Dear Feastlings,
Restaurant folk play the blame game relentlessly. Every day is packed with speculation as to what might make the day busy or slow. Will rain make people stay home, or will it cool off the day enough that people go out? If there’s a game or a show, will people dine out beforehand, or will they eat something next door to the venue?
The summer is boring, not just because it’s slow, but because it’s consistently slow for months at a go. There’s no guesswork to it, and theorizing is an empty exercise. It’s slow because Tucson is slow, and Tucson is slow because it’s so much more pleasant to be somewhere that doesn’t feel like Tucson does. Guessing at why we’re slow is unsatisfying.
This morning, though, driving around for the odds and ends that didn’t show up with our orders, I was unsettled. It was as if what traffic we’d had before had somehow doubled overnight. I’m fortunate enough that I seldom drive when everyone else is driving- a happy occupational hazard- but I suddenly found myself not making it through the intersection within a single cycle of the traffic light. And while it’s never pleasant to be in more traffic than usual, my brain released whatever endorphins I needed to stop panicking my way through the work week. My pituitary gland told me I was going to cover payroll despite the fact that there are three payrolls this month. My hypothalamus told me it was safe to order an extra case of oil-cured olives. My autonomic nervous system told me to relax and enjoy the traffic. And I am. Last night was the second Tuesday in a row that we’ve needed to use our additional dining room, which has been dark for the majority of the past five months. There were wine bottles on tables. Wine bottles!
So while we still guess at the potential of the evening- will the World Series keep people at home? Are election jitters tightening everyone’s purse strings?- a generous sprinkling of business now makes me think it matters whether I get through the traffic or not.
So thank you, those of you who’ve returned.
Mind you, there’s still theorizing and guesswork going on. I was chatting with our pals Cindy and Joe of the Rogue Theatre the other day, wondering how many people have signed up for the Italo Calvino-themed benefit dinner we’re doing with them this coming Sunday,
Benefit dinner for the Rogue Theatre: If on a winter’s night a traveler
and we were forced into the guessing game. Are people back in Tucson yet? Are they shy to spend before the election? Do they have other commitments? We don’t know. But there’s still room to join us if you’d like. The link to the Rogue’s website is on the page above, where we’ve posted the menu.
We have yet to post the menu, however, for Thanksgiving carryout, but you’ll see that by the first of the month- we just still have a few newer crew members to train on the subject of Thanksgiving, since we have a few who’ve joined us in the past year and they still need to learn the Thanksgiving ropes. But keep your eyes peeled, and whet your appetite at our first in a series of Saturday wine tastings that highlight wines well-suited for your Thanksgiving table.
As posting menus goes, however, we’ll have one posted next Tuesday when our November menu begins, and we’ve long been rubbing our hands together in anticipation of the dinner we’re doing with Deep Sky Vineyards on November 17th.
We hope you’ll join us for one or all of these events, and that we’ll all feel more thankful than usual come November 28th. Until then, I’ll just be thankful for the lot of you, and for all that traffic.
Thanks.
Doug