Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
B y the following week, they had settled into a regular schedule of sorts.
Mandy worked the lunch shifts, so her hours were mostly when the kids were in school.
If she knew ahead of time that she was going to need to stay longer, she could always put them into extended day session or, in a pinch, call one of her sisters to pick them up.
Jill worked mostly evenings and usually helped at the bar.
She liked the way the night flew by, especially when they were busy.
Emma was still trying to figure out where she fit best in the restaurant.
Because she’d previously worked both as a server and behind the bar, she was able to jump in wherever they had a hole that needed to be plugged, even in the kitchen where she manned the salad and dessert stations, plated cheesecakes, and chopped vegetables for the salad.
Her schedule varied depending on what was going on each day and was mostly nights with a few days here and there.
She was starting to enjoy having her days free and spending time wandering around Nantucket.
It was both familiar and new and different at the same time as it had been so long since she’d lived there.
One of her favorite discoveries was a tiny coffee shop just off Main Street.
She’d stumbled into My Favorite Cup when walking around one day.
Although the coffee was excellent, what Emma really liked was the feel of the place.
It was very cozy and artsy, with original art and photographs on the walls, posters for creative events, and eclectic furniture, none of it matching.
She settled into a worn and buttery-soft leather chair, set down her steaming coffee and toasted bagel, and plugged in her laptop.
All around her, people were tapping away on keyboards or chatting into cell phones.
There was an interesting assortment of people—several power-suit types, checking email on their phones, while the rest of the clientele seemed to be a mix of tourists, moms with small children, and more creative types, the group that Emma felt a part of.
She ate most of her bagel while her laptop was booting up and thought about the project she was embarking on.
She’d decided to start a blog of sorts to go with her website.
She had a very basic website that one of Peter’s friends had designed for her about a year ago.
It had some of her best photographs along with a bio and contact information.
When she was in Arizona, almost all her work came through word of mouth, so the website was just a formality, a place people could go to easily get her contact information by simply googling her name.
She worked on her site for a while, and once she had everything looking the way she’d envisioned it, she turned her attention to her next project.
Her other idea was for another blog, a food/photo blog, that would feature her recipes and photos of dishes she tried to create and possibly pictures and features on Mimi’s Place.
She hadn’t run that idea by the others yet though.
They were due to catch up Sunday afternoon for brunch.
Mandy had suggested they get together to go over the consultant’s preliminary suggestions and to compare notes on how the first full week had gone.
Emma figured the food blog would be a no-brainer, especially since the website for Mimi’s Place, like its menu, hadn’t been updated in several years. She wrote a couple of sample posts and was deliberating which font to go with when a sudden bump of her chair caused her coffee to spill a bit.
“I’m so sorry. Let me grab you a napkin.” The tall man in front of her was apologetic and strangely familiar. Emma placed him in an instant.
“Veal parmesan, extra sauce on the side, right?” He’d come in twice for lunch last week—once alone and another time with what Emma guessed were several coworkers.
“Yes! Great memory.” He quickly grabbed a paper napkin from a nearby coffee stand, blotted up the small amount of spilled coffee, and then held out his hand and introduced himself.
“John Bigley. The accounting firm I work for is a block away, just off Main Street. Guess you could say I’m a regular. ”
“I’m Emma. My sisters and I are the new owners of Mimi’s Place, and we definitely appreciate our regulars.
” He still seemed a bit nervous, so she tried to make him feel at ease.
“Don’t worry about the coffee. I only spilled a drop, and it was getting cold anyway.
I’ve been here awhile, and that was my third cup.
I’m well caffeinated.” She smiled and was glad to see him relax a bit.
He was kind of cute if you liked the clean-cut preppy type.
He was about six feet tall and was wearing a pale blue oxford shirt tucked into well-worn jeans.
His hair was sandy blond and very short, as if he’d just had a cut.
He was probably about her age, and if she was looking, he was the type she might go for.
But of course she wasn’t—looking, that is.
And because of that, she wasn’t nearly as nervous as she would have been otherwise.
“Are you sure? I was just heading up to get in line. I’d be happy to pick up a hot cup for you,” he offered.
“No, I’m good, thanks. I’m going to be heading out shortly.” She looked at her watch and sat up in surprise at the time. Several hours had flown by since she’d first arrived at the café, and she was due at the restaurant in a half hour. “I didn’t realize how late it was. I have to run.”
“Right. Well, I’ll see you next week, I’m sure.”
He went to join the coffee line, and Emma gathered up her stuff. She was going to have to race to make it to Mimi’s Place by three and relieve Mandy, who had to pick up the kids. It was a juggling act, but between the three of them, they were managing to make it work so far.
Paul worked one lunch shift each week to give Jason a day off and also to give himself a night off. He was writing out the daily specials list when Mandy walked into the kitchen and looked around until she saw him and made her way over to him.
“I have something I need to tell you.” Mandy paused and seemed somewhat hesitant.
“What is it?”
She took a deep breath before continuing. “So my husband, Cory, hired a consultant to come in here a few times and then make some recommendations for how we can improve the business.”
Paul immediately felt defensive. “What’s wrong with the business?”
Mandy met his gaze. “Have you read over the financials?”
“No, not yet.” They were in a folder with all the other paperwork that he’d been given, and he hadn’t looked at them yet. He’d never been a numbers person.
“Well, sales are down, and costs are up, and this is what Cory does, evaluates businesses. He hired the guy as a gift for all of us.”
Paul still wasn’t sure if he liked the sound of it.
“What kind of changes is he going to want?”
“I’m not sure. He’s going to come in a few times to eat, and he’d like to be able to walk around the whole restaurant, including the kitchen, just to see everything.
This is all he does, help restaurants reinvent themselves.
And it’s just going to be observations and suggestions.
We’ll review everything, and then the four of us will decide what, if anything, we want to do. ”
Paul relaxed a bit. “Okay, he can walk around. I suppose it will be interesting to see what he has to say.” He’d suggested updating the menu a few times over the years, but when Ray ran the idea by Rose, she never wanted it changed.
Instead they agreed to allow him to be as creative as he wanted with the specials.
When an item like the short ribs was consistently popular, he just kept it in the regular rotation, and that had seemed to work fine.
But maybe it was time for some changes, including an overhaul of the menu, if sales were down as much as Mandy implied.
He’d have to open that folder when he got home and take a closer look.
When Emma arrived at the restaurant, Mandy was organizing lunch checks at the front desk. She looked up and smiled when she saw Emma.
“Thanks for agreeing to come in a bit earlier. Brooke is starting a new dance class today.”
“No problem. How was lunch? Was it busy?” Emma glanced around the nearly empty dining room, which wasn’t really a good indicator since they were in between lunch and dinner.
“It wasn’t too bad. We had a bit of a rush earlier. Gary experimented with putting a sign outside listing the day’s specials, so it may have been that, or just warmer than usual weather. You never know, right?”
Mandy left a moment later, and Emma poked her head in the kitchen to say hello to Paul. “I heard your lunch specials were a big hit,” Emma said, helping herself to a roll and butter.
“We’ll see how they do tonight. That will be the real test,” Paul said, but he was smiling, and Emma could tell he was pleased. “We’re also adding a butternut squash tortelloni with toasted walnuts, prosciutto, and a cream sauce with a little gorgonzola.”
“Yum.” Emma bit into her roll, and then her stomach did a giddy dance as Paul pushed a small dish of the pasta special toward her. “I really shouldn’t,” she protested weakly and dug her fork into the creamy sauce. As anticipated, the contrast of flavors and textures was delicious.
“Now you can sell it to the customers.”
And she did. Emma loved when she was asked what was good and what she’d recommend.
She didn’t hesitate to give her honest opinion.
If there was a dish she loved, she raved about it.
If there was one that she was less crazy about such as the surf and turf, which in her opinion had a too small and thin steak, she’d truthfully say something like “It’s an excellent steak, but if you’re very hungry, it’s not an oversize portion.
You might enjoy the New York strip instead. ”