A letter to Sarah

Hi Sarita,

So I’m at a crossroads. I thought I’d use this email as a sounding board more than anything, since by the time you get this and have a chance to respond, my decision will probably already have been made. So here it goes.

First of all, I made the free trip to Tulsa last week to interview for the restaurant in Oklahoma. It wasn’t me. I don’t know how to describe it without sounding completely snobbish and egocentric, but they tout it as the best restaurant in town (Bartlesville, which it probably is), but it was atrocious. The servers were sloppy and disheveled. The service was mediocre. They were serving probably 30 covers that day…which is a busy lunch in their books, and they all looked like the ship was going down. The space itself was disorganized and poorly laid out. The menu is written by a corporate chef that visits quarterly to update it as well as coming in for special events, etc…however, he is based out of Dallas. The day to day kitchen is executed by 2 line cooks, who I’m sure do what the chef’s directive is, but it is not fine dining. We ordered the hummus at lunch, which is apparently the best-seller, and the presentation wasn’t bad, pita triangles lined each side of a square plate set on a diagonal and then a large dollop of hummus was at the top corner. On either side of that was a pile of cured olives. The huge dollop of hummus had a sprig of rosemary standing up out of it. Nice…

The entire interview, which lasted about 3 hours, including lunch, was basically these two corporate guys telling me all about the place and continually asking me if I was interested. I got the feeling that they were trying to fill a position that’s been open for too long and then here I come, with a nice education and some experience in the Napa Valley, but only in the industry for 4 years, so I’m still a little cheap, so I’m the perfect candidate.

I know what you’re thinking. All of this would be a great challenge and maybe I’m the one to come in there, bust some ass and turn it all around…show the people of Bartlesville what fine dining really is. But, honestly, I just had this sick feeling while I was in the building that I would be embarrassed to have my name attached to this place. Enter the snob I’ve become. Whatever. It didn’t feel right. All of this is also coming from knowing that they only budgeted mid-thirties for salary for this position and it is basically a GM position. Now, having said all of that, if they call tomorrow and come through with an offer like 50K, I’ll strongly consider it because, let’s face it…money talks.

The biggest bummer is that the entire time I was home I just had this huge sinking feeling because I knew I wasn’t really feeling it and I would have to tell my parents that this wasn’t the “Katie’s going to decide to move home” trip and I didn’t even want to tell them that I had an offer in San Francisco (I’ll get to those detail in a minute) because it would make me feel like the disappointment of the century. And when I did tell them, that was exactly the reaction I got. My mom spent the rest of that hour trying to drag all of the negative aspects of the job to light.

Now, that’s one hand...On the other hand, I received a job offer with La Boulange in San Francisco. This is the cute French Café/bakery chain in San Francisco. You remember the one on Union Street, I’m sure…tres adorable! Basically, you walk in and the length of the dining room has a large pastry case and counter. Behind the counter, mounted on the walls are chalkboard menus. Guests can come in and order breads to take home, or pastries of all sorts, additionally, there is a soup/salad/sandwich menu that you can order from. Once you order it, you get a number and the order goes to a little kitchen in the back. A cook prepares it and a staff member delivers it to the guest in the dining room. The place has another counter where a coffee station is set up, with self-serve organic coffee. The tables are minimal, wooden, simple with simple café chairs. The dining room is wired with wifi, so people can linger on their laptops, or they can take their items to go. It is a GM position and likely, they will place me in their new Hayes Valley location, slated to open near the end of August. Otherwise I would be in their North Beach location on Columbus Avenue, in which case, they would be firing the current manager in time for me to move in. I would prefer the Hayes Valley location.

The compensation package they offered is a little too low, unfortunately…but includes the opportunity for bonuses, but the first potential bonus would be 9 months away. This isn’t enough for me to move to San Francisco. I’ve done the math on paper and if I consolidate all of my non-student loan debt (credit cards, etc) then I could do it for a little more, so if tomorrow, when I speak to them and tell them this, and they offer me a slightly better number, then I will very likely be moving to San Francisco to be the GM of a small French Café/Bakery.

Here’s where it gets sticky….you know me, the chicken….the thought of taking the plunge and moving to SF absolutely terrifies me. I’m excited as well, but really really nervous. Plus, my family is completely unsupportive. Which I shouldn’t care about, but it really bothers me. And I keep having people react a little bit like I’m taking a step down by moving to a place with such casual service. Do you think it’s a step down? I mean, yes, it’s simpler service, but it’s a new experience for me. And also, part of what’s really appealing to me is that this is very similar in concept and execution to what I see myself owning someday…so why not learn on someone else’s dime?

Sigh….I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know. Shouldn’t I know? Shouldn’t I have this strong gut feeling pulling me in one direction? I definitely am very interested in the café bakery, I really love the concept and I think it would be good experience and I could be happy, as long as the job doesn’t also make my financial ruins reach a catastrophic level, or keep me at work so much that I have no time to appreciate the quality of life in San Francisco, then I kinda want it. I’m completely self-assured, aren’t I?

Thank you, dear sounding board. Please don’t hold back any advice or other comments, as even though I think the decision will be made tomorrow, it may not be and then your voice would be most appreciated in further consideration.

much love,

Katie