Notes from Service: IN-SEASON 2
A two-minute inside look on when the dinner ends and the lessons begin.
Our first dinner was a lot harder.
Guests left with smiles, cloaked in gratitude for the first IN-SEASON dinner. And alI I felt was guilt.
I’d done little prep. Printed no menus. Led a flimsy service walkthrough. Played music I only updated between courses. A bunch of lazy choices that can’t be excused by being a novice to hospitality.
Those failures became a list to attack in the weeks, days and hours ahead IN-SEASON 2. A promise to never wing it again.
Fast-forward last Thursday. The aforementioned… IN-SEASON 2.
Chef Tea came sharp, again. Her courses for thirteen guests were distributed by three waiters. We proudly set every course in under a minute.
Matte menus with handwritten ingredients for each course gained stains as Rosalia’s LUX bled into D’Angelo’s Black Messiah. Our U-shaped table set up held the hum of connection. Only quiet when we set each course. Mashallah. I did my part this time.
The sweet thing about progress is the clarity it gives.
By the time our guests left with bouquets in hand, Chef Tea, our serving team (Dom, Jabari) and lead creative (Storko) made a voice note on what we can do better:
Immediately thought about lighting, a bit cold inside the art gallery. We relied on the venue to have color options, but that was an assumption our guests paid for. A simple light rental could have warmed the space up. Noted.
Florals too. That morning’s visit to LA’s Flower District made me feel romantic. Until I unwrapped solidagos and eucalypti to see the loooongest stems. I scrambled, until Storko revealed his past as a flower shop employee… Clutch. We made the florals work in a V-formation, hanging over the opposite side of every guest in alignment to Chef Tea’s plating. Better execution will come when we bring in a partner to set florals and table settings. Noted.
Humility follows us like the seasons. We cherish it by accepting these lessons in the moment. The primary one:
The more you host, the better you serve.
Showing up early, like weeks early, enables us to action our curiosities of community shares flavor. That effort lets the room glow with warmth, from the ceiling to the floor.
Inshallah, IN-SEASON 3 is in 3 weeks. Keep up with us to see what we improve next.