Closing for a few days seems to have been the right thing to do.  Once we regrouped and prepped for a few days we were ready and able to rise to the challenge of packed houses on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  Now we’re back in the three week cure zone and the meat is awesome although we’ll be out of cheese curds until Wednesday.  Thanks again for your patience and support.  

Thanks also to my team for pulling together and accomplishing things I never imagined possible.  We had 6 people in that tiny kitchen on Saturday and three on the floor plus me and no one waited for more than 10 or 15 minutes for their food.  Eric honoured us by bringing his groomsmen for the traditional meal before wedding on Saturday and the funniest part was that my sister attended the wedding.  Yeah, we got him to the church on time.  

Saturday night we also hosted Lara’s twentysomething’st birthday party with twentysomething of her friends. I think I had the best time of everyone because I got to sit down and enjoy my first ever Caplansky’s Smoked Meat sandwich.  I’m not making this up.  I had never sat at a table and eaten like a regular person – I’d always scarfed something quickly in the kitchen.  My verdict? I had the Fresser (fatty of course) and I loved it.  By the way, “Fresser” is yiddish for “eater” and its what we’d call someone who really enjoys his or her food.  Both my Papa and Zaidy were fressers and it gives me great pleasure to watch my dad enjoy that sandwich too.

I must say that having six people working in that little kitchen space concerns me a great deal.  All it takes is for someone to turn around with a knife at the wrong moment for a disaster to happen.  Health and safety is paramount to me and this kind of risk is pushing me towards looking for new space.  In fact just tonight I was pressing my nose up against the glass of a vacant restaurant when a guy came up to me.  ”Hey, Caplansky! You gotta move in here,” he said.  ”Why? Because you own it?” I asked.  ”No, ’cause I live up the street and it would be heaven having you here.”  So I called the number and talked to the agent…  

Stay tuned.

(I know its totally uncool to say this but it was a real thrill to be recognised on the street in such a nice way.  Growing up, many people would recognise my mother because she had high-profile positions in government and sometimes people were unkind.  I’m sure one day someone will tell me how awful their last sandwich was, how soggy their fries or poor the service but until then I’ll bask in the glow of tonight’s encounter)

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