food and drink

Craig Giesecke: Football season and the fighting spirit

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We’re on the downhill slope toward full-blown football season and all that entails. Be you a fan of our Saints, Tigers, the Green Wave, the Colonels, Ragin’ Cajuns or any of the wide assortment of the region’s high school teams, it means tailgating, having a few drinks with fellow fans and generally enjoying. Of course, it’ll be halfway through October before the weather moderates. This means the first month or so of the season is like bringing a football to a July 4th picnic, and the food choices usually reflect that. I love gumbo as much as the next guy, but it’s a lot more enjoyable when it’s 60 degrees out instead of 90.

food and drink

Craig Giesecke: The many ways of making groceries

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I went over to the grand opening of the new Fresh Market on St. Charles this week and the first thing that hit me about this very nice and very, well, fresh place is that everyone in there was seeing it differently. Few things are more personal than makin’ groceries, particularly in a city as food-centric as New Orleans in a region as food-centric as South Louisiana. But the avid home cook sees things differently from the professional chef, who doesn’t look for the same things as the young, married-no-kids couple or the veteran parents or the retired, low-salt folks. Add to this our own experiences of going with mom when we were kids to, say, adult experiences of making $15 buy food for a week and each of us is going to have a different take on where and who does what better.

business

Craig Giesecke: Rethinking the food truck rules

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Our (so far) week-long hiatus from the foodservice industry has allowed us to catch up on some sleep, watch a few movies and spruce up the house a bit. We‘ve also been able to check out a few potential opportunities and locations to get going again, and I’m sure we’ll crank up things again before too long. I’ve received several suggestions about opening a pop-up operation or getting into the city’s food truck scene. But while I’ll never say never, I’ve got some severe reservations about both — and they have nothing to do with quality of the product or lack of customers. Matter of fact, we’d probably wind up doing okay with either approach.

business

Craig Giesecke: The next big thing

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I find myself in transition again this week, after walking away from a decently paying kitchen job. It only reinforced the idea that some of us either can’t or can no longer be simply employees, at least not for very long. We’re always bumping our heads against an overly low ceiling. A weekly paycheck is nice, but it’s also something of a leash that‘s too often pulled short. All of us who cook for a living had to learn the unspoken rules of the kitchen while working for someone else.

business

Craig Giesecke: Balancing the food-cost “adjustment”

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We’ve been working for the past several days on a new menu — not so much changing what we offer (we’re adding a few things), but adjusting the pricing. It has been nearly two years since we’ve made these adjustments and, if you do any grocery shopping at all, you know things just don’t cost what they did two years ago. Yes — “adjust” means increase. It’s a tough balancing act. We try to be as gentle as we can, but the fact is these small “adjustments” can add another $10 or so to the bill for two people dining out.

business

Craig Giesecke: The business of letting go

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One of the things TBK and I have not been able to do in a while is take our time to experience some of the newer restaurants in town or to go out to enjoy some of the more classic places we haven’t had a chance to visit yet. It has simply been a case of 1) not having the disposable income and 2) being too tired at the end of the day to care. But another reason has been, sadly, too many of the places close before we have a chance to go. Good kitchen people are, usually (and I say this from experience), not good businesspeople. Just as CPAs are often poor writers and good writers have trouble with the 1040EZ form, chefs are, as a group, not attuned to what it takes to sustain an ongoing business.

business

Craig Giesecke: Finding the right restaurant equation

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Over the past week or so, for some reason, I’ve been involved in several conversations about how a restaurant or bar markets itself and how it adjusts and tweaks itself to appeal to customers while also seeking customers who are appealing to the restaurant or bar. I’m not talking about advertising. Any half-baked advertising brings customers in the door. You’d think anyone who walks into a business ready to spend money would be appealing, but not so. While you’re deciding if the place is right for you, the place is also deciding if you’re right for it.

business

Craig Giesecke: Critical loss

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I was (again) saddened over the past week as more details spilled out about the changes at the Times-Picayune, including the decision to lay off well-known restaurant critic and food writer Brett Anderson. I don’t pretend to understand the thinking that went into this decision, if there was any, but we’d be a poorer city if he goes. Turns out, now they say he can have his job back after he finishes his fellowship at Haaah-vahd. Anderson apparently hasn’t yet decided. I’m not in his shoes, so I don’t know which two-word combination I’d use to inform higher-ups of my decision.