Grand Opening

by T. F. Pruden

  Through times both lean and fat since he remained steadfast in his commitment. His attendance at group meetings was a rare occurrence now. He most appreciated the program for allowing him to keep a personal relationship with his God.

  He missed the forsaken fellowship of his beloved church.

  The success of the new restaurant he considered a fait accompli although they had yet to open its doors.

  After only a week he was impressed by the work ethic and marketing ideas of his young partner Wayne. As his tenant Maurice was not only an excellent chef but a sober and recovering alcoholic he grew confident success must be the inevitable result of their partnership.

  By now he was also convinced there were no other restaurant concepts like the one the partners discovered.

  In a short time they would operate a chain of them that spanned the continent. With continued hard work and careful planning Rene believed they would quickly be the toast of the town.

  If not the entire country.

  He grinned as he thought of the success they would soon enjoy together.

  Perhaps when his latest success unveiled Madeline might reconsider their situation in a new light.

  He reached for the package on his desk. He withdrew a filtered cigarette and with the Zippo lighter taken from a pocket of his jeans lit the future coffin nail. Rene smiled again, imagining the look on her face when he revealed his latest creation. She would be impressed to see him grow beyond previous limitations to embrace a new and more stylish direction with his business efforts.

  Of this he was near certain.

  With any luck, it would be enough for her to at least consider giving him another chance.

  For another chance was what he wanted. Not more success and not more money. An opportunity to make up for the long ago mistakes that deprived him of the love of his wife, the comfort of his family, and protection of his church.

  The restaurant was another try to regain what he felt he had, unfairly, lost.

  Rene didn’t understand it when he purchased the restaurant and remained unaware of it now.

  He turned away from the desk and stepped toward the door of the cluttered office with a satisfied smile. By now Wayne should be finished another day spent working on renovations to the restaurant and he looked forward to seeing his progress. He would stop by the house and pick up the tall chef Maurice. They could join Wayne at the downtown restaurant to discuss the promotional plans for the grand opening that was now only a few weeks away.

  One day soon he should introduce his young partners to his old friend and their new landlord Richie Pallento.

  It would impress the young partners to meet the owner of the Marlene Hotel. He would enjoy showing them off to his friend.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Maurice appraised himself with a critical eye.

  He stood before the full-length mirror mounted on the wall next to the closet in the second-floor bedroom. Maurice smiled at his reflection and reviewed the dark blue shirt with the button-down collar and the pleated grey wool trousers he chose for this evening.

  He would present a nattily dressed figure next to his business partners at dinner.

  A pair of black lace up loafers and his three-quarter length black leather car coat, with neither jacket nor tie, topped off the ensemble. He looked forward to joining Wayne and Rene for dinner. It would be a pleasure to eat a meal prepared by a chef in a restaurant where he was not employed.

  A rare opportunity to enjoy the fruits of someone else’s kitchen excited the tall chef.

  Soon he would be master of his own kitchen and no longer a prep cook for the great master.

  The notion caused an increasing welter of emotions he struggled to manage though he said nothing. It shocked him to discover he now lived in fear of the rapidly approaching opening date for the new restaurant.

  The unknown but myriad responsibilities sure to accompany it now stressed him a great deal. With few close friends he found himself with no one to discuss the feelings. They seemed to increase in both intensity and duration by the hour.

  The idea his partners might discover his weakness fed the shame growing inside him.

  At this point he had worked in kitchens across the nation for near twenty years. As a teen-aged high school dropout, his first job was dishwasher with a drinking problem and a bad attitude. Maurice progressed through various roles in the food services industry including bus boy, waiter, prep cook, breakfast and short-order cook, line cook, sous chef, and work camp cook.

  That he progressed without formal training and despite a serious problem with alcohol was credit to his talent. An affinity for the long hours of hard and thankless work, a surprise to himself when discovered, kept him employed despite the bad habits.

  The resilience of his palate, which in spite of years spent abusing the kitchen wine and anything else he could lay his hands on, remained discriminating. He recognized early his ability to withstand the heat of the kitchen and work was plentiful.

  As drinking became the focus of his life while still a young man he appreciated the protection the industry’s high turnover rate provided him. The apparent work ethic and willingness to take long hours featuring any combination of day or night shift made it rare for the tall chef to be unemployed. His employment references were positive and allowed him to maintain steady if unspectacular work wherever he sought it.

  What his experience had not allowed so far was a position as either head cook or house chef. Despite a plethora of businesses worked for he failed to scale the industry’s professional peak.

  It was the lack of senior experience causing him grief.

  It started when he accepted the partnership in the new restaurant.

  Only the head cook in a restaurant or work camp, or the executive chef of a fine dining establishment, created the menu and managed the kitchen. From staffing and working hours to salad choices and entrée items, either the head cook or the executive chef handled these tasks. As he lacked this experience Maurice knew he remained unprepared to take on the critical responsibility for them.

  He neither hired an employee nor purchased goods on behalf of any establishment where he had so far been employed.

  Maurice had purchased groceries with which to feed himself on rare occasions through the long years of his culinary career.

  Like many singles working in the trade he made a habit of eating within the confines of the kitchens where he worked. He was thus ignorant of the actual cost of the foods he served to his patrons.

  Maurice regularly paid for meals eaten at other restaurants because it was a frequent substitute for home cooking throughout his career. The cost of them was tallied strictly to arrive at the right percentage to tip the service staff, not for education about the cost of the food itself.

  He was also unaware of where restaurants purchased the assortment of products they served.

  He knew it wasn’t from the supermarkets where the public bought theirs. That there were standard formulas used by the chef to arrive at sustainable selling prices for the goods he also knew. He heard other young cooks discussing them during his sadly interrupted attendance at the culinary institute long ago.

  Yet he remained unaware of what they might be or how they were to be discovered.

  In his own case on those occasions when he purchased food from a supermarket he paid the asking price. He had not considered how the prices might relate to either the work he did or the business that fed him.

  Maurice now paid a price for his shocking arrogance.

  Each day since accepting the fantastic new opportunity represented an occasion to damn himself for the recalcitrant ignorance.

  That he had no experience with hiring and managing employees was yet another matter with which he now struggled.

  He was bereft of knowledge of even the rudiments of labor law.

  Maurice was also ignorant of either the wages for kitchen and service staff or the minimum wage required by the province. In his own case he made
a habit of securing positions that advertised their wages before he applied for them. He gave little thought to whether the rate of pay was set by some mysterious organization of which he was unaware.

  The information might be pulled from within the chefs’ hat for all he knew.

  That he spent his life living in relative comfort if not style he assumed was an indication kitchen wages must be appropriate. Though rates seemed generally insufficient to provide a life of ease to anyone other than the head cooks and executive chefs under which he toiled.

  How this might impact the caliber of people employed in the industry he neither thought about nor had been affected by to this point.

  Only now, when it somehow appeared to have assumed importance, was he aware of his appalling ignorance.

  He raised an eyebrow to the attractive reflection in the mirror as he thought of his new partners. They might reconsider their situation if they realized the facts of his professional history. Maurice wondered again what he might do about it. To him it seemed obvious the experience of their youngest partner Wayne would be the thing upon which the success of the entire venture would hang. He was certain neither he nor his landlord Rene possessed the expertise it would take to navigate the day-to-day realities of operating a restaurant.

  Maurice wondered if either of his partners yet realized this.

  He wondered how they would manage the fear that accompanied his realization of such an unfortunate fact.

  “Tabernac!” he said, his voice bitter as he addressed the dandily dressed reflection staring back at him, “Why did you not pay attention to the business of the kitchen instead of searching for the cooking wine?”

  With a grunt of disgust he turned on a heel to face the door leading out of the bedroom. He expected Rene would soon be ready to leave. A fine dinner awaited him tonight no matter what disaster might eventually materialize on the distant horizon.

  He and his new partners would discuss more plans for the new restaurant. Maurice would consider his situation in the new light provided by the conversation. Somehow he must arrive at a place where he could be comfortable with what they planned to do and what would be required of him.

  This seemed the best he could hope for now. He was without alternatives of his own design and terrified by the thought of either moving ahead or staying where he was.

  Maurice flipped the light switch next to the door. The room was left as dark as the thoughts filling his lonely mind.

  He opened the bedroom door and stepped into the bright lit and empty hallway.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  It surprised Wayne to arrive at the Garry Street restaurant before his partners. He asked for and received a booth in site of the entrance so his fellow diners might locate him when they entered.

  A perky hostess attired in a form fitting black knee-length dress with a white plastic tag clipped to her chest greeted him. The tag featured her name and that of the establishment. An hour removed from the end of her shift she seemed pleased to oblige the well-dressed and attractive young man. She also appeared delighted to discover he would soon be joined by business partners and not a late arriving female guest.

  While he appreciated the visible charm of the young woman Wayne remained too focused on the business at hand to be distracted. The fact was conspicuous enough to disappoint her and would have surprised him only weeks earlier. The excitement caused by the new business and the recent failure of his previous enterprise had dimmed his usual instinct for the opposite sex.

  He was as yet too confounded by the changing circumstances of his life to either notice or care.

  An attractive young waitress appeared at his table before he had time to pick up the menu waiting in front of him. Also in uniform she wore a black string tie at the collar of a white blouse tucked into another snug fitting and knee-length black skirt.

  Out of respect for the fact neither of his partners were drinkers he ordered a mineral water. He opened the large and vinyl bound menu with its laminated pages. He appreciated the chance to look it over before Maurice and Rene arrived.

  Wayne hoped it might provide him with ideas useful to building their own.

  It was a fact he had yet to develop a restaurant menu.

  His experience to this point was in the management and operation of hotel beverage rooms and night clubs. Their kitchens had been outside his organizational purview.

  He was familiar with the required cost accounting due to graduating from a community college restaurant management program. Wayne completed the program rather than attend university years earlier. The lack of experience might limit the success of the new venture. His first defense against it would be a careful review of the best local eateries while he completed renovations.

  The soon to be opened ‘Rene’s at the Marlene’ would also rely on the experience of his new partner Maurice. As an experienced chef he would understand both the principles of cost accounting and the components expected of a successful restaurant menu.

  Wayne smiled as he thought of the tall and thin chef Maurice.

  In spite of a haughty disposition and twenty years of experience he proved agreeable on menu suggestions. The chef had also been open to ideas regarding the concept and direction of their new restaurant. That the man listened and accepted Wayne’s ideas about the business encouraged him.

  He also took great comfort in the fellows’ long years of experience. There could be no substitute for it when seeking to operate a successful business regardless of its type.

  So far the chef had prepared only the single meal which lacked the presentation value necessary to their ventures’ concept. Wayne had discounted this as being due to last minute timing and lack of familiarity with his surroundings. He was developing an appreciation for the relaxed and slightly diffident nature of the tall chefs’ professional demeanor.

  His senior partner Rene meanwhile though bereft of industry experience was a proven success with decades of business experience.

  That he brought far more than funding to the table Wayne grew more comfortable with each day. Rene seemed to be possessed of an almost constant good humor. His irrepressible wit was exceeded only by an astute grasp for all things related to business and making money.

  Without doubt it was a blessing to work with a man so experienced.

  Though he had already been forced to give extensive explanation for each plan he devised on behalf of the restaurant. Wayne was convinced both he and the business would benefit by the demands the eldest partner had so far made upon him.

  As he looked up from the menu Wayne glanced out the window to his left and across the now deserted street. He noticed the chrome bumper of Rene’s classic red Corvette convertible, its top up in acquiescence to the chill of the late spring weather, pulling into the parking lot.

  Wayne smiled and thought of the lively conversation and good meal soon to come.

  “Ma frien’ you’re a lady killer for sure!” Rene said as his partner and tenant Maurice slid himself with care into the passenger seat of his nineteen seventy-two Corvette.

  “Tabernac I’m going to ‘ave to raise my game an’ keep ma’self in shape working wit’ da’ two of you or I won’ be getting any action, eh?!”

  Maurice only smiled in response to the playful remark. He offered no reply, unsure if the older man was sincere or pulling his leg. The fellow appeared unwilling to open himself to further ridicule courtesy of Rene’s famous wit.

  When the tall man did not take the bait Rene backed the car out of the three space garage and said nothing more. He appreciated both the silence of the chef and the power of the low-slung sports car.

  He pulled onto the quiet suburban street outside his home and pointed them toward the city’s downtown and the restaurant where partner Wayne awaited their arrival in the darkening night.

  They ran late for the dinner engagement. In spite of the joy he took from playing with his toys he knew the streets could be icy due to the spring weather and he must drive with care.
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  That his business partner and tenant Maurice was a quiet and near humorless man he also understood. If Maurice was not often interested in conversation Rene had by now come to appreciate he meant no offense by it.

  The ten-minute drive would allow him to consider some of the questions he must have ready for his partners at the upcoming meeting. It pleased Rene that Maurice also seemed to focus on the business at hand. The tall chef sat next to him in the small cabin of the big sports car and said nothing.

  The man spoke rarely at the best of times, and since accepting the partnership in the new restaurant hardly at all. That he now wrapped himself in deep consideration of plans for the business was apparent.

  Though he offered little in the way of direction to his partners, it was obvious he made strategies.

  In a less experienced man Rene would be concerned by his reticence. As Maurice was both very experienced and known to be a taciturn fellow, he chalked it up to the vagaries of an artistic chef.

  The man was apparently devising the means to their impending triumph.

  His choice of business partners pleased Rene more with the passing days.

  He spent much of the days since purchasing the restaurant alternating his praise between their efforts and his good sense at selecting them. That he once again proved an exceptional judge of character was soon plain. The two younger men struck up a working relationship taking advantage of their mutual strengths at once. It relieved Rene to find them all but universal in their agreement with both the concept for the restaurant and renovation ideas for the space.

  The burgeoning friendship combined with their experience caused his confidence in them to grow exponentially.

  With the opening date still weeks away he now had to fight his impatience.

  His strongest urge was to hire a crew to hurry the limited renovations. Wayne insisted they were best to do it themselves. That the young man made a point of mentioning it would save them money while allowing them time to hire staff and develop their menu he also appreciated.