FROM MY SIDE OF THE COUNTER

A message from Paul, owner of Crawford Boys. May 21, 2013

Niagara-On-the-Lake

Long weekends are great. We all get an extra day to relax, take a few days out of town, catch up on the ‘to do’ list…whatever.

Business on long weekends, with the exception of Canada Day is impossible to predict and checking sales from past years is of no use. There is no pattern to be found. The Canada Day week end is the first real summer holiday break and business is always quiet, quiet, quiet.

Victoria Day weekends are erratic. Some are very busy. On others; well rolling the proverbial bowling ball down the sidewalk and not hitting anybody…….
This inconsistency would make adequate staffing a challenge but for my belief that it is better to have slow business and be over staffed than find ourselves really busy and be under staffed. Trying to cut expenses 4 or 5 days a year by assuming a slow day and reduced staff levels is, I believe ‘Penny wise and Pound foolish’. Crawford Boys customers are entitled to our full service regardless of regular or long week ends. Continue reading →

FROM MY SIDE OF THE COUNTER

A message from Paul, owner of Crawford Boys. May 8, 2012

In order for an action to become a tradition it must be repeated on a regular basis .  Some traditions have been around so long that their origins have been lost in the sands of time but there must have been a very powerful reason for their inception because we continue to follow along.  While this is true for many, the beginnings of others may be simpler.  Take the following as an example.

A young girl asked her mother “When you cook a roast, why do you always cut a piece off the end ant throw it into the pot separately?”

“Because that’s how it’s always been done.  My mother did it that way, so I do as well.  How about we ask her when we visit next.”

That week end the girl asked her grandmother about the roast.

“I do it that way because my mother taught me to do it that way.  That is how it should be cooked but I don’t know why.  When you visit great grandmother you should ask.”

At the first opportunity the young girl broached the question to her great grandmother.

“Why, that is the way my mother always cooked a roast, dear.  I really don’t know why but she did it that way, so I did the same.  One of my keep sakes is a book of recipes hand written by my mother.  Perhaps she wrote about the roast.  Let’s look.”

After turning a number of pages in this generations old cook book they found a recipe for cooking a roast.  Along with the instructions was a notation, ‘Pot too small. Cut end off roast and place in pot separately’. Continue reading →