Finding Our Way

These two near misses in our staffing plan can be scrutinized another day. Today we’ll review my performance as Mastermind. This month we have owned the business for a year. I bet we have reinvented the business fifteen times in the last twelve months. No kidding. Most of what we do, and will continue to do, we imagined when we bought the business. In hindsight I see that we imagined it like one imagines what the ground looks like while flying over it at 30,000 feet. The seemingly perfect view doesn’t give you a real sense of what it’s going to be like climbing over all those boulders once you’re actually on the ground.

I am reminded of that zany moment in 1981 after Ronald Reagan was shot. While Reagan lay in his hospital bed, Secretary of State Alexander Haig barged into a national news conference and declared to a stunned nation, "I'm in charge here!" Only, as every schoolchild knows, the Vice President (then George Bush the elder) was next in the chain of command. Haig was fourth in the line of succession and loaded on lithium at the time. Poor old Al was a bundle of insecurities and low self-esteem. He once complained to an associate, "I'm being undermined by weenies and second-rate hambones."

Recently, with me boldly and arduously leading the way, Janet tugged on my shirt and asked me, “Why are we climbing these boulders? Why don’t we just walk on that path over there?” I tried to explain to her that, “Mine is the Way of the Warrior! Paths are for weenies and hambones!” Shortly thereafter I collapsed in exhaustion and Janet drug me over the rocks and onto her path.

I think this will be much easier. Talent and experience are the tools Janet uses to make her way. When she is left free to simply do her work, people say ‘Yes!’ She is a chef and restaurateur. That’s who she is, that’s what she does. My main job now is to try and keep her from working herself to death. My jobs now, in order of priority are to 1) Keep the decks clear so that Janet can do her work, 2) act as your personal raconteur when you visit the restaurant and 3) pour wine. If I do well with the first job, things should get a lot easier around here. Wish me luck. Janet needs all the help she can get.

Angels At Our Table

The stars once spoke to man. It is world destiny that they are silent now To become aware of this silence Can be pain for earth humanity. But in the deepening silence There grows and ripens What man speak to the stars. To become aware of this speaking Can become strength for Spirit Man.

Rudolph Steiner

At Harvard Business School they probably don't instruct students to discuss strategic business decisions with their customers, particularly in terms of the evolution of the consciousness soul and world destiny. Perhaps they are right. Confining such conversations to the realm of "what" engenders a certain sense of solidity. Embracing woo-woo and the murky realm of "why" does have its downside. I posit here however that the concepts of what and why are best understood when packaged together. It's all about Faith.

Faith is much misunderstood. The word "faith" typically refers to knowledge and convictions that are not supported by material evidence or proof. It would be more useful if folks would simply settle for believing something without invoking faith in order to recast their beliefs as knowledge. Using faith to transmogrify beliefs into facts provides a false sense of security and often forestalls additional reasonable inquiry. It becomes a means to shelve some of life's greatest riddles.

Properly understood, Faith is not a substitute from of knowledge; Faith is an actualizing force. Faith was not essential in earlier epochs of evolution when "the Stars once spoke to man" and the relationship between human beings and the hierarchies was ordered much differently. But that was then, and this is now. Now we are left with only our own volition and powers of divination. Our angels no longer actuate their will directly through us but instead are chained to our bumbling and dithering. It is only when we act, when we take the "right" next step, that these angels are set free to do their work and to fulfill their own destinies. This freeing of the hierarchies is called Faith. Faith occurs when we use accurate intuition, or divination, and combine that knowledge with our courage and, accordingly, our Will. Faith is an actualizing force that unleashes the hierarchies and sets all manner of events into motion. Now that's leverage!

The real trick is to do our work and take the necessary steps before the angels get fed up with waiting and attempt to force our hand, usually by inspiring events to beat the tar out us. We have all had experiences in our lives that seemed so upsetting at the time and now, looking back, we see perfect wisdom. We look around and see people we love that we wouldn't have met or find ourselves doing fulfilling work that we would never have discovered but for these upsetting events in our past. Yet wouldn't it have been nice if we could have found our way without the beatings?

Such is the perusing of ownership these days at Bethany's Table as we chart our next steps. It was seemingly serendipity that landed us in this business when the previous owner, David's sister Shelley, threw in the towel. In just a year we have danced and gyrated our way into an enterprise that bears very little resemblance to the business we acquired. We have been clinging to the original conception of our core business to be selling prepared meals. Since Janet is a trained chef, we distinguished our offerings as upgraded from the Dinners Ready menu by branding them as "restaurant quality meals". We started serving lunch to better use the space that was once filled with stainless steel carts and to get people through the door. We started hosting wine tastings in order to feature meals from our menu. One thing lead to another and we started the "What's For Dinner" program with nightly offerings of four to five entrees from our test kitchen. Now we have a full menu and serve dinner five nights per week. Wine tastings and group events are common occurrences.

The transaction volume from lunch and dinner has outpaced prepared meal sales by a significant factor. Yet we have continued to define ourselves as a prepared meal business that is also a restaurant. But this is no longer true. We have unwittingly become a restaurant that also sells prepared meals. We no longer need to brand the meals as "restaurant quality". Of course they are restaurant quality. We are a restaurant; and a good one. So we have decided to remake the meal business to into a more natural offshoot of the restaurant. This singleness of purpose will simplify our message and enhance creativity. The prepared meals menu will be pared down but more flexible with a greater emphasis on seasonality and fresh foods.

Let's hope this makes the angels happy. We could use the leverage.

Southern Oregon Wines

There are scads of wineries in Southern Oregon. The website for Southern Oregon Wineries Association (www.sowa.org) boasts 48 member wineries.  One of our favorites among these is Abacela (www.abacela.com).  So we are continuing our Southern Oregon exploration on Friday, July 10th by featuring this truly great winery.

As usual, we will greet guests beginning at 6:30 and seat at 7:00 pm. and begin at 7. The cost is $25.00.

Be there!

Call (503) 614-0267 or use the form below to make your reservation.

Menu Changes

The restaurant menu and the prepared meals menu each boast a number of new items this month. The big change however is in the number of items that have been pruned from the prepared meals menu. We apologize to those of you who will mourn the removal of your favorites. Yet because you loved the Meatloaf, the Chicken Cordon Bleu, the Shrimp Ravioli, etc. we kept them on the menu month after month. Each month it grew tougher to make room for new items and maintaining inventory became more and more cumbersome. And the menu got a bit stale.

The work to manage the monster take-home meal menu has been clogging up our work. We will continue to emphasize the family friendly “Crowd Pleaser” meals. Specialty meals inspired by the current season will fill out the remainder of the menu. We still offer Kids Meals (you can use the Teen Burritos to bale you out all summer). Fresh vegetables and salads are always available.

Jim the Duke of Soup churns out new concoctions faster than we can keep track of him so we have decided to fill your soup orders directly from the specials board when you come into the store. At least one vegetarian soup will always be available. Recycle! Bring your own container and save 50 cents.

Click here to View Downloadable Menus.

Or click here to Order Online.

Let us know your opinion of these changes by commenting below.

Summer Food & Wine Tasting

Wine tasting happens at our Table every Friday night. Seating is limited to 14 participants. We typically serve four light courses paired with five or six wines. The cost is $20 to $30 depending on the wine. It’s usually just $20.

It’s always fun, always entertaining and usually educational. If Ron Grasty is on hand it is sure to be educational but these days he is often preoccupied distributing wine and promoting his new book, “The Wine Puzzle”.  Click here to check out TheWinePuzzle.com.

In June we are exploring Summer Food & Wine. Try a great Rose with some Gazpacho. Maybe we’ll pair the Spinach, Strawberry and Pecan Salad with a classic German Riesling.  The Sangiovese is great with the Pasta Primavera and let’s try a great Cab with the Grilled Flank Steak. Twenty bucks. That’s all. Twenty bucks.

Space is limited, so email your reservation now.

The Duke of Soup

Jim "The Duke" Davis

Many of you know Jim. Jim is an actor, director, gardener, musician, handyman, truck driver and cook.

And Jim is the Duke of Soup.

Jim's penchant for making soup is unstoppable. He often doesn't follow a recipe. He just makes soup and it's always good.

Jim has developed quite a following. Lately he has been making some great summer soups such as Gazpacho and an Asparagus Vichyssoise. The only problem is, we can't seem to keep track of all the soups Jim has on hand and his freewheeling style makes it a real nuisance to maintain the online menu.

So we have taken the list of soups off of the prepared meals menu and instead now sell it more on an ad hoc basis. There will always be at least four soups available. They are always list on the chalkboard by the kitchen. These will be the soups we are selling to our lunch and dinner customers that day and we will happily fill pint and quart containers for folks to take home. The price remains the same, $6 per pint and $10 per quart. A number of our regulars have been bringing in their empty containers for us to refill and we think this is a great idea. To encourage and reward this highly efficient mode of recycling we will credit back 50 cents for every container we refill.

We absolutely promise that you will love Jim’s soup. Try some today.