no pictures anymore… no time…. you see, i’d love to tell you all about the difficulties at work, about the terrible night we had saturday night, about the reasons for our problems and the inside story, but it is all too complicated a tale to spin… we’ve got new people training, we’ve got old timers with schedule requests, we’ve got advantages and disadvantages to working the day shift and the night shift. we’ve got a full time pizza maker out with a broken bone and no firm return date, we’ve got the medieval faire bringing in lots of extra customers on saturdays, we’ve got a new pepsi machine that loves to eat our ice, we’ve got a cash register that doesn’t work without register tape, we’ve got a run on gluten free pizzas… there’s too many things all converging to create the beast that is satchel’s to try and unwind for the gentle reader… and if you knew how difficult it all was to weave and how many problems arise to try and stop us, it may make you wonder how the pie can taste so good. maybe it’s because of the obstacles that the pizza emerges as the prize of our efforts… but i used to have photos twice a week. i used to have a good story at least once in a while. now i have a long list of projects at home and at work keeping me away from this blog. you might have read that recently i got a TV for the first time in over 20 years… when i surf around to the channels i end up spending an hour here or there looking for something worth watching… and even when i watch what i love most of all, politics, i am left with an empty feeling like i am obsessed watching a dog chase its tail… i don’t want to contribute to this sea of info that takes you nowhere… mostly i am afraid that the blog is that. i’d rather be drawing a new menu back, writing for my new book, painting or eating or sleeping or drinking water.

you see, the pictures i include are hooks to keep you looking. the pictures may hook you in to read but without pics it’s just a bunch of rambling. and then it seems like i vent a lot, talk about how difficult it is, running the restaurant. i need to return when i have something to say, something worth saying. otherwise i am contributing to all the mounds of useless, boring, information-less information. it’s like the food that most restaurants run through the flavor extractor… i can’t talk about my personal life. i can’t give you details about the people i work with. i probably shouldn’t tell you all my opinions on politics. i am left with telling you a few things:
1. the pies are looking awesome and we are rocking g-ville out with some killer pizzas.
2. i had a hard night and i burnt a couple calzones and i didn’t mean to do it but i was so stressed out at the time and dealing with about a million other things and well, please forgive me and keep eating at satchel’s.
and 3. running this place is really hard and i must be getting old and how can it get any busier and i wish i could tell you the whole story.

you can get all the spicy details in my new book, The Pizza Machine, expected to be out in hardback edition sometime in 2050.
good night.

last week was busy and i think we did a great job. on saturday night i did overcook a couple pies although they were just extra crispy, not burnt. i think that if a pie is going to be excellent is has first to be crispy. so, those could have been exceptional pies, but they could have also been considered overdone. it’s always one of those things that is subjective. some people prefer the light cook. i always thought it would be cool to have 3 choices when you order a pie: light cook, regular crispy, or well done. the main problem is that it would be very hard for the cook. it’s hard enough as it is and having a scale for each pie would be so difficult with the amount of pizzas we serve. but i do think it would be a good system, especially for the customer. when i overcook a pie like i did saturday, i always wish i could go out to the table and ask them how they like it, get some feedback about it. the same goes for the occasional soggy pie that comes out. i just want to be able to have a conversation with the people who are eating it, find out how they feel about it, explain what happened… the trouble is we are back there moving as fast as possible to get pies in the oven and to walk away from the oven would considerably slow down the progress and affect the other pies in there getting cooked. it is really hard for the cook to be cooking 10 or 11 pies and 4 or more calzones and then have someone else step in and get the pace of things while they go out and talk to a customer about a specific pie. chances are more mistakes would happen. but we put out a lot of pies and i feel that even the soggy or overcooked pies are still some of the best out there.
i watched the democratic debate tonight. i am still quite addicted to the political atmosphere happening with regard to presidential candidates. it is a fascinating election because it seems there are finally more than just 2 front runners to choose from. it actually seems like there are 6 or 7. i love that. i waste way too much time following it, but i do enjoy the race.
so nice to have a couple days off. i did go in to work briefly today to meet someone who is cleaning our ice machine. we installed a new product called ice zone which keeps the insides of the ice machine clean. pepsi brought us a new fountain machine which may bring us even more problems than before but the verdict is not out yet. by next week we should know if it is going to work out for us.
i’ve told you much more than you needed to know. i wish i had a photo but no….

our dare devil pizza maker is out for another 2 weeks, maybe more, due to broken bones…
looks like a bunch of people will help to pay the price for this pond jump.
the pepsi machine has had it’s share of problems, namely flat soda. but pepsi says we have a unique machine, the only one of its kind in 14 counties was the quote i remember hearing… the soda is not flat now but just to be on the safe side, pepsi is giving us a new, still in the box, machine on thursday. the catch? well, we have to add ice to it. somehow the icelessness of our current machine is what makes it so different from other machines and now we will be just like everyone else, forced to dump buckets of ice into the machine to keep it running properly. i was trying to avoid it but i cannot fight it anymore. when i drink soda, i like it to be fizzy. just like good pizza, i want it crispy.
what else? the t-shirts in LSE have a new display, coming this week… and most importantly, there are new LSE stickers that will hit the LSE shelves tomorrow. small, oval, 4 color LSE logo… perfect for just about anywhere. only $1. branded umbrellas, pint glasses, frisbees and yo-yo’s coming soon.

well. tonight was one of the most challenging i have dealt with in my professional career. well, maybe top 5 anyway. saturdays are always busy. tonight we had 2 people “training” in the kitchen. you know, i talk about the crew and how good they are and they are good. but recently we have needed to change the schedule around to accommodate people and to map out a plan. it would be great of there was some test kitchen where you could throw them in for a couple weeks of intense training, but no such luck. we have to train them on the spot, in the thick of it. so, tonight, things were hard. we turned away lots of to-go pies which we just couldn’t handle. we had to concentrate on the in house people who waited over an hour for a table. so, the to-go food got second billing to them. sorry for all the people who could not wait for the pies. and then there are the amazing people who did call in and wait an hour and a half for a pie. and there were those few tables who waited in house for almost an hour for their food. believe me, we were doing everything we could do. i’ve been doing this solid for almost 5 years and i know when we are all doing everything in our power. some of the pies were stretched too big, some too small, some funny shaped… and then of course the long wait for the food. what a challenge. in a few weeks we will have everyone up to speed and i think things will be faster and better than ever, because the caliber of employees we have is untouchable. i can’t say it was a bad night, it went pretty good considering the circumstances, but took everything we had to make it happen. i appreciate all the customers that continue to come and take it all in stride. if you come to satchel’s on a weekend night, you must know you are in for the long haul, right?

it has been a long week. just when one of our oldest employees returned from travels in asia and japan, another one of our best tried to jump over the duck pond to the island and practically broke his ankle. (satchel’s is for daredevils you know)… so, he was out all week creating another stress for the place. after almost 5 years of doing this pizza business thing, it is good to know that it’s not getting boring. no, it just gets harder and more interesting.

i think i’ll take a couple days off, go back in tuesday morning. love to everyone, even to the people who don’t like me. by the way, i turned 40 yesterday and feel pretty good about it. this is the year of the fountain. i’m going to get it built by this time next year… where? you will have to wait and see.

wow.
have you seen the new satchel’s website? essentially it’s the same. i mean, it contains the same information, but the look has changed. i found out that maintaining a website is a lot of work, especially when business grows like ours does. the new web genius, like the old one, has a full time job other than working on the satchel’s site. and as we grow the websites, now two with lightnin’ salvage, it takes a lot of time to keep them up to date and fresh. so many people come together to get all that info posted. there is a photographer, a flyer maker, a music booker, the webmaster, a few artists input… it amazes me that all this is done besides just trying to make the world’s best pizza, which always proves to be a challenge.
anyway, shout out to brent, for all the work building up the sites, and to cory, for bringing his unique and creative touch, and keep checking it out to see what new things we come up with. although it is a lot of extra work, we do it because people do hit the site, and this work is artistic for all of us involved as well.

next week i turn 40. seems so ancient. i don;t mind at all. i like getting older.

tonight was really busy. it was a struggle to keep up as always, but all the pies went out within 45 minutes. we turned away some to-go pies when people did not want to wait an hour and a half. the rule of thumb for satchel’s is, call way before you are hungry.

the pies all looked great tonight and i think the only mistake was pineapple left off of a slice. i feel like every week i work a little harder than the week before. seems like we get more tables and more pies every week. it is the most challenging job i’ve ever had. i still can’t believe it is so busy. what a great crew of people we have working there. i am lucky to have such a good job.

tonight was a rough one. bitterly cold, some new kitchen help, and a falling wine bottle. i started the year with a broken mixer and hot water dispenser. we got those fixed. then all the banana trees got frozen out. then tonight a wine bottle fell and well… at least no one was hurt.
the restaurant business can be so hard. honestly, sometimes i think i should do something else…

so tomorrow i will try and find storage for a hundred wine bottles, and try and figure out how to get the new guy up to speed on salads, and try and take on the day without a belly full of anxiety.

looks like obama and huckabee won iowa. that was my prediction for iowa, at least to don the printer this morning. my candidate, joe biden, dropped out tonight, before i even got a chance to vote for him. you win some, and lose some. just like the gators, just like satchel’s pizza…