GRAH! CHEF SMASH!

I really hate being me sometimes. I have a tendency to believe that no matter how good things get, it won't be long before they abruptly become really lousy. The frustrating part is that I'm usually right.

Take today. The last three days have been the best days my cafe has seen yet, but today it was one crappy thing after another. For starters, some bunch of idiots set off bombs in England. Granted, that's a bigger tragedy than what happened to me, but there's nothing I can say about that that a lot more eloquent people haven't already. Anyway, right before opening the former owner of my cafe comes down and announces that he's going to give me a bunch of free publicity. Apparently one of the local news channels decided to interview him about the bombings (he's probably the most notable Englishman in town), and for some reason I'm still not too clear on he decided to have them shoot it in front of the shop. That's all well and good, but in exchange I also got a lot of unsolicited advice on how to run my business and my life. I can respect the man's abilities, but frankly I've noticed that once a person starts giving advice, their ears and brain turn off. Doesn't matter whether they know anything about what you're doing, they know what you should be doing. And there's no way to politely tell them to sod off... Frigging civilized habits...

Anyway, that was annoying but not too terrible. Maybe it'll even be publicity, but I have my doubts. The real kicker is about ten minutes later when my cook accidentally drops her thermometer in the fryer. Not only is the thermometer ruined, but the entire batch of oil (which we had changed just a few days prior) was contaminated, forcing us to take fish and fries off the menu for the rest of the day. We could have just drained the fryer, cleaned it out, and replaced the oil and been back on the go in under an hour except that someone (me) hadn't gotten around to ordering in more oil after the last time we changed it. I had figured we had two weeks at least before it would become a concern. Feh...

So, we were stuck without a fryer for the day, and more importantly without our most popular menu item. We're quickly building a rep for our fish & chips, and when people came in and found out we couldn't serve them any (mercury poisoning is a no-no), about 95% of them turned around and walked back out again. Grr.... I told everyone that we'd be back up to speed tomorrow, so hopefully they'll come back. But my instincts tell me that quite a few will just think "that place isn't reliable" and never return. Restaurants live and die by word of mouth, and it doesn't take much bad press to do in a joint. Unless of course you're a McDonalds and everyone knows your food is crap but they buy it anyway...

Anyway, the short version is that we're out a day's business, one thermometer, and a jug and a half of fryer oil. Fortunately we can afford it, but still, after three days of excellent business it's a real kick in the stomach. I'm trying hard not to be mad at Kayleen for it, but it's just ...frustrating. Oh well, tomorrow morning we should get the rest of the oil we need and with a little luck we'll have another really good day. And hopefully they'll catch those fragging al-Qaeda creeps...