Here I am working on the Friday after thanksgiving and I am bored. Man, fed-ex still hasn't arrived.
What to do, what to do. I know what to do. Complain about the Bay Area. Yay!
As some of you know, I lived in the East Bay for a couple of years. Pretty fun. Good friends, fun things to do, the usual. While I was there I was working at this Italian joint called Cugini. (I used the word "joint" just for you MC)
They did great business and it was always crowded. I think I averaged about $140.00 a night in tips alone and I only worked 4 hours a shift. Not bad, huh?
What was their secret? Three words. Location, atmosphere and gimmick. Especially gimmick.
Don't get me wrong, the food was good, but it didn't warrant the kind of money they were making. Their success lived and died by their gimmick.
Woodfire Pizzas.
People loved 'em and the owners, three brothers between the ages of 21-27, were overnight successes.
Interestingly enough, Cugini dodged a major bullet. In 2001, Berkeley passed an insane law banning log burning fireplaces from all new homes and required new restaurants using wood-burning ovens and grills to install pollution-control equipment. Fortunately, Cugini was exempt. But if they were just a 1/2 block over and 2 years younger, then I am sure the business would have never been realized. Read.
Now San Francisco, a.k.a. "the City", is trying to stick their heads even further up their own asses. Read.
Still, East Bay was cool. Never a boring day when you are living in the Bay Area.
SIDE NOTE: I wonder what the pollution is like in cities that actually use fireplaces regularly. You know where I am talking about, don't you? Somewhere other than inside California.
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