Gnome Away from Home

The Gnome Cafe is our center of operation for the next few months. We’re working Thursday through Sunday from 7 am until 2 pm. I work the grill and prepare all the food, while Robin mans the cash register, takes orders, whips up the milkshakes and dishes out the cones and ice cream.  For our first hour, preparation is intensive. It begins by firing up the grill and fryers, ice cream machine and the multitude of coffee pots. Some of the breakfast meats need to be pre-cooked as the grill isn’t large enough to do three or four meals at one time. This means that I need to make enough bacon to get started in case I get a run on it. It’s time consuming to make and patrons want their meals within minutes. While this is going on, we whip three vats of pancake mix, french toast coating and beat enough eggs to feed the breakfast rush. The doors open at 8 and we serve breakfast until 11 am. Just like any other cafe there are lulls when I get a chance to catch up, slice veggies or start preparing some lunch items. However, much of the time the customers come in droves in a short spanse of time. I’ll look up at the orders and there may be six or seven tickets waiting to get filled in the next few minutes. That’s when the pressure is on and I’m at my best, trying to get the best product out in the shortest time period. All the while Robin is going like mad, making sure orders are correct, pouring beverages, continually making coffee and giving me orders. Some things never change, huh.  All joking aside, this time the orders are written. By 10:30 , we begin making preparations for the lunch items, making sure hamburgers are thawed, quesadilla contents are in the bin, ice cream is ready to go, and back ups are ready for every bin that might go empty during a rush. The upper doors open to the pool at noon when the cafe becomes a madhouse of activity. We may get two customers in fifteen minutes and in the next ten minutes a dozen orders are bedazzling me hanging in front of the grille. It makes the time go fast and there is no better satisfaction than a customer coming up after their meal, telling you how much they’ve enjoyed what you prepared. And Robin’s smile and endless ability to converse seems to make them keep coming back. It’s also an added bonus by her keeping them busy as I’m trying my best to get their order out in a timely manner. Thank goodness for her gift of gab.