Hey folks, Shawn here. I just wanted to give everyone a heads up, as weve had to close early several times in the last couple of weeks. The problem is a double-edged sword: Were too busy. I never thought when we opened three and a half years ago that Id ever be faced with this issue, but I also didnt think wed be shoehorned into a 680 sq. foot space for this long. The problem we have is three fold: No space for employees, no space for equipment, and no ability to do cooking prep. That means we cant do anything except make food during lunch and cant physically store more food because we have no fridge space, meaning we run out of items at breakneck speed. The inability to do cooking prep is the most serious issue though. You see, the lions share of work in a restaurant isnt the cooking, but the prep work. In most places you can do this all day during slow spots and have minimal work to do before a shift. Being as we dont have the ability to cook on site, this all has to take place at a sports bar/pizza place down the street from our residence in Hudson. So, after work, we drive an hour home, eat dinner and go back to another kitchen to do all the cooking for the next day. Its worked for this long, but our business has grown exponentially this summer. As frame of reference, we had more customers today (Monday) in an hour and a half than we had last year on an average Saturday all day, and those werent slow days by any stretch. That amount of prep work is massively time-consuming, and its gotten to the point of being unworkable. For instance, I just got home from doing prep, but we also left two hours early. Otherwise Id be rolling in after 11pm and up again at 7am, and thats only because the specials are easy during the beginning of the week. I stopped doing stuff people really liked like the gyro with pita and buffalo chicken meatballs because I was working a 19 hour day to do it. I love making good stuff for you guys, but something has to give eventually before one or both of us drop dead. The tale of our inability to find another space is a long and frustrating one, that most people have heard in parts. Some people wont rent to us because were not from Exeter or dont feel were Pro Exeter enough, some because we wont be taken advantage of as far as rent goes, some because theyre friends with competitors that weve hurt by moving into town. Whatever the reasons, we cant find a place and are stuck with trying to find a way of making our 2-3 person work load more manageable. What I decided to do was close at 3pm from now on, which gives us a flex hour to do prep either at work or at the other restaurant. Its sad because I know this will affect some of our regulars, but anyone thats been in during our peak hours lately knows how completely crazy its gotten. Im sorry for anyone that will be affected by this and hopefully we can find a place a little more workable in the future to open our hours back up and do those old favorites again. Thanks to everyone for believing in us when so many other restaurants have disappeared over the last few years, and thanks for being understanding when we cant talk like we used to, or if you find yourself in lines out the door. You all know we do what we can and were so happy youre willing to stick it out with us.
Posted on: Tue, 12 Aug 2014 00:49:03 +0000
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