First Bar-B-Q in Kyrg...Shenanigans...Forever!

[Harry Nutczak]

[JAllen]

Harry, thanks again for the advice.

Last night was a total blow out.

We've been advertising in a journal for expats out here called, "The Spectator."

Chris, the editor calls this week and asks if we can manage a party of about 25.

Happily, I tell him that we can do that.

So, we're preparing half of the hall for these guys when 10 Canadians from the embassy that I've never seen before as they've just arrived walk in.

They're polite, friendly, ordering from the bar and leaving tips all over the bar...

I could hardly see the wood at one point...well, it wasn't that good, but anyway.

Swishy Misha, the cook, got fired last night after a long run of infractions that included stealing Mrs. JAllen's honey that she had tucked far away in the pantry, and hiding the empty jar behind the bbq.

Cameras are good to have.

Well, the last straw was Misha doing a highly-entertaining, but not flattering impersonation of his employers in front of the other employees.

I make an effort to treat employees with respect even in the toughest situations. When I don't get that in return, well...everyone has their limits.
_________________
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Upright Zippo (modified)
200w horizontal GE bulb
blowtorch
Paul Mitchell hair dryer (swiped)
unashamed foam user

[BBQMAN]

[Paddy O'Furniture]

Come on, Jallen, You are on my daily reading list!

[Geronimo]

[Bestiverhad]

I'm missing my daily JAllen fix.
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Tender - Juicy - Smoky - Goodness

"What would you like to drink with that?"

[GF]

[JAllen]

[Oregon smoker]

[BBQMAN]

Thanks for the update Jeff, and sorry to hear of your new troubles.

I agree with Jason- get away for a week or two and re-group.

The base closing may (or may not) be a huge issue. So the new regime doesn't like the Canadian presence, ehh?

We are fortunate to be in a business that we love, but I wouldn't sacrifice my family for it.

It's one of the reasons I don't own a raunt, and if I ever do my stepson will run it. I enjoy being married to Mike's mom, not a building.

That being said, most of us responsible folks need to provide for our families, so why not do it doing something you enjoy- many folks don't get that opportunity.

I truly hope you are able to find a happy balance.
_________________
BBQMAN
"I Turned A Hobby Into A Business".
Providing "IMHO" Since 2005.

[Geronimo]

If you BOTH can't take a break away at the same time, maybe do it separately. Even if it is just staying home with the kids and doing the domestic things with the agreement that NEITHER of you talk about the business when you are together for a specified time.

So say for a week, one run the house without interference or input from the other and the other run the restaurant without the interference or input from the other.

Then after a week, switch off.
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Where rumors end and legend lives forever...

[feldon30]

[JAllen]

Oregon Smoker, BBQMAN, Geronimo,

Thank you for the thoughtful advice.

I think we were having a hard time partly due to the fact that we worked two Mondays in a row. That made it 21 days in a row due to a couple holidays falling on Mondays.

Tuesday am. We drove in together today, taking the kids to daycare, as there's a lot of snow on the roads and Mrs. JAllen worries about black ice driving with the kids.

We arrive to a frozen bbq restaurant, the lock outside frozen, so Mrs. JAllen squeezes through the bars in the gate.

I'm looking at it and from the looks of it I can squeeze through it too. I stand there looking at it, give it a couple tries and decide to start eating even less bbq.

feldon30, thanks for the comment on the menu. I think we need to add a couple things that go with the menu like beans and cornbread.

Mrs. JAllen started doing jalepeno beer biscuits from a recipe found here...beer bread. She added the jalepenos and people are liking them.
_________________
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[JAllen]

Overall, November's off to an okay start.

Cold weather and we're doing some hot cocktails.

After taking down the spicy in our rubs, we're ramping it back up again.

Remember the guy Robert, who was coming in about a month ago... well has come in for a couple months?

Had a heart attack.

Was feeling ill at home, called the ambulance and went outside to wait. Got tired of waiting and laid down outside his apartment.

He was in today after spending ten days in the hospital. Said he'd had an operation and couldn't eat anything we have here except green tea.
_________________
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Upright Zippo (modified)
200w horizontal GE bulb
blowtorch
Paul Mitchell hair dryer (swiped)
unashamed foam user

[JAllen]

As we hit mid November, I'm feeling not too bad about the business. Mrs. JAllen and I got past the family spat, and we've both been going home a bit early this week.

I checked the reg from last night, which was fixing to be a bust and the tale of the tape made me happy, knowing that we can put up good numbers even when we are running at far from max capacity.

Without swishy Misha, we're left with one cook. Nikita "the keeper" as Harry dubbed him seems happy to be putting in more hours. He's also started to shoulder more responsibility, despite being only eighteen.

I just sent him on a mission to find a tri-tip.

The other success story is Sasha, who was hired as a waiter a couple months ago. Last month we asked him if he wanted to try a night shift, and as it's worked out, he does two night shifts a week.

Mrs. JAllen told him that as soon as he could make all the appetizers on the menu, she would increase his pay by 20%, so he was always asking to go back in the kitchen for some educating when things were not too busy.

He's seemingly very honest, hardworking and dependable. The only problem is that he has another job at a bookstore.

I feel bad that these are the only two accomplishments in personnel we've made. We've talked about opening another location, but for that to happen it would be nice to have more people we can depend on.

A big plus is that we didn't have our rent increased. Mrs. JAllen did a lot of whining to the owner, asking for a reduction.

We're still in a hole, but maybe we've started to climb out of it.

Remember the story of our topsign and the Kyrygz translation we needed to do? Well, along with our head-in-the-sand approach, we got a visit from the mayors office as reported.

We did some checking and had our accountant do some running around just to make sure it was impossible to do this by the book.

While the accountant was running around, I asked Mrs. JAllen to stay in contact daily with the people threatening to tear down the sign, letting them know we were working on it.

Finally we "hired" the antagonizer to "help," made a small prepayment and there's a chance we'll get past this unscathed.
_________________
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200w horizontal GE bulb
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Paul Mitchell hair dryer (swiped)
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[daddywoofdawg]

We arrive to a frozen bbq restaurant, the lock outside frozen.( try some WD-40 in the lock it keeps it from freezing)
_________________
Good BBQ is all smoke and beers!
The Dawghouse Custom vertical Gasser
Custom Made offset smoker
Char grill smoker
Weber kettle

[JAllen]

[JAllen]

November gross incompetence.

We've been smoking top round and slicing it thin.

To ensure we're slicing it across the grain because we can't seem to care about this, I've asked the kitchen to start putting toothpicks to show the grain.

Surprise. Sometimes the cuts of beef we're cooking have more than one muscle. And the grains are going different directions.

It's not a rubik's cube.

I've also politely explained to everyone over the past year the need to serve the sliced beef with au jus collected from the cooks.

I've been through the whole process with everyone who's stuck their nose in our kitchen.

Again I'm seeing dry, cut with the grain sliced beef coming out of the kitchen.

If I put pictures up and signs up, we surely would not have this problem. -sarcasm
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[JAllen]

Yesterday was student's day. A holiday, so we obviously had a bunch of students in here.

Our beloved cuties, the twins, reserved the J-Lo room and said they'd have a big group down there.

They did, and I couldn't pour pitchers fast enough for them until I left around ten.

I went downstairs this morning and found footprints high up on the walls of the downstairs bathroom and tried to understand what could have been happening. I actually put my foot up on the wall and used every wicked idea I could come up with to no avail.

Anyway, that's not the worst part. The worst part is that they ran out on the partly-paid bill, which was approaching two hundred dollars.

Other than that we had a good night. Sold a bunch of pizzas, lots of alcohol, but not much bbq considering.

And it was all locals. No expats.
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[JAllen]

So, I'm sitting here...standing here this morning when a Kyrgyz lady of about 55 comes in in a warm red overcoat, a tall, black hat and some boots.

She's carrying a plastic bag that has a bunch of little plastic bags in it with stuff inside.

"Can you help an old grandma who's hungry?"

Looking at her, she doesn't look like she's missed too many meals, but...

I head back into the kitchen and toss some of yesterday's garlic buns in a plastic bag and bring them out to her chop chop.

"No, that's not gonna do it, how about some soup?"

How about sweeping the floor?
_________________
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Upright Zippo (modified)
200w horizontal GE bulb
blowtorch
Paul Mitchell hair dryer (swiped)
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