austin_dern | And ends up with a kiss

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Sunday started not quite as happily as Saturday did. bunny_hugger had a second panel to host, explaining the hobby of letterboxing, and that was set for 11 am.

This did mean we got up early enough for the buffet brunch, though. It had a Mexican theme, with taco shells and fajita pieces and such provided alongside beef and lettuce and tomatoes and beans and all that. We were certainly able to eat something from there. And there were salads as well, although one interesting-looking potato salad turned out to be diced chicken salad. Remember previous comments about the hotel restaurant just not getting the idea of eating vegetarian.

The dessert --- the Chef's Selection --- was cookies, which doesn't seem like a very tough selection to make. It also encouraged bunny_hugger to make a wicked, to me, joke about how the chef viewed his life, what with having reached the peak of running a hotel restaurant. Granted, chef of an airport hotel restaurant isn't the most glamorous position in the world, but it still seems to me like a pretty respectable one.

bunny_hugger's letterboxing panel was, unfortunately, victim of the hour, probably; early Sunday events face a terrible uphill struggle. There's also that she was put in the Tech Room, admittedly at her request: she'd thought it might be necessary to use an overhead projector to show off what she was doing, and they gave her a room with a computer projector. That would be an amusing little foible except the Tech Room was separated from the traffic flow outside, so not only was there a small attendance to start, but there wasn't any hope of anyone joining because they heard something interesting in there.

I was foiled in my attempt to stop in the art show. Last year it had got me a couple decent little presents; this year, between the business Friday and Saturday I didn't have the chance until Sunday when, what do you know, but the only people allowed in were those picking up their auction winnings or artists picking up what hadn't sold. I'll have to make some kind of effort to find presents this year around.

We went of course to the puppet show; it's one of the convention's closing day traditions and I certainly like puppet stuff. It enjoyed the traditional ramshackle structure, with an hour wrapped more or less around a theme of Driving Route 66 (they didn't get close to a quarter of the way along before running out of time) and the other half hour Christmas Songs, some of them not even novelty songs. Both halves were entertaining, particularly since the guy who last year was in the audience trying to divert Every. Single. Joke. into something about cookies wasn't there, or at least wasn't audible; and they had an appreciably different selection of Christmas songs from previous years.

A side benefit to being at the puppet show is that since it's unjustly under-attended, we had good seats for the Con Closing Ceremony held in the same spot just afterwards. Closing Ceremonies were the usual sorts of things --- announcements of who's on staff for next year, theme for next year (I believe it was ``It Came From TV'', which is so broad as to not be a theme at all), and bringing tears of joy to the charity folks. Their breaking down at the donation is one of the loveliest parts of each year's Closing Ceremonies. The joy was boosted this year since --- OK, this is complicated.

In past years the con has had custom-made hotel key cards with con-based artwork on them. But the hotel is in the midst of changing from the cards you slide through slots into ones you just tap on a sensor. Somehow this made getting custom-logo cards impractically expensive. So we the congoers got perfectly white cards, and the budget which would have gone to them went to the charity instead.

We had dinner plans: Babs found us --- she'd found us several times over the weekend --- and invited us to the big massive blowout at the Italian restaurant where we'd attended a similar massive affair the previous year. This would be another pretty good showing for spindizzy_muck folks, although some of them, Babs included, are only occasionally there. Mostly it turned into the chance to test a restaurant's patience with a group of fifteen people who hadn't established early on whether they were going to split the check.

It was the sort of raucous, busy dinner that you get when the dining table is large enough to have time zones, and bunny_hugger and I were seated neatly enough near the middle. The group pressed someone else who'd just looked dangerously helpful and volunteering into taking photographs of the table, through several sets of cameras (not mine, though), and he didn't seem to mind appreciably. Also there was some utterly bizarre commercial on one of the TVs, but the volume was low enough we couldn't make out what it was, just that somehow we'd been at a furry con all weekend and that was the weirdest thing we'd seen. (It was mentioned that since the TV was on NBC, that might be counted as yet another SpinDizzy person present, as a peacock named NBC has become one of the muck's favorite odd characters this year.)

Also I took the chance to give roofae a little sanity-threatening gift. I haven't yet got a full report on the results of that.

Despite the dinner party being fifteen people and our not making clear that this should be separate checks, we managed to get out through a process of everybody taking turns figuring out what they had got and how much of the total that was. And then going through agains, trying to correct that, since of course it didn't add up. This is why I favor the ``everybody throw some money in a big pile'' model of splitting complicated checks, but I was outvoted. In any case although bunny_hugger and I both got the same dinners, we owed different amounts somehow, and neither of us was going to argue the point. We got through the restaurant without them feeling we-the-group had stiffed them on the check.

Back at the hotel we spent some time in the lingering remnants of con suite with Babs and her crew (and also regretting that there were now packages of pretty good cheddar which had no home; I did eat maybe too many slices considering how much I'd already eaten that day, though), and talking, and finding some other folks we knew, usually from the mucks. It's grand having the time to just hang out without missing anything; it's a pity that we only really have that time before the con starts or after it's ended.

Or at least it was almost done. There was still the Dead Dog Dance to attend, the last blastings of music and lights for people in costume or relaxing their ways out of costume. We went to that, even with the thought that we should go to bed not too late so as to be ready for the Monday travels, and still spent more time there. Who really wanted to leave?

Well, just before bed, I did realize I'd overlooked something, and went over to the room where nimblesquirrel was staying, to give another little gift. I then failed to recognize nimblesquirrel, who'd deceived me by answering the door immediately. Well, that would happen. But I gave a small bag of Squirrel Nut Zippers, the candy, and that fairly closed out the night. nimblesquirrel had not been aware of the name as anything other than a band, which is a pretty normal state of affairs.

Trivia: In 1847, Boston confectioner Oliver R Chase patented a lozenge cutter, which appears to be the first American candy machine. Source: Sweets: A History Of Temptation, Tim Richarson.

Currently Reading: Triumph: The Untold Story Of Jesse Owens And Hitler's Olympics, Jeremy Schaap.

PS: Ted Baxter and the Binomial Distribution, an anecdote with a word problem.

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This is why I favor the ``everybody throw some money in a big pile'' model of splitting complicated checks, but I was outvoted.

I'm sorry, but have to disagree: that's a terrible method, and the reason is that invariably someone doesn't pay enough and it's short, or the tip is insufficient. Plus, there's all the who-can-break-what-bills, and the fact that I generally don't carry cash anyway and I'm not the only one.

The best method is what they asked us to do -- split the check at the register. This would have gone quite smoothly if not that people kept dithering about it.

Naivete, his method would work if furies (and people) were both...

1. Responsible and
2. Had lots of money...

You can usually cover one or two non or low paying members but yeah I am of the points that sadly a number can't usually do the right thing when it comes to paying up (or buying what they can afford).
Cons are most notable because many have spent there money just for the hotels and want to feel satisfied (and are starving) by the time the final dinner comes around.

So using the factor of most, as you add more members to your dinner party the less likely you have both of the above addends. Of course you'll get saints like Austin which are willing to throw in whatever they have left to make sure everyone has a happy time but for the more fiscally conservative this can be tiring to always be the nice guy (or gal).

Now this is not to say with proper planning that you can all throw in sums of money (or go to a buffet). It just needs to be planned, so everyone tells "how much" they want to spend and then those saints cover the difference, everyone is then happy provided everyone stays reasonably within the amount want to spend.

Anyway sounds like a good con. and I am glad you all enjoyed it so.

This is just how I feel. I don't want to have to cave in and put in more than my share, but someone has to. I think Austin is too generous for his own good sometimes, but the more troubling thing is that his generous spirit can unintentionally put others in the position of feeling obliged to follow suit.

Well, there is that. I like being generous and I'm happy that I'm in a spot I usually can be.

And, yes, I fail to think through that in social situations this can pressure other people to feel obliged.

At the risk of bragging I do better in cases where I can be generous anonymously.

As previously mentioned Saint-hoodedness though that sounds more raccoony. We'll have to go to some nice place together with a couple others... muhahaha

I agree on exactly these points. This is why Auto-gratuities occur; "Parties of 8 or more will be charged an 18% gratuity" basically ensures that big groups (And all big groups happen this way) don't stiff on the tip.

The best solution I have had in these instances is to divide the party into subgroups; and make it clear to the service team that you're splitting the table of 12 into groups of 4, 4, and 4. (Or 3, 4, and 5; generally 5 is the highest 'sanity number'.) This worked very well with a group-of-10 which split easily into 5 and 5, we encouraged the server to auto-gratuity still, told her not to worry about both groups coming out at once, and everyone managed happily.

We should definitely have gone into sub-groups for this. BunnyHugger and I would've been a natural one, and I think from the conversation groups the rest could have fit into three or four-person blocks naturally.

If we make it to next year's, we'll have to make the early subdividing something we talk about ahead of actual group assembly.

Combining in a third or fourth person into your block might have been possible; the key is same divisions, and 3-5 people makes it easy to split up items and handle the tax tip and what-do-you-mean-that-soda-costs-$2.99 prices.

And yes. at the least.. such should be decided upon before you start ordering. but pre-planning, good too.

I think the whole party was fifteen people, which implies uniform blocks of either three or five. In any case, while we did better than the previous year in gathering the right number of people and focusing at a single point at the designated time, and getting them over at the right moment, we've got a lot of logistics yet to master.

Granted, chef of an airport hotel restaurant isn't the most glamorous position in the world, but it still seems to me like a pretty respectable one.

Hotel restaurant is very good of a position in the cheffing world. Intensely stable work, fairly low risk, usually there's fair amounts of potential creativity even as you pump out standbys. A so-so chef can make it work; a great chef can do great things.

In my opinion it's a pretty poor hotel restaurant, both in ambience and menu selection.

My opinion of the latter is, I admit, biased by the fact that there are exactly two vegetarian items on the menu (a sandwich and a pasta dish), the same ones they had last year. I had the pasta last year and it was exceedingly bland, so I didn't bother trying it again. I did really enjoy the portobello sandwich both times I had it, but given that once in a weekend is really enough to eat the same thing, that effectively stops me from being able to have more than one meal there.

Last year the manager came to the table to ask our opinion of things, and Skyler suggested that they should try offering more vegetarian fare. This got a bizarrely flummoxed reaction, as though she vaguely remembered hearing the word "vegetarian" once in an anthropology course in college. I have had better luck asking about vegetarian options in Podunk, Michigan! Vegetarians are not terribly uncommon anymore, and Chicago is not Podunk. I'm still mystified by that exchange.

I still think if you put out a tray of peanut butter cookies next to a cafeteria-grade taco bar and label it "Chef's Choice Desserts" you're inviting sardonic remarks. >:)

Well, the menu selection isn't good, no. Mostly, the inability to even imagine feeding vegetarians is the weird thing. I wouldn't expect Kaya's Kitchen type service, but the Outback Steakhouse has a more diverse set of possibilities.

I like the ambiance, but I also un-ironically like the design of mid-70s science fiction movies and as noted this is definitely a Starship Logan's Run Recreation Facility location.

It's not so much the decor as the fact that it's really not set off from the hotel's lobby. It makes me feel as though I'm eating in a waiting area rather than a restaurant.

I'd feel that way about the bar, there, but the presence of the bar serves as enough of a barrier to me that it feels offset. The open top just goes along with the 70s chic of the whole place, to me.

That's disappointing indeed. Feeding vegetarians or people with common allergies should not be a hard thing; I know the kitchen I work in has a host of already-vegetarian or easily-vegetarian items. Poor menu design that does seem like. May I ask how many items did their menu encompass? 2 out of 10 might be acceptable; 2 out of 20 is awful.

I suspect the peanut butter cookies were case of Label Recycling. This happens, though it shouldn't; it' s easy enough to label "Peanut butter cookies" unless you're going to just replace them with something random every shift.

It was bigger than 10 for certain, though I'm not sure I can confidently say it was as many as 20. Austin's better at estimates, he should weigh in.

I was thinking about your description of what a job as a chef in a hotel restaurant is like and it made me think of where I work (second tier state school in a department without a graduate program), but for the "regular faculty" (as opposed to the "contingent faculty" such as myself).

Intensely stable work, fairly low risk, usually there's fair amounts of potential creativity even as you pump out standbys. A so-so chef can make it work; a great chef can do great things.

Modified to:

Intensely stable work, fairly tame tenure requirements, a fair amount of autonomy in course design even if you do have to teach Intro and Business Ethics over and over. A so-so professor can do well enough; a great professor can always do great things.

That's why a job like the one my regular-faculty colleagues have is really the one I want, or at least have settled for as a highest aspiration.

Huh. I found the lunch menu posted online, (http://www.hyatt.com/hyatt/images/hotels/chiro/OHlunch.pdf) and it comes out to 17 entrees or hamburgers or sandwiches, plus another three-to-five ``entree salads'' depending on how you want to count adding meat to a Caesar's Salad. Also, of the five appetizers, if you could get them to hold the cheese on the cheese-and-chicken quesadilla, there's one vegetarian appetizer. The dinner menu is nine to fourteen items, depending how you want to count the grill.

They could fix almost the entire problem if they laid in some veggie burger patties.

Veggie burger patties would be a very easy fix. As it stands, I'm pretty sure they could cook the chicken pasta with no chicken there; they should be able to do any of the salads minus the meats. (We do that all the time.) They could also maybe throw portabello mushrooms in place of the ham or tuna salad or such on a different sandwich. (We do that too, even if it can puzzle us a bit at first.)
Still, that's a fairly thin menu; I picture a small kitchen, maybe 3 cooks at most in there. It has that tiny-kitchen feel from the menu.

The dinner menu isn't much better. that's rather a "Order three sides" situation there.

I admit I do worry about ordering too many ``this, but change that'' things at restaurants. At Burger King I figure I'm pressing my luck if I order a Whopper with cheese but without mayonnaise and with onion rings instead of fries, and they're explicit about wanting you to come up with your own weird little contortions of things.

Partly that's from figuring the more special I make my order, the more likely something is to go wrong. Also I figure the cooks are having a hard enough time, and don't need my being fussy.

Modest substitutions are non-problematic. The rule of thumb is that one change is easy, two are ok, three gets a bit tricky and if you need to specify four changes the cooks will think you're just a danged picky eater and you do this everyplace.

I had a friend in grad school who had previously worked as a sous-chef, and his stories always led me to believe that he found people who ordered things that weren't on the menu highly annoying. (I suppose that's different from "making a substitution," though.) So I get hesitant about annoying the kitchen. I recall that a lot of his stories were about how the wait staff and kitchen staff had power struggles because it's in the wait staff's interest to make the kitchen do anything a customer asks for, and the kitchen's natural tendency to tell them to go hang.

The story I remember was that someone ordered "garlic mashed potatoes" and he told the server that they did not have garlic mashed potatoes. (This was an annoyance to him on principle: "We're not Bennigan's," he said.) The server sent in the head of the wait staff to ask him what his problem was. He said, "That isn't an item we make here." Wait staff guy: "Do you have potatoes?" Friend: "Yes." WSG: "Do you have garlic?" Friend: "...Yes." WSG: "THEN MIX THEM TOGETHER." Friend [grumbles as WSG walks away, and gives in] ... I thought it was a funny story, but it was probably funnier to hear him tell it. >:)

He also had a story about how they told him that some kid who was a horribly picky eater was there with a big dinner party and the kid wouldn't take anything from the menu and was starting to throw a fit. "His mother says he'll eat grilled cheese. Make him a grilled cheese." My friend tried to oblige, but the only sandwich bread they had was a very dark rye... and the only appropriate cheese they had was a very sharp white cheddar... My friend made him a sandwich using these ingredients, as he didn't have much choice, and they brought it out. Shortly the waiter returned. Friend: "Well?" Waiter: "He took one look at it and burst into tears." My friend told me, "I had to feel a little sorry for the kid. In his world that is not what grilled cheese sandwiches looked like and he was confronted with something completely alien and scary. It probably shook his faith in the orderliness of the cosmos."

Edited Date: 2011-12-15 07:31 am (UTC)

sous-chef, and his stories

These are the stories we tell, of course. Like the customer of mine whom claimed he was 'Allergic to salt'. And it's true, the Front of the House /Back of the House conflicts and struggles are often such, as FoH never wants to say no and Kitchen staff has to push all these other tickets out instead.

I love the grilled cheese story. That's wonderful. :)

It seems like there's some grander universal dynamic at work here, but darned if I know just what it is.

I couldn't imagine ordering off the menu. That just seems arrogant. I don't want to tar people who have very particular dietary needs and still want to have a nice meal at a restaurant with that label, but I can't imagine that garlic mashed potatoes fits any particular dietary need.

I do feel sorry for the kid as it was obviously just terrifying, but I have a hard time imagining being a fussy eater, much as I know they're out there. I've never been a fussy eater, which is part of how I got to 300 pounds.

My youngest brother used to freeze up in restaurants, but that was a matter of too many choices (as well as a couple allergies not realized when he was younger), until Grandmom finally told him: just order the chicken. Since then, he's pretty content.

I probably should have noted that it was a fairly classy Italian restaurant, so garlic mashed potatoes was not even close to a menu item.

That makes it all the worse. If it were just a little bit off the menu it might be tolerable in some circumstances.

I'm oddly gratified that my instinctive feel about how many special requests you can get away with before making the staff hate you matches the reality, particularly as my only food-service experience was making waffle cones and some fried-dough thing at Great Adventure.

Quite similar, assuredly. I'd be very happy taking over my current boss's position, for all the frustrations I might bear- it's the level I as a very good but admittedly not great chef could be very comfortable in.

--Chi

See, I can't go to my boss's position; my only supervisor is, I guess, the company owner, and I sure don't want that.

I may need to find somebody to be the office manager, though.

That more or less matches my intuition about the position. Although evidence does suggest that it's got a so-so chef, even if the portobello mushroom sandwiches and the Caesar's salad were good.

The sandwich is pretty great. I've had portobello sandwiches other places and they weren't as good. It was that dressing on it, that lime-flavored mayonnaise.

Oh, yes. The sandwich was fine, and the salad was fine, but that covers only two meals out of a potential of seven or eight or so, depending on if you get there Thursday and leave Monday. The breakfast/lunch buffets at least offer some options.

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