Today I had a really really fun 5 hour-long meeting. I got to brainstorm a new restaurant concept. From discussing the menu, to clientele, to creating high-end exclusive experiences, to audio and acoustics of the layout, with the best part: the Whisky!
For those that don't know me. I love Whisky. I love drinking it, exploring the flavor profiles, sharing it with friends, hunting for rare bottles, etc. What better way than to spend the evening sitting around with your favorite people swapping stories while sipping slowly on a rich and complex bottle of whisky? That is the life.
My parents were entrepreneurs. When I moved to California from Pittsburgh I recruited my dad to join me on the cross-country journey. On the second day I was ready to drop him off at the closest airport and send him home, he was driving me crazy. But that's for another blog post. We were driving through St. Louis and my dad said, "Oh I've been here before." Ummm what? when? "We opened a restaurant here." Huh??? At one point they opened restaurants all up and down the east coast and apparently into the midwest in a whirlwind time of expanding their business. That chain didn't pan out because of management challenges in a primarily cash-based business, but he ended up still being successful at home in Virginia.
We lived and breathed the restaurant business. I was a Restaurant Brat. I grew up behind the bar making virgin pina coladas and strawberry daiquiris at the age of 10. All throughout elementary school I would always hangout with the "regulars" in the bar playing Galaga and Ms. Pacman. Video Arcade Machine Coin Sorter by age 12, Cashier by age 14, Busboy at age 15, Waiter by 17. You know, the standard career ladder.
The routine family meal was walking into another Chinese restaurant and immediately start scoping everything around us. How the host organized the waitlist and guests. Peaking into the kitchen on our way to the bathroom to study their workflow inside. Breaking down every dish and commenting how it could be improved. That's the Restaurant Brat life. But as I grew older and discussed the business with my parents more, they warned me of one thing: Never Go Into the Restaurant Business.
When I graduated from college with a highly technical degree that led me to a professional white collar job, but my heart was still in food and the restaurant business. I would dream up fast turnaround noodle restaurant concepts that integrated technologies like mobile phone pre-ordering, robotic conveyor table service, social networking and order history touchscreen systems at every table. The itch remained, once a restaurant brat, always a restaurant brat.
A decade later and here I am dreaming up the most delectable stimulating food experiences that just so happen to also integrate my love for whisky. I'm in heaven. I'm imagining all the extravagant ways to display hundreds of beautiful bottles of whisky while also hearing the stories being told about each distillery and their master blenders. I even start to see my recent dream becoming a possibility, serving blending kits to the most discerning of customers. We give you various flavor profiles and you mix your own blend to share with your friends. Oh the stories that people would tell of this place, the memories that would be formed here.
So only time will tell if this conversation evolves into me rejecting my parent's advice and stepping into the restaurant business in some capacity. Sorry mom and dad, but you loved making great food, watching the joy of others eating that food, and filling places with great conversation, laughter, and pleasure through dining experiences. Can you blame me for wanting to create these experiences for others too?