...or for normal people. OMG! Ralph and I set out for a bike ride yesterday afternoon. His goal was 3.5 miles and my goal was 15 miles. I followed Ralph for his 3.5 miles, then he went home and I continued onward. At 6 miles I was feeling hot, at 8 miles I was feeling sick but determined. After all, I reasoned with myself, I felt hot on Saturday but managed to finish 14.6 miles. At 9 miles it occurred to me that if I didn't head home soon I wasn't going to make it home. It was hotter than hell, I was riding into the wind, and I was on the verge of delirium. I pictured myself on the side of the road waiting for death to come. I would have called Ralph to come and get me but I didn't think my bike would fit in my Rav4. Well, at 11.3 miles I was home! I grabbed a bottle of water then threw myself on the couch. Ralph started chatting about feeling exhilarated after his bike ride. I wasn't up for that chat, so I left the room, headed for the lanai, threw my raft in the pool, and jumped in! Within an hour I was cooled off and back to normal...as normal as anyone can be who attempts a 15 mile bike ride in 90 degree weather with super high humidity. I'm on-call today, so no riding until Tuesday!
I took Ralph, Deb, and Tim out to dinner last night to celebrate their hard work and dedication to Carmella's Casa Italiana (CCI). We met at the Tarpon Pointe Grill & Tiki Bar. After 30 minutes of no service, we left. Really, as restaurant people, how could we stay at a place with such poor customer service? The lady who was sitting behind Deborah agreed that the service was poor, but recommended we stay because the food is good. Since we serve the best Italian food around and thus are no strangers to good food, it seemed pointless to stay in the hopes that at some juncture good food would arrive. Alleged good food that still wasn't ordered after 30 minutes. We didn't even have drinks. When the hostess brought the menus and we asked for a pitcher of beer, she responded, "I'm only the hostess."
When we go out, we expect what we give at CCI, excellent customer service. We want to be treated well. In fact, we can tolerate mediocre food if the service is excellent. So, we left and went to the Twin Dolphin. As soon as we walked out to the patio, we were greeted by Ryan who immediately handed out four menus and took our drink order. You know the rest. We had an excellent meal, excellent service, and an excellent time relaxing, talking, and discussing our plans for CCI. The only think missing was the sunset. It was cloudy.
One topic that we discussed was a radio broadcast of Clark Howard. He talked about how restaurants are in a squeeze play and used Panera as an example. He mentioned that "Panera took the squeeze play on the chin and never discounted, never cheapened their ingredients, and never reduced the size of their servings even during the thick of the recession." He went on and raised a challenge: What is it in your business that you can do faster, cheaper, or better and still give the consumer the same kind of quality and pricing?
If you remember, I discussed this topic in yesterday's blog. While we continue to discover how to work smarter through this recession, we have never sacrificed quality or diminished portions. And we never will. So go find out. http://casa-italiana.info/ See you soon.
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