18 || DISH || Winter 2020
Continued from page 16
Around week five, I bought a pack of men’s white T-shirts from Costco and have begun to solely wear those. Knit hats are my other new best friend because nobody has time for hair. I used to wear make-up because I liked how it made me look. Now I wear it simply to appear awake and I find myself weirdly sympathetic to Mark Zuckerberg. If I’m this stressed running a 61-seat restaurant, how the hell does he get by? Lithium, I imagine. Or minions. But as we crawled into month two, I started to notice little things about our restaurant baby. Like, if you set a table with chopsticks, children (of all ages) will treat them like drum sticks. And that Charlestonians shed a lot of hair. But I also noticed Jackrabbit Filly was turning out to be the neighborhood joint we’d hoped for, with neighbors nightly running into neighbors. Hugs are given. Friends wave and call out across the space. Everyone walks in wearing a huge smile and seems genuinely happy when they leave. And a small corner of my brain starts to see that this is what we’ve done, too. After a guest told me that the spicy noodles were different last week — better — we decided that keeping to a standard menu sucks and went back to what we used to do: have fun with our food. Shuai lopped
off half the opening menu. weekly visits and willingness to wait for that Now, we run playful nightly speFriday night table, you make my heart sing. cials and a Fri-yay Fish Fry in ode to my As does the fact that our early seatBuffalo, N.Y. roots. Ever so slowly, I start ing is full of families and high chairs believing people when they tell me their and kid’s noodles. (Note to self: buttered dinner was incredible. ramen does not easily come off concrete Same goes for the staff. f loors). We wanted to make a place where From only seeing faults, I now see their our loved ones felt welcomed to bring magnificence. Our bartenders who make their loved ones. Sure enough, one night 120 cocktails on a Wednesday and remain finds two mamas simultaneously breastgracious hosts. Our servfeeding in different parts I worried this ers who welcome all guests of the restaurant. with a smile even though I Another evening sees restaurant baby continually flat seat them the couple who provides us would break us, with four tables at a time. fish sitting next to two yet I’ve never felt our Our cooks who now so women enjoying that day’s more “in” this life catch. Every other week, permanently live in the with someone. there’s the couple we turn weeds that we ought to buy them machetes, yet table 41 sideways for as wake up every morning — our sous somesoon as they walk up, because even after times earlier than us — to do it all over 30 years together, they still like to sit side again. My husband, who looks perpetuby side and hold hands. ally exhausted, but still throws me a jokAt the time of this writing, our ing thumbs up during hectic services. Two Christmas tree still stands in our living months in, I find myself marveling at his room. My old life is definitely gone forever. passion, talent, and sweetness, exactly as I To be honest, on a daily basis, it depends did when we first met. I worried this reson how well I slept whether I think it’s a taurant baby would break us, yet I’ve never fair trade. But then I remind myself of the felt more “in” this life with someone. solemn girl who I caught as she was leaving And while we knew it from our Short to ask if she enjoyed everything. Still not Grain days, what I relearned, and continue cracking a smile, she instead turned, took Ruta Smith to learn, with JF is that y’all are seriously in the space, and said in a whispered sigh, the best people in the world. You. Our cus“I love it here.” The couple has come a long way from tomers. With your chagrin at your multiple It’s hard not to be okay with that. their food truck days