Sweet Butter is nearly three weeks old!

If you've ever had a baby, then you know how joyful and difficult those first weeks can be. A blur of moments held together by a bond so strong that you are able to withstand the string of sleepless nights and colicky days that lay ahead.

Opening a restaurant isn’t much different. Your idea is fertilized when the lease is signed and then, quite suddenly, (after months of hard-work), your baby is there for the world to see. Some days are good, and some days are not so good. But I can tell you this, they are never boring.

In a single hour you can expect at least one person to tell you that you have brought life to an otherwise forlorn corner, three people to tell you that you should extend breakfast and start lunch earlier, and at least one major malfunction with either the plumbing, POS system, dishwasher, trash pick-up, linen delivery, outside heaters or bathrooms. Add it up….after twelve hours, you have put out many fires, but also encountered many generous, kind guests who remind you why you went into the hospitality business in the first place.

Sweet Butter is only three weeks old, but I am proud of her! She has a lot to learn, but I have faith that she will mature gracefully.

My son, Andrew, turns 23 this Monday. I know it sounds trite — but it feels like yesterday — all those sleepless nights and colicky days. Hemingway said it best. “Memory is hunger.”

Andrew and his girlfriend Christine at Sweet Butter