The Recipe for an Enviable Work-Life Balance & Tastebuds Traditional Greek Salad.
Even Lovers Need a Holiday!
“Make voyages. Attempt them. There’s nothing else.”
-Tennessee Williams
Tastebuds Restaurant was open three hours a day, five days a week and closed every six months for two weeks! A wicked grin still comes over my face when I tell people what my hours were! Like so many other crazy ideas I’ve had, it worked and I knew it would, because the burden of proof was on me, and I live to defy others expectations and ideals!
I was 9 years old when my father saw it fit, to take his young children to the Detroit Theater in Lakewood, in 1980, to see Stanley Kubrick’s movie, The Shining! Seeing what all work and no play, could do to a person gave me nightmares for years! If you’ve ever worked in restaurants, you’ve seen your share of Jack Torrances; Lunatics, who sharpen their knives with an eerie gleam in their eye or handle customer disputes by upending tables, throwing out guests and firing staff!
Even if you didn’t witness the unraveling, you’d know it had happened when they’d disappear for a bit, then reemerge as a Sysco sales rep! Some people say Sysco is where chefs go to die, it might be more accurate to say it’s where they go to live! Similar to, when an artist, musician or writer retreats into a classroom to teach, they’ve decided the rock and roll lifestyle was fun for a while, but not worth dying for.
In thinking of my past and the stories I have to tell, I did a little research on Nine Inch Nails, who I got to spend time with in the Hollywood Hills in the early 90’s. I must save the story of reading Vincent Bugliosi’s book, Helter Skelter: the True Story of The Manson Murders. (New York: W.W. Norton, 1994.), while staying in the house where the murders actually took place, for another time, but I was delighted to learn that the multiple Grammy Award winning, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductee drummer, whom I spent the most time getting to know, is now teaching music at a community college in Alabama!
I imagine most people leave the trenches, when they discover that the people they were fighting for have left, having grown lonely waiting for the war to be over. They leave, because they come to the realization, one way or another, that there is simply more to life.
I didn’t set out to own my own restaurant. I set out to be a chef, but I didn’t want to work 90 hours a week along side drug addicts and alcoholics, in filthy kitchens, for shit pay, from abusive owners! (This is in no way an unfair assessment of what the options were like in the late 90’s.) I wanted my Ninth Street Grill life back, where I worked weekdays for 4-6 hours, napped, and then had my evenings free to enjoy my other passions and people! With Ninth Street Grill closed, I knew I had to invent my dream job, and so I set a goal to be in business by my 30th birthday and took a job as a server at Blue Point Grill to raise the funds that would take forever to earn as a cook.
I did not go into the restaurant business blindly. I knew how hard it was going to be. Knowing I would likely be doing everything from shopping for ingredients to prepping and cooking, washing dishes, scrubbing the floors and hauling out the trash, I decided to focus heavily on lunch. While I did open at 7am originally, thinking as long as I’m there prepping, I could sell some donuts and coffee. This proved to be an unwelcome distraction, and I began to despise having to stop what I was doing to sell a one dollar cup of coffee, so I switched my hours to 11-3pm. After a few weeks of hardly any business after 1:30, I switched to 11-2pm.
No one could believe it! “You have to be open for breakfast and lunch or lunch and dinner,” they said. I realized it only seemed risky, because it hadn’t been done before. Luckily, I had the experience of watching restaurants I worked in, make money at lunch only to lose it at dinner or vice versa. I knew I could always add more hours, but amazingly, I never had to!
Feeling empowered by the experience of setting my own hours, I decided to set the precedent for my time off as well. I took three weeks off every summer while working at Ninth Street Grill and Johnny’s Downtown. My boyfriend and I would pack our Ford Aerostar Cargo Van with pillows, a mattress and camping gear, tie a canoe to the roof and drive to California and back, a different route every time for years. Then, one year, we decided to go East, ending up in Cape Hatteras, and we did that for the remainder of our relationship.
“We travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us.”
I decided we would close 4 weeks per year, I mean, what’s the point of owning your own business if you can’t do crazy shit like that, right? We closed the last week of June through the first week of July and the two weeks of Christmas and New Years. I figured, if we did this consistently, from day one, there would be no confusion. People would know to expect it. I loved when customers told us that they planned their vacations at the same time so they wouldn’t miss out!
“By closing you are giving your customers a chance to find somewhere else to eat every day,” they said. One thing I knew that they didn’t, was just how hard I was willing to work, the lengths I was willing to go and the expense I was willing to pay, to ensure that every customer’s experience was perfect, each and every time.
I know as a fact, that no one in their right mind would care for produce the way we did at Tastebuds! Lettuce, that we blended ourselves, wasn’t washed, it was lovingly torn, plunged into ice cold water and bathed vigorously. Then it was rinsed and placed into an electric salad spinner, where it was drained and dried before being transferred into large totes and placed in the walk in cooler to crisp near the fan for at least an hour!
I refused any product that wasn’t perfect. Cucumbers were scored with a channel knife, removing half the peel, leaving them more pliable and pleasant to eat. Carrots were cut into flowers and put in ice water to give them a mouth watering crunch. Celery and chickpeas were also stored in ice water.
When the rest of the country was pulling tomatoes off of their menus, at the height of the great Tomato Shortage of 2010, I was paying $60 a case for Roma Tomatoes that would normally cost me $15, because I was determined to be consistent. Also, I couldn’t imagine my Greek Pasta, Italian Chicken Sandwich, or any of my Gourmet Salads without tomatoes!
Clearly, I wasn’t in business to get rich! I opened a restaurant because feeding people nourished my soul and the happiness that came from doing what I loved, meant more to me than money!
My accountant sat me down after that first year and showed me, not only how much money we lost when we closed, but also how much we would gain if we stopped shutting down for four weeks per year. It was incredible to see just how much I was giving up financially.
This meeting took place shortly after 9/11. So I asked my accountant, “How many people in those hijacked planes or burning buildings were wishing there was more money in their bank account do you think?”
I told him that I would much rather have plenty of memories than plenty of money, and that I thought we were doing ok financially! He shook his head, a bit frustrated but mostly amused. Seven years later, he died from a heart attack at the age of 64. His son took over the firm, and he too died unexpectedly eleven years later at the age of 54.
They were dedicated accountants, committed to their clients, but I often wonder if they didn’t cheat themselves out of a few more years, by working such long hours and hardly ever taking time for themselves. It is vitally important to take the time to power down to allow your mind, body and soul to recharge.
When I worked at The Baricelli Inn as an intern, fresh out of culinary school, I was shocked by the grueling work schedule. The kitchen staff would arrive between 7 and 9am and leave at 12 or 1am, often meeting up at a bar closer to their homes for last call! I thought Johnny’s Downtown was bad, where I worked many double shifts, 10am-midnight, but at least you had a day or two off to do laundry. I remember a manager one time telling us, “requesting days off is just that, a request. We have no obligation to honor that request!”
But even in the corporate world, there are people who work themselves to death, unnecessarily. I hear so much about unused sick days and vacation. Since it’s usually a use it or lose it scheme, many people are sent scrambling to make last minute decisions on how best to use this paid time off. This explains why seemingly half the country descends on Florida in December!
I have never experienced so many bank holidays in my life, till I moved to Ireland. Imagine having Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends almost every single month! It’s great! I watch families load up their cars for trips to neighboring towns or villages to see family or explore wild coastlines or ancient castles. I’ve even heard of “popping over to Paris for a few days,” or “heading over to Portugal or Spain for the week!”
I was amazed to discover that Ireland actually lags behind the rest of Europe with the amount of holidays they enjoy. Even more astonishing, was my findings that America actually has more bank holidays than Ireland! The difference is, most American businesses remain open and lots of people are expected to work, but might be paid more to do so.
You know you have an enviable life-work balance, when you feel just as eager and excited to leave for a vacation as you feel heading home from one! I have always felt this way. The first thing I want when I return from a vacation is the Lamb Korma at Indian Garden in Lakewood, Ohio. It is just understood in my family, if you are picking me up from the airport, come hungry!
But, I am not truly home, until I have eaten my first Greek Salad. To me, it is the perfect salad, because of how it makes me feel. It seems to have a restorative quality, reversing any damage done eating and drinking in excess while on vacation! It’s like the feeling I get, when I’m finally back in my kitchen, tearing lettuce and plunging the leaves into the ice cold water. I am born again, doing what I was born to do!
The Recipe for Tastebuds Traditional Greek Salad
Toasted Pita Chips
4 Large Pitas Day Old or even a couple days old
1 Tablespoons Zaatar
2 Tablespoons Chopped Garlic
2 Tablespoons melted Butter
1 teaspoon Tablespoon Kosher Salt
1/4 cup Olive Oil
Heat oven to 425 degrees. Cut pitas into oblong triangles by cutting first in half, and then turning the pita to zig-zag cuts to make triangles. Any shape close to it will do. You’re looking for 2 inch length and 1” wide roughly. Transfer pita to large mixing bowl. To the melted butter and zaatar, garlic and salt. Then whisk in olive oil. Pour mixture over pita and mix thoroughly. Spread pita evenly onto a non-stick baking tray or two if necessary. Bake for 8-10 minutes, till golden light brown, checking and tossing every few minutes. Do not walk away, they can burn so easily! Leave on tray till completely cooled (several hours). Store in airtight container.
Salad
5 cups loosely packed, cleaned and torn Romaine Lettuce, Green Leaf Lettuce, Mesclun Mix and Baby Spinach
1/4 cup Red Cabbage sliced super thin
1 Carrot peeled and sliced thin
4 Roma Tomatoes quartered lengthwise (any tomatoes will do, really)
1/2 Cucumber halved lengthwise and sliced thin
3 thin slices of Red Onion (broken into rings)
1/4 cup canned Chick Peas (drained and rinsed)
1/4 cup Kalamata Olives
1/3 cup crumbled Feta Cheese
1 cup Toasted Pita Chips
For best results combine first 7 ingredient in bowl and drizzle enough salad dressing to coat lightly. Then garnish with feta, then olives and lastly the pita chips and serve with extra dressing on the side.
Greek Dressing
2 Tablespoons Red Wine Vinegar
1 Tablespoon Bottled Lemon Juice
1 Tablespoon Fresh Lemon Juice
1 teaspoon packed Brown Sugar
1/2 teaspoon Dried Parsley
1/4 teaspoon Garlic Powder
1/4 teaspoon Onion Powder
1/4 teaspoon Zaatar
1/4 cup Olive Oil
Combine all ingredients in a bowl and blend together with a wire whisk or fork. Slowly drizzle in the olive oil while whisking vigorously.
And Finally…
I did receive a few raised eyebrows (and the occasional raised unibrow!) from skeptical Greeks, about the name of this salad, but I’ve always managed to impress them, especially with the Greek Pasta, this Irish Chef’s Signature Dish! But alas, you can’t please everyone. By now, most of you know how I feel about Yelp, (see Where it all Went Wrong in my 3rd newsletter). Normally, I wouldn’t make anyone read a Yelp review, but this one is particularly fun to read and demonstrates my point!
Christopher M.Twinsburg, OH
5/8/2018
Let's be real about the Greek salad. A Greek doesn't have spinach. So that tells you that they make the basic salad and throw toppings on top of it. Also, I can't remember if there was feta on it. Yikes. That's two strikes.
Luckily, Tastebuds doesn't earn a 3rd strike. The line is quick, the food is prepared with care, and it's a likable lunch spot. I should probably try their weekly special or signature dishes next time, but I can't say they could buy that 5th star, even though they tried with their cornbread muffin (included with a salads). There was a lot of food to make me happy, but alas it remains a strong 4 star establishment.
How many sleepless nights I’ve had, wondering what if we had earned that 3rd strike from Christopher M? Tossing and turning hoping no one would read this and discover my big secret, that I just make the basic salad and throw toppings on top of it. And trying desperately to think of a way to make that feta cheese more memorable!
Now, before anyone reports me to the Cultural Appropriation Police, let’s take a moment and remember the legendary performance of Zorba the Greek, (Michael Cacoyannis, 1964) played by one of the greatest actors that ever lived, certainly my favorite, Anthony Quinn, who was Mexican American, with Irish roots! Opa!
Thank you for being here with me once again, my friends!
I realize that not everyone is in a position to take time off and travel and do some sightseeing. So, if you can’t take a vacation, take a nap. If you can’t nap, dance! If you can’t dance, watch Zorba the Greek, he’s been dying to teach you! This movie perfectly exemplifies the need for work-life balance! I learn something new every time I watch it! Enjoy!
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