Thursday, March 3, 2011

SweetWater Brewery's Brew Your Cask Off Competition

Jason and Nick recently visited Atlanta's local SweetWater Brewery to create their own SweetWater beer for their annual Brew Your Cask Off Competition, which they named Rebel Yell. They started by adding all of their chosen ingredients to the cask: sweet potato, chipotle, vanilla bean and oak chips. After adding sugar and hops, they filled the rest of their cask with their SweetWater base of choice, Georgia Brown Ale. The casks are left for six weeks until they open them up for tasting on March 5th.

Come out and try Rebel Yell, and about 80 other entries with us this Saturday from 6 to 10 p.m.! You can purchase tickets now ($35) by visiting their website or at the event ($40). We hope to see you there!





Monday, January 3, 2011

Should Restaurants Enforce Tip Pooling?


Recent legislation in New York has provided rules regarding how tipped employees should divide the money that they make, effective February 1st, according to The New York Times. While businesses, including restaurants, are able to determine their method of fairly diving tips – pooling with the entire staff or having servers share a percentage of their tips or sales with bartenders, hosts, food runners and bussers, they are required to keep track of all tip sharing, and if investigated these records are subject to inspection. The law also defines which employees should be included in tip sharing (in a restaurant this is everyone with the exception of kitchen staff and management). This legislation is in response to the numerous lawsuits over restaurants not paying their tipped employees what they felt they were owed, including the famous Batali-Bastianich Hospitality Group.

Of course there are two sides to everything. Sharing tips encourages teamwork for those who view helping each other as benefiting them personally. Others view it reducing the motivation for individual employees, since they may be able to slack off, while still making the same amount as the rest of their co-workers. A friend and former co-worker of mine currently works at a local restaurant, where the entire front of the house staff splits all tips evenly after every shift. After working at many different Atlanta restaurants throughout his career, he described it as creating “a more positive work environment for everyone.” As anyone who has paid their rent or do pay their rent with the tips they earn know, there are plenty of gracious restaurant patrons out there who have no problem stiffing a server whether it is deserved or not. A table like that can ruin a server’s night financially (not to mention their mood) and tip pooling can alleviate some of that burden. Yet, it would be unfortunate for one server’s mistakes to negatively affect another server.

There is one other (illegal) option for restaurants – keeping all of the servers’ tips. I recently discovered that one of my favorite Indian restaurants do not let their employees keep tips. It is safe to say I will not be returning, and I certainly hope that this is an uncommon practice.

What do you think: Should restaurants enforce tip pooling or sharing? Should the government be getting involved?

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Ron Wins "Innovator of the Year" at the GRA Grace Awards!

We are thrilled to announce another outstanding accomplishment of our chef/owner, Ron Eyester. He won the title, “Innovator of the Year” from the Georgia Restaurant Association. This award reflects his commitment to his profession and acknowledges his patronage and support of local farmers. More specifically, the award recognizes Ron’s innovative techniques in reaching out to his community by being active in fund-raisers, local farmers markets, and other volunteer work, as well as his unique communications with the masses through his use of social media. Being named Innovator of the Year is just one more way the Angry Chef shows that not only is he a dedicated contributor in the greater Atlanta area, but he loves his food, his people and the rapport he has established with our community. Take a look at his tips for success; they say it all.
http://peasforprosperity.com/events/the-georgia-restaurant-association-grace-awards-glitz-goes-green/
http://www.garestaurants.org/GRACE
http://www.discuss-gra.com/June15thAgenda.pdf

Monday, November 8, 2010

Recycling Rocks Brunch

To celebrate National Recycling Week, bring in a non-perishable food item in recyclable packaging to brunch on Saturday, November 13th. All food collected will be donated to the Atlanta Community Food Bank, and each person who brings will get a CD of "recycled tunes" from Ron! We will be open from 10 am to 3 pm, and debuting a new, "recycled" brunch menu.

Reservations are recommended and can be made by calling 404.347.9747.