Closing Up Summer@No41

According to the calendar, fall doesn't start for another few weeks but in my world that season is measured more by the start of the school term and the word "September" than the weather or calendar date. Summer@No41 brought with it some truly memorable evenings and the milestone of 100 guests at the table.

With Labor Day behind us, the labors of the fall are in full swing. And my coping methods for stress are kicking in. We all have coping methods...the fact that it's a widely understood word pairing proves it. I wish my method was the practiced ability to hunker down with extreme focus and get the thing done so as to desist coping and move on to the next thing.  Sadly that is not how I'm wired. I procrastinate. Which truth be told is not a method so much as a lack of one, another activity entirely. And while I am procrastinating, I daydream. And lately that dreaming has been about opening a restaurant.


My friends who work in the food service and hospitality industry, as I once did, are at this moment giving me quizzical looks. "How does the stress and general insanity of a restaurant sound appealing in your current stressed out state?" I am under no delusions about this dream I am cultivating - in fact, when my daydreams wander toward reality my mind quickly compiles a "con" list that sends me scurrying back to abstract dreaming.

As I sit here writing this in my sketchbook, the faint outline of a sketch on the previous page provides evidence of these recent dreaming sessions. It's a floor plan for a building that's sitting vacant in my neighborhood, complete with kitchen schematics (novice as they are), tables organized into service stations, a rough landscaping of the waiting area, some notes on menu themes, and a few name ideas, none of which are just right.

When I pull back from the sketch, I remember that I'm not an entrepreneur and would have no idea how to make the project a profitable venture. I remember that the reasons I have for wanting to operate a restaurant can play out on a smaller scale @No41. Playing with delicious ingredients, creating memorable and satisfying dishes, inviting friends and strangers away from their own kitchens for an evening, serving them a meal that has all the warmth and comfort of home without the work (although I rarely say no when they offer to help with the dishes), and perhaps best of all enjoying the unique voices and stories that converge around the table.

In my opinion, and that of most of the food and hospitality writers I've read, there is something indescribable yet essentially human about the activity of eating and conversing together. So each Thursday this fall, I'm going to share some of my favorite recipes, tips, traditions and lessons learned from the last year @No41. Here's to cultivating life around the table.