Ruby “Boo”sday’s

Hey, Everyone!

So here I am sitting in my hotel room in Jackson, Mississippi, tired out of my mind and yet I'm typing a blog. I love it! I've been driving about 12hrs a day, so I'm pretty exhausted. Not too much to report from the road, until tonight that is…

I pulled up to my hotel, got a room, and unpacked for the night when I saw a Ruby Tuesday's (which I will be calling Ruby "boo"sday's). I decided that it would be a nice place to have a sit-down meal, and kind of unwind after a long day's drive. I pulled into the parking lot and noticed that they were a little busy, but I decided to eat there nonetheless. I walked in and, of course, the hostess asked my entire life story because I didn't have a southern accent; annoying but I guess I was just a little pissed because I had been in a car for the past 11hrs. She said, "Well, we're not allowed to seat anyone until 7pm because we are full covered until then". "Okay", I said, not thinking much of it. The restaurant didn't look that full but whatever. After about 5 minutes I got a table and started looking at the menu. The waitress came up, I told my life story again, and ordered. I was getting a little bored, so I started looking at the kitchen, and I noticed that everyone was running around like chickens with their heads cut off. Odd. The waitress came back up and said, "okay…I have your burger finished but as for your salad and fries: they might take a little longer. Not a problem, It's not that big of deal to not eat the garnishes with the main course (I would never serve a customer half a plate but whatever). Thirty-five minutes later I get my salad and fries…does it really take this long to drop potatoes in the deep-fryer? Or pull leaves off a head of lettuce and add some dressing? NO.

Looking at this from a culinary standpoint, and yes I do know it's just a Ruby "boo"sday's, the management was a mess! The poor manager, who was French by the way (weird…I know), was running around from table to table apologizing and offering free food/drinks. This is NOT the way to do it. You need to make sure that your staff is doing their job, and from the looks of it the kitchen needed a little help (or to be yelled at). The worst thing to do is offer free meals or comps (this takes away money from their bottom line and it still doesn't make the customers want to come back). For every customer that had a poor experience, they tell 6 others. For every customer that has a good experience, they tell 3. Which do you think is better? The main thing is not "make the customer happy"; the main thing is "never make the customer upset in the first place".

That's enough of my boring ramblings, but someone might appreciate it. As you can tell, I really do take pride in the culinary arts; in both the taste and cooking standpoint, as well as the management and financial perspective. You need both to be working in harmony to have a successful business!

I hope everyone has a good night and try to cook something tasty for dinner…I'm going to start doing a "recipe of the day". Today's recipe is…"Goat Cheese-Stuffed Chicken"

--

Nick B.