Comradery

Last night a couple came in to eat who work for another restaurant.  Anytime I hear there is someone dinning in my restaurant who works in the food industry, be it a farmer, a cook or whomever, I go out of my way to ensure they have a remarkable evening...or as close as we can come to it.  As we were sending out some "compliments" of our house-cured meats and other charcuterie, one of my cooks said to me "aren't they our competition?"  I assured him that they are indeed, but they are also our colleagues.

There are a couple of reasons like I go out of my way to ensure my colleagues have the best experience they can.  The first is to show off.  Not what you are thinking.  I am not showing off to prove anything, these are people that truly understand the amount of thought, emotion and work that goes into everything on their plate.  You could say I am showing how much we care.  A sort of recognition from people who can surely do so, recognition of who we are and what we do.

Another reason I want to take such extraordinary care for those who share my profession, well,  they share my profession.  I know what they go through.  I can relate to the fact that their job is customer service, their profession is to constantly and consistently make other people happy.  They work long, odd hours including nights, weekends and holidays.  I know that these people love to be wine and dined because that is how they believe a meal should be.  That is the reason they are in this hectic trade (whether they admit it or not).

I have worked all over the country and I seen how comradery between restaurants can vary as much as the landscape.  In my humble opinion, the places that show the strongest comradery, an almost "us against them" mentality, are the cities and communities that have the best restaurants.  It makes perfect sense.  Friends make better competition.  Being in competition with a friend makes you strive to do the best you can where as competition between strangers just makes you want to do better than the other.  This valley has it's share of comradery, but hopefully we can see more soon.  I think that is what I miss the most about the city, the comradery, the friendship between those who understand what we do on a daily basis and push us to do better.