Dear Feastlings,
After a wearisome trip to Phoenix to pick the bones of a curious restaurant whose apparent sole function was to feed the people working in a fairly large Verizon administrative building, stuffing pans and a vitamix and a few other odds and ends into the cab of my truck under the Chandler sun while a broken valve gradually spread water over their now-barren kitchen floor, I returned to a handful of minor headaches at Feast. Nothing serious, mind you, but enough not to get an email out to you all.
Today promised to be better, though with Amy, our catering director, out for a few days, and Gaby, who oversees the kitchen, out with her kids, who were out of school for a teachers inservice day or something along those lines, I found myself running behind again, only to have it further complicated by the mysterious absence of a pantry cook whom I’m hoping against hope is okay right now. While I’ve gotten used to people simply not showing up over the past four years, it’s not like her not to call, so I’d be pacing if I weren’t sitting in front of the computer to calm myself by blathering on to all of you about it. Fingers crossed.
We’ve got the line cobbled together for tonight, but while Feast has seen a host of people come and go in the post-pandemic era of “what-sort-of-employer-expects-you-to-come-to-work-when-you’re-simply-not-in-the-mood,” we’re all trying to get in touch with her and not hearing back, and we’re not feeling good about it.
Fortunately (?,) it’s not all that busy- I’d spoken too soon when I told you things were starting to feel normal again, as they felt normal for two, maybe three days, and then- back to anormal. I’m clinging to what normalcy we can muster by going through the motions we normally go through: there’s a wine tasting this Saturday at 2:00 pm, with what we feel are excellent Spanish values,
and I’m already considering the food pairings for next week’s tasting, the end-of-the-month Willamette Valley tasting that we’ll be pairing with food. We’ll post that one as soon as I’ve written the food pairings.
We’ve also got a scant two weeks left of our summer wine deals, a deeper-than-usual discount on six-packs and full cases, and a discount on the wine you’ve enjoyed at the table here when you take another bottle home. You can read about that here,
and then scamper over to load your cellar before Labor Day rolls around.
Shortly thereafter, you’ll be able to avail yourselves of Sonoran Restaurant Week, both here and elsewhere around Southern Arizona,
https://www.sonoranrestaurantweek.com/
and midway through, assuming I can quit worrying, we’ll have put together a special dinner for the occasion on September 10th, which will be posted both on our website and theirs. Likewise, the September menu will begin on the 3rd. So our dining room may be a bit empty, but our plates are decidedly full. And, with any luck, you’ll come join us, let us fill your plate, and we’ll all fill one another’s cup, and go home sated and happy. Off to check on our missing friend again.
Your friend,
Doug