Good morning world!

The weather is fantastic here in Key West! A long time in coming. But better late than never!

The radio show was terrific yesterday! Cheryl telephoned while I was on the air which made it even better. She is somewhere on her way home to the Chicago area with husband Roger.

I added a last minute bit about the economic stimulus to the show.

One of yesterday’s Key West local newspapers had a story about the street/sewer construction going on in Key West all of a sudden. It seems every other street is torn up. Detours all over the place.

It is the stimulus money Obama signed into law last year!

Seems it finally trickled down to Key West. There is a deadline for its use. Sometime in July. The Key West city fathers do not intend to miss a penny of it. Work being done all over the place. Which means jobs all over the place, even if temporary.

Hopefully more stimulus will be available as time goes on.

I was and am thrilled that I can finally see and experience the stimulus package at work. Good for Obama and good for us!

Saw my heart doctor yesterday afternoon. He is happy with my progress. Should be! Since my disaster last fall, I have stopped smoking and drinking. And lost 30 pounds to boot!

What a good boy am I!

The egg cutter saga. I returned to the Restaurant Store with the egg cutter I had purchased the day before. Not a big deal. A $5 item.

I told the woman who had taken care of me of my plight. I had hand washed the metal cutter before using it. The result was a gray soot. I then washed it in the dish washer. Same result. Then I hand washed it again. Still black soot.

I should not have used the dishwasher, she said. That is what caused the black stuff. She made it sound like it was my fault.

I had brought a clean tissue with me. In anticipation of needing to demonstate the problem. I hand swiped the egg cutter. Black on the tissue! I do not intend to eat eggs off this, I politely said.

She agreed to return my money. I said I do not want my money back. I want an egg cutter. They had another one on the counter made of plastic. A bit more expensive. I took the plastic one and paid the difference.

I thought she had a poor attitude. She did. Why blame me for using the dishwasher! What do I know about these things! Anyhow I do not believe the dishwasher had anything to do with it. The soot was there after the first hand washing job.

Lisa brought Robert and Ally over later in the afternoon to swim. I was ready for them. Especially Ally. The egg cutter was for her. I had hard boiled eggs before they arrived.

I made a production out of slicing a hard boiled egg. Let Ally press the lever down. She was thrilled! I was thrilled! Poppa had done good!

We all ate hard boiled eggs.

I was stuffed afterwards. Sufficiently that I did not go out to dinner last night. It was early to bed.

I am to be at Larry Smith’s at 10 this morning. Larry, Don, Tino, Alec, Petra, Kathleen, me and I cannot recall who else are trying to put together a Key West radio/TV show. This will be our third meeting. I do not know what will come of it. From a simple half hour talk show, it has grown into a big time variety production exhibiting various Key West talents and attributes.

Enjoy your day!

3 comments on “

  1. I think we should be preparing for Lake Wobegon, except we'll call it "Last Flight Out" or something equally Key West.

    Oh wait. That's a copyright. Think of something…

  2. I think I ran into the same lady in the Restaurant Store a few weeks ago.

    We're stocking our new home on Cudjoe Key and discovered that none of the grocery stores, Winn Dixie, et al., in the lower Keys stock the coarse sea salt that we use in our salt mill. It's easy to find up in DC but none here.

    "Let's go the the Restaurant Store"! They'll have it.

    Go in…look around. Kosher salt, fine grain sea salt…nothing that would work in a mill. Ask the lady at the counter? "There's no such thing as COARSE sea salt" was her curt almost snarling response. What a b**ch! No more visits to the Restaurant Store for us.

  3. Hey, Key West Lou and Jack K. Thanks for the feedback on the service. We run a small, family business so when we hear stories like yours we take it very seriously. It sounds like you all should have been treated a lot better and I am very sorry about that. The truth is, we really try to be at our best every time we deal with a customer. Unfortunately, we are human and sometimes we fall short of the mark. We really do have a good group of dedicated folks here. They are all my friends (and some of them are my relatives). One of our goals is to enjoy coming to work and have a little fun. There are enough places in town where you can get bad service; we don't need to be one of them. It sounds like one of our employees was having a bad day (or days?) and needs a vacation. We need to remind ourselves not to let our daily problems bubble to the surface. You deserve better than that when you come to our store and I hope you give me the opportunity to make it up to you.

    The cheap aluminum slicer is something we have to stock for certain restaurants because all they care about is the price. This type of aluminum oxidizes easily especially it put in a dishwasher. Over time, it does not oxidize as much and so that must make it acceptable to our restaurant customers. I'm sorry we didn't sell you the better slicer the first time. We love to talk about our products and if we didn't make it clear, we screwed up. If something costs a little more, there is generally a good reason for it. I believe the slicer that you are happy with is the OXO model. This company makes great products, using ergonomic designs and the most durable materials. They guarantee their items and will replace them if there is a problem. We love OXO and will try to make that the first choice if we have one in stock.

    As for the Coarse Sea Salt for grinders. You are absolutely correct and we regularly have that type of salt in stock. In fact when we sell a salt grinder, we like to point out that you must use a salt appropriate for grinders or you will void the warranty and be unhappy with the results. We do sell all types of other salts and have a really nice french gray sea salt packed in bulk. We regularly tell our customers, “now don't put this in your grinder….”

    Anyway, my point in this lengthy response is to let you both know that we are not bad people. We don't set out to make enemies of our customers. The reason we are here is because we want you to come in and ask questions about our cool products, open the box, maybe run into a chef while you are in the store and ask them how they use an item. I like to think we are different and we make a difference in the community. I know you can buy things on the internet or some big store in Miami. But I hope you will give us another chance.

    Richard Tallmadge
    The Restaurant Store
    Key West

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *