Young Brolin, our dinner cook has decided to seek his fortune in the world of self-employment. That, of course makes me say to him, “Brolin! Really! Trust me on this: If you want to get a regular paycheck, stay employed!” But he wants to set off on his own and who can blame him? The last day I worked a real job with a steady paycheck was in 1993 when I left Whole Foods Market and I’ve been self-unemployed ever since. (One side-effect is that for many like me, it’s hard to go back, despite the pitfalls and the risks.) So what does that mean for us?
Elmer’s Store knows its breakfasts. With new cooks we have the slight teetering of standards, but overall, we know who we are. We are Elmer’s and we know our breakfast!
Not so much with dinner. In the beginning there was Mary, and she leaned towards as much clean, local and organic as she could gather. Then came Jim and he was fond of gourmet cooking with lots of food. Then he went off to cook for golfers and Brolin took over with his love of outdoor foods—grilling and luaus. And so who are we for dinner? We need to find that out.
Beginning August 26th we will suspend our dinner operation for a little while, while we, with you, the dining public’s input, make some decisions about exactly what it is we should do for dinner. We have the Lakehouse in town, we have Country Pie, both great places to eat dinner. What does Ashfield need in dinner world? What would you like to see us do (in style) that you’re not finding someplace else here? That’s what we want to know. When we get that figured out, we will find the person to fill that position, instead of just going with someone’s style. So until then, join us at Country Pie and the Lakehouse for dinners on Thursday and Friday nights! And we will figure out what to do next.
