Well, at least the Oven Tea Party challenge is over, because the whole thing just made me nervous. Even if an oven isn’t on, you just…shouldn’t get inside one. Not unless you’re cleaning it.
Although while I was busy worrying about the youth of today, my nephew goes and opens his own cafe. It’s been a dream of his ever since we can all remember, and seeing a kid follow their dreams for that long is pretty rare.
I went and visited yesterday and everything, plus I got a special tour…being family and all. The kitchen isn’t 100% done, still missing a commercial oven that’s arriving on Wednesday, so the full menu isn’t yet available. It’s not going to be extensive anyway. This is a cafe intended for casual sitting and wiling away the hours while drinking really good coffee and tea, not a bustling place with stacks of plates to wash and complicated dishes to prepare. A Saturday morning place, not Saturday night. I don’t think there are enough of them in that area, so I applaud him finding a niche as well.
None of us in the family are connected to the food industry in any way, so he had to do all the research on commercial stoves and food preparation rules by himself, with minimal intervention besides just encouragement and the occasional business connection-of-a-connection. Must’ve been tough, starting from zero like that. There’s so much that can go wrong, especially when it comes to health inspections.
But every job has them. Oversight, I mean. At least this way he’s his own boss, he decides what goes on in the kitchen, and he gets to benefit from the success of the cafe. Although soon as that commercial stove DOES get there, I’m expecting some excellent brunch food. On the house, of course…I’m cashing in on all that encouragement. None of this would’ve been possible without me believing, I’m sure.
-Lance