So we had a soft opening


Nobody knew.    Sometimes you have to do it that way, less stress.    It was cool to see people walk in without any advertising, or big announcements.    Unfortunately, Jeffe walked in pissed that opening morning, he looked at me and knew it was best to keep it moving to the kitchen.    Always, when things are going good in life something has to try and ruin it.   It wasn't a great way to start opening day and I immediately had to try to lighten the mood, but he wasn't having it.   First thing he did was take a whole pan of rice that was just cooked and threw it out.     He went to inspect the rice and discovered it was burned at the bottom.  That is something that we both have in common, but he wasn't wrong though.   How are you going to mess up rice?  Nearby, his cousin was trying to save the cooks face by saying he likes "rapa".  Some people do like the burnt part of the rice but not at a restaurant, you do that home.   He was right to be angry, but it definitely didn't help with setting the tone for what would happen in the next 5 months.   I was surprised he was angry that morning because we had spent the whole night in the restaurant the day before.   We were there until 2am the night before cleaning everything, making sure everything was spik and span and sparkly.  We were beat that day, I fell asleep with my clothes on top of my bed.   

I was actually happy that soft opening morning because I knew everyone was going to come in and love the mural and the atmosphere.   And they did, lots of interesting people walked in and out that day it was so much fun.  Of course, I was asked every five minutes if I was Cuban.   I'm not Cuban and when I told one lady that asked that I was Portuguese, she replied, "Oh What are you doing here with all these Cubans?"  I was working the register because we were very understaffed, and I even had to be a waitress that day because our main waiter quit on us a few days before opening.  The devil was working overtime that day he quit too.  It was tough but I handled it, I was ripping and roaring and he was super ripping and roaring too, like Superman.   We rocked that first day despite him throwing out the rice in the morning.    

All the problems we had in that restaurant had to do with other people and their energy.   If it had to do with just us, we would still be open, and everything would have gone as planned.   We worked hard; he worked harder than anyone.   He suffered and there were days I would just hug him when I couldn't find the words to say.   I loved that little restaurant but in life's road I have learned that love does not save all.   It doesn't matter how many nights we stayed in there until 2am.   All the sage I burned in that place and things just couldn't click, everyday it was a battle and a struggle.   We couldn't even find decent people to answer the phones.    

What I learned the most is that you can't do anything with a restaurant without having a solid cook.   Forget everything else, all the unsolicited advice he was given by a million people every day helped none.   We went through maybe 3 to 4 cooks and none of them worked.   He wanted authentic Cuban Food.   One cook had the nerve to use tomato paste instead of tomatoe sauce to make sauce for the Picadillo.   There were people who even blamed me, everything they brought up to fix things was external.  Oh, you need a bimbo at the counter, Oh,  you need to have bands playing here.  Oh,  you need cook this like this and like that.    No.. what you need is a good solid cook.  And from the gate he got screwed on that.   Looking back, if we had time me and him could of learned all the dishes ourselves from his mom, who made an amazing Boliche.   She came in to help him for a few weeks too but then she would be challenged by these awful cooks, and it was stressful.   In 2 months down in Miami with his mom we could have perfected all these dishes and we would have been ok.   Now I know... next time be the cook.   Ironically,  He's a great cook now, 10 years later...

Lots of stress but not enough to make me hate the experience. 


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