. We are very proud of the new HUB in Snohomish. It is the place we designed it to be.
It is not often that you get a chance to write down on paper what you want and then actually get it. That is what we got with our new place. We drew the plans the way we wanted and that is what we got.
Having said that, there are some small things I would do different if I had the chance, but all in all, I am very happy. Our personalities (Noreen and me) are embodied in the décor. The warmth and comfort of our dining room convey the feelings we wanted when we started.
There are so many stories to tell about our experiences leading up to opening and then for the first couple months, I will break them down into chapters and reveal them over the next few weeks. I will start with KITCHEN CHRONICLES, then maybe DINING ROOM DIARIES. I might even ask outsiders to jot down their recollections of those exciting times and share them with you.
CHAPTER 1 Someone’s in the Kitchen with Steve
I remember five years ago when we were scrambling around getting ready to open our new restaurant. There were so many things to do before we could actually light up the equipment. It’s hard to believe that five years have passed since that time in 2003.
When you open a new restaurant, you know up front that there will be “organizational miscalculations” that will need “remediation”. I can guarantee we had a number of miscalculations. We were remediating our butts off for quite a while. One way to prepare for “remediation” is to have plenty of staff. We hired a bunch. We had drive thru people, table servers and cooks. We had a plan for using all the staff. My plan described how the staff would do the different jobs. What we had not planned for was the avalanche of business that turned up at our door that first day.
When we opened on August 18, 2003, we knew our faithful customers would be happy to have us back, but we had no idea the welcome we had coming. I guess we had an inkling. We knew from talk in town folks were glad we were opening, but when the day actually arrives you hold your breath to see who shows up.
We did a pre-opening weekend where we invited people to come in to sample the food and check out the new digs. It was very gratifying to hear the comments from our guests. It was really nice to get back to work. We actually had a casualty that pre-opening weekend. One of five cooks we hired was so overwhelmed with the volume of work, she quit after a day and a half. Her comment was “I can’t work like that!” And we hadn’t actually opened for business. We knew when we hired her she would be a difficult fit. We didn’t have a lot of choices at that time, we needed five experienced cooks and we had none at the start. When she couldn’t cut it the second day, we didn’t have time to feel bad; we just scratched her name off the schedule and worked more ourselves.
I have to say that of the kitchen staff we hired before we opened, Linda Holland saved my butt. She was the only one of the “experienced” cooks that was actually experienced. She could cook breakfast when I could not. She could step up and get stuff done when those other nitwits needed someone to hold their hands for every task. I will be forever indebted to Linda Holland for her contribution to our start.
Having said that; you know the remainder of our cooks left something to be desired. I would be safe in saying that we had cooks helpers working with Linda and me, but not cooks. We started with five “cooks”, we lost one during the pre-opening weekend so we were short handed for sure on the day when we opened for business in our new place. That would be an indication of things to come.
When we threw open the doors that first day we learned a bunch of lessons. Most of them had to do with my crappy planning. As in most openings, you overcome those “organizational miscalculations” with brute force. You throw extra people at problems to minimize their impact while you recalculate your permanent solution. In my case, too much success made me question my plan when the plan was overwhelmed.
For the first six weeks we were open, I was challenged just keeping product in the kitchen. In restaurant parlance, we were “slammed” day after day for that whole time. Anyone who has ever worked in a restaurant knows how difficult it is to teach when you are buried. We had to attempt to teach our cooks to cook HUB food our way. That doesn’t sound so difficult, but we are particular about how our food is prepared. The sequence of the steps, the quality checks along the way, the presentation, the techniques, everything about how we wanted our food to be, needed to be conveyed to rookies and Linda Holland. More often than not, I just brushed them aside and did the work myself. There wasn’t a lot of quality teaching going on.
I think the one thing they did learn was that I was a picky bastard.
There were so many adjustments during the “honeymoon” we hardly looked like the same place even after a couple weeks. The logistics issues in the kitchen were incredible. During the first month, we cooked five thousand pounds of French fries. For a place like ours, that is a bunch of spuds. When I designed the kitchen, I calculated that I would need a big walk-in cooler and walk-in freezer. After the first week, I was beginning to wonder whether I had made them large enough. We were turning huge quantities of inventory and I couldn’t comprehend the numbers well enough to order correctly. There were days when I was running to my suppliers two and three times to keep up. That is not efficient.
As time went by we did get a handle on the supplies, but the numbers were so far from my initial calculations, I was dumbfounded.
I think we had been open one day when Noreen came to me during a busy time and informed me that she had used her “owner’s prerogative” and hired a dishwasher. With all our planning, we had calculated that our servers would bus their tables and do their own dishes. It made perfect sense to me at the time. Noreen let me know she didn’t give a crap about my plan; she was bringing in a dishwasher. In hindsight, I can’t believe we ever thought we could do without.
Look for the next chapter of our Kitchen Chronicles over the next few days. We will have “Tales of Marty” next, followed by others.
Noreen and I have owned the Hub since 1985 when we bought it from my parents who owned it for 25 years. That is a long time for all of us. The anecdotal history of the restaurant is partially documented in the HISTORY section of our web page. Go to thehubinsnohomish.com and click on HISTORY. The old drive in was a pain in the butt, but it produced some great memories.
Our new restaurant is no elegant fine dining place, that isn’t who we are. Unlike the old place it has lots of seats and air conditioning. We are very proud of the new HUB in Snohomish. It is the place we designed it to be.
It is not often that you get a chance to write down on paper what you want and then actually get it. That is what we got with our new place. We drew the plans the way we wanted and that is what we got.
Having said that, there are some small things I would do different if I had the chance, but all in all, I am very happy. Our personalities (Noreen and me) are embodied in the décor. The warmth and comfort of our dining room convey the feelings we wanted when we started.
There are so many stories to tell about our experiences leading up to opening and then for the first couple months, I will break them down into chapters and reveal them over the next few weeks. I will start with KITCHEN CHRONICLES, then maybe DINING ROOM DIARIES. I might even ask outsiders to jot down their recollections of those exciting times and share them with you.
CHAPTER 1 Someone’s in the Kitchen with Steve
I remember five years ago when we were scrambling around getting ready to open our new restaurant. There were so many things to do before we could actually light up the equipment. It’s hard to believe that five years have passed since that time in 2003.
When you open a new restaurant, you know up front that there will be “organizational miscalculations” that will need “remediation”. I can guarantee we had a number of miscalculations. We were remediating our butts off for quite a while. One way to prepare for “remediation” is to have plenty of staff. We hired a bunch. We had drive thru people, table servers and cooks. We had a plan for using all the staff. My plan described how the staff would do the different jobs. What we had not planned for was the avalanche of business that turned up at our door that first day.
When we opened on August 18, 2003, we knew our faithful customers would be happy to have us back, but we had no idea the welcome we had coming. I guess we had an inkling. We knew from talk in town folks were glad we were opening, but when the day actually arrives you hold your breath to see who shows up.
We did a pre-opening weekend where we invited people to come in to sample the food and check out the new digs. It was very gratifying to hear the comments from our guests. It was really nice to get back to work. We actually had a casualty that pre-opening weekend. One of five cooks we hired was so overwhelmed with the volume of work, she quit after a day and a half. Her comment was “I can’t work like that!” And we hadn’t actually opened for business. We knew when we hired her she would be a difficult fit. We didn’t have a lot of choices at that time, we needed five experienced cooks and we had none at the start. When she couldn’t cut it the second day, we didn’t have time to feel bad; we just scratched her name off the schedule and worked more ourselves.
I have to say that of the kitchen staff we hired before we opened, Linda Holland saved my butt. She was the only one of the “experienced” cooks that was actually experienced. She could cook breakfast when I could not. She could step up and get stuff done when those other nitwits needed someone to hold their hands for every task. I will be forever indebted to Linda Holland for her contribution to our start.
Having said that; you know the remainder of our cooks left something to be desired. I would be safe in saying that we had cooks helpers working with Linda and me, but not cooks. We started with five “cooks”, we lost one during the pre-opening weekend so we were short handed for sure on the day when we opened for business in our new place. That would be an indication of things to come.
When we threw open the doors that first day we learned a bunch of lessons. Most of them had to do with my crappy planning. As in most openings, you overcome those “organizational miscalculations” with brute force. You throw extra people at problems to minimize their impact while you recalculate your permanent solution. In my case, too much success made me question my plan when the plan was overwhelmed.
For the first six weeks we were open, I was challenged just keeping product in the kitchen. In restaurant parlance, we were “slammed” day after day for that whole time. Anyone who has ever worked in a restaurant knows how difficult it is to teach when you are buried. We had to attempt to teach our cooks to cook HUB food our way. That doesn’t sound so difficult, but we are particular about how our food is prepared. The sequence of the steps, the quality checks along the way, the presentation, the techniques, everything about how we wanted our food to be, needed to be conveyed to rookies and Linda Holland. More often than not, I just brushed them aside and did the work myself. There wasn’t a lot of quality teaching going on.
I think the one thing they did learn was that I was a picky bastard.
There were so many adjustments during the “honeymoon” we hardly looked like the same place even after a couple weeks. The logistics issues in the kitchen were incredible. During the first month, we cooked five thousand pounds of French fries. For a place like ours, that is a bunch of spuds. When I designed the kitchen, I calculated that I would need a big walk-in cooler and walk-in freezer. After the first week, I was beginning to wonder whether I had made them large enough. We were turning huge quantities of inventory and I couldn’t comprehend the numbers well enough to order correctly. There were days when I was running to my suppliers two and three times to keep up. That is not efficient.
As time went by we did get a handle on the supplies, but the numbers were so far from my initial calculations, I was dumbfounded.
I think we had been open one day when Noreen came to me during a busy time and informed me that she had used her “owner’s prerogative” and hired a dishwasher. With all our planning, we had calculated that our servers would bus their tables and do their own dishes. It made perfect sense to me at the time. Noreen let me know she didn’t give a crap about my plan; she was bringing in a dishwasher. In hindsight, I can’t believe we ever thought we could do without.
Look for the next chapter of our Kitchen Chronicles over the next few days. We will have “Tales of Marty” next, followed by others.
Saturday, August 2, 2008
That was some crummy July, right?
Another July in the books, another Independence Day and Kla Ha Ya Days come and gone. Wasn’t this a peculiar July, even by our standards?
Our hats are off to the Kla Ha Ya Committee for another festival well done. From all the accounts we hear, everyone had a great time. We didn’t hear about any glitches that might have spoiled anybody’s fun. Good job Dallas Van Dyke and the whole organizing committee!
Noreen and I did manage to get out for the Kiwanis Salmon Barbecue. We I loaded my mother into the family truckster for a field trip to the park. It was a delightful venture. Those Kiwanis do know how to crank out the fish. I like hanging out by the cooker. Those guys are so full of you know what.
Since my mother had hip replacement surgery in May, her trips out have been limited except for visits to the medical types. She is beginning to believe there is worthwhile life ahead without the nagging pain of a bad hip. She trundled into the picnic shelter at Hill Park and did justice to her salmon as we sang along with the live music provided by some old guy that knew some really old songs. The crowd seemed to identify with the songs.
Here at the HUB, things have been a little quiet this summer. There is no doubt that the high fuel costs have changed the way everyone allocates their disposable income and in most cases, the allocations are painful. I suspect that we will adjust to higher costs in time, but for now it sucks.
We are constantly looking for new menu items that “do things” for us. We are just now working on a Swiss Steak dinner. It is not a dish that raises a sweat, but it is very comforting. (Our first effort with this dish was a bomb and we had to retool very quickly. We went back to a tried and true preparation that we are sure will work much better.)
There will be cubed steak in our future shortly as well. We really like this kind of food and even though I am partial to flavors with a little kick, we have a great appreciation for “comfort food” we grew up with. We will probably offer a “Cube Steak” Sandwich and a Dinner version.
We also expect to offer pan fried oysters this fall.
For those people that like spicier food, we have a bunch of new breakfast items that incorporate jalapeno peppers and they will raise a sweat. And those cube steaks will make a great sandwich when we slice it up and cook it with onions, Worcestershire sauce and Tabasco and then top it with Swiss cheese. The items in the spicy section come with extra napkins to wipe the sweat off your brow.
August 18 will be the fifth anniversary of our opening in our new building. We expect to have some sort of deal that week. Since my parents came to Snohomish in July of 1960 to take over the HUB, we also will celebrate our 48th anniversary as well. We created HUB Days in 1990 for our 30th anniversary. I wrote about it in the history section of our web page. We will try to do something nice this year for the 5 year birthday and save up our big celebration for our 50th year in July of 2010.
This month also will bring some changes to our operation we hope will not impact our customers too much. Our Point of Sale system has not been upgraded since we opened five years ago. It has been putting along okay for all that time, but I was recently informed that our system was not in compliance with credit card processing standards. I checked with the vendor about upgrading and learned that my hardware may not be capable of handling the new software so I may be on the hook for some new hardware as well. It sounds a little fishy to me. Regardless of the merit, we will be embarking on an upgrade this month.
In addition to the credit card thing, we will also integrate our HUB Club rewards program into the system. I know it will be different, but I will wait till the system is actually up and running before I try to describe how it will work.
The last item on my list today is to ask for customer feedback. If you are reading this message, you have some interest in what is happening at the HUB in Snohomish. We need to hear from our customers. We want to know what they think about our food, our staff, our restrooms, our web site and our restaurant. We have been in business a long time and know that we do some things pretty well, but in all the years we have been in business, we never get enough honest feedback about our faults.
We are not looking to get beat up, but we know there are things we do that irk some of our customers and if we know what they are, we can consider changing how we do things. I would appreciate thoughts about any aspect of our restaurant. If you really want to talk about the good stuff you can do that too. The staff really appreciates complements.
Our hats are off to the Kla Ha Ya Committee for another festival well done. From all the accounts we hear, everyone had a great time. We didn’t hear about any glitches that might have spoiled anybody’s fun. Good job Dallas Van Dyke and the whole organizing committee!
Noreen and I did manage to get out for the Kiwanis Salmon Barbecue. We I loaded my mother into the family truckster for a field trip to the park. It was a delightful venture. Those Kiwanis do know how to crank out the fish. I like hanging out by the cooker. Those guys are so full of you know what.
Since my mother had hip replacement surgery in May, her trips out have been limited except for visits to the medical types. She is beginning to believe there is worthwhile life ahead without the nagging pain of a bad hip. She trundled into the picnic shelter at Hill Park and did justice to her salmon as we sang along with the live music provided by some old guy that knew some really old songs. The crowd seemed to identify with the songs.
Here at the HUB, things have been a little quiet this summer. There is no doubt that the high fuel costs have changed the way everyone allocates their disposable income and in most cases, the allocations are painful. I suspect that we will adjust to higher costs in time, but for now it sucks.
We are constantly looking for new menu items that “do things” for us. We are just now working on a Swiss Steak dinner. It is not a dish that raises a sweat, but it is very comforting. (Our first effort with this dish was a bomb and we had to retool very quickly. We went back to a tried and true preparation that we are sure will work much better.)
There will be cubed steak in our future shortly as well. We really like this kind of food and even though I am partial to flavors with a little kick, we have a great appreciation for “comfort food” we grew up with. We will probably offer a “Cube Steak” Sandwich and a Dinner version.
We also expect to offer pan fried oysters this fall.
For those people that like spicier food, we have a bunch of new breakfast items that incorporate jalapeno peppers and they will raise a sweat. And those cube steaks will make a great sandwich when we slice it up and cook it with onions, Worcestershire sauce and Tabasco and then top it with Swiss cheese. The items in the spicy section come with extra napkins to wipe the sweat off your brow.
August 18 will be the fifth anniversary of our opening in our new building. We expect to have some sort of deal that week. Since my parents came to Snohomish in July of 1960 to take over the HUB, we also will celebrate our 48th anniversary as well. We created HUB Days in 1990 for our 30th anniversary. I wrote about it in the history section of our web page. We will try to do something nice this year for the 5 year birthday and save up our big celebration for our 50th year in July of 2010.
This month also will bring some changes to our operation we hope will not impact our customers too much. Our Point of Sale system has not been upgraded since we opened five years ago. It has been putting along okay for all that time, but I was recently informed that our system was not in compliance with credit card processing standards. I checked with the vendor about upgrading and learned that my hardware may not be capable of handling the new software so I may be on the hook for some new hardware as well. It sounds a little fishy to me. Regardless of the merit, we will be embarking on an upgrade this month.
In addition to the credit card thing, we will also integrate our HUB Club rewards program into the system. I know it will be different, but I will wait till the system is actually up and running before I try to describe how it will work.
The last item on my list today is to ask for customer feedback. If you are reading this message, you have some interest in what is happening at the HUB in Snohomish. We need to hear from our customers. We want to know what they think about our food, our staff, our restrooms, our web site and our restaurant. We have been in business a long time and know that we do some things pretty well, but in all the years we have been in business, we never get enough honest feedback about our faults.
We are not looking to get beat up, but we know there are things we do that irk some of our customers and if we know what they are, we can consider changing how we do things. I would appreciate thoughts about any aspect of our restaurant. If you really want to talk about the good stuff you can do that too. The staff really appreciates complements.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Hot Town, Summer in the City
The Fourth of July signifies the anniversary of our country’s independence from British rule. As the years have gone by, it appears that we have traded one tyrant for another. Even though I am not a George Bush supporter, I am not referring to him. Our country has become very willing to be enslaved. We find ourselves controlled by forces such as big oil, political correctness and global warming. We allow ourselves to be treated this way because it is easier to roll over than fight. If our country’s founders had been as complacent as we are today, we would still be British. If we don’t begin to stand up for ourselves, we will find that we are not able.
At last, summer seems to have arrived. We had that short stretch earlier this spring that gave us a taste of the HOT weather, then it was like the Ground Hog reached out shut us down for an extra twenty weeks of winter. Now here it is the first of July and school will be starting in a few more weeks. Where did the summer go? It seems like that, doesn’t it?
This fuel thing is really messing up our lives. Who can afford to drive anywhere, let alone fly? In the restaurant, our supply costs have really jumped in the past couple months and that is troubling on both a personal and business level. Where will it all stop?
Our plan is to stay close to home and be here for everyone that chooses to stay in the area this summer as well. We will try to have some great specials to make the visit to the HUB seem like a vacation.
KlaHaYa Days is July 18-20 this year. As usual, we encourage everyone to support our friends in the Kiwanis by attending the Salmon Barbecue at Hill Park on Saturday and Sunday. We are proud to assist the Kiwanis in their project by providing the tartar sauce. It is the least we can do.
There are other worthwhile events in the festival as well. The parade is always a super opportunity to get out and meet fellow Snohomish residents and visitors from neighboring communities. Dallas Van Dyke and the KlaHaYa Committee work their butts off every year to make the local event a great success. We tip our hats to all of them.
The Delta Foundation is having the 33rd Annual Delta Summer Festival August 2 at the Snohomish Chalet. The festival is for people with different abilities, but anyone can attend. Every year the Delta Foundation sponsors a variety of events like this one that benefit folks that have been impacted by misfortune and we would like to assist them in their efforts. If you are inclined, you can help too. Call 360-568-2158 and ask for Lynn Neff or Judy Bruce. They will tell you how you can help.
Turnover of staff is a constant in our business. We hope that whenever it happens, it doesn’t cause problems for our customers. Our staff members work hard to deliver the products and services you expect when you visit The HUB in Snohomish.
We will have a couple new faces in our dining room this month. Doug, from the drive through is training to be a waiter. He has been a good worker and has earned the opportunity to show us what he can do. In addition to Doug, we hired another server as well. Deborah will join the team the first week of July. In the drive through, Karlyn started last month and this month we add Claire.
It will take them all a little time to get fully up to speed, but don’t cut them too much slack. Remind us if we drop the ball!
At last, summer seems to have arrived. We had that short stretch earlier this spring that gave us a taste of the HOT weather, then it was like the Ground Hog reached out shut us down for an extra twenty weeks of winter. Now here it is the first of July and school will be starting in a few more weeks. Where did the summer go? It seems like that, doesn’t it?
This fuel thing is really messing up our lives. Who can afford to drive anywhere, let alone fly? In the restaurant, our supply costs have really jumped in the past couple months and that is troubling on both a personal and business level. Where will it all stop?
Our plan is to stay close to home and be here for everyone that chooses to stay in the area this summer as well. We will try to have some great specials to make the visit to the HUB seem like a vacation.
KlaHaYa Days is July 18-20 this year. As usual, we encourage everyone to support our friends in the Kiwanis by attending the Salmon Barbecue at Hill Park on Saturday and Sunday. We are proud to assist the Kiwanis in their project by providing the tartar sauce. It is the least we can do.
There are other worthwhile events in the festival as well. The parade is always a super opportunity to get out and meet fellow Snohomish residents and visitors from neighboring communities. Dallas Van Dyke and the KlaHaYa Committee work their butts off every year to make the local event a great success. We tip our hats to all of them.
The Delta Foundation is having the 33rd Annual Delta Summer Festival August 2 at the Snohomish Chalet. The festival is for people with different abilities, but anyone can attend. Every year the Delta Foundation sponsors a variety of events like this one that benefit folks that have been impacted by misfortune and we would like to assist them in their efforts. If you are inclined, you can help too. Call 360-568-2158 and ask for Lynn Neff or Judy Bruce. They will tell you how you can help.
Turnover of staff is a constant in our business. We hope that whenever it happens, it doesn’t cause problems for our customers. Our staff members work hard to deliver the products and services you expect when you visit The HUB in Snohomish.
We will have a couple new faces in our dining room this month. Doug, from the drive through is training to be a waiter. He has been a good worker and has earned the opportunity to show us what he can do. In addition to Doug, we hired another server as well. Deborah will join the team the first week of July. In the drive through, Karlyn started last month and this month we add Claire.
It will take them all a little time to get fully up to speed, but don’t cut them too much slack. Remind us if we drop the ball!
Monday, June 9, 2008
Bite the Bullet
Bad news comes in bunches. Everywhere we look, prices are going up. Our restaurant is no exception. We have monitored the escalation of our cost over the past few months and even though we know the increases are not finished, we are compelled to ratchet up our prices to keep from deteriorating our razor thin margin.
Technology enables us to keep our cost as low as possible, but it also gives us the signal when it is time to raise prices.
This month we brought out our new menus with some modifications other than price increases. We printed our Dessert menu, Appetizer menu and Cocktail menu on table tents so our customers can actually see all the stuff we have.
Our Breakfast Menu had the most changes because we introduced breakfast bowls and scrambles as menu items. We offered these products as specials in the past, but formalized the process by actually putting them on the menu for every day. We will be interested in how they do.
The Lunch and Dinner menus changed a little for just the opposite reason. Some of the items we really line were on our menu but disappeared into the forest of choices. We took them off the regular menu and now feature them less frequently, but more prominently on our daily special sheet.
This year, we are making a real effort to be more responsive to the market by developing daily breakfast, lunch and dinner specials. Just setting up the process where we develop the plan was complicated. Once it is in place, subsequent plans sort of fall into place. Our staff is involved in most levels of planning starting with the morning staff that does the breakfast through the day to the dinner folks who are doing a great job with our “dinner only” items.
In spite of the fact that we are increasing prices, we work hard to make sure our prices are as modest as they can be. We still think our food is a value in the market compared to many of our identified competitors.
We feel bad that we have to change prices, but we would rather feel bad for this than feel bad for going broke. We hope our patrons understand the dilemma we face.
Technology enables us to keep our cost as low as possible, but it also gives us the signal when it is time to raise prices.
This month we brought out our new menus with some modifications other than price increases. We printed our Dessert menu, Appetizer menu and Cocktail menu on table tents so our customers can actually see all the stuff we have.
Our Breakfast Menu had the most changes because we introduced breakfast bowls and scrambles as menu items. We offered these products as specials in the past, but formalized the process by actually putting them on the menu for every day. We will be interested in how they do.
The Lunch and Dinner menus changed a little for just the opposite reason. Some of the items we really line were on our menu but disappeared into the forest of choices. We took them off the regular menu and now feature them less frequently, but more prominently on our daily special sheet.
This year, we are making a real effort to be more responsive to the market by developing daily breakfast, lunch and dinner specials. Just setting up the process where we develop the plan was complicated. Once it is in place, subsequent plans sort of fall into place. Our staff is involved in most levels of planning starting with the morning staff that does the breakfast through the day to the dinner folks who are doing a great job with our “dinner only” items.
In spite of the fact that we are increasing prices, we work hard to make sure our prices are as modest as they can be. We still think our food is a value in the market compared to many of our identified competitors.
We feel bad that we have to change prices, but we would rather feel bad for this than feel bad for going broke. We hope our patrons understand the dilemma we face.
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Fosters Fold JMJ
We were saddened this week to hear that JMJ Printing was folding their tent. We don't know any of the details, but Rick and Denise Foster have been a great addition to our business community for a lot of years and we will miss them.
If it weren't for Rick and Denise, my efforts to produce a newsletter at The Hub in the early nineties would have been fruitless. Both Rick and Denise made it possible for me to create "Hot Off the Grill" through her creative talents and his printing expertise.
Over the years, we have watched (J)ennifer, (M)elissa and (J)ulie grow up, and it's when you see how grown up they are that you wonder where the years have gone.
We wish Rick and Denise well in their future endeavors. We will miss them personally and professionally. God Bless them!
If it weren't for Rick and Denise, my efforts to produce a newsletter at The Hub in the early nineties would have been fruitless. Both Rick and Denise made it possible for me to create "Hot Off the Grill" through her creative talents and his printing expertise.
Over the years, we have watched (J)ennifer, (M)elissa and (J)ulie grow up, and it's when you see how grown up they are that you wonder where the years have gone.
We wish Rick and Denise well in their future endeavors. We will miss them personally and professionally. God Bless them!
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Re-Newell, Renewal
It has been quite a while since my last entry. A lot has happened.
My father, Newell Dana, passed away last December. It was difficult watching him die.
On a positive note, he had a good life and most people would be happy accomplishing a fraction of what he did. I know I would. I miss him every day.
More recently, my mother had hip replacement surgery last week. She is eighty-four. She is struggling with the rehab some. Considering her age, she is probably doing just fine. It will be good when she can get around again.
Regarding The HUB, business has been humming along. We renewed our liquor license in April with an upgrade that allows us to sell hard liquor. We are developing a collection of cocktails we do. We work from a service bar and will bring in more flavors of booz as our customers ask for them.
We are breaking new ground this week. We are extending our hours of operation by an hour on Friday and Saturday. With the longer daylight hours, people eat dinner later. Maybe we will capture more late diners.
The first of June, we hope unveil new menus. In spite of the fact that our disposable income is stretched with higher motor fuel cost, the cost of product in our restaurant is piggy-backing fuel cost as well. Every aspect of our business is impacted by higher oil cost. We are reluctant to raise prices too much, but we are stuck between a rock and a hard place. We hope our customers are not traumatized too much.
John Bruce is working feverishly on our web-site. I have been seriously delinquent in getting the content for him. It is a monumental task developing even a little content for each page. I think the most challenging task was stopping the writing on the history page. When I get started with a story thread, I tend to run on. I am sorry for some of the length, but I can't tell a story without telling the story. If it gets too long, just dump it.
For our long term patrons who may be a part of our history, if I left out your story(ies) I am sorry. They come to me at different times. I make notes to myself about something and try to write about it before I forget.
Our little restaurant has been blessed with a lot of really interesting people; both staff members and customers. The history is written in two sections. The first section is the Newell & Shirley Dana years from 1960 to 1985. The second section is from 1985 to 2008. The old stuff is certainly history, the second second section seems a lot less like history and more like last week.
I hope to record more memories for the history as they come to me.
I had the opportunity to visit with two characters from my history today; former Hub employee Bob Wright and former Hub pinball player Scott Barry. We are all alums from SHS class of '68. We spent a couple hours this morning/afternoon hashing out things.
Scott Barry was the editor of the Seattle Times Snohomish County Edition until just recently when he was induced into retirement when they stopped publishing that paper. Scott is exploring his options. We (Bob and I) are glad that Scott is making lemonade from his lemons.
It is interesting listening to these other guys. We are all forty years out of high school. Our lives have all taken different courses, yet we find ourselves looking at the world through strangely similar eyes.
Scott and Bob and I have been friends since we were together in high school. As Scott observed this morning, we have not been close, but we always thought of each other as friends. I look forward to seeing how he handles the next phase of his career/life.
Bob has also entered a new phase. He has been in the antique business at Apple Annies in Cashmere, WA for a number of years. He and his wife Linda burned out on all the work it took to get that project off the ground. They are trying to find a lifestyle that is more life friendly. Bob is developing an avocation into a vocation. The best way to describe it is to say it is sort of like naturopathy. Bob is developing information regarding natural health strategies. I don't think he includes chanting in what he does, but I could be wrong.
Bob will be involved in our forty year class reunion this summer. We have enlisted him to develop the entertainment for the evening. I can always count on him to entertain.
I am determined to be a regular contributor to this page for the near term. I am never lacking for things to say, but sometimes I question whether the place for the discussion is the internet.
My father, Newell Dana, passed away last December. It was difficult watching him die.
On a positive note, he had a good life and most people would be happy accomplishing a fraction of what he did. I know I would. I miss him every day.
More recently, my mother had hip replacement surgery last week. She is eighty-four. She is struggling with the rehab some. Considering her age, she is probably doing just fine. It will be good when she can get around again.
Regarding The HUB, business has been humming along. We renewed our liquor license in April with an upgrade that allows us to sell hard liquor. We are developing a collection of cocktails we do. We work from a service bar and will bring in more flavors of booz as our customers ask for them.
We are breaking new ground this week. We are extending our hours of operation by an hour on Friday and Saturday. With the longer daylight hours, people eat dinner later. Maybe we will capture more late diners.
The first of June, we hope unveil new menus. In spite of the fact that our disposable income is stretched with higher motor fuel cost, the cost of product in our restaurant is piggy-backing fuel cost as well. Every aspect of our business is impacted by higher oil cost. We are reluctant to raise prices too much, but we are stuck between a rock and a hard place. We hope our customers are not traumatized too much.
John Bruce is working feverishly on our web-site. I have been seriously delinquent in getting the content for him. It is a monumental task developing even a little content for each page. I think the most challenging task was stopping the writing on the history page. When I get started with a story thread, I tend to run on. I am sorry for some of the length, but I can't tell a story without telling the story. If it gets too long, just dump it.
For our long term patrons who may be a part of our history, if I left out your story(ies) I am sorry. They come to me at different times. I make notes to myself about something and try to write about it before I forget.
Our little restaurant has been blessed with a lot of really interesting people; both staff members and customers. The history is written in two sections. The first section is the Newell & Shirley Dana years from 1960 to 1985. The second section is from 1985 to 2008. The old stuff is certainly history, the second second section seems a lot less like history and more like last week.
I hope to record more memories for the history as they come to me.
I had the opportunity to visit with two characters from my history today; former Hub employee Bob Wright and former Hub pinball player Scott Barry. We are all alums from SHS class of '68. We spent a couple hours this morning/afternoon hashing out things.
Scott Barry was the editor of the Seattle Times Snohomish County Edition until just recently when he was induced into retirement when they stopped publishing that paper. Scott is exploring his options. We (Bob and I) are glad that Scott is making lemonade from his lemons.
It is interesting listening to these other guys. We are all forty years out of high school. Our lives have all taken different courses, yet we find ourselves looking at the world through strangely similar eyes.
Scott and Bob and I have been friends since we were together in high school. As Scott observed this morning, we have not been close, but we always thought of each other as friends. I look forward to seeing how he handles the next phase of his career/life.
Bob has also entered a new phase. He has been in the antique business at Apple Annies in Cashmere, WA for a number of years. He and his wife Linda burned out on all the work it took to get that project off the ground. They are trying to find a lifestyle that is more life friendly. Bob is developing an avocation into a vocation. The best way to describe it is to say it is sort of like naturopathy. Bob is developing information regarding natural health strategies. I don't think he includes chanting in what he does, but I could be wrong.
Bob will be involved in our forty year class reunion this summer. We have enlisted him to develop the entertainment for the evening. I can always count on him to entertain.
I am determined to be a regular contributor to this page for the near term. I am never lacking for things to say, but sometimes I question whether the place for the discussion is the internet.
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