tomorrow is the goat’s 5 month anniversary! and as i sit here at home, recovering from a fall, and missing being with my staff at work, i was thinking back through our infant stages.  some fun filled highs, some crazy panic attacks, some struggles, some triumphs… all the usual things that go into a restaurant opening.  part of me feels like we just opened yesterday, while part of my feels like it has already been years.  all in all, it has been a fun ride thus far.  a bit of an upside down roller coaster for sure, but that is why we got into this business, and will never get out.

i was in bed this morning, thinking back at some of the highs and lows that stand out most in my memory, and thought i’d share my top 5, in no particular order:

1. opening night: of course our first night of service (or rather mock service) will always stand out.  the room was filled with my family, thankfully since my family reunion fell on the perfect weekend.  i had pretty much figured out the opening menu at this point, after just under 2 weeks in the kitchen with the staff.  lots of changes from the menu that our servers had been studying for a month during training… which i am sure they loved me for:)  tickets starting filling up the expo line and in pure confusion i looked over at jan, one of my sous chefs, and said… i haven’t the faintest f*cking idea whats going on, lets just put up some food.  and that we did.  and then we revamped the expo system so we could actually send people what they ordered.

2.  stripper night:  pretty sure this night has not been shared beyond the staff until this point.  but it was pretty darn funny and i could not keep it off my top 5 list.  back on july 29th, it was one of my sous chef’s (dave gollan who now works with our friend roger herring at his new venture) birthday.  and what better way to celebrate than with a stripper, right?  of course, that would be way too nice of a gift to any one of the men working in the kitchen, so we had to put a little unknown twist on it and bring in a beautiful—yet not actually female—stripper for the evening’s entertainment.  so around midnight, in the prep kitchen below the main dining area at the goat, the staff gathered around, whiskey in hand, and watched and cheered as dave got a lap dance from a hot stripper.  It took our dish guys who were cleaning up a minute or two to figure out what the heck was going on.  the best moment? when dave realized it was not a woman fondling him.  well that and the moment when she did a cartwheel through the kitchen.  classic goat moment.

3.  the flood: i guess this would actually be the flood #2, since we had a big flood just before opening after a huge rain storm hit chicago.  that one was pretty bad, especially since our dining room is constructed mostly of wood.  all i could think was, i thought building a brand new space would get me away from the floods we used to have every time it rained at scylla??! hmmm.  the rain passed and we thought we had it figured out.  until the night i got a call that the basement was flowing with water.  and not the pleasant rain water like before.  but rather plumbing backup from the basement restrooms.  the kind of plumbing backup that many restaurants in chicago with basements experience at some point, and hope to never go through again.  quote of the night: “a piece of poop just floated past my foot.” yes, from our own mr. boehm. not funny at all at the time, but in retrospect, after all flooding was stopped and all was cleaned over and over and over again, pretty funny. 

4.  the fire: this day would take it as the biggest lesson learned for me in opening a new restaurant.  have a fire drill. 

our little smoker had gone kaput after a few months of smoking seven goats a week, plus fat back and other items in a smoker designed for someone’s back yard.  shocker.  so enoch the butcher had turned into macgyver, making smokers out of meat racks and paper clips.  very impressive.  until the fire.  enoch comes running downstairs to grab boxes of salt in a frantic frenzy, yelling that the goat was on fire.  wtf? we all ran upstairs and frantically hit the flames with salt (worried it was a pure grease fire), looking for the extinguishers, hoping the ansil system would not go off, and hoping the burnt wood wall which we had put in on purpose would remain the only burnt portion of the space.  Eventually, we filled up some water from the sink next to the fire and hoped for the best.  the firetrucks came.  the goat legs were gone.  the health department came.  but luckily no one was hurt and nothing major happened to the space.  thing is, after 3 minutes of mass confusion with multiple employees and managers not knowing exactly where all of the fire safety equipment was located, my heart was pounding and all i could think was that this was a blessing in disguise.  we now have moved one extinguisher as close to the line as possible—and i will never get annoyed during a firedrill again.

(reminds me of a more recent night when we simply tripped the fire alarm during service.  was like the goat nightclub had opened…with loud noises and bright lights shining from the trucks outside.  luckily our guests simply cheered alongside us when we finally got it quiet).

5.  zac brown band:  ok, so i have never been a country music fan, and honestly was not quite sure who zac brown was before this night.  but now, i am a changed person.  and i will actually attend my first country show when zac hits the road again.

a few months back, zac brown band was in town for a show, and came to the goat around midnight with about 20 people, for a late snack.  some of the kitchen guys stuck around and we cooked an aray of dishes for zac and friends.  knowing me, this of course led to a bit of a late night party at the goat.  something which happened for me quite a bit in the beginning when it seemed like sleep was pointless since i was on an adrenaline high from opening.  we drank wine and chatted with our new friends until the wee hours of the morning.  kevin, myself and our musician/bartender dennis wound up on zac’s tour bus which was parked out in front, listening to zac sing, laughing and drinking until 5am.  i then stumbled into the goat, waved hello to my breadmaker greg who was just arriving for work, went into the office (still in chef clothes from night before) and passed out in an office chair.  three hours later i popped up, put my apron back on, and started prepping.  i haven’t slept in the office since, but i am sure it will happen some time again.  perhaps when zac comes back on tour next summer.