March 5th.
Flying from Pittsburgh international with a box full of large knives.
In September of last year I flew out of Charleston with the same box, they put it through a special screener and everything was fine. For some reason, Pittsburgh had to cut my lock off and grant me an official "Homeland Security" approved sticker. (Pretty cool actually. worth the lock)
For the past several months, the wedding of my brother has been bouncing around in my head and the heads of others. Some thoughts very different from mine and those in the F&B industry. My brother is in the F&B industry though, and so is his wife. So, our understanding of how to put together the F and The B part of a wedding is fairly common to us.
But, being out of the state that the wedding was being held and being the person that was supposed to be doing the food.....things changed.
Enter "Creme De". Or, Coco as most of the world knows him. I just call him Jimmy.
Most of us called off work or took vacation time to be in or around Charleston for the wedding. Jimmy worked every morning at 4am, then picked me up after work and took me to where ever we had to be to prep, cook, help, transfer, borrow, think, drink, eat,"borrow", and then stay up too late with old friends. Then do it all over again the next day. (or a couple hours later really)
Thanks Jimmy.
The Bachelor Party:
Muse was the beginning of the night. Jason Houser, the executive chef of the very new restaurant in a very old (in a good way) building in Charleston, was able to squeeze all of us in on the second floor of this wonderful dinning experience
.
Familiar faces in the service part of the crew at Muse helped with this picture.
The food was great. So fresh and personal. You knew that everything was made in house that day.
The greatest thing about Charleston, by far, is the fact that the blood that pumps the heart of this beautiful town is full of food and beverage people. After so many years, so many kitchen, so many bars, so many meetings, so many introductions to so and so, you can't help but know someone in pretty much every restaurant you pass. And there are a lot to pass. And we all take care of our own. Whether you fired that cook for burning every other steak or were cussed out by that hyper active server for not putting his or her food up before so and so's, the next time you see them or they see you in there current place of employment, chances are they're going to mention who you are or where you work to the Chef and/or front of house manager. Hopefully you left it on good terms with these persons, I doubt any cooks in would do anything to your food, but you might miss out on a free cocktail.
As the week went on, all food worries came together and everything went off as planned. ....Someones plan. It worked. Thanks to the help of people like Pete, Wilson and Phil. And of course Creme De, all he needed at the end of the day was a bourbon and a nap.
