Where to Start

First off it's been a while since my last post and I apologize. We have all these great pictures, videos to post, new menu items, new charcuterie with the addition of our local mangalitsa, and there is just not enough time in the day to spend blogging. Since getting back from the bahamas we have been doing 300 cover a night consistently, throw in a menu change, special dinners, personal issues and some unfortunate recent events it will still be a while before I can really get back into sharing all that we do.
The new menu was postponed but is finally rolling out Thursday 4-1-10, a little late but with the weather so cold we haven't really missed much of the spring veggies. Just in time for consistent english peas, fiddleheads, nettles, morels, and so on. It's been a tough couple weeks with ridiculous business levels, short on cooks, and now even shorter with the absence of Aaron from the kitchen.
For those of you who don't know Aaron he is the chef de cuisine of the restaurant and an integral part of how this kitchen functions. He is the comic relief, a seasoned manager, creative culinarian, spec enforcer, a friend above all and truly dedicated to the restaurant. He was hit by a drunk driver early Saturday morning after a punk show here in Orlando and has been in the hospital since. He's banged up but still in good spirits, cracking jokes even as the fire department and paramedics freed him from being pinned between a car and his motorcycle. I have it on good report that he was giving the Evil Knievil thumbs up on the stretcher as he was being loaded into the ambulance to a crowd of cheering friends that were present. We got a chance to visit with him today and wish him a speedy recovery. After meeting with the chefs on property we figure that we will only need 3 hourly employees to try to replace the work load that Aaron carried day to day. So as you can see this blog will be taking a back seat to the job at hand. We wish Aaron all the best. It's going to be a long road for both he and I in different respects but I would do it a hundred times over for someone in his position. Good luck Aaron, I think a little death metal playing in the kitchen while we prep for the new menu is in order.