The time is 2.17 am. This the typically the time I sit to share my thoughts with you. Today I have a bowl of pasta leftover from last night sitting in front of me. Its not as good as it once was but I’ve only eaten a few bites during a hectic day.

It was a good day full of apologies and lots of warm feelings too. Tomorrow will be v difficult although I really appreciate the media letting people know I messed up. That sounds funny but I’ve come to see that my modest ambitions have been overtaken by something I never anticipated. Seeing myself in Gourmet? My heart skipped a few beats. Its surreal.

I just read Steven Davey’s response to my blog posting and now I’m feeling badly about calling him a “Fucker”. I’ve come to learn that he visited my place at least four times instead of the usual two and I did feel he was generous in many respects. I also know that he’s under pressure to render his judgement and I’m sure in a perfect world he’d wait a few more weeks.

Nothing is ever black and white. Like me and my meat. On the surface it may appear I’m an idiot for not ordering and smoking enough meat. The reality is far more complex.

The good news is that I’ve secured the proper smoker and it’ll be here in a week or so. Until then I hope my customers will be patient. We’re doing our best and I know we’re all excited to get back at it next week.

Earlier this evening I decided to stop serving my smoked meat for about a week until the meat properly cures.  Based on what I saw this afternoon, the meat simply isn’t curing long enough. And we won’t have turkey either until Friday. I am a victim of my own excess.  Or lack of excess.    I figured we’d be busy.  I didn’t think we’d be this busy.

My timing is almost as bad as my forecasting skills.  The NOW review is out tonight and its alright.  Could have been much worse given the things that happen in the first two weeks you’re open. And it will get better.  Our people are finding their feet and learning their table numbers.  Unfortunately, inexperience, injuries and some significant equipment problems have made the start-up a serious challenge.

I take full responsibility.  We are doing our best.  I am sorry for those who travel distances only to be deprived of a taste of my smoked meat.  People travel?  Its true and they’re not happily disappointed.  This evening I picked up a copy of the October Gourmet Magazine.  Page 18.  Chai! That’s me.  In Gourmet.  ”Zane Caplansky,” it says with a huge capital Z “had a modest goal.”  that’s true.  I did.  Being in Gourmet was never one of those goals.  But it sure feel nice.  And it brings with it the need for more smoked meat.  And not just any smoked meat.  Sax reminds me in his story that I refused to buy someone’s else’s pre-cured product and steam/slice it as if it was my own.  He’s right.  I won’t budge on quality.  Look at the Victor Tavares photo of me.  Does it look like I’d settle for less than the best for you?

By this time tomorrow I hope to have the new smoker purchased (at great expense to management) and within two weeks I hope these scarcity issues will be a thing of the past.  Until then, please forgive me.  I am sorry to disappoint you and yours.  I hope you can see that no one wants me to have the best smoked meat possible more than I do.

And, if possible, take a moment to imagine what my life will be like over then next four days.  Steven Davey says I’m “one lucky guy.”  Thanks to him, Ruth Reichl and Sax, I’m going to be asking hordes of people for forgiveness.  Better that than feed them under-cured meat and have them never return.  These are better problems than most restaurants have.  Maybe Steven Davey is right. Except my luck is hard won.

This year I wish I was in shul.  Friday night was a feast at my brother Mark’s house surrounded by loved ones.  Saturday morning was every caterers nightmare: I walk into the kitchen at 10 am to pack up for lunch at the Landsberg/Lewis’s and the cupboards were bare.  Worse, not a soul was in the building but little old (and getting older quickly) me.  What was that quaint expression from “Home Alone”?  AAAaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrggggggggghhhhhhhhh! At high decibel.

I’ll spare myself the reliving of the ensuing 90 minutes and fast forward to our arrival at the catering venue.  If it weren’t for the graciousness and understanding of our hosts, I’m not sure what I would have done.  In fact, following what was the worst ever catering event I have ever been associated with (until the one today) Avi Lewis and his Uncle Allan Landsberg and cousin Steven insisted my assistant and I join them for a sampling of some of the finest Scotch Whiskeys I’ve never heard of.

Following the event I learned that we’d gotten our first bad review.  Comes with the territory.  However, reviewing restaurants that have been opened less than 2 weeks is unprofessional. Using an anonymous “expert” to say my matzoh balls are too small, my smoked meat too smokey and criticize my mother?  You’ve gone too far lady.  If I had a subscription, I’d cancel it.

I learned about the review in an email from Michael Cohl.  Michael asked me to have a hot tongue sandwich ready for him at noon “at all costs”.  Because I was catering at that time I didn’t learn until later that the kitchen never heard from him.  This is very frustrating for me.

In the evening I dropped off a turkey to the lovely Jill Gluckman and family and then took my management team out for a traditional Rosh Hashanah Chinese dinner.  Following our dinner we walked back to the deli.  Along the way we all remarked on how we could all smell out meat smoking.  It was a wonderful moment.

This morning I was up and at ‘em – first one into work. I popped open the smoker door, hanging back so as not to get a blast of smoke in the face, but there was no blast.  No blast, no puff, not even a whiff.  When they moved the smokers, someone had connected the smokers to an inadequate power bar.  By my estimation the bar switched off shortly after we admired the olfactory pleasure of our work following the seafood fiesta at Xam Yu.

As a consequence, David and Ruthie Muller and their guests would not get our best.  We tried to steam it quickly but there are no shortcuts with my food.  It takes three hours to steam.  It just does and I’d have to take turkey and grilled versht and every ounce of charm I could muster up to the Muller’s place and try my best.  They loved the turkey and versht.  And they were more understanding than they needed to be.  I am blessed to have better customers than I may deserve.  Very few aren’t very nice but these folks are top drawer.

Being featured in Gourmet Magazine was huge for me.  Being panned in the National Post not so much.  These are my realities.  The challenge is not to get too high or too low but to just do my best.  I love my food and want the best for my customers, staff and investors.  Although we were closed over the weekend for Rosh Hashanah, I’m totally exhausted.  Can’t wait for Yom Kippur.  lol

The ironic thing is that in the period between these two High Holidays, Jews are meant to ask people they have wronged for forgiveness.  It seems to be more of a constant occupation for me these days rather than being reserved for special occasions.  But I was reminded the other evening by a special young lady that I am surrounded by people who care deeply about my business.  This is a blessing.  We’ll not just survive but endure and do whatever it takes to be the best we can be.

That which does not kill you makes you hungrier.

I think this is about the coolest thing I’ve seen in my life. If it weren’t for that last sentence, I’d say I’m completely speechless.

http://www.gourmet.com/restaurants/2009/09/zane-caplansky-deli

‘Shana Tova’ to our Jewish friends and sincere regrets to those who come and find us closed over the next couple of days.

Caplansky’s will close today at 4pm and re-open Monday morning at 10 am.

We will also close next Sunday at 4 pm and reopen the following Tuesday morning for Yom Kippur.

My people are “Born to Kvetch”.  We’re serving enormous numbers of people enormous amounts of deli and the vast majority leave happy.  Others? Don’t.  And they’re sure to let me know which is fine.  In fact, its better than fine.  It’s tough to be in this business and reconcile yourself to doing a good job 90 or 95% of the time.  You simply can’t make everyone happy, get everyone everything they asked for when they asked for it no matter how much you might like to.

Shit happens.  Sending me obnoxious messages that starts with “I’m from Montreal and I know deli” or the equally ridiculous “I’m from New York and I know deli” and proceeding to tell me how terrible my food or service or both is and are compared with the delis of these other cities is laughable from every perspective.  In fact, dearly beloved reader, I got an email today from some photog at NOW Magazine asking if he can come shoot me on Wednesday in advance of Steven Davey’s review. Fucker.  How can you review a deli after a week in business?  That’s so unbelievably unfair. Am  I whining?  Victim of my own press?  Oh aren’t we smug.

I’ve just read the last paragraph.  I think the long hours are affecting me.  It’s only Week 2.  At least all the gear is working and the menu will be back in business tomorrow with the turkeys having been smoked today. The team is taking shape too.  I have to tell you, the last three days have been fantastic.  Imagine this: if we get 90% of our customer’s order’s right that means that over 50 people will have had a less than perfect experience – some outright awful.  My heart goes out to those people but the best I can hope is that they let me know while they’re still in the deli.  Posting anonymously online is for cowards.

I’m thrilled with the food quality.  I still have a huge problem with my smokers and their capacity/consistency but everything else is going well.  Timing and temperatures are an issue but those are getting better.  My staff really want to get this right and we’ve all been a little (a lot) overwhelmed by how quickly people keep coming.  Don’t get me wrong: I’m grateful to everyone who comes in the first few weeks but we’re going to mess up sometimes.

Had something funny happen tonight.  Vishanti tells me that “Dr. Soandso” wanted a word with me inside – I was enjoying catching up with some old friends on the patio.  The good doctor informed me that he objected to the way Naomichi uses his hand to hold the meat while he slices it.  ”He should use a fork,” he said.  ”Yeah” I said, “I’d like him to use the meat fork but he learned to slice this way at the Monarch and its a hard habit to unlearn.”  ”It’s disgusting,” said Dr. Soandso.  I gave him a face.  ”When you see patients you wash first?” I asked “Yes,” he said.  ”And then you touch them with your bare hands?” I asked.  ”Yes,” he said.  ”There’s no difference”,” I said.  ”But that’s not how they do it at Schwatrz’s,” he said. I gave him the face again and then I picked him up by his collar and threw him through that window in the front with the picture of me.  No I didn’t really.

In the words of my father and to all my friends from other places who want my deli to be just like the deli they loved so much at home: “If you want home-cooking… eat at home.”

The computer system that prints orders and processes bills is malfunctioning and we don’t know why. Phantom orders are not being printed and some get printed twice. Can you imagine the difficulty in a busy restaurant? That was our evening last night.

I called Rogers and threatened to switch to Bell. Vishanti called TD and I emailed the network admin. We’re going to abandon the POS system today and go manual until we can install a new software system and get the kinks worked out in the network.

Even with that, Day 3 wasn’t as bad as Saturday morning or as good as Sunday. Its stressful and frustrating but manageable. We appreciate our customers’ patience as we work these kinks out.

We met as a team today, regrouped and organized the place. We decided two things:

1. We’ll re-open at 4pm tomorrow because it’ll be impossible to replenish supplies in time for tomorrow’s breakfast
2. The kitchen will close at 10 pm daily and after that we’ll feature a late-night menu of hand-sliced sandwiches and fries

Closing today was the right thing to do. I regret disappointing people who tried to come and support us but I trust they’ll understand.

Today was wonderful – not perfect by any means but I had love in my heart and meat in my hands.  After the nightmare that was our start yesterday, I resolved to do better today.  My knees creaked out of bed and I had a thought: Andy, one of my best slicers had to go to slice meat at Ben Zendel’s wedding.  I really wanted to go myself (Ward’s Island on a perfect day?) but after the debacle of yesterday I had to send him with Neil Gertler.  Neil’s the best of the new slicers and he’s really good.  But who would slice for me?

Naomichi’s got the evening shift covered better than anyone could ever dream.  Perhaps my last thought last night was of who would slice this morning.  I arrive and see its joe.  Joe.  I look at him and he slices a piece of almost transparently thin meat , hold it up and declares in his Yorkshire accent “I can slice”.  While this was true, the fellow standing beside Joe in the slicing station could not slice.  He couldn’t do what Joe does best either: make it run smoothly.

I unbuttoned my dry-cleaned shirt and fetched a clean apron from my car, found a stash of bar rags in the manager’s office/smoker storage room in the basement and grabbed a stack of paper deli-man hats.  I took a few of them because I figured if i got into the shit I could change hats so people wouldn’t see me sweat.  I built that slicing station to be a stage but truth be told I never imagined myself on it.  I haven’t sliced for months except at catering functions.  If yesterday was any indication, today would be busy.  How’d we do?

Joe and I kicked ass.  It was fantastic.  ”We have a queue,” Joe said around 11 am. That line lasted for over an hour but moved pretty fast. Best: NOT A SINGLE SANDWICH WAS RETURNED and the plates from the kitchen were gorgeous.  Danny was on the hot station in the kitchen and Joseph was on the pass.  The A Team was in place when Charlie showed up around noon.  We have a magnificent team.  We invented a system and made it work.

Best of all, Vishanti and Giulia ran the floor like the pros that they are.  Computer failures, ice machine glitches, internet meltdowns, irate customers, newbie staffers forgetting stuff, none of these things can dim Vishanti’s 1000 watt smile.  I watched her disarm all and sundry with a glance.  And Giulia?  If she had a pedometer on her she may have run a marathon in the last two days.  And complain?  Not a word.  These are professionals.  The reason people think ‘anyone can work in a restaurant’ is because people like these make it look easy.

And its our second day.

Yesterday was a tough day. Actually, it was a tough morning. The morning was awful. Corey Mintz’s Toronto Star piece, CBC radio 1 and martiniboys.com all gave us a shout-out on Friday which led to soul-crushing lines out the front door Saturday morning.

The evening before we did a trial-run with friends and family and it went great. Not perfect but definitely presentable. What happened yesterday morning was not. The good news is that the problems are mechanical and timing ones and there are solutions for these. We’re going to work through today and close for Labour Day.

See you on Tuesday – or a little later, that wouldn’t be so bad either.