Well, we're prepping for Lollapalooza, which is next weekend.  We're ordering and processing some really staggering amounts of food (we'll probably go through 15,000-17,000 pounds of idaho russet potatoes over the three days).  So since we're in the process of cooking up more than 250 pounds of really great quality country bacon from Broadbent Farms in Kentucky for our Wisconsin Bacon Cheddar Burger, we've got gallons of extra bacon fat on hand. 

So?

No-brainer. 

BACON.  FAT.  FRIES.

Yep, we're draining one of our fryers and filling it with the smoky, porky, delicious hickory-scented Broadbent bacon fat, and then cooking up fries special in the bacon fat and selling them to you for seven bucks.

All weekend.  Because we didn't want this fantastic fat to go to waste. 

Get in here.

Well, I'm largely absent from blogging these days, but the urge hasn't completely left me.  Mostly I'm too busy running the restaurant to take the time to sit down and blog, but we've been going through some shifts in our plate tectonics over here lately, so maybe after all the shifting, blogging is something that I'll have more time for.  I hope so.

But not for a while.

For the next six or nine months, I've got my work cut out for me.

In early August, we will be a part of Lollapalooza's Chowtown, where we'll be a part of feeding the some-300,000 concert-goers at the massive annual event.  I'm psyched, but it's a daunting event to plan for.  I've been told by those in the know to expect to sell 3000-4000 burgers a day (plus fries to go with 'em).  I had to get my calculator out, but once I crunched all the numbers, I decided that multiplied out to around two tons of Slagel Farms beef, more than 15,000 pounds of russet potatoes, 50 lbs. of white truffle salt, 250 lbs. of Broadbent country bacon, and lord only knows how many aprons, hand towels, spatulas, and other essential details that I'll be hoping not to forget about. 

Suffice to say I've been making a lot of lists and phone calls.  Bread will be delivered daily to the site by Highland, my normal supplier of buns.  Linens will be delivered and picked up daily.  Armored truck for change and drops is being worked on.  Hotel room booked across the street.  Refrigerated truck + driver w/class C license nearly in place.  Special event insurance policy underwritten.  Etc, etc, etc....  I'll be thrilled when day 1 is over, I've got a read for how it'll all go, and I can relax and just sell burgers and fries.  Gonna be fun, but a ton of work.

Thankfully, Lollapalooza happens to fall within the timeframe of our annual vacation.  We close the shop every August for 7-10 days and everyone takes a summer break.  So, once I was asked to be part of Lolla, I just added an extra few days onto the beginning of our vacation.  The restaurant will be closed from August 1st-15th.

Then, once we've left it all in Grant Park and then gone up to Wisconsin for our annual battery re-charge, I will hurdle head-on into working towards opening our second location of Edzo's, at 2218 N. Lincoln Ave. in Lincoln Park. 

News of this was broken earlier than I'd planned, so many of you may have heard about it already.  I was planning to make the announcement much closer to Lollapalooza, in order to try and capitalize on some of the hype that event will generate, but some nosy food blogger sniffed out the info on some real-estate transaction public listing after I signed the lease, so the cat's out of the bag.

Anyway, I'm busy hiring people, training them, and trying to step away and allow them to grow into autonomous employees that can help things to run without my direct involvement 100% of the time.  To be honest, that's much more of a challenge for me than it is for them.  I've been very lucky to have found some very capable people with great experience and they've been catching on quickly and taking control of stuff that I've been the sole person responsible for since the restaurant opened nearly three years ago.  It's a challenge to relinquish control.  I'm not finding it easy.   Yesterday I drove a load of stuff down to the Lincoln Park location just to get out of their hair during service.  Today, I'm sitting composing a blog post at peak lunch rush time.  Baby steps.

Wish me luck....gonna be a crazy 6-month-to-maybe-a-year scramble as everything kind of falls into place (hopefully), but after it all shakes out, we'll have two Edzo's and I might just have a little more time available to write blog posts. 

Yesterday, after we'd closed, the phone rang and when I picked it up, the woman on the phone asked me which "express" she would need to take to get to Edzo's.

I asked her to repeat her question, since I didn't understand it, and when I heard it again my assumption was that she meant "expressWAY", but it could've also been express train or bus...depending on where she was coming from and how she was intending on traveling here. But I didn't know that since she didn't actually even tell me where she was coming FROM.

But as soon as it became clear that she was asking me for directions, I began to beg off.

"Oh, you're asking me for directions? I see. No, sorry, I'm not good with directions and don't want to tell you the wrong thing and have you get lost." This is my standard (true) answer.

"But I'm calling from South Holland," the woman on the phone says.

I resisted the urge to make a crack about how it'd take a long time to get to Evanston from The Netherlands and told her that I truly have no idea where that even is, so I don't want to try to give her directions on how to get here.

The caller yesterday seemed to understand and accept my rationale for not wanting to give her directions, but other callers have not been able to let go quite as easily. One woman calling from Skokie was so incredulous that I wouldn't walk her through the entire trip, turn-by-turn, that she just kept asking me the same question over and over again until I finally said a polite goodbye and hung up, and then she called back, insisting that I must give her directions or she wouldn't be able to come.

I didn't give her directions. She came anyway. And scolded me for not being more helpful.

Don't get me wrong. I'm fine with answering a few simple questions. Address, cross streets, "just a bit north of Pete Miller's", Davis St. Purple line stop, etc, etc.... But I'm not going to tell you stuff like "turn right" here or there. I deal with north, south, east, west, not right and left. My wife used to (before the era of smart phones) ask for directions using the right/left format, and I always refused to accommodate what I view as a stubborn refusal to utilize the basic language of speaking about location and directions.

Bottom line, if you can't be bothered to learn the basics about navigation, I'm not going to serve as your personal GPS.

Oh, and while it occurs to me that a blog post might not be the best medium from which to send out this message to its intended audience, it seemed like a mildly interesting subject for a blog post. Happy Travels!

Ok, so after my last blog post was published, a bit of a ruckus ensued.

To be honest, I wrote that blog post in one furious spurt, clicked 'publish', and then kind of forgot all about the whole thing. After I got it out of my system, I felt better. I knew that I'd handled it pretty much the way I wanted to handle it, and kind of just closed my mental book on it when I put the blog post up.

As luck would have it, Chicago's premier food blogger just happened to be in line with his kids at the exact moment that the incident went down. So of course he wrote about it in his daily column. So I saw that, and got a chuckle about it, but then noticed the links to Yelp embedded in the Grubstreet piece, went and checked out the couple negative reviews that were (presumably) written by the aggrieved Rude Woman or her proxies and got a bit of a chuckle out of those.

And then....I figured that'd be the end of it. A few folks were outraged on my behalf due to the Yelp reviews, but I wasn't at all concerned because Yelp routinely removes (or filters, actually) reviews that are clearly grudge-driven, or that contain insults, or whatever.

But, of course, that wasn't the end of it.

A flurry of *positive* posts followed the two negative reviews from Rude Woman or her proxies. Some of my regulars who read either the blog post or the Grubstreet article must've decided that it would be a nice idea to go sign onto Yelp and write a positive review of my restaurant. Or to respond to the claims made in the Rude Woman's (or her proxies') reviews.

Which was nice. I was honestly touched. I did not, of course, ask anyone to do that, nor did I go sign up with a fake name or do it myself. As I've stated, there's really no need for that, since I figured that Yelp would pull the two negative reviews (as they've now done). I recognized a few of the positive reviewers by name or face when I read through them, and made a mental note to thank them for the support but to also let'em know that what they did was completely unncecessary (although the thought was much appreciated).

But, of course, before I could do that (and before Yelp could pull some of the positive reviews that were clearly driven by a desire to respond to the negative reviewers), some folks read those positive reviews, assumed I was behind them, and wrote a negative review about me based on THAT assumption.

Whew! You following all that? Crazy...convoluted, and with lots of assumptions piled atop more assumptions. Not a great recipe for solid factual info.

Here's an example, from one of the original Rude Woman proxy reviews (by "Truth T"):

After giving this dive a one star review, I want to downgrade it to negative 100 stars. All in the same day, I got 3 Yelp messages from people that obviously own the place or are related to the owner. All 3 of them (probably one person using 3 different yelp accounts). They all sent me nasty emails and they all happened to sign up for Yelp today. Then they all gave this dump 5 star reviews. Funny how they all signed up today and the only reviews they have is for this dump. Now we know the owner of Edzos has violated the Yelp rules. Perhaps the owner needs a lesson in customer service, much like Soggy Paws. Oh and when Soggy Paws kept doing this, that owner was banned from posting on Yelp.

Interesting. "Truth T." seems to know quite a lot about Yelp's rules and politics, which makes sense considering the fact that the same day he wrote a terrible review about my restaurant, he wrote 26 other reviews on Yelp as well. Perhaps he knew that Yelp pulls one-star reviews written by people with very few other reviews and wrote a bunch of other reviews in order to try and ensure that his rants about my restaurant would stick.

They didn't, though. Yelp removed his posts, along with those from "Ed S." of Munster, Indiana, who made a clear reference to the Rude Woman incident. In fact, all told (and this is to Yelp's credit) they removed everything from Rude Woman and her proxies, and most of the positive posts from folks who came to my defense. A couple still remain, but I'd wager that they'll be pulled pretty soon as well. All told, six reviews posted in the wake of the incident were placed into the "filtered" area, and four more were erased entirely for violating Yelp's rules of content.

The review from "Ed S." just disappeared completely (perhaps he erased it himself), which is too bad because it contained one of my favorite lines from the entire episode. After going on and on about what a dick I am for trying to ensure that all of my customers get the opportunity to sit at a table while eating their food, he went on to talk about how horrible the food was, and stated that his burger "spurted blood and grease" at him as soon as he picked it up. I got a good laugh out of that visual along with some cognitive dissonance about the idea that lots of "blood and grease" is somehow a bad thing when it comes to burgers. One guy on Twitter quoted that, saying "is that supposed to be a bad thing? I'll take two!"


Anyway, here are couple of choice excerpts from the fallout of the whole thing from various spots out there on the internet:


Some people felt compelled to comment kind of offhandedly on the situation, within the context of an actual substantive review--

I kind of don't want people to know about Edzo's, simply because every time I go, there's a line out the door. And sometimes people grab empty tables before ordering (I'm looking at you, certain Northwestern kiddos. Also, stop riding your bikes on the sidewalk), which is majorly rude and I hate it. And rude people don't deserve Edzo's food. But they still get it, because our world is not a just place. --Jasmine R. (5 stars)

Some decided that responding directly to the Rude Woman (or her proxies') claims was the best way to go:

Sorry, Ed S. is full of it. Angered over slights largely imagined...In short, yes, Edzo's gets crowded. But I've never seen Edzo himself be anything but pleasant to his customers. If he was being rude, perhaps he was merely returning it in kind..
--Fill B. (5 stars)


Interesting that the last two posters had such a terrible experience when all previous reviews -- hundreds of them -- seem to be in the 3-5 range. I have a feeling that there's something else going on with them. Not sure of their motives. But here's the real story.... --Julie C. (4 stars)

Others just resorted to outright mockery of the entire Yelper phenomenon:

Okay look. Listen to me right now please. This place is the best place in the world and there is nothing better in the whole wide world I mean that I really do for real. Their burgers are so darn good oh my gosh. Their fries (whether truffle or garlic or crazy or cheese or regular) are so darn good oh my gosh. Their shakes (whether nutella or chocolate or whatever) are so darn good oh my gosh. Basically, this place is so darn good oh my gosh. I love it. Go eat there. You'll love it too I hope. --JJ B. (5 stars)

In addition to all that ruckus, there's also been endless comments from customers here in the restaurant, the overwhelming majority of them from some of my wise-ass regulars who walk in and put their coat on a six or an eight-top and then loudly ask if it's ok to hold a table before they order. But many were just folks who felt like it was important to note that they understood and supported my policy and my actions. Which is nice.

Anyway, I just thought I'd do a little re-cap, since I had some positive things to say about Yelp and the way they deal with their reviews and wanted to note that. Yelp gets a very bad rap from food media types and professional amateur diners like the folks that frequent LTH Forum, but undeservedly, I think. I believe that the sheer volume of reviews that Yelp generates, along with their system for vetting posts, results in a pretty fair picture of most establishments.

Truth be told, I found this whole ruckus pretty informative and educational. A big part of why it worked out that way, I think, was the fact that I vented my spleen in my original blog post and, after that, I wasn't very deeply invested in the whole thing emotionally. That allowed me to kind of step back and view everything more objectively, I think. Which was good. Laughing at this ruckus was really the appropriate response. The lessons I learned were a bonus.

Ok, I don't usually do this because writing a blog post when you're angry about something is usually a really bad idea. But, whatever. I'm pissed and need to get this out.

We have 50 seats here at my restaurant. On a busy Saturday, like today, we sell about 400 burgers. About a third of the orders are placed as to-go orders. So, you can do the math. Long story short, it's damn busy and it is not an easy task to try and ensure that everyone who wants to dine in gets a place to sit and eat their burger.

So, long ago, for this reason, we put up a sign politely asking people not to grab tables and occupy them until *after* they've placed their food order. We find that, regardless of how busy we are, if people follow this rule, we nearly always have enough room to fit everyone in.

And don't think that because Edzo's is just a counter-service, order-your-food-and-grab-it-yourself-when-we-call-your-name kind of place, that I'm not paying attention to what's going on in the dining room. I am. I monitor everyone. I watch tables in order to make sure that the young mom with three kids gets a place to sit down, or that older woman with a walker doesn't get squeezed out, or to see if the guy in a wheelchair needs some help getting his drink out of the soda machine. To me, this is all part of the idea of providing hospitality to my customers. Serving them great food isn't good enough, if they're not provided with a comfortable environment in which to enjoy eating it.

Usually, I don't have to enforce the "no table-grabbing" rule. Folks either just know about it, or they see the sign, which explains that this is the best way to ensure that everyone has a comfortable place to eat their food, and, since it (hopefully) makes sense, there's usually not a problem.

Today was an extremely busy day, though. And Saturdays are often the day that we get the most new customers (who probably don't know the rules and maybe don't see the sign), and when it's so busy, folks start to stress about finding a table, and sometimes they can get a bit grabby. So it's not uncommon for me to have to go out into the dining room, politely point to the sign, and ask people to not save tables for their group until after they've ordered. When I do this, folks are usually extremely accommodating and even apologetic (which is unnecessary, I assume ignorance rather than malice).

One woman today, however, was simply not able to accept the fact that she shouldn't have grabbed a six-top before her group even ordered. When I asked the person who was holding the table to get up so that two other groups (who already had their food in their hands) could sit down to eat, the woman rushed over and tried to tell me about the many reasons why it was absolutely essential that her group be permitted to make an exception to the rule.

So she did know about the rule. She just decided that she was entitled to disregard it. As soon as I hear that, that's strike one. It's not that she didn't know. She knew, but decided that she was entitled to blow off the rule.

I tried to politely explain to her that these other people were standing with their food in their hands, but nowhere to eat it, and that this is the exact reason why the rule exists; to prevent a situation in which a group of people THAT HAVEN'T EVEN ORDERED YET are occupying a table for 20 minutes while others with food in their hands have nowhere to sit and eat it.

This woman wasn't hearing any of it. She, again, had a mouthful of extenuating circumstances that made her apparently inconsiderate behavior completely necessary. And, besides, she claimed, they were *almost* up to the front of the line.

I didn't have time to continue arguing with her, and the folks with food either found a spot to eat or graciously agreed to take their order to go, so I just shook my head, walked away from Rude Woman, and allowed her to get her way. I did not try to hide my irritation with her. The rest of her group was clearly embarrassed by her behavior as well. But she got what she wanted.

So they ordered, and then they got their food and ate. Comfortably. Unlike some of the other paying customers who got shut out of a comfortable table to sit at because of Rude Woman's selfishness. Ok...not ideal, but, again, folks were very gracious and understanding and I think they kind of got a sense of what was going on.

Later, after the group was done eating, Rude Woman came up to the register to talk to me. Nevermind that she'd already gotten what she wanted. Nevermind that there was a line out the door and I was already juggling twelve tasks at once. Rude Woman wasn't entirely pleased with how the situation played out, so she was determined to put the screws to me.

First of all, she says, it was rude of me to "embarrass her" in front of her group and the other customers. Seriously??? *I* embarrassed you? Because you chose to break a rule and you chose to be inconsiderate to your fellow diners and I had the nerve to actually call you on it? I do not think so, Rude Woman.

"No, ma'am", I said, "if you were embarrassed, it was because of your rude, inconsiderate behavior. Not due to the fact that I pointed it out."

She didn't like that.

Then, she countered, I didn't charge her correctly for their food. "Why was it forty-eight dollars?" she asked.

"I don't know, ma'am", I said, "lemme see your receipt".

"I don't have a receipt, you didn't give it to me."

Ok, then. So I go into the computer, find the name, and reprint her itemized receipt. Handing it to her, I say (irritation again evident), "ok, here's your itemized receipt, so you can go through that item by item and maybe you can find something to complain about."

She didn't like that either. But, at this point, it was pretty clear that she was just pissed about being embarrassed, she believed that her embarrassment was my fault, and she wanted to make me pay for it. I was not about to allow that to happen. Personally, the way I feel about it is that if you're going to be a selfish inconsiderate jerk, then any feelings of embarrassment you might have about being a selfish inconsiderate jerk are your problem, not mine. I left plenty of room at the beginning for her to back out graciously and she chose not to do so.

So she stood there and pored over the receipt for a few minutes. I ignored her and continued working through customers, taking orders, calling tickets and sending food out, trying not to let my irritation with this situation color my interactions with other customers. Her family, clearly embarrassed and uncomfortable, implored her to give it up and just leave, already. Eventually, she did.

If that were the end of it, I wouldn't be hot right now. But it wasn't. So I am.

A few minutes later, the phone rings. The caller ID tells me its a cell phone. I answer, and a very familar-sounding woman's voice asks for a manager. I respond that I'm the manager, and how can I help her.

"No, she says, you're the guy who took my order. I want to speak to an owner or a manager."

I chuckle, because now I know just exactly what this call is.

"Yes, I'm the guy who took your order. I'm also the owner. AND the manager. How can I help you?"

She keeps it up. "So, wait...you're the owner?"

"Yup," I said.

"Is there a manager?"

"Just me," I said. "How can I help you? I have a huge line of people waiting to order right now, so I can't talk on the phone with you for very long".

"......so you're the only manager, then?"

[click]

I just hung up. I explained it twice. I explained that many other people are waiting while you're asking me questions that I've already answered multiple times. Either tell me how I can help you or the phone call is over.

Obviously, she wanted to go above my head to get me in trouble. In my situation, that obviously won't work, but it really pissed me off to think about the fact that this woman was doing this. She was the one who refused to follow our policy about table-grabbing. She got her way. But that wasn't enough for her. She felt embarrassed because I didn't allow her to get her way without pointing out that she was being rude and inconsiderate, so now she was going to try to get the poor counter guy in trouble. The poor counter guy, who was just trying to do his job and ensure that all the customers have a decent chance to have a burger comfortably, is going to, if Rude Woman has any say in it, get written up or maybe even fired for it.

Nice. Really fucking nice. You can't let it go, can you Rude Woman? You got what you wanted, it's all over now, and you're in your car with a stomach full of freshly-ground burgers, hand-cut fries and great shakes, but rather than just be content, you've got to keep pushing it.

So, yeah, I hung up on her. Right in mid-sentence. Click. Bubbye, now!

She called back, of course. Multiple times. But thanks to the wonders of caller id, I could see when it was her and not answer. I let the machine pick it up a few times (after six rings each time--one thing you can damn sure say about Rude Woman, she doesn't give up easily).

I don't have a pithy wrap-up paragraph for this blog post. I'm still hot, although less so now, I suppose, that I've vented this all out. There's no lesson here (except, possibly, don't be an asshole, but don't we all already know that lesson already).

This incident put a real damper on an otherwise great day. We were super-busy, we cranked out tons of great food, and nearly everyone seemed very pleased with their Edzo's experience. So it bums me out that I'm dwelling on this one interaction and letting it get me down. I have very high standards and want every single customer to leave my restaurant super-pleased. Rude Woman didn't, and I suppose that was my fault. I could've done what was necessary to placate her and she would've left super-pleased, but I made a conscious decision not to do so.

Was that the right call? The wrong one? I'm not entirely sure. But it's the one I went with at the moment, and I feel ok about it, even though the incident left a very bad taste in my mouth.