Excited Scotsman brandishing live lobsters

This morning as a great start to the week Mr Howie himself - pictured above grinning from ear to ear and brandishing two live critters as the others thrash about in a large box in the walk in fridge - drove the 45 minutes from Edinburgh down to our secret location in East Lothian to collect the latest batch of Scottish lobsters. Scrabbling and twitching to escape he didn't worry that they might get a hold of him with one of their great fat claws as they have bands tied round them to save them lunging and causing death by lobster. So all is good.

Howies is full of lobsters.

They are not amused.

But we are and hopefully you will be when you taste that succulence safe in the knowledge that just a few hours ago they were swimming in the great blue North Sea. 

Enjoy!

Public Holiday but not for the Restaurant Business....

Highland Cattle - yeh they look cute but by goodness they taste even better. (Sorry Coo)

Yes two whole days off. The1st and the 2nd then bang! The 3rd January it's back into the frey.
Closing Howies for 2 days sounds like heaven but in reality it means the second the doors open again we all hit the ground running.
Phone messages, emails and texts for bookings are taken as deliveries start piling in from 10am sharp.
We have no freezers in Howies so we get deliveries every day except Sunday and if we've been shut for a couple of days that means we start from scratch again. Wouldn't have it any other way.

Yes yes of course this adds pressure on the chefs but vitally it gives us the ability to be seasonal and change the menu every day. Yes we have our stalwart favourites but at this time of year in Scotland there is a plethora of game available.  Lordy it's tasty stuff. Venison, pheasant, rabbit, hare, partridge and the like gathered from the Glens and cooked fresh. Wonderful. This January we have a great supply of Scottish pheasants so there are lots of tweaking on  a variety of pheasant recipes  to decide which ones cut the mustard and are on the list.

So as you read this the chefs are getting all their delicious ingredients together and preparing for the cook off. Yeah!

This is a joy.

The head chef cooks everything on the menu. Every starter, every main course and every pud and then we all get together to taste and give feedback as to what's good, great and an absolute beezer.

There are 3 Howies Restaurants but we are not a formulaic set up on any level so the chefs design their own menus and with tasting, testing and talking we end up with 3 cracking and unique menus.
Head chef at Howies Victoria Street is Chris.....Waterloo Place is Stevie and in Aberdeen we have a new head chef starting on the 6th....more of which later....

I intend to try everything. EVERYTHING. Of course there will be salad on the menu this month - well there has to be for me or I may combust.

Menu highlights here in next post....but right now....I'm off to pluck a pheasant......please fill in your own joke here........oh and here are some highland coos in action on the Isle of Mull on the West Coast - cute !

The Restaurant Business brace yourself!

Are we mad?
Well we must be.
5 years ago we sold a restaurant group in Scotland called Howies and this week - *drum roll* we bought it back.
When we sold up it was a halleluiah moment.

It was a fond farewell to 37 hour days, stress, sleepless nights, supplier dramas, customer juggling, responsiblity for keeping everyone staff and customers hap hap happy.
And a big hello to a calm and regulated lifestyle, regular hours, quality time with family and friends, inhaling without the pressure of  a manic voice in your head shouting 'stop inhaling that's taking too long you should be on the phone sourcing a new Hobart as the old steam drive one has finally collapsed'.


And now look at us!
Once more into the breach.
With the benefit of time, bascially being out of the madness of catering for 5 years,  we are back, fired up and raring to go.
Well we are.
Which is just as well....we're in the middle of a recession, and the world has changed and well frankly so have we. No longer the wet behind the ear, wide eyed newbies not these days we are more the crinkly faced, bow backed, fools who for some reason best known to themselves glossed over the bad memories and focussed on the good time (singular). Ok I do exaggerate but well.......

....here we are pictured last week. The day we got the keys back standing outside Howies Waterloo  in Edinburgh. 
If you come back to this blog, which I hope you will, you will find an honest day to day account of what it's really like to be in this business they call restaurant.

7 days a week. 7 nights a week. Dealing with the public. Dealing with farmers, veg growers, cheesemongers, booze purveyors, bakers, joiners, plumbers, chefs and each other.
I am wondering about seeking sponsorship from the local psychiatric unit as this I suspect is where this will all end.
Well it beats wearing a 3 piece suit and sitting behind a desk.
Or does it?
We'll see.

Wish us luck. We'll need it!