Working In The Neighborhood

Living "the life" in Bethany

It’s so cool to have a family-run neighborhood business. It would be great to make a lot of money at it… but what would we buy?  Time off?  If I had time off I’d probably want to go out to eat. I’d find myself stuck at a table in a restaurant where I didn’t know anybody.  At BT I eat as well as any place in the city, I wander around the restaurant at will, I know almost everybody and anybody I don’t know I can go up to and introduce myself.

What’s really cool about it, now that summer is here - at least according to the calendar, is that the kids are always around.  Nick washes dishes Tuesday-Thursday lunch.  Adam works Monday on prep and deep clean and then on Tuesday and Wednesday night.  John works Thursday-Saturday evenings. Ryan pulls random stints helping out Janet while repaying the cost of his cell phone account, and Jared shows up to help with the baking. Devon is working as a swim instructor again this summer - putting plenty of gooseflesh on display for Portland Parks but we don’t see much of her.

Who wouldn’t want this business? Now that we live in the neighborhood life really starts to make sense. Our next step is to join Bethany Athletic Club. I have been holding off in hopes of leveraging a family membership into some form of cross-promotion. I have a vague imagination that BT customers - those who are not already members – are prime prospects for BAC recruitment.  I would like to obtain special guest pass privileges to share with our customers. Or perhaps we could host a pool party, or half-price beer for triathletes… or some such thing.  We'll keep you posted!

The one riddle I can’t solve is what the heck Bethany-ites do for breakfast?  How is it possible that we were not stampeded every time we opened the doors when we were serving breakfast on the weekends?  We continue to improve the capacity of our kitchen so maybe we’ll try it again some day; if only so that I have a place to hang out in the morning.