Lemon Grass

Two weekends ago was my birthday. Okay, that was an excuse to treat myself and go to Boston last week for the Extreme Beer Fest runs by Beer Advocate with my husband. For those of you who started to get beer fever (for the past couple years, craft beer is a hit!), go to www.beeradvocate.com It is like diving into Wikipedia of beer world.

Hello, Everyone. I’m Ploy- I introduced myself when I just started working here. Having gained Chef Max’s trust throughout these past two years as well as gained a ton of experience, I guess I just got promoted – I can contribute to the Lemon Grass blog!

It has been more than a year I was away from all my fans. A lot of my buddies keep teasing me and start to call me a quitter. Well, I'm back with several stories to tell.

Staff, we have changed most of our new staff from last year. The last one leaving us for her own good is Alyssa, she will continue to start her career in NYC in May. She will be missed, especially our sales team. We all wish her well. Now, I have to take a small management job too, not just designing and inventing food alone.

I am now paying my dues after close to 6 1/2 weeks away from my office. All the work has piled up over my head. Vince, my new Chef de Cuisine, is doing well. He's been trying to put this kitchen to work the way it belongs, and he did it on time with the new season starting.

It's me again! I'm back and still alive in New York. I left you guys back in Tokyo, Japan several days ago. I have to accept that the cost of living in Tokyo is very high -- too high. It is very easy to spend as much as or even a lot more than in most major cities in Europe.

My past three days have been fantastic! I visited two remarkable places that I have to talk about. I went to a ramen place, and I attached their website onto the blog. We went their at 4pm, and with only a little wait we were all set to sit next to each other. Just 4 minutes later the place was packed again and a line had formed.

Following up from Max's introduction, my name is Alyssa, and I have been working with the wonderful Lemon Grass team for just about two months now. After studying hotel, restaurant and tourism management at SUNY Plattsburgh, I must say I honestly never saw myself choosing a career path in the restaurant industry. I just didn't think it was for me. However, to my surprise, I have been enjoying (almost) every minute of my time here, and I am eager to continue to work under Max & Pook… (truncated)

I am on high gear know, after a total of 27 hours from home, I am in Japan just to eat with my kids. This time thanks to Pew's family and Tim as my house guest while I am on this trip. My best friend Toro will not be too lonely with all of them around the house!

These past months have been the hardest of my life, starting with my right hand girl Ali leaving us after 5 years of hard work. We hired two new girls with a new title: Operations Manager. For the past 4 to 6 weeks they have worked so hard, meeting with us all day - even skipping a few lunches. Alyssa and Ploy will be our hand to hand combat with all of our customers, our wine list, legalities, social media, management, restaurant policies, etc. We never realized how much of a work… (truncated)

Menu Update*** Last week we replaced our Pear Salad with our new Baby Romaine & Maytag Blue Salad with Berkshire Bacon. This week Neal also made Roasted Red Pepper Soup for our seasonal soup special. I will add fava bean and young leeks to the menu where I can to celebrate the arrival of spring.

It looks like I am fading out from blogging, actually not. The Grass has been very busy. We broke all kinds of records for the past four months. Normally a well established restaurant like the Grass and our Elephant should average out about a 5% increase yearly. Since 2003 we have averaged an 8% increase per year. We would like to thank all of our customers with out each and everyone of you we would not be this good!

Hello and happy holidays! Its been a while since my last blog -so this is a year in review blog. I was so exhausted, as all of downtown was after the record breaking weather last winter. March was the worst ever since 1989, the first year we open our operation in Mattydale. Of course, the Grass faced a huge sales drop the first and third months of the year. February was good due to Valentine's day and dining weeks.

It's been a while since my last blog - it has been very busy here at the Lemon Grass and the big Elephant. We have been through a lot of changes on the menu and the company structure.

Last week I went to see my little one Danielle in Chicago. She and Kevin bought all of us tickets to the restaurant "Next." Yes, you heard that right, tickets to get in! Every three months the Chef prepares a new menu and sells tickets for it.