A break!

Man......its been 11 days since I last posted, sorry about that. We've had a heck of a run during that time, and as usual very emotionally taxing. Last Thursday we did half of our regular business and I had a doomsday attitude in regards to thinking about what our sales were going to look like on Saturday. It had been the third straight day of soaking rain and I guess folks just said the hell with it and stayed in. Well Friday & Saturday rolled around and were both record days for us and we ended up having our best week yet. Then yesterday and Tuesday were almost double what we've been doing, so if we can just have a good Friday night and Saturday then I'll at least break even for this week, which is all I'm concerned with for this holiday week anyway. This past saturday nights music was off the map! We had a standing room only crowd and they loved them (it was Ward, Dan & Jill playing). I look for this Saturday night to be even larger because folks are wanting to bring their families in, especially those from "up nawth". Ill be in a deer stand the next two days on our farm in Mississippi. Bo is off too, Jackie and crew are taking over for Friday night. Hopefully Bo and I come back recharged!

Last week

Well last week was almost a mirror image of the previous week in regards to sales. We actually did just a little more (about $500.00). The accoustic music is starting to pick up. We had several families hang out and listent to the majority of the sets. It should only continue to pick up, this week I have an ad going out in the local paper. Still waiting on Marteen to get here to give us all some relief. It will probably be about 2 more weeks. We'll be closed on Thanksgiving and the day after. Well be open that Saturday night and will hopefully put on a big show that night with the music. Sales will be virtually dead that week, but Bo needs a little time and so do I. Lord willing I'll be sitting in a deer stand for a day or two on our farm in north Mississippi........also known as "God's country". -Hey, don't giggle till you been there. Anyway, I dont really know what to expect over the next several weeks around the holidays. I am assuming that sales will be dead during thanksgiving and x-mas. What I'm hoping for is that sales during the weeks in between will be normal. This is going to be a tough time and if we can just get through it and get in to 2007 without getting beat up too bad I think things will work. I'm really looking forward to March.

baby news

Martha and I found out yesterday that we are (Lord willing) expecting a little girl this coming March. We had the ultrasound yesterday and everything checked out great, she is very healthy thusfar. We have settled on "Daisy" as the first name but we are still undecided on the middle name. Keep us and her in your prayers. Bo and I got a lot of prep work done yesterday. I dont know what to make of today in regards to the crowd. It was a "frog-choker" last night.......rained steady all night and looks to do that today which may mean a slow day. Although today is election day (are you as glad as I am that whoever wins whatever this crap is over??) and folks will be out all day going to and fro the polls so we could get slammed. We'll see......

The week

Well this week was, I guess, in a sense a microcosm of the restaurant industry. Tuesday (Halloween) was naturally slow, Wedensday was curiously very slow, but then Thursday-Saturday were strong and put us in position to finish up the week well. We still finished a little under last weeks total revenues (about $600.00 under) but heck, I'll take it considering what the first of the week was like. I am preparing myself for this kind of uncertainty in regards to daily cash flow because of the time of year we are in. The spikes up and down because of holidays, rain & cold, etc. are going to be very, very tough for me to adjust to but I have no choice. Bo & Jackie have all but told me that Thanksgiving and Christmas will be so slow that we might as well rent some movies to watch while we're there. If we can just get through the winter months with average cash flows I think that once (Lord willing) the spring rolls around I think we'll be o.k.. Marteen should be here in a couple of weeks and that will help out a lot! We're working very, very hard and Marteen coming in to do prep and all the cleaning will be like getting manna from heaven. Bo is working his little rasta ass off and I am desperatly trying to make his and my life a little easier......Marteen should provide that. Last night was our first structured night of music. We did zero advertising for it and for a little while it went the way I wanted it to go, meaning that once patrons heard the music, they ended up staying to listen to it well after they were finished eating. The problem was that there were some kids in the audience and Ward ran out of songs to play that were appropriate for their ears. No, Ward does not have any trashy songs, but his songs are emotionally deep and he didn't want some little kid asking daddy some tricky questions in the car on the way home. So they will probably play some covers until the audience is completely adult. I have included a group picture of the artists. I will have to say that they are all VERY, VERY talented and if you can, you need to come hear them play. There are a lot of "singer/songwriters" out there who think they are pretty good and we all know that a lot of them suck. These guys are freakin' good! So please come hear them and buy food & drink from me so I can feed all these children I keep impregnating my wife with! Every Saturday night @7:30.

S L O WWWWWWWWWW

And I thought Halloween night was slow, last night was a morgue! I dont think we had 20 people come in!!! You sit around trying to figure out why.......the fog/rain, church, tired/hungover from Halloween. Last Wed. was church night and we still did well for the what is considered maybe the slowest day of the week in the restaurant industry. I think the fog/rain was a factor but I also think a lot of folks went to Halloween parties Tuesday night, got bomb-shelled and spent yesterday recovering. At the end of the day, who knows? I know we had a couple of shoulders leftover last night that will now have to go in some brunswick stew or pork carnitas. I'm eager to see how the next few nights do in regards to beer sales. Tonight is W. Virginia/Louisville (#3 vs. #5) and Saturday night is our songwriters night. Beer has been a slow seller believe it or not. The beer that has been selling are the old school beers we have like Pabst, Stroh's & Old Style. I recon folks like the nostalgia of it. How bout the Preds 8 game win streak? Hell, how bout the Titans 2 game win streak?!?!?!?! Yeah baby!