Notes from the Bay Area
Oct. 22nd, 2008 08:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
snousleI'm in Mountain View this morning. Working. Theoretically, anyway. I have a rather convenient circuit that involves stopping at the Hole in the Wall, crashing on a floor in Palo Alto, having a deluxious breakfast at some nearby cafe, and going to work early. Today, that also involves picking my mother up at SFO.
(A friend of hers had said that she could just waltz up to the transportation desk and get a bus to Ukiah. Um, no, not actually; there are no airport transportation companies that can take you directly there. Good thing I checked into it before she arrived, it would have been a real pain otherwise, and probably would have cost more than driving both ways.)
The Bay Area sure looks different coming in from outside. So many people. But Palo Alto at 7 AM is a pleasure. Not much is open, but the streets are quiet, and there's an expectant hum of activity as restaurateurs and shopkeepers get ready for their day. One of the things I particularly like about blue collar men is that they get up good and early. The eye candy is usually at its best in the hours just before dawn.
The cafes here are by and large excellent, but one gets the sense that this excellence is had by a whole lot of upstream paddling. As is the case in many urban centers, the food is prepared by people who by and large don't give a damn. Many things I've learned about the industry surprise me; one is the large gap between the business model and the actual restaurant, and I'm increasingly convinced that the gap is maintained by a whole range of conflicts of interest among the people that work there. It is easy to create a restaurant on paper that makes a whole lot of money, but it seems very difficult to inspire the staff to care deeply about the product instead of cutting corners and fighting amongst themselves. Few entrepreneurs imagine that their plans will be foiled in this way, and I can't help but think that this is why so many of them fail.
The cafe where I had a horrendously salty smoked salmon crepe and a punishingly strong cup of coffee reminded me of all this. The staff seemed very unhappy, and the food reflected that discord. Although it was obviously a carefully planned and technically well-executed crepe, there was that ever-present something wrong that can only be avoided by the cook's sensitivity and personal investment in the result. This is why I think it is possible to make a living at this business as a kind of lone wolf; with the highly structured and planned framework of a catering event, it is possible to apply a singular vision that is free of conflict, bringing the actuality of the event closer to the ideal economic scenario that has seduced so many would-be restaurant owners into ruin.
Famous last words. Heh.
Anyway. Must get to work.
(A friend of hers had said that she could just waltz up to the transportation desk and get a bus to Ukiah. Um, no, not actually; there are no airport transportation companies that can take you directly there. Good thing I checked into it before she arrived, it would have been a real pain otherwise, and probably would have cost more than driving both ways.)
The Bay Area sure looks different coming in from outside. So many people. But Palo Alto at 7 AM is a pleasure. Not much is open, but the streets are quiet, and there's an expectant hum of activity as restaurateurs and shopkeepers get ready for their day. One of the things I particularly like about blue collar men is that they get up good and early. The eye candy is usually at its best in the hours just before dawn.
The cafes here are by and large excellent, but one gets the sense that this excellence is had by a whole lot of upstream paddling. As is the case in many urban centers, the food is prepared by people who by and large don't give a damn. Many things I've learned about the industry surprise me; one is the large gap between the business model and the actual restaurant, and I'm increasingly convinced that the gap is maintained by a whole range of conflicts of interest among the people that work there. It is easy to create a restaurant on paper that makes a whole lot of money, but it seems very difficult to inspire the staff to care deeply about the product instead of cutting corners and fighting amongst themselves. Few entrepreneurs imagine that their plans will be foiled in this way, and I can't help but think that this is why so many of them fail.
The cafe where I had a horrendously salty smoked salmon crepe and a punishingly strong cup of coffee reminded me of all this. The staff seemed very unhappy, and the food reflected that discord. Although it was obviously a carefully planned and technically well-executed crepe, there was that ever-present something wrong that can only be avoided by the cook's sensitivity and personal investment in the result. This is why I think it is possible to make a living at this business as a kind of lone wolf; with the highly structured and planned framework of a catering event, it is possible to apply a singular vision that is free of conflict, bringing the actuality of the event closer to the ideal economic scenario that has seduced so many would-be restaurant owners into ruin.
Famous last words. Heh.
Anyway. Must get to work.
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Date: 2008-10-23 01:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-23 01:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-23 01:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-23 01:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-23 01:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-23 02:22 am (UTC)It's endemic to the culture.