Tic tac tic tac

tic tac is the sound of the clock counting the time before the grand opening of the Mountain view locations. Did we really think about everything to ensure that Morocco's 2 will be the same as Morocco's 1. The floor and kitchen layouts are indeed different, less storage, more room for guests but what about the rest. The food is the same, the silverware is in, just placed the drink orders, the menus are being printed, the schedule for the employees is done, the insurances are in place, the credit machine was transferred, the atm machine will be installed shortly, the floor plan is set up, the paint has dried, Morocco's Restaurant serving station looks nice and clean, the visual experience of my guests will be stunning however still soothing, the lighting is ready, our web site is up with the calendar of events, the kitchen i heard is ready to rock as per chef Jay, i am spending quality still intense time with my new trainees, so much to list...so i will stop here...
A friend suggested for me to hire models for the grand opening....mmmm, i said....why not? met some, talked on the phone to some and said...You know what, the grand opening should represent the kind of people that actually come to see us...and thinking about it, it s a group of great people coming together for a quality time without presumption, all ages, all backgrounds, models or not, they are beautiful in their smiles, and even wild demands!!! So that's just what the grand opening will be ;)

Trend setter or following the crowd you choose

After many talks over the course of the past three years with my partner, mentors, and professional in the restaurant industry, We decided at Morocco's Restaurant that we will not fall into the industry standards of having 1 server host and take care of 20+ people. Each 10 guests will have at morocco's an experienced server and a helper in training.
We thus decided to implement an automatic 15% service charge on all tickets. In a cost increasing environment, increasing rent etc, we estimated that that will be fair as long is it is disclosed correctly to your guests. The first yelp reviews about this are not complimentary but this structure allows me to put together a team of professionals whose intent is not to work for tips but the intent to build a career and ultimately be a pillar of Morocco's Restaurant as a dining and an entertainment destination.

On a different note, the training of our team is happening exactly as expected, 300+ applications received, 80+ face to face interviews. 20 hires and i expect 10 of them to stick and leave up to our expectations. So far, 5 of them have disappeared due to "conflicting schedules" or "not liking to clean much" or " thought all i will do was to play hostess!!"...Do i want to keep all remaining 15! YES!! will i? I would love to!! What if all of them disappear? I will have to refine my hiring process....
All 15 are brilliant people and i wish them all only the best, i believe they will be very successful in whatever direction they choose. I hope to do part of their paths with them and they will do part of their paths with me....

Extra ice on my sangria please! it reached 98 degrees today and i promises to go over the 100's tomorrow!!!

The grand opening of the Mountain view location is just around the corner.

I am happy to the idea that my interns and I are going to rent bikes for this sunday and visit the residential neighborhood of Mountain view located behind the restaurant. A lot of fluids and a well rewarded beer and pizza party afterwards sounds a proper reward!!

Decoration in the process / Point of Sale introduction & a strange phone call

Mountain view is coming together from a decoration stand point, however the city is still asking for plans....the healthy inspector is however happy and only noticed a couple of items that are a quick fixed....
Breaks between intense days are definitely a necessity for a healthy and happy life but the demands of the outside world sometimes just do not allow you to do that.

We installed our point of Sale system and i am happy to say that it promises to make the life of my front of the house team easier, my kitchen will no longer be in need of deciphering the calligraphy of their fellow team mates, which makes for happier folks and a faster response to my lovely guests.

Something strange happen, a weird phone call took place in the restaurant from a gentleman asking for me by name and saying that i should be aware that he knows i am messing with his wife!!! He also asked asked about the guy with a yellow shirt and blue jeans (My outfit of the day!!) That freaked my brother out and freaked me too...I have just been too busy to flirt, court or seduce...and even if i was not, i will never ever, on my mother's life, mess with a married woman or a woman who comes to the restaurant. Period!! Besides being against my sincere value to break the happiness of a couple (And only god knows how hard it can be to find a person that can be a good match), it is just not good for business, have a guest who comes to the restaurant for life or flirt and lose that person as a friend due to differences none of us what to foresee from our first 5 encounters?!

Sooo, pretty surprised by that statement!!!

I just my yellow shirt to our moroccan black t shirt as suggested by my brother and still wondering if sharing a smile with everybody is the way to go?...Well, after reading this...people are having such harsh days, i will still smile to strangers...

A couple is sipping on wine

A couple is sipping on wine on their date night, at one moment, the lady leans over her glass and says: Baby, i love you so much, i don't know what i will do without you...
The husband, flattered, says: Honey, is it you talking or is it the wine?
The wife responds: It is me, talking to the wine!!
Happy sunday!!

Mathematics & Training in the middle of a rush

A POS system (Point Of Sale) costs in the thousands to implement, which i do not have...
So here we are on a Monday night, a math convention just hit San Jose and it seems that my left brained guests decided to have Moroccan for an outing...Guess what, this was a unique night, where every single table wanted their bills divided following some mysterious mathematical formulas, i heard 3/5 of the bills, 12.5% of the bill, and divide the bill by eight...so much fun...I added to that our resident Magician Robert Cerne who, under the lack of space to do his show at the tables, decided not to perform and plans to build a custom table for Morocco's Restaurant to do his shows on...Can't he just make some tables disappear?? lol...Great night...friendly guests whose meticulous mathematical eyes were sparkling with pleasure as they were tasting the goodness of Chef Jay, my new team of Mountain view is coming together and i am pretty excited about my new recruits...

Tomorrow Wednesday is a full training day with the entire crews of Mountain View and San Jose, not sure about how many of them will show up (At least the tentative recruits that went through a full 1.5 hours interviews) and still have not written down the training plans...I have some ideas though...just a matter of compiling them on a piece of paper!! So here i gooooo.....

Character versus personality to support a cause that matters

I am still pumped up by the fundraiser we did for the Avalon Walk to support the research against Breast Cancer. A limited attendance i have to say but a quality one...Not the best equation for a successful fundraiser...hosted by my dear friend Rahul M from the 911 call center of San Jose...I remember him saying " Many people said they will come..." and i replied welcome to my world! People will say I will be there, as a matter of fact, they mean: I am there already...Life however comes in the way, schedules, errands, tardiness, sense of priority...imagine if everybody did what they said they would...Here kicks Character versus personality: A lot of people have great personalities: friendly, sweet, funny, compassionate (Pretty much qualities people can use to refer to one's person ability to interact and relate with others), Character is much harder as it is when you do what you do when nobody is watching: character is that person you see in the mirror that knows you more than you know yourself....
So to the ones that say i will be there, i say, i can't wait!!!
Big cheer still to the fire fighters, our friends from the 911 San Jose call center that hosted the event, they really made the day of this birthday party who jumped on a firefighter who came inside the restaurant!!!
Is the fantasy coming from a man who puts his life on the line to help others or the simple outfit?

911 Angels fundraising and one more day in the restaurant business

Our dear friend from the 911 Call center of San Jose are hosting a fundraiser tonight to help the research against Breast Cancer. Every year, before they qualify for a 39 mile in the city of San francisco, they are to collect $1800 to be part of it...how nice it is to be leaving in an environment where people have a genuine sense of helping their community...Morocco's Restaurant is happy to be part of it and will donate 30% of all its proceed tonight June the 1st to support a good cause...
It is 6:06PM and we have some pleasant people outside sipping on our newly reinvented Sangria with real vodka, it promises to be a good time...
It is pretty amazing how time flies by, i literally spend the entire day from 10AM to 5:50PM training future potential team members. I was pretty surprised by the memorization skills of the ones that i have asked to come back for a second interview...Mountain view team is being built...
The decision to open this second decision feels like a chance to restart again without the glitches and the mistakes...Should feel good right? The other side of it is everything that took 3 years to tweak, train and produce is to happen over the course of 1.5 months...my bank account is crying mercy and sometimes part of me said that there is a risk involved to lose everything...my other side says who risks nothing gets nothing...
The restaurant business is a mean machine where 100 Beef tagines are to taste, look, and smell exactly the same...every time...You can be good for years and all it will take is 2 weeks of bad performance to destroy years of hard work...
My new favorite guests, Moroccans!!! Pretty amazing how they expect Morocco's Restaurant food to taste like their mother's!!! Listen, no food will ever taste like your moms!! Still, it is with a gentle smile that i share this information with them...
Who are the guests of Morocco's Restaurant: educated, (Bachelor +), mostly well traveled, foodies, with age groups starting in the late 20's early 30's....super pleasant and a treat to serve...My guests is what keeps me going after 19 hour days...Feels like a few more people learned about Morocco as a cultural destination...

Interesting question raised by a good friend: She said: Why offering average tasting bite size dishes at exorbitant prices in a venue full of marble and a huge ratio of servers to guests gets the compliment of being fairly priced (which restaurant does not feature Mahi Mahi?) where a down to earth restaurant with impeccable service, delicious cuisine and hand decorated gets the note of being overpriced?

I say fancy decor and hard to understand menu presentations with jargon that is only to be understood by the kitchen experts should never intimidate the person that seeks goodness in a plate and sincere care for their guests. Ask the most refined diners, food critics and chefs...