The Dichotomy

God how I love my job. And whoa-boy how the pay sucks.

The Good: Amazing customers and LOVING Martinez. People are food savvy and enthusiastic. We have steady business and even though it is the slowest time of the year we are getting decent traffic and new converts every day.

The Bad: We opened mid month in the slowest time of the year. The courts are all but closed for the holidays, and many of the buinesses close down for holidays as well. While our reviews are great, our regulars hard-core and awesome Downtn Martinez is a bit of a ghost town this time of year... even despite the really pretty amazing efforts of the local management groups (like Main Street Martinez and the Chamber of Commerce).

The Ugly: We are just not making enough money to support our current staff and menu. We've been back burnering catering and wholesale business to get the resaurant going and so those avenues of revenue are lower then they've been... well ever. So we are reducing our dishwasher hours and taking a hard look at the menu. We have a staple item that isn't selling that is also super labor intensive to make (the meatballs. Not only are the meatballs labor intensive, we are making the slider buns by hand because we could not find buns in the right size) and another static menu item that I love and does have a hard core fan base, but it is not a GREAT seller and all of the products ued to make it are exclusive to that sandwich; they are not used in anything else. We are also going to be developing our specials toward a higher price point and passing take out menus to all the local businesses and law offices...

But reducing Galens hours feels really shitty. I know they say personel issues are the hardest to deal with, and theyre right. I had a friend come work for me and he quit his job (a really shitty job, but a steady one none the less... and in this economy, better than nothing) to do it. Now, I had to make a choice to keep hemoraging money and beggging/borrowing to make ends meet in the hopes (rapidly dwindling) things will get better in the face of all signs pointing to the contrary... or try to manipulate my overhead to something more within my means.

It is really hard not to second guess my choices... everyone said, "Why Martinez?" Oddly especially people who live in Martinez. It's is kind of a sleepy little town. I feel like I am getting the best possible response; people seem to love the food and the place. There just isn't a reason to be down there if you don't have to go to court for some reason.