Since I wrote that, it's been a busy few weeks. Not so much work busy, while that's always something I spend time on, I've been slowly but surely developing a social life again. Which is awesome in that I now go out more and have fun. However, it's wretched for my sleep. I don't get nearly as much rest as I used to. But I'm hoping that I can just learn to survive on 5-6 hours of sleep. Some of the stuff I've been doing has been food related. Most importantly (especially to anyone who has been reading this blog for more than a little while), T and I hosted our now-traditional July 4th cook-in. That's right, we have no grill so we can't cook out. But we try to do the holiday justice and make some truly delicious food indoors.
This year was more low key than previous years. The first year was Southern Food Night (which apparently neither T nor I blogged about...lame). Last year was Degustation Day which I wrote about and which T failed to mention (epic fail!) and it became such a huge extravagant ordeal that I felt like this year we could probably stand to tone it down a bit. So we did. A smaller menu - although, really, it's hard not to get smaller than the insane 15 courses we did last year - and items that, while still delicious, were a bit less haute cuisine and a bit more haute comfort.
I won't do the full recap here because well, that's not why I set about posting tonight and also, no pictures. But the menu was as follows:
- Peppered beef/pork mini-burgers on garlic toast with blue cheese butter and balsamic onions
- T's ribs with his famous bbq sauce
- Baked garlic cheese grits
- Spicy sriracha slaw
- Truffled potato salad
- Fried shrimp with two sauces: veal stock based bacon sauce and a mango chutney
- Chocolate peanut butter pie
- Peach infused bourbon sweet tea
So yeah, it went well. The food was good, the company was even better, and the day produced a number of hilarious moments that will live in infamy.
Another fantastic occurrence from that week was the cocktail party T and I attended with a group of friends at The Gibson (a speakeasy-type cocktail mecca here in DC). We spent the night on their delightful patio eating delicious barbecue and enjoying some of the finest rickeys, juleps, punch, gimlets, and other summer cocktails that anyone can ever find. This place does pretty much everything it sets out to do to the highest level and that simple dedication to perfecting every detail is what makes it my favorite bar. I mean, for the juleps they made their crushed ice by blanching mint in water, straining it, and then freezing the mint water and crushing it into ice. Now THAT is dedication to your craft.
So, all that said, it's been a busy past few weeks. Lots of other events going on and what should be a pretty great night out on H Street for Taylor's birthday (you may know her from her previous appearance on this blog) happening this weekend.
But, none of that is really why I set my mind to writing tonight. As of midnight, it is now July 16th which makes today the first anniversary of when I started working at Granville Moore's. And frankly, I feel this is a big enough milestone that it deserves something to be said. Because unlike any other anniversary at a job, this one is special. This isn't just the day that I started a job but the day that my life changed in a massively significant way.
I wasn't really sure what to expect when I started working in a kitchen. Needless to say my feelings were a mixture of excitement, disbelief, and terror. Excitement because I had dreamt about getting to cook for a living for such a long time and I was finally getting the chance. Disbelief because I couldn't really fathom that it was finally happening. For so long it'd been merely a dream that I kept in the back of my mind but wasn't sure would ever really amount to anything. And terror because it was something so different from anything I'd done at any other point in my life and I wanted to be good at it but wasn't sure that would happen. I also didn't want to let down the chef who'd taken a chance on me and I didn't want to give anyone a reason to say "I told you so."
There were a lot of people who weren't sure I made the right choice. When I got the offer to basically start at the bottom of the food chain at Granville's I was also entertaining a job offer working in wine sales that was pretty much the exact opposite. Big salary, lots of perks, 9-5 hours, paid vacation, all the things that working your way up in a restaurant kitchen most certainly do NOT include. I knew that job would never make me as happy and that I'd always kick myself if I didn't at least try to work in a kitchen while I had the opportunity right in front of me. But it was still scary to turn down the financial security and predictable lifestyle for something that offered a decidedly hazier future.
So after a year, what do I think? A lot of things. First of all, I'm still really glad that I did it. I am happy that Teddy gave me the chance and I'm happy that I somehow found the balls to take him up on it. I've learned so much and this experience will forever shape what I go on to do with my life. No matter if I end up working for someone else or owning my own place, I'll always take with me the things I learned from Teddy and Granville's.
The second thing I think about it is that it just may be the best personal decision I've ever made. Sure it was a professional decision and it came down to a choice of careers. But in terms of how doing something I love every day has affected my personal life, I can't say enough. I am literally not the same person I was in my previous job. Well, okay, I am still a snarky, smartass, cynic. But I am a much happier one. I remember working at FMI and being so miserable in that job and that life that I would call my mom at least once every two weeks in tears because I missed my family, hated what I did every day, and it all made me feel really alone here.
Working at Granville's all of that is so different. Sure, I still miss my family. And it was especially tough when I didn't get to see them for Thanksgiving or Christmas this year. But the fantastic thing about working where I do is that it's more than a job and the people I work with are more than co-workers. They are my family and they've been there for me through two moves, one breakup, and countless nights of drinking, laughing, and making all the shitty things in life seem so much less important.
There are so many other terrific things about working there that I could list and some things that have been hard or difficult in that time but right now I mostly just want to think about the great things that have come out of it and how very happy I am with all the changes in my life over the last year.
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