{"id":20681,"date":"2014-09-21T21:35:59","date_gmt":"2014-09-22T01:35:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/?p=20681"},"modified":"2014-09-26T19:49:22","modified_gmt":"2014-09-26T23:49:22","slug":"restaurant-service-food-wine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/restaurant-service-food-wine\/","title":{"rendered":"Firing on All Burners: Juice Monkeys Thrive in the Heat of Service"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Steak\"<\/a>Continued from Part 5: Steve Beckta Restaurant<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Anne DesBrisay was also happy to broadcast her enthusiasm\u2014though she privately admitted later that given all the hype that had attended its opening, she had been nervous reviewing the restaurant. She was relieved though to find that it was indeed \u201ca clear cut above, in all kinds of ways, but mostly in its service department.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBeckta can only do good for this town in terms of raising the bar on service standards,\u201d says Ottawa Citizen restaurant critic Anne DesBrisay.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe trend toward chef-owned restaurants is growing (yipee), but it means the chef’s in the back working his wonders and the front of the house is sometimes left to stupid young men in black, with chips on shoulders and big-time attitude.<\/p>\n

The fact that Steve owns the joint, seems always there and leaves the kitchen to another makes a big difference as far as the feel of the place goes.\u201d<\/p>\n

More important than the reviews, though, as always, has been word of mouth. Many local diners seem to have adopted Beckta\u2019s as their own.<\/p>\n

Beckta gets calls almost every day from the clients of one hair stylist.<\/p>\n

And wine lover Tim Davis went so far as to reprint his personal business cards with Beckta\u2019s address and phone number on the back: he got tired of always writing down the information after raving about the restaurant.<\/p>\n

The challenge for Beckta\u2019s now will be to continue to meet such expectations night after night.<\/p>\n

By now the kitchen is redolent of the rich smells of cooking meat and reducing sauces.<\/p>\n

\u201cWatch behind!\u201d Filion says as he carries a boiling pot behind Fraser. The servers are swarming the entr\u00e9e pass, lined with ticket orders.<\/p>\n

Vardy scans them constantly, choosing which to fire first so that all the dishes from one table arrive together, piping hot. This is when the military rigour of a good kitchen comes to the fore.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t the time for debates on how to make a certain sauce: it\u2019s all \u201cYes, chef!\u201d \u201cRight away, chef!\u201d from the staff. \u201cChef,\u201d of course comes from \u201cchief,\u201d as in commander-in-chief.<\/p>\n

The sous-chef is the second in command and works with the cooking brigade. The key values are reliability, loyalty, consistency and discipline.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre you in the weeds now?\u201d I ask Fraser, eager to use the little insider culinary jargon I know.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, I\u2019m just fucked,\u201d he says smiling.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve trained our staff to be juice monkeys,\u201d Beckta explains with a laugh.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve got addicted to working the rush of working a hundred covers, so now, when we\u2019re evenly paced, they\u2019re still looking for a hit!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPick-up for Danielle, please\u201d Vardy calls out. The dish is Meyer\u2019s next course. Danielle Prevost isn\u2019t in the kitchen.<\/p>\n

\u201cPick-up please. Somebody? Anybody? Did everyone leave for the night?\u201d Vardy shouts, seeming to absorb the heat that Meyer\u2019s food is slowly losing. Monsour whips around the corner and takes the plates out to Prevost.<\/p>\n

When she comes back, I ask her if she\u2019s nervous serving Meyer. \u201cHe\u2019s really nice,\u201d she says. \u201cBut actually, I did get a little nervous when he started asking all these questions about the food.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heat laps at my face and body, cleansing my pores. I should have worn a bikini. Had Dante spent a night in this kitchen, this would have been the molten core of the Inferno.<\/p>\n

I develop a fellow feeling for everyone who toils in heat: firefighters, furnace repair people and sauna-bath attendants.<\/p>\n

Most of the kitchen staff drink two or three litres of water every night\u2014it\u2019s the only way to keep up with what they sweat out.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere,\u201d says Peckover, the bartender, handing me a big bottle. \u201cIf you\u2019re going to be part of the kitchen staff, you\u2019ll need one of these.\u201d Like everyone here, he notices what people need before they\u2019re aware of it themselves.<\/p>\n

I escape briefly to the back step where the humid 30\u00b0C evening feels like a crisp mountain air.<\/p>\n

I watch the air conditioning boxes hanging off the neighbouring brick building perspire. A blessed light drizzle has started. It\u2019s as if the day itself is exhausted and is having a good, satisfying cry.<\/p>\n

Go to Part 7: Steve Beckta Restaurant<\/a>
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part 5: Steve Beckta Restaurant Anne DesBrisay was also happy to broadcast her enthusiasm\u2014though she privately admitted later that given all the hype that had attended its opening, she had been nervous reviewing the restaurant. She was relieved though to find that it was indeed \u201ca clear cut above, in all kinds of ways, but mostly in its service department.\u201d \u201cBeckta can only do good for this town in terms of raising the bar on service standards,\u201d says Ottawa Citizen restaurant critic Anne DesBrisay. \u201cThe trend toward chef-owned restaurants is growing (yipee), but it means the chef’s in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1137,1135,1133,1138,1136,19,20,1058,55,1134],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ottawa-chef","category-ottawa-dining","category-ottawa-restaurants","category-ottawa-sommelier","category-restaurant-reviews","category-restaurant-wine-lists","category-best-restaurants","category-sommelier-profile","category-sommeliers-restaurants","category-steve-beckta"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20681"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20681\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20742,"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20681\/revisions\/20742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}