Stick To What You Know

When in doubt, serve the food that you know tastes good. If you have gotten good feedback on something you have served in the past, chances are, people will like it in the future.

I have always been the guy friends have gone to with food related questions. Or maybe the food snob. A classic example of this was when my buddy Jerry asked me “What is the best Italian restaurant in Memphis?”

Jerry has run major arenas across the United States. He asked me the question when he was running the Pyramid in Memphis. My immediate response is that there is no REAL Italian restaurant in Memphis. Don’t get me wrong, there are some great restaurants in Memphis that call themselves Italian restaurants, but they are not Italian restaurants by my New York standards.

That sounds a little snobby, but you have to recognize where I come from. In my grammar school class there were 35 kids and 32 were Italian. (Patsy Frachetti, Tommy Palumbo, Georgy DeLeo, Danny Monteforte, my best friend Tony Ciafone and on and on). There is a reason my nickname was mayonnaise. I was certainly the white guy. In this community there was some fantastic Italian food. Growing up with this background changes your perspective.

Jerry explained that he had a major concert artist coming to perform at the Pyramid and it was in his contract that the crew needed to be fed a meal catered by “the best Italian restaurant” in town. I struggled and reluctantly offered Macaroni Grill as an option. Jerry countered that he couldn’t offer a chain restaurant as the best option. I agreed and asked who was coming in that would even know? It was Neil Diamond from Brooklyn NY.

The solution was easy. Give him barbecue. Jerry stated that Neil Diamond is Jewish and worried that pork BBQ would be a problem. My experience is that even Jews that keep a Kosher home enjoy Memphis BBQ when they are in town visiting. It is like my friend Tuvi from Jerusalem told me: ”When in Rome do as the Romans do”.

In the end Neil Diamond and his crew loved their Memphis BBQ and Jerry got kudos from Neil and his management.

The supper club moral of this story is…serve food that you know tastes good and that your guests will enjoy.

If you enjoyed this blog and similar other stories/supper club lessons follow me on Facebook and Twitter and subscribe to get future blogs at www.impromptufridaynights.com/blog and check out my book Impromptu Friday Nights a Guide to Supper Clubs. Published by Morgan James Publishing and available through most channels where books are sold.

Mike Burner Was A Good Guy

Mike Burner was a good guy that passed too soon. Mike was our builder in Westhampton that guided us through a 3-year process to rebuild the house that had belonged to my parents.

In many ways Mike was the consummate New Yorker. And, that is a good thing. My wife Susan and I grew up in New York, but we haven’t lived there in over 40 years. My parents had owned the house in Westhampton for over 45 years. When we were first considering the rebuild, Mike and his company Elderco, were recommended to us by multiple local contacts. In many ways Westhampton is a small town. Lots of things are connected. It turned out that Mike’s wife, Nancy Burner, has been my mom’s estate attorney for years. On the rebuild, Mike shepherded us through the process of deciding what we wanted and how to get it done. He was honest, experienced, practical, and straight forward, in ways that we had missed living away from New York.

Mike and his wife Nancy, my mom’s estate attorney

The story that explains my relationship with Mike best involved chimney brick. The old chimney was being torn down and a new chimney was to be rebuilt on the other side of the house. I asked Mike if he could save some of the old brick for some possible reuses. He gave me a look and told me if I wanted the brick, I had to save all of it. In hindsight he said it with a tone that gave me the inkling that maybe saving brick wasn’t a good idea. A few weeks later, I mentioned saving the brick to our landscaper Patrick, who is also my fifth cousin. Patrick, who is family, asked me: Are you stupid? Do you know what the cost of used brick is? Do you want to spend the next 2 summers cleaning used brick?

I called Mike back and told him that going forward, if I said something stupid, I would appreciate it, if he told me so. Mike said that he had a problem telling people who were paying him money that they were stupid. While the stupid word never came up again, there were multiple instances when Mike would call and walk me into a better direction.

9 Sea Breeze under construction. Note, the number of contractors in the yard

Simply put, when it comes to building a house on Long Island, Mike was an expert. He had seen it all. He had a great team at Elderco. He had a great set of contractors. The people that worked for him valued their relationship. He also did a good job of setting a direction for Elderco moving forward. His son Brian has been working with his dad on and off for years. The business is in good hands. When it comes to decisions moving forward, the whole team will think: What would Mike do? And, they won’t be saving valueless used brick.

Mike passed way too soon. He will be missed. He was a good guy

If you enjoyed this blog and similar other stories/wine group/supper club lessons follow me on Facebook and Twitter and subscribe to get future blogs at www.impromptufridaynights.com/blog and check out my book Impromptu Friday Nights a Guide to Supper Clubs. Published by Morgan James Publishing and available through most channels where books are sold.

Girl Scout Cookie Sales – Follow Up

This is a resend of a blog that was originally published on February 22nd. I have been having trouble with my website and distribution was not sent out to many. If you have gotten the same blog multiple times, apologies.

The good news, contrary to what I thought possible on February 22nd, Emma has completely sold out her inventory of cookies. Congratulations to Emma and especially Lauren.

Selling Girl Scout Cookies has been a part of American life since 1917. The Kenny Family, has been selling Girl Scout Cookies, in more ways than one, for close to 30 years.

One way is that the Kenny Ladies have been selling Girl Scout Cookies for generations.
The other way, is that I ran a Coconut Company that sold all the toasted coconut to the Girl Scout Cookie Manufacturers

One might say that selling Girl Scout Cookies is in our blood.

FAMILY

My wife Susan has been big on Girl Scouts forever. She was our daughter Jenn’s troop and cookie sales leader for many years. Now our daughter-in-law Lauren, is our granddaughter’s troop leader and in charge of Girl Scout Cookie Sales. The expression that “the son married the girl, just like the girl that married dear old dad” can be a little bit scary. To say that these ladies (wife, daughter in law, daughter (also a scout leader) and granddaughters) are competitive would be an understatement. Every year, it is given that they will sell more cookies than they did the previous year. The good news is that, in many ways, Girl Scout Cookies sell themselves.

Emma and her Nana in full sales mode

Gramps gets thrown into the fray annually. It is expected that gramps will develop sales materials and encourage our friends to buy cookies. This year Susan and I had the added responsibility of hosting a booth for a morning of sales at the local Kroger. Emma was in charge of merchandising. Gramps was in charge of finance. Not to brag, but Emma’s sales skills are impressive. At 9 years old, she has experience and no fear of chasing down shoppers asking if they need cookies. The combination of her charm, tenacity and digital skills make her a force. Gramp’s responsibility was finance and specifically credit card sales. The Girl Scouts now have a pretty good app and, with a little training from Emma, I was able to keep up, sort of.

Sales materials developed by Gramps

When it comes to sales to our friends, the question we get asked all the time is: do you still have cookies. Truth is that my son’s garage looks like a warehouse. I always think of the story that Phil Harris the actor and announcer at the annual Bing Crosby Pebble Beach golf tournament used to tell. Phil and Bing went on golfing trips to Scotland. One night they were driving home late after golf and more than a sampling of the local adult beverages. They passed a distillery and Bing pointed out to Phil that the Scots can make whisky faster than he can drink it. To which Phil replied, “That might be true, but I have them working nights”. Looking at the inventory in my son’s garage, its hard to imagine that Emma will run out of cookies. Then again, watching her sales prowess at the cookie booth, she might have a supply chain issue.

The Cookie Inventory in Brian’s Garage

WORK

In a past life, I ran a coconut company in the Philippines. The joke used to be that on my tombstone it would say: “He knew coconut”. The second most popular Girls Scout Cookie is the Samoa that is made exclusively with toasted coconut from my Franklin Baker Company of the Philippines. They say that coconut is a polarizing flavor. Either you like it, or you don’t. I can’t tell you the number of times that when someone found out about my being the coconut guy, they would tell me how they don’t like coconut. To which I would ask if they have ever had the Samoa Girl Scout cookie? Invariably they would respond about how it was their favorite. There is something about the toasted coconut in combination with caramel and chocolate that is a winner.

Another, not so funny joke I tell is about “Murphy’s Law”. What can go wrong, will go wrong. I firmly believe that Murphy was Filipino. In my years of running a company in the Philippines, the list of what went wrong went on and on:

Typhoons
Droughts
Military coups
Communist attacks on our plant
Assassinations
Kidnappings
Salmonella
Tsunamis

The toasted coconut for the Girl Scout cookies had its moment. One year a large shipment of coconut got contaminated by an off odor. As with all the other things that went wrong, our team at Franklin Baker in the Philippines was amazing. They always figured out the problem and the solution.

In retrospect, whether it is the FAMILY side or the WORK side, selling Girl Scout Cookies is a lot of fun

For anyone that wants Girls Scout Cookies – This is Emma’s card

If you enjoyed this blog and similar other stories/wine group/supper club lessons follow me on Facebook and Twitter and subscribe to get future blogs at www.impromptufridaynights.com