Food, Wine, and Kids

New Lunch Menu

2010-06-14T12:47:00.000-07:00

We at the ODB are shortly to release our newest Lunch Menu. New items will include several summer salads such as a Chicken and Green Bean Salad with roasted red potatoes tossed in our Garlic Ranch Dressing as well as a Garden Tuna Salad. Also in the tuna vein will be a Tuna Melt and a cold Tuna Salad Sandwich. A house roasted and sliced Roast Beef Sandwich and tasty Veggie Sand will join the popular Cold Turkey and Sweet Ham San as half sandwich options. Let's not leave out the hot sandwiches! Look for a grilled Chicken Marinara Sand and an ODB Philly to replace the Prime Dip on the lunch menu. Last but not least, we restructured our rather large tortilla wraps to not include a side (since most contain a salad inside anyway), adjusted the prices accordingly and added a tasty vegetarian option with a Black Bean and Rice Wrap.

Who knew so much thought and time went into making a popular and profitable restaurant menu?! You might think all you need is great recipes and competitive prices, but noooo . . . Menus neither start nor stop there. New recipes that sound good aren't necessarily a good addition to a menu if the ingredients are too specialized or production process too cumbersome. No point in adding an entree that can't be made in a timely manner or whose ingredients can't be kept on hand.

And pricing! With food prices constantly in flux we do our best to price an entree fairly according to industry standards. Complex inventory and shopping spreadsheets link to recipe formulas which link to a final pricing sheet which should give us the entree price within the proper food cost margins. Staying on top of food cost is a never ending job. Say the price of Romaine lettuce changes. A simple enough ingredient, but with far flung repercussions. Romaine is a main ingredient in tossed salad. Tossed salad is an ingredient in several other salads and lunch wraps. A price change in even one ingredient can affect many menu items. You can see how staying on top of EVERY ingredient a complex and exhaustive job.

Once you have all of your menu items chosen and priced, it's time to edit the physical menu itself. Every item needs a colorful and enticing description as well as a place on the page. Menu placement is a much studied structure so formulas are pretty standard even down to the order in which entrees should be listed within their categories for maximum affect. Fitting every entree into its place is an exercise in patience - something like a puzzle with just a few too many pieces.

Final results? An attractive menu, easily readable and understood by patrons with enticing menu items and descriptions subtly designed for maximum profitability.

West Lane News Ed Op

2009-12-29T06:34:00.000-08:00

This is an Editorial I was asked to write for the West Lane News shortly before they went out of business this winter.
_____________________________________________

Oh, the joys of running a small business! Working harder for yourself than you ever did for anyone else, you find your satisfaction in even the smallest things. Surviving the economic slow down of last winter . . . priceless! In business just as in life, we learned to trim out the fat in our diets and run lean in order to keep our doors open. We cut expenses right and left, scrutinizing every aspect of our operations but especially our labor budget. Trimming the labor budget often meant taking more of the work load on yourself. There is no handyman. There’s you staying late to fix the gate or step or one of the many other things that breakdown in a business. We were also forced to take a hard look at our customers and who we were serving to better focus our limited marketing dollars.

In a former bedroom community like ours so close to a large city like Eugene, most small businesses will have two customer bases they need to reach in order to succeed – the locals and the visitors. We all love the convenience of shopping and dining locally, but what if the local traffic isn’t enough to keep a business’s doors open?

Locals are our bread and butter, the customers we rely on for day to day business. Visitors are the gravy, the little extra that tips the scales to carry us over until next month. We rely on our bread and butter both to frequent our business and to support our everyday needs. As part of a small community, businesses need to support other businesses. We need the mechanic down the road to keep our vehicles running, the local bookkeeper when we have questions beyond the day to day, and a friendly insurance provider down the road to protect our business investment. No one lives in a vacuum here. Still, small businesses struggle to survive on local customers alone. We need the visitors too. This is where tourism comes in and gives the local economy a boost.

The word ‘tourism’ is bandied about in political circles at the county and state level as the new industry for former logging communities. But what does it mean to you and I?

I have found it beneficial to visualize tourism as a rain (very Oregonian, I know). As the rain of tourism begins to fall near one business first, the affect is felt elsewhere as the rain gathers and accumulates on the ground. First we see puddles and then streams of runoff along the side of the road. Rivers rise. Lakes rise. Until we can all see the results of the rain and the higher water levels everywhere around town. As the Fern Ridge Chamber of Commerce motto says, “a rising tide floats all boats.” What this rather poetic example is trying to say is that when even one business is growing and doing well, it benefits us all. Whether the traffic coming through town is because Our Daily Bread is serving a tour group from McMinnville or Stillpoint Farms is hosting a summer concert, we all benefit to some degree. Visitors need gas, a meal, somewhere to shop, somewhere to play and any number of other necessities along the way. Visitors who stay and play in our community are more likely to come again and may even consider staying for good. When the business community is doing well, it’s good for everyone.

Like all growing things, businesses need to be watered and nourished. Do your part and support your local small business by frequenting it. As far as the rest . . . bring on the rain!

Register Guard Feature Article

2009-11-15T18:44:00.000-08:00

Here's the article in Eugene's Register Guard which featured our restaurant. There was an IMMEDIATE increase in business!

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Heavenly haven of Oregon cuisine | Our Daily Bread Restaurant in Veneta serves up original and eclectic recipes in an old, little white church with rustic charm.

By Kelly Fenley

Photos by Amanda Smith

Appeared in print: Wednesday, Nov 11, 2009

News: Last Seven Days: Story

Out in Veneta — yes, that on-your-way-to-the-coast little town in the fertile fold of wine and farm country — lies a blissful sanctuary for artisan dining.

Our Daily Bread Restaurant in the old Pentecostal church serves its flock with homebaked breads and desserts, original house specialties like sugar-cured prime rib and marinated salmon seasoned in white wine cream sauce, and dozens of wines from vineyards just a rain cloud or bend away in the country road.

No need for your Sunday-go-to-meetin’ clothes here, where the dining is at once casual and elegant. There’s an old pew or two at the assorted wood tables, but most folks sit on old-style wood chairs, warmed by a pellet stove and/or little electric space heaters placed along the well-worn wood floors.

By day, stained-glass windows, all in the same chapel pattern of blue, orange/red and clear panes, brighten the mood for breakfast and lunch. By night, antique-style pendant lights hanging from the restaurant’s exposed rafters are dimmed, setting the stage for candlelit dinners with linen napkins.

Either that or celebrating a Friday night football game over original-recipe onion rings and homespun hamburgers, as in hand-squeezed patties between fresh-baked buns. “We don’t often describe ourselves as fine dining,” enlightens Tabitha Eck, who, along with her parents, Timothy and Catharine Perkins, owns and operates the 70-seat restaurant with adjoining country store/wine shop and even a banquet room in the old parsonage. “We reach a fairly broad cut of the population, so we call it ‘family fine dining.’”

But it’s certainly more cafe by day than at night, when the Northwest fare gets pretty eclectic — “even for a dinner menu,” Eck says. Almost all the original recipes are steeped in southern Willamette Valley agriculture and slaughter.

“We try to stay fresh and natural,” sums up dad and head chef Tim. “We make our own bread … and none of it has preservatives. We keep MSG out of the house; nothing is artificial. We try to be authentic, close to the ground — fresh, real good. Nothing that’s going to foul somebody’s system.”

Family hearty

A family mission down to the Perkins’ youngest of five children, Our Daily Bread Restaurant fits heart and soul with a down-home, handcrafted, “wholesome country experience” promotion in west Lane, Linn and Benton counties.

“Oregon Country Trails” entices city folk with self-guided tours of wineries, farms, galleries, restaurants, fiber shops, meat markets, produce fields and other artisan enterprises in the Fern Ridge, Long Tom River and Alsea Valley areas (www.oregoncountry trails.com).

At Our Daily Bread, the handcrafting includes chef Tim’s Northwest menu specialties and head-baker Catharine’s artisan breads and desserts.

Tim credits his “greatest strengths” to mentoring from 10 or so certified chefs during his culinary career. “It sounds cliché, but I do have really high standards,” he says. “I don’t serve stuff that isn’t right.”

Consider his prime rib from the Childers Meat Co. in Eugene. “The way we do it isn’t the common way,” Tim reveals. “I take a knife and poke holes across the top to puncture the sinews and let the flavors seep in.” Lathered in Worcestershire sauce, a secret blend of seasonings and smoke-flavored sugar cure, the prime rib is slow cooked for what Tim calls “a country outdoor barbecue flavor.”

His other claims to fame include tenderized, roasted chicken breast stuffed with dried cranberries, hazelnuts, spinach and feta cheese, and one of his personal favorites, the house chicken borscht.

Other dinner specialties range from fish, oysters and crab cakes to pepper steaks, burgers, pastas and — the restaurant’s latest — foccacias topped with signature sauces and Mozzarella cheese.

Menu prices run from less than $10 to more than $20, and every dinner meal comes with Catharine and crew’s homebaked breads.

Bakery boom

Rising customer demand has Catharine’s convection oven at full tilt these days.

“We don’t make our own bagels or English muffins, but everything else that can be possibly baked and that we serve, we do ourselves,” she says.

Three mainstay breads — whole wheat, French and cinnamon swirl — cover most orders for sandwiches and French toast as well as supplying the dinner menu and take-out counter. Specialty breads from the in-house bakery may include walnut, Parmesan herb, cinnamon raisin and an occasional multi-grain.

Save room for dessert: carrot cake, cheese cakes, bread pudding and pies like lemon cloud, chocolate cream and marionberry.

“I think the majority of our recipes — probably 90 percent — are developed just for the restaurant,” Catharine says.

Culinary calling

Since washing dishes at his dad’s restaurant as a kid, Tim had wanted a place of his own. He found a culinary soulmate in Catharine — in fact the pair met and fell in love while working at the Twin Inns restaurant in Carlsbad, Calif.

College degrees aside, Tim became a career chef while Catharine remained a baker at heart even during her career as a social worker.

Yet the couple still had to whip up enough nerve to buy Our Daily Bread, which already had been renovated into a bakery and smaller scale restaurant over the previous decade by former owner Rick DeAngelo.

“As Tim and I talked, we felt like what we were led to do is own a business — particularly a restaurant,” says Catharine. “That’s my story, so here we are.”

As are the kids.

Eldest daughter Tabitha, 26, bowed out of her University of Oregon studies in pre-med and dance to join the fold as catering and special events manager. Like Mom and Dad before her, she found romance at work, marrying affable waiter Marshall Eck about two years ago. “He married the boss,” she muses.

All the other Perkins siblings — Alexandra Wood, 24, Kasia Wood, 20 (they married brothers), Jesselyn, 19, and Joseph, 17 — also work at the restaurant to some degree. A family that works together stresses out together, but mom Catharine loves the “absolute blessing” of seeing her grown children nearly every day.

In a cozy little old church, nonetheless.

“It’s a wonderful building,” Catharine says. “I don’t know how to explain it, but I always have a good feeling being here.”

Good and wholesome, in fact.

Staff writer Kelly Fenley may be contacted at sp.feedback@registerguard.com.

Wedding at the Blue Rooster B and B

2009-07-29T13:01:00.000-07:00

This summer we had the opportunity to cater a wedding at a new venue site for us - The Blue Rooster B and B in Lorane. The B and B is maintained and run by Nancy and sees quite a bit of traffic from King Estate which is just down the road. As one of the few B and Bs in the area, Nancy has quite the monopoly on wine tourists along Territorial HWY.

The grounds were gorgeous! Manicured lawns and flower beds. A large pond and backed by acres of trees with a view down the valley. A huge old barn with re-finish floors for events and several live birds nesting in the rafter. With her unique setting and low prices, Nancy always books out with weddings between Labor Day and Memorial Day and is, in fact, already booking into next year. With this venue site, the bride and groom are responsible for renting and bringing in EVERYTHING needed for their event. A nice thing Nancy does for the wedding party is rent the facility by the weekend not by the day. This cuts out the need for the wedding party to break everything down the night of the wedding or to be rushing around like crazy the day of setting up. Much less stressful.

Like all couples, this bride and groom were working within a very specific budget. Our initial consultation revolved around the different pieces of the reception and what I should / could do as the caterer and what they might look into doing themselves to save money. First up was the bar.

BAR SERVICE
Alcohol is a huge expense for any event. This bride and groom decided they would be better served to hire an individual with an alcohol permit (as the site requires) and purchase the kinds and amounts of beverages they wanted themselves rather than doing it through the caterer (me!). There are pros and cons to doing this. The biggest plus is the potential money they saved by buying the alcohol themselves as they may know someone and get a good deal. With open bars, caterers charge by consumption and this charge is added to the final total on top of which gratuity is figured so they also saved a little there as well. In the end, I don't know how much money they actually saved paying a bartender separately and buying the alcohol themselves.

RENTALS
They chose to handle the rentals of china, tables, chairs, and linen themselves as well rather than go through me. Again, the only cost they saved here was the additional gratuity that would have been generated from a higher final total due to rental fees. If they picked up and returned all of the rental equipment themselves, they could have saved quite a bit of money as rental companies charge an arm and a leg for deliveries. It was a lot of work for members of the family and the wedding party to do on the wedding weekend though. By taking care of the rentals themselves, they also took responsibility of clean up and set up of all rental equipment. Not so, if the caterer handles the rentals.

MENU
We were able to put together a very attractive menu that stayed away from BBQ at the bride's request. To save money, we split the entree down the middle doing Smoked Tri Tip for 100 and Roasted Garlic Chicken for 100 rather than enough of each for all 200. In this case, it worked
quite well, but then again, we always bring extra! We also prepared several appetizer trays at the Mother of Bride's request which were served just after the ceremony while pictures were being taken. It was a beautiful display, but not quite enough for everyone. The bride and groom took care of the non alcoholic beverages themselves as well, so the meal was quite literally all we handled for this event.

~

We did our best to clear tables and pick up glasses before we left but, with the family handling the rentals, we didn't stay long after dinner. This was the first wedding I had done where the bride, groom, and assorted family took so much of the work onto themselves. I am a money saver too, so initially, this made sense to me. Now, I am not so sure. Here's a few things to consider when you or someone you love is thinking to save money by 'doing it themselves.'

TIME COST
This is the big one and the one couples and families often deem an acceptable sacrifice in order to save money. Weigh it carefully! Should the Mother and Father of the Bride be shopping for foods, beverages, utensils as well as decorations right up until the day of the wedding or even cooking for the event in their own kitchens. And what about set up and clean up? The wedding party and family should be able enjoy their time at the reception, not jump right into tearing everything down and hauling everything away once the final guest takes off.

ACTUAL COST
I think buying food / alcohol yourself gives the impression you're saving money when really not. The costs are just not going to show up all nice and neat on a catering estimate. Same goes for rentals. All couples save themselves is a little bit of extra gratuity from the rental fees by not going through a caterer for rentals. But they are costing themselves a lot of time and effort in set up, clean up and tear down of said rentals. All I do as the event planner when handling rentals is pass on the exact fees the rental company will charge me.

QUALITY
This isn't one most people think of. Quality is in the details. In general, professionals do a better job than amateurs. Having a professional catering company in charge of the reception from set up and food and beverage service to clean up and tear down will ensure a top notch experience for all of your guests. Thing also won't fall through the cracks like they do when volunteer friends of the family are in charge. For instance, the coffee will get made, the punch bowl refilled, the bar glasses collected in glass racks, trashes emptied, cake passed, and the cake plates and forks in place for the cake cutting. Details really, but these are all details the Mother of the Bride or event the BRIDE doesn't / shouldn't have to be thinking about on the day of the wedding. If you can't delegate a non family member to do these, I think you need to hire someone (like your caterer) to do it for you. Just a few thoughts!

Wine Tasting in Southern Oregon

2009-06-09T18:18:00.000-07:00

Monday, the hubby and I headed down to Southern Oregon for some wine tasting at my parent's recommendation. Unfortunately the one vineyard we were heading down to visit (un-named intentionally) was closed Monday. Instead we visited three other vineyards in the area: Henry's, Melrose Vineyards, and Hillcrest. The local area was home to 18 different wineries all of which shared a multitude marketing endeavors including "Wine Tour" signage, billboards, maps, and matching wine bags for all wine purchases at the various vineyards. The cooperation between these intensely competitive businesses was extraordinary! The vineyards went so far as to call each other when their hours changed as was the case the vineyard we originally sought to visit. They had called around after unexpectedly changing their hours about a week earlier and Henry's tasting room had the info. Anyway . . . on to the wine!

I don't have the luxury of tasting wine for only myself. Every time I taste a new Oregon wine, I am tasting it as a bar manager. On one had I evaluating it by itself: for its own unique qualities and my personal likes and dislikes like every other wine taster. On the other hand, I also have to evaluate it by comparing it to wines already on my list for similarities and price point. If there is nothing outstanding about a wine and its the same price (or more) than a wine already on my wine list, what's the point of adding it unless I have a personal relationship with the vineyard?

HENRY ESTATE WINERY - http://www.henryestate.com/
Expect to see several bottles from Henry's our wine list within the next few weeks. We tried all three Pinot Noirs each with different qualities and tastes and found their lower end Pinot more than comparable to Hinman's Pinot with a similar price point. They also served their own rose blend that - in Marshall's words - we could serve all day. The semi-sweet rose had a bit of a sparkle to it similar to Silvan Ridge's famous Sparkling Muscat. Very easy drinking. Perfect for the summer months.

HILLCREST VINEYARD - www.hillcrestvineyard.com
This small vineyard is Oregon's oldest estate winery and home to many of the states first, including it's first Pinot Noir. It is also the founding member of "Oregon Artisan Family Wineries." These wineries take the boutique winery experience a step further with almost total owner/ family control including the making and harvesting of wine by the family as well as living on site. In this case, it was a husband and wife team. A very small vineyard, they only sell wine out of their tasting room, so we brought back a Pinot Noir and Zinfandel that interested us both. Its quite a boast to say you're drinking a wine from the oldest vines in the state. Loook for these two wines on our wine list with in the next few weeks as well.

MELROSE VINEYARDS - www.melrosevineyards.com

This vineyard was the most picturesque of the three vineyards we visited this day. Behind the renovated barn - now tasting room - you can see fields of vines totaling over 100 acres. They are in the process of planting another 100 acres which will make this one of the largest I have see in Oregon. This vineyard is investing much of its efforts in its wedding facilities including a huge banquet hall, full kitchens, landscaping and arbors. A delightful destination spot. This winery is one of only five vineyards who produce a Baco Noir - a lovely, heavy red wine.

All in all, a wonderful trip despite our initial disappointment. By the third vineyard, we were wined out. How a person could do five, I will never know! All the wines start blending together after three. Done wine tasting, we headed back to Eugene for dinner.

All in the Family

2009-06-02T20:56:00.000-07:00

I thought this an opportune moment to write a bit about the family relationships for all of you ODB fans out there. Some of us operate behind the scences, so you may not know all of the players that work so hard to make your experiences are the ODB so complete.

Many of you know that our restaurant is family owned, but we give new meaning the to term 'family run.' Our Patriarch and Matriarch, Tim and Catharine Perkins, have five children all of whom have or do work in the restaurant. At present, all seven of us work in the restaurant save the one sister who is volunteering in South America. (Check out her story at http://theperukidsproject.blogspot.com.) The oldest three siblings are married and our spouses have also worked in the restaurant for special events or do presently hold positions there. Here's the run down of who's who and who does what at the ODB.

Timothy (Dad) is our Chef as well as our go-to for any kind of repair or maintenace.
Catharine (Mom) is our baker, bookkeeper, general manager, and also waits tables in the evening
Tabitha (me - oldest daughter) am our events manager, bar manager, marketing person, and wait tables during the day with my husband Marshall
Marshall is married to Tabitha and is our full time day server
Alex (second oldest) waits tables a few days a week when not busy with her full time job in the city. She is married to Robbie who helps us out on special events.
Kasia (middle child) is our full time day cook and is married to David, brother of Robbie, and also helps out on special events.
Jessie (second youngest) helps out in the dining room and bakery when not in another country.
Joesph (youngest) does dishes on the weekends and generally does the heavy lifting these days.

In addition to the family we have three other staff persons who all hold vital positions within our establishment:

Carolyn - our full time evening server
Jade - our full time dinner and brunch cook
Andrea - our part time baker, part time server as well as cooking on occasion

As you can see, we have a small staff and are a rather close-knit bunch because of it. We pull in outside labor for large events (usually people related in some way to our staff or selves), but we truly are the epitome of a small, family owned and run operation. So now you know!

Holiday Brunches Set New Records!

2009-05-21T19:17:00.000-07:00

From year one, Our Daily Bread has tried to make the most of holiday celebrations. The first year we tried to do something for EVERY holiday on the calender. After three years, we are finally to the point that our more popular holiday celebrations have a consistent followings and we've been able to eliminated the less popular ones.

Holidays that we have an exceptionally good turnout for include . . .
*Mother's Day Brunch
*Easter Brunch
*Our Annual Anniversary Events
*Valentine's Day Dinner
*Christmas Teas
*Holiday Takeout Meals

Holidays on which we have eliminated special menus/hours include . . .
*New Year's Eve Dinner
*Cinco de Mayo
*Memorial Day
*Labor Day
*4th of July

Holiday's that get one more year to make the team and avoid being cut . . .
*Father's Day
*Easter Dinner
*Mother's Day Dinner

This year's holiday day celebrations of note are our Easter and Mother's Day Brunch Buffets! Easter surpassed all exceptions when we pasted 250 and did 274 for the first time. Mother's Day is the biggest grossing holiday of the year for most restaurants. Ours is no exception. While we know Mother's Day we be just a bit more, we were not prepared for the actuality of doing 350 for Mother's Day Brunch! It was a beautiful day, so outside seating was available. While the dining room may have had empty tables at times, if the weather had not been quite so nice, we would have not had an empty table in the house for five hours! I believe the only way to increase numbers from this point on is to expand our hours yet again. This year we opened an hour earlier at 9am. Next year's brunch may run until 3pm.

I will post a few pictures in the next few days, but just know that the buffets were beautiful. Our regular Sunday Brunch buffets are a delightful treat, but we truly pull out all the stops for these larger Holiday Brunch Buffets. Displays include three-tiered ice bowls, cascading fruit displays and chocolate fondue, an omelet station, a staffed carving station, and more.

Valentine Wedding

2009-03-21T09:53:00.000-07:00

Valentine's Day. The lover's holiday. A day for couples. And a very busy night!

Valentine's Day is one of the biggest nights of the year for a restaurant. I know that it is often our biggest grossing night of the year with small tables of two going all out with appetizers and desserts. This year, this very busy night was proceeded by our first ever wedding! We've hosted several wedding receptions in the past year, including my own. And while there may have been people married at the ODB in the past, this was the first wedding WE have ever hosted. Once I receive the pictures from the bride and groom, I will post those as well.

It was a small wedding of about 40 that fit perfectly in our banquet room for the ceremony. We put the buffet in the hallway (where the gift shop was up until the night before) and had the banquet room set with rows of chairs for the ceremony. The family did a beautiful job decorating with simply bouquets and candles. A lovely touch I notice was a white carpet (like red carpet) for the bride to walk down the isle on. After the ceremony, the bride and groom went outside for pictures followed by the rest of the guests so we could set up tables where the ceremony had just finished. We had lots of help from the family. It was definitely not the smoothest transition, but the timing worked out well with picture taking. And it was what the bride wanted. There was even a little space left for a dance floor near the DJ. It was a lovely, intimate wedding. The only thing we were unprepared for was a cash bar, but we worked it out without the wedding guests being the wiser. More later!

Goodbye Wholesale Bakery

2009-03-21T08:56:00.000-07:00

For those of you who didn't know, Our Daily Bread Restaurant has been supplying several coffee carts both here in Veneta and in Eugene, with assorted bakery products and, until recently, our breakfast burritos. Well . . . no more! As of March 31st, the only place you will be able to find our popular Pumpkin-Gingerbread Muffins is here at the restaurant. We have been supplying some of these carts for over a year now, so we've committed to meeting the demand in-house with a larger array of pastries in the morning. This, along with the espresso we offer here, might just be enough for the disappointed regulars of our local coffee carts.

BACKGROUND
Like many aspects of the ODB that have come and gone over the last three years, the wholesale bakery idea was one of those that just fell into our laps and we decided to give it a try. We were approached by a local coffee cart about our bakery products. Because of them, we developed a rather extensive wholesale menu and decided to pursue other coffee carts. We even went so far as to hire a salesperson on a commission basis to pursue coffee carts farther abroad in Eugene and Junction City. At its height, we served upwards of 10 different coffee carts several times a week.

NOT SO GOOD NEIGHBORS
The wholesale business is a cut-throat one! Someone is always trying to get THEIR product in over yours. It was a constant haggling process with the coffee carts to get our items at lower prices. Our prices were often under-cut which required us to come back and make a better offer. Both my parents and I, come from 'let's work together' community mentality. We appreciate business relationships and expect them to be honored. We do not operate with a 'dog eat dog' mentality. We were incredibly disappointed by the underhanded actions of fellow business owners to take away our business with the coffee carts. Indeed, our entire breakfast burrito wholesale business was under cut by another local restaurant. While we were disappointed with the restaurant owner (and will never eat at his establishment again), the coffee cart owner is not blameless in this either. The coffee cart owner never communicated what was going on or gave us a chance to make a better offer. She just dropped the burritos. We'd created the wholesale menu and pricing for her and she's just threw away any semblance of a business relationship without notice.

THE DECISION
The decision to discontinue wholesale sales came about quickly based on the above circumstances and a few other reason . . .

1) Profit Margin.
Wholesale is what comes before retail as far as pricing goes. We make significantly less percentage of profit per a bakery item than if we sold it in our own restaurant. In order to make money in the wholesale business, you have to have volume. We don't have the time to grow the business fast enough to accommodate the need for volume.

2) Restaurant Image
From the beginning, we have struggled with the image of being a bakery not a restaurant. Too often, a bakery is all people think of us as. And here we are putting our name out there on a bakery item! It doesn't make much sense and gives potential customers a false impression of who we are. We are much more than a bakery.

3) Labor
The wholesale bakery orders required a delivery driver. Whether it was three items or twenty, the delivery driver (our baker) had to drive the route three times a week. The carts also need their items early so this meant that the baker had to be scheduled at a time that was appropriate for deliveries. This was rarely an efficient use of labor in a time when we were making cuts across the board to accommodate the economic challenge of the day.

All in all, we found the wholesale business to be the wrong fit for us. It took away from the restaurant and gave very little back. Our energies can be spent better elsewhere. We haven't eliminated it entirely. Instead, we set a hire minimum order for wholesale products. This summer will be supplying several local farms with bakery items for resale, but no more of this little stuff.

Valentine Mayhem

2009-02-22T10:16:00.000-08:00

Like every other restaurant in the USA, this holiday is one our biggest nights of the year. Baring special events, this IS our biggest grossing night of the year mainly due to customer volume and higher overall ticket prices. After months of slower dinner business, it was quite a shock to serve over 130 people in a single night!

This very busy night was proceeded by our first wedding! We've hosted several wedding receptions in the past year, including my own. And while there may have been people married at the ODB in the past, this was the first wedding WE have hosted. It was a small wedding of about 40 that fit perfectly in our banquet room. I plan to post a full length article at my wedding blog once I receive the pictures from the bride and groom at www.oregonweddings.blogspot.com. Anyway, back to Valentine's Day dinner service . . .

The menu for the night consisted of many of our customer favorites like Prime Rib and Scampi, but also include a few entrees available just for the night like the romantic classics Lobster and Chateaubriand - roasted tenderloin for two. Along with specialty desserts, I always include a few select food and wine pairings. or as I like to call them, "Lover's Pairings." I don't think we sold a single package, but they sure are fun to do.

While we do put on considerably more staff for an event of this magnitude, we still weren't quite prepared for the multiple rushes we experienced that night. For events of this size, we open up seating in the chapel and our banquet room as well as the main dining room. Since a high percentage of reservations are for two, we are able to double our seating capacity with 14 tables placed in those two additional dining areas. Atmosphere varied considerably from dining area to dining area. The upstairs with its larger tables of 3 and 4 had a very boisterous feel to it. The chapel has an intimate feel while the banquet room is always a struggle to change into an intimate atmosphere. While a beautiful dining area for groups, the banquet room is a little too open for smaller tables. Using trellises and partitions, I was able to create private spaces around our smaller tables.

Mayhem didn't quite hit until 7:15 when we filled every table in the house for the second time that night. At this point, we started running out of things. Food, plates, silverware, etc. . . New tables were coming faster than servers could keep up and dinner tickets poured into the kitchen. Unlike your normal dinner hour, these dinner tickets - aside from the sheer number of them - were more complex than normal. On this special night, most of the tables splurged on appetizers and dessert in addition to an entree, salad and beverage service of some kind. It was more of what we call a 'full service' dinner. More thinking and time is required for this kind of service.

Its always disappointing to us when we can't provide 100% excellent service. Unfortunately, sheer numbers prevented 100% excellent service and seriously crunched the kitchen. We have our areas to work on, but we're gearing up for the next big events at the restaurant while learning from our mistakes. All-in-all, a successful night.

UPCOMING EVENTS
Our Blue Plate Special - Dinner and a Show - March 7th and 8th
St. Patrick's Day on March 17th

Why a Wedding Co-ordinator

2009-01-27T18:24:00.000-08:00

Why a Coordinator

This is a question every bride and groom must ask themselves. When it comes down to the practicality of budgeting for a wedding, a professional wedding planner may seem like it is not an option for many of us. Here are a few considerations to take into account.

Vendor Referrals

I have worked with many professionals in the area of events. I know who has the best prices, who has the best quality and who can get exactly what you're looking for. Take the guessing game out of the picture with a vendor I recommend. I guarantee I have worked with them and have been impressed by their product.

Budget Development and Management

I have worked with every conceivable budget under the sun. Whether your budget is large or small, I can offer advice on vendors and make sure you get the most out of your money. Don't let money can be an additional stress on relationships. Together we can decide what aspects of the big day are the most important and go from there.

Contact Person

I will be the contact person for all vendors. I will solicit estimates and set up tastings or site inspections. Vendors will come to me with questions and problems that arise on the day of and prior to your event. I will coordinate the timing of all vendors from rental deliveries and catering staff to signaling the DJ and minister. This is the one most important service that ensures you can enjoy your day. Let me be the problem solver not you.

Details, Time, and Energy

"How hard can it be," you may say to yourself - a thought you'll look back and laugh once you're in the thick of flower colors and invitations and catering bids. The biggest mistake I see brides make is to try to do everything themselves. Unless you are one of those people who love details, planning an event the magnitude of your wedding (even a very small wedding) will drag the life out of you. Even those of us who excel at organization and taking care of details, will lose sight of the bigger picture - GETTING MARRIED! Time is precious and getting lost in the details of your event should not take away from your special day. Weigh the costs of time and energy - both yours and your family's - against the cost of a wedding planner. Too many times have I heard a mother-of-the-bride say in exasperation, "I wish we'd hired a wedding planner!" I know the ins and outs of weddings. Let me take of the details and you just relax and enjoy the day!

New Focus

2009-01-25T15:17:00.000-08:00

This past summer, we had the opportunity to host a large wedding reception here at the restaurant. Prior to this, our tendency was to catered larger events at other’s venues rather than our own. I posted an article about this wedding at my wedding blog - www.oregonweddings.blogspot.com and both the mother of the bride and the mother of the groom were kind enough to comment about their experience with us. Check it out! Through the experience of hosting this wedding compared to the other events that we catered last year, we discovered our niche! We have a beautiful venue. Why not use it? Here is our new tag for events:

Our Daily Bread Restaurant specializes in hosting private parties here in our beautiful restaurant facility. We have multiple rooms and lovely outdoor accommodations that can be utilized for groups of 15 to 200!

Hosting your event in a restaurant has numerous economic benefits (see my wedding blog) allowing you to save on equipment rentals and site fees! In general, the cost for holding your wedding reception at the ODB is simply that of food and beverage. This is quite the cost saver when you consider most couples have to pay out for a ceremony site and a reception site as well as the rentals and catering cost.

Already in 2009, I have booked three weddings. All three will be having both their wedding reception and ceremony at the ODB. One is, in fact, on Valentine's Day afternoon. Quite the romantic occasion I must say. Two of these three weddings are 30 people or less, meaning they don't need to utilize the whole restaurant facility and will instead use the private banquet room. We can continue the business of breakfast, lunch and dinner as usual. Larger wedding parties that need seating for more than fifty, would choose to use either the upper dinning room alone or the whole restaurant facility. Most weddings want space for a dance floor which eats up a lot of floor space. In that case, even a fifty person wedding may need more space than just the upper dining room provides. For large weddings, we would shut the restaurant down for regular business.

FOOD AND BEVERAGE MINIMUM
Rather than a rental or site fee, I have a FOOD AND BEVERAGE MINIMUM. Meaning, if the combined cost of food and beverage meets the 'minimum' for the day and time requested, then there is no additional cost to use the restaurant or its banquet space.

The minimum for a larger wedding differs from that of smaller weddings. It really depends on the time frame the wedding occupies - weekend vs. Sunday, afternoon vs. evening. The biggest factor in setting the minimum is whether it overlaps more than one meal time and how profitable those meal times are normally. A wedding that prevents us from serving both lunch and dinner on a Friday or Saturday would have a higher minimum than any other day and time.

Food, Wine, and Kids: West Lane News Article

2009-01-09T09:57:00.000-08:00

Food, Wine, and Kids: West Lane News Article

Economic Options

2009-01-05T23:07:00.000-08:00

Weddings can definitely be expensive events. While money should not be what its all about, it can feel like money (or the lack there of) is the determining factor in many of your decisions. Below are the result of an email conversation I had with a good college friend who had recently gotten engaged. She was frustrated with even finding a PLACE to get married. If you're thinking venue and catering or not right now, this post is for you!

Weddings cost a bundle no matter how you look at it. Either you pay someone to do it (cook, clean, decorate, etc. . .) or you pay for it with time and energy and do it yourself with the help (hopefully) of friends and family. Having been a caterer for years, I would not recommend using one if cost is an issue. Often food/catering costs will be in addition to facility rental and equipment rental fees. Very spendy and you pay gratuity on top of food costs. That being said, food preparation and service isn't necessarily the thing you want vital family or bridal party members tied up doing the day of your wedding. It's incredibly time consuming and takes longer the less experience your helpers have. The way I see it, there are two cost effective options for food /venue:

1) Have friends and family doing food UP UNTIL the day of the event and then spend a little extra on a few staff people to actually put the food out, stock the buffet, and clean up. Still a huge drain of time with shopping and prep plus requires someone to direct the staff the day of.

2) Or my favorite - utilize a facility that has everything on site already such as a restaurant. Too often, wedding venues cost a fortune and include little beyond the use of the site. With our restaurant, what I do most often for brides, is offer them a wedding venue where they can have the ceremony and the reception (cut out a site rental fee right there) that also includes most of the basic equipment rentals. Restaurants obviously already have tables, chairs and china. Rentals would be limited to arches and possibly ceremony chairs if desired. Restaurants may have a fee for renting out part of their space, but more often than not, they are just looking to
make money off of the food and alcohol. What I do at my place is what's called a 'Food and Beverage Minimum.' Meaning if the cost of food and beverage for the event meets the minimum set for the day and time scheduled (obviously a weekend has a higher minimum than a weekday) then there is NO FACILITY RENTAL FEE! I am sure there are places in Portland who do this.

Other cost cutting options to think about
- Time your wedding so it doesn't center around a meal time. Mid afternoon weddings are too early for dinner and too late for lunch. You could get away with lighter food. Late weddings (after 7) could get away with just doing desserts for their guests. You just notate it in the invitation: "A dessert buffet will be served following the ceremony at _____."
- Don't include alcohol service. Instead, have a cash bar where people can pay for their own alcoholic beverages. Bar costs add up faster than any other if not controlled. It is perfectly acceptable to ask people to pay for their own liquor these days. Again, just notate it on the invitation so your guests are prepared with money. If you want to provide something, do
drink tickets that way consumption isn't

Hope this helps a little!

West Lane News Article

2009-01-03T09:22:00.000-08:00

Here's an article printed in this week's edition of the West Lane News, our local paper. They did a great job on the gift shop.

Gift Shop Features Local Goods
By MATT NICHOLSON Of The News
January 1st, 2009

VENETA — Our Daily Bread, one of Veneta’s most unique restaurants, has added a gift shop to a menu of services that already includes weddings and catering. Opened in conjunction with last month’s Christmas Bazaar, the gift shop will both cater to tourists and provide a marketplace for local producers to sell their goods.

The gift shop, called Our Country Store, occupies a small corner of the lower floor of the restaurant’s renovated church. It is stocked with local and regional products including gift baskets, cheeses, baked goods and a wide selection of wines from vineyards all across the Southern Willamette Valley.

Some of the first goods to be carried in the shop came from the restaurant’s next-door neighbor, the Farmers’ Market, which is held on the lot adjacent to Our Daily Bread. Tabitha Eck, who co-owns the restaurant with her parents, says the restaurant’s proximity to the Farmers’ Market has created a valuable partnership between the restaurant and local producers.

“It’s a great connection to have the local growers on board,” says Eck.

Housed inside a renovated church, Our Daily Bread stands out from Veneta’s eateries in more ways than one, with its vaulted ceilings, stained-glass windows, wood furniture and warm character. The restaurant’s peaceful, aesthetic atmosphere has made it popular among locals for events ranging from lunchtime gatherings to weddings, but it’s also become something of a destination location for passing tourists. Eck says the restaurant’s unique structure is a big draw for tourists.

“Where have you ever seen a renovated church that has been turned into a restaurant?” says Eck.

Eck says that in the future, she would like to incorporate an art gallery into the gift shop to support local artists. Currently, Our Country Store features a few pieces from a local metal smith and a glassblower. But Eck says she would like to create an expansive gallery with rotating exhibits from local artists. She thinks an art gallery would be a good fit for the restaurant.

“It ties in perfectly with our desire for local (goods), and it ties in with our gift shop, as well,” she says.

Eck says the gift shop carries local and regional goods to support the Willamette Valley’s artisan producers. Eck says the new shop retails goods produced outside the valley only when they aren’t found locally, such as some varieties of red wine. But in keeping with the local emphasis of the restaurant, everything in the gift shop comes from Oregon.

“I try to only go out of the valley if there’s something we don’t have,” Eck says. “ I don’t have anything that’s not Oregon.”

Blizzards, Holidays, and Customers

2009-01-01T13:49:00.000-08:00

YES, the recent snow showers and icy roads have had their effect on our business.

In general, the month of December is a slower month for us at the ODB as far as regular Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner anyway. Since we are not located anywhere near a mall or shopping center, regular traffic tends to head to Eugene for a combination of shopping and eating. Instead, we rely on the addition of holiday parties to pick up the slack in our business. Well, we had TWO of those private Christmas parties cancel in ONE DAY as a result of weather complications! Even while we understand that driving from Eugene and Junction City to Veneta could be treacherous, it's hard to feel good about the situation.

Listening to other restaurant, retail, and lodging people I found that we were all in similar circumstances. The weather kept everyone home. In tourist areas that relied on incoming hotel guests to frequent the local businesses, I saw a much greater effect on those business than we experienced. All along the Oregon Coast, small town restaurants and gift shops that relied on holiday tourist stays at the local inns and hotels were sadly disappointed by the numerous cancellation that came through due to weather. I know there are areas of the country that have snow on the ground for a good four months of the year, but that's not us. One inch and the school buses stop running. Five inches and we don't leave the house unless we have to. I bet states like Maine or Wisconsin laugh when they hear about the closures and effect of the weather on our local economy. What can I say? We're Oregonians!

Community and Christmas

2008-12-13T18:24:00.000-08:00

Maybe its because we're in a small town. Maybe its because all the behind the scences movers and shakers come through our doors. Maybe its the social atmsophere and the conversations we have with our regulars. Whatever the reason, I have never been so aware of the many individuals who do thing for others more needy than themselves around this time of year! As always, you have the small core group of people who do 75% all the work. All around I see groups raising money or food or toys for others. I have the honor of serving with serval non-profits so I get to see the stuff that goes on behind the scenes - all the meetings and planning and work parties that go into making each event sucessful. I look forward to contiued work with these nonprofits as we reach out the community members that needs us. Good job Veneta!

Our Country Store

2008-11-08T16:40:00.000-08:00

Time is a precious, precious commodity. There's only so much in a day and it seems like something suffers when you add just one more thing. The nice thing about being in business as a partnership and not a sole proprietor is that you can split up the ultimate responsibilities of business ownership. Well . . . we at the ODB have started a few new endeavours. Catharine will be taking on the wholesale end of the ODB while my personal new area is "Our Country Store."

With its beginnings as our wine shop, "Our Country Store" will house a variety of local and regional products. Our goal is to serve tourists with a gift shop setting while keeping an inventory of products locals will want as well. "Our Country Store" will include an ever increasing inventory of such edible products as nuts, honey,cheeses, jams, our salad dressings, wines, microbrews, chocolates, crackers, and a variety of locally bottled products from Winter Green Farms including spagehtti sauce. We'll also be looking at crafty items as well - metal and woodworking and such. We presently have a line of body products from Triple Tree Farms in Lorane. The possibilities go on and on. I feel like we have only touched the tip of the iceberg as far as vendors, distributors, and craftsmen go.

We also carry with us the heritage of the Veneta Downtown Farmer's Market. For those farmers who sold products in the lot next to us all summer, we are able to provide a year round option for them - especially those products that we can shelf for a while. In collaboration with another market venue and the Farmer's Market, we'll be hosting our own Holiday Bazaar on the weekend of November 21st and 22nd. Its such a huge tradition in Fern Ridge area that there about about 29 other locations happening all on this one weekend! We're expecting a tremendous turnout considering the high level of breakfast and lunch business without having a bazaar - just pass though traffic. Although, we expect to make the real money off of the increased restaurant business, we'll be selling our own host of ODB products - baked goods, gift baskets, and such. Exciting stuff and a great kick off to our own Country Store!

Economy Barometer

2008-10-15T08:04:00.000-07:00

You know, I bet I could tell you what is going financially with our customer just by how much and what kind of business we're doing here at the restaurant. We know when payday is, when a holiday is approaching, when school starts and when school releases for the year. All these life changes and more are felt by our business in different ways. For instance, when times are tough, customers still come out to eat, but they'll lose the extras like appetizers and desserts. After the big spending holidays, business drops off as folks realized how much they've spent and start cutting back (hence the slow month of January). Without looking at a paper or listening to the radio last week, I could have told you that folks were scared about money. When it came to dinner at the ODB, it was a ghost town. Dead. I understand. I wouldn't be going out on the town either if I had just seen my retirement plan drop 25% or so.

So, here at the restaurant we play the guessing game - what we can do to tailor our restaurant to our customers' ever changing emotional and financial needs? Do they need more/different events? Do they need us to be open different/more/less hours? Do they need new/fewer/more menu options? We know that right now the thought on everyone's mind is money. For families and retired folks, in particular, saving money is very important. What can we do as a restaurant to help with this (and stay in business)? We've come up with a few ideas.

-Early Bird Specials
These are special dinner options only available between 4 -6 pm. They are smaller portions, but also involve a considerable price break. For instance - 6 oz Prime Rib for only $10.95!

-A la Carte Dinners
We will be re-doing our dinner menu to reflect an a la cart dinner pricing system - without soup or salad. This seems to be the trend these days with restaurants anyway. With the ODB, our huge portions make soup and salad unnecessary space fillers prior to the real meal. We've found that people take a lot of food home in boxes and rarely have room for dessert. With the a la carte system, dinners are priced without soup or salad, but soup or salad can always be added back on for those customers who prefer the full experience. We'll be able to decrease waste and lower dinner prices all around. This will help everyone!

-Lower Priced Options
In addition to the a la carte dinner system, we will be adding a few salad and sandwich favorites from the popular lunch menu.

I know all of you are familiar with the trickle down system of how cost increases get past onto the consumer. We all suffer from it. As you can imagine, we at the ODB are a consumer for many products which all seem to have increased in price lately. We're right there with you struggling to make the same income buy our increasingly expensive necessities. Like you, we do what we can by cutting out the extras, searching for the best deals before buying, and saving wherever we can! First at our business, then at home.

Dinner Theater

2008-10-07T09:22:00.000-07:00

Sunday, October 5th we had our first dinner show here at the ODB entitled 'A Little Dinner Music.' A local community theater group, Kaleidoscope, presented an evening of song and food preformed by the New Vision Singers. This is a group Marshall and I sing with on Monday nights, so, as you can imagine, we were quite busy that evening. Between the two of us, we handled the bartending which was much more than we anticipated. We had a FULL HOUSE (actually a little over full due to a few unscheduled guests) with 64 attendees. The audience was composed of about 70% family and friends, so they made for an easy sell. Response was great with the audience laughing and clapping spontaneously throughout the evening.

The format of the event was that of singing waiters. The nine of us who were performing also served the entire meal. Each course was followed by a 5-7 minute set of songs. For those of you who don't know, the restaurant industry is overly populated with artists of all kinds. It's very hard too earn a living in the art world, so artist often fall into the restaurant industry just looking for enough money to pay the bills while they are pursuing their real career. Anyway . . . we were blessed with some very handy performers who also knew their way around the kitchen. The entire evening was a success from everyone's standpoint - the audience, the performers, Lu the Director, and we at the restaurant. Multiple individuals requested we do this again, maybe even do it once a month!

Marshall and I each had a little solo in the big pop medley with me singing a blurb from 'Let's get physical' (yeah, I know) and Marshall singing a bit of 'Spinning Wheel.' At one point the entire cast formed a kick line for a section of the old favorite 'This is it.' Boy did we get a huge response from the audience on that one! Most songs were accompanied by 'planned movement' (not dance) so there was a lot for the audience to take in.

Our kids, Shane and Harmony were in attendance sitting with our parents in the back. The kids have been to all of our rehearsals and knew the songs almost as well as we did. We'd hear them spontaneously break out into to one of the songs in the car or at the dinner table. Makes you wonder what they're singing at school! 'Let's get Physical' does come across quite the same from a three-year-old's mouth. My Mother-in-law tells me that Shane was telling her what was coming up next during the performance and both were often singing along with us.

Practices continue as we're work towards a full-length concert on December 6th. Plans are in the works for future Dinner Shows at the ODB, so stay tuned!

Spetember Wedding at the ODB

2008-09-26T17:54:00.000-07:00

As some of you may have noticed, that on September 13th, we closed the restaurant for a private event. A young couple from our area got married at a local church and booked the ODB for their reception! Aside from the 3 Perkins weddings last year (3 of us daughters got married within 6 months of each other), this was our first large, in-house wedding reception.

It was a beautifully sunny Saturday afternoon with a light breezy. Not too hot and not too chilly. Perfect for the outdoor seating necessary for a group the size of about 150. We could have easily sat 50 more for an even 200 guest event utilizing our backyard and front patio. I look forward to doing more of these next summer.

Foodwise, this is a much easier event for us than would be a catering at another location of the same size. All work aside, the catering aspect of the ODB is where we'd like to grow. However, it became apparent to us that we really need to promote weddings here at the restaurant. When an event is in-house, you have all your tools right there at hand and everyone knows where they are. Unlike a catering, where you have to pack, load, unload, find, repack and put away ALL of your equipment every time. (That's why you have professionals.) We also had a level of familiarity with the location (our restaurant) that is not even possible with off-site events. We were able to utilize our regular staff rather than calling on part time caterers because we did not have to staff the restaurant AND an off-site catering. All in all, it was an incredibly successful event at every level.

The happy couple chose to go with a light brunch buffet for their meal option. The menu included Quiche, Crepes, our Cinnamon French Toast, Roasted Red Potatoes, fresh Fruit Display, an assortment of fresh Pastries and delicious salads. We also provided a mimosa bar which was the hit of the day. We learned the hard way where not to put the receiving line - next to the buffet! The key to handling a large volume of people is handling the traffic flow of said people.

The restaurant was beautiful for the big day. The bride's colors were white, pale green and gold. White linen was everywhere. Each table was decorated with an elaborate centerpiece consisting of a tall candle surrounded by green fruits and vegetables on a gold plate and topped with gold ribbon. It literally took 3-5 of their people 3 hours to get them all done! The cake was a unique creation made by the mother-of-the-bride. It consisted of 3 simple round cakes tiered atop vases and covered with spun sugar. Beautiful!

A Comedy of Errors

2008-09-26T09:05:00.000-07:00

Here we are, one month after my last post. Noble intentions often fall to the side in the face of reality. Who knew it would be this hard to stay up on my posts?! I guess it should be no surprise to me. I always had a problem keeping up on journal writings when I was younger too. Here are few big things that happened over the last month.

As some of you may have noticed, on September 13th we closed the restaurant for a private event. We hosted a wedding reception for 150 here at the ODB. I have posted a full article about this event as well as pictures on my wedding blog - http://www.oregonweddings.blogspot.com/. Marshall and I also took a vacation (yeah!) the last week of August. Nothing big. A few day trips to the coast, the lake, Corvallis and the Wildlife Safari, but it was a wonderful rest just the way vacations ought to be. Our very own Jessey took a road trip to California to see relatives and came back tanner than ever. We hired a local couple to take on the wholesale side of our business. My son started kindergarten and rode the bus for the first time. My husband ate a salad for the first time in 15 years and we had the chance to get out and socialize with a few other couples. Lots going on as I am sure is true with your family as well.

This week's post is a continuation of the last one which dealt with community involvement and how it can go wrong. Much has happened in just a month in this area of my life. (Again names are changed to protect the innocent and the guilty.) While you may not know the context of the events and issues described here, I hope that you can identify with them in the context of your own community, business or social situations. People aren't very different from each other from one place to another. That's how we get such stereotypes as 'The Gossip,' The Player,' and 'The Comedian.' To better illustrate my situation, here are the two stereotypes I am dealing with - 'The Puppet' and 'The Tyrant.'

'The Puppet' is a generally nice guy with good intentions. He's an older puppet, so he'd been around for quite a while. He has experience with performance and this is certainly not his first time on stage. Just as with any other puppet, however, his actions and words are not his own, but those of a third party behind the scenes pulling his strings. The puppet thinks he is moving and speaking for himself when in reality he is merely the kind face of an unseen and unsightly force. Often a puppet will be placed in a role of authority for best affect - the better to control with.

'The Tyrant' is usually a dynamic individual who knows people and can get a lot done. They are well-spoken, well-educated, and generally think they know everything. 'The Tyrant' is good at getting people to believe in them, a great salesperson and is generally a charismatic individual. They know all the communication tricks, just like 'The Politician', so good luck nailing them down on anything or getting a straight answer. Disagree with or question a tyrant and you are out of the club, blacklisted, disowned. Tyrants present an image of being infallible - they can do no wrong. Tyrants make horrible partners because they can't share power but rather they gather it to themselves as if it were a shield. A shield that without, 'The Tyrant' would be exposed for the real person that they are - a person just like you and me. You will never hear 'The Tyrant' apologize or say they were wrong. Humility is not a word in their vocabulary. Instead, every situation will be twisted in such a way as to make everyone else be in the wrong.

MY SITUATION
Have you ever thought you knew a person and had a eye opening experience that threw into question every thing they'd ever said and done since you've known them? Have you ever backed someone up in the past - taken their side on an issue - only to find yourself on the other side of the fence and now having to protect yourself from that very person? Have you ever had someone tell you there is no way you can understand the level at which they are thinking and operating and then want you to back their plan - whatever it might be - whole hearted? Have you ever been in a position of accountability, but you weren't given right to oversight or insight into programs, finances, or policy decisions? Have you ever been given a smile and nod by someone only to find out later they are disparaging you both professionally and personally behind your back? Well, its a first for me and not a fun experience let me tell you!

So . . . what do you do with a tyrant? I can only think of three options.

1) Put up and shut up. You go along with whatever 'The Tyrant' says. You become a 'Yes man', simply rubber stamping everything that comes before you.

2) You fight. You assert yourself, stick out your neck and be vocal. You do what you can for change and join with others with similar concerns and goals.

3) You get out. This may be for a variety of reasons. The personal or professional risks may be too great. Maybe its really not worth it and you should just let 'The Tyrant' fail or succeed on their own (they're certainly not listening to you). Whether you are comfortable with the means or not, maybe the positive results of 'The Tyrant's' work will out weigh the bridges burnt and heads lost along the way?

Who knows! You don't want to be yet one more person without the stamina/time/energy to face down 'The Tyrant,' but is it worth it in the end? You will be the one to pick up the pieces after the battle. Can you pick up the pieces and put them back together as they ought to be? Do you have the time, the energy, the desire? Such are the issues and questions I have been dealing with this past month. At this point I have to question whether continued confrontations are healthy for me, my business, my family, and the organization itself. And you know what, I don't have the answer.

Dean Weddings

2008-09-10T07:12:00.000-07:00

In this blog, I plan to offer you a sneak peak behind the scenes of the many weddings we do over here. At the Dean wedding, I was just lending a helping hand. I had no part in planning or set up. I was just the knowledgeable hands and feet for the day along with my husband. It's been a while since I was on my feet 14 hours straight. It brings back memories of the old caterer days!

The wedding was set on a beautiful piece of private property in the Mohawk valley. A wonderfully landscape lawn blended into a wide-open field trimmed just for the day. Huge white tents stretched over the white and green clothed tables. The site was such a blessing for the couple! Aside from how beautiful it was, they had no site rentals for either the ceremony or the reception. The in-laws even had all of the large white tents to use as sun coverage. All in all, a savings of possibility thousands of dollars. The wedding was beautiful. The bride was beautiful. The band was great and there was food for everyone. It was a beautiful August wedding in Oregon. Now for the inside scoop!

The family chose to go with the do-it-yourself option on food and spent the money on the band and a great bar. Doing the food yourself is an option that will not work for everyone. The huge expense of TIME can often out way any money you save by not paying a catering staff. We're not just talking YOUR time and energy. The time of various family members will be used as well. In this case, all of the bride's immediate family was elbow deep in food for days before the weddings. (For anyone who's contemplating this, Potato salad for 300 takes a long time, just so you know!) I understand the concept of saving money this way, but brides and their families are often not prepared for the emotional and physical cost of doing the food yourself. When my sisters and I got married, we had the advantage of many years of combined knowledge in the business and a restaurant at our disposal. For those of you without the experience or tools yet would still like to do it on your own, here are a few tips that will save you time, money and energy.

MENU

Pick a simple menu to prepare. Grilled chicken breasts are a lot easier than chicken skewers - a lot less preparation involved. Green salad is easier than potato salad - again, a lot less preparation. If you're going to do it yourself, save yourself time and energy wherever you can and the easiest place to do that is in the preparation of the food. Make sure you choose foods that will hold up well over time and are simple to arrange on the buffet. Also give thought to whether the menu you choose can ALL be prepared ahead of time so no one is stuck at the grill during the ceremony cooking something at last minute so it will be fresh and edible.

FOOD STORAGE

Have you ever thought you'd have to have a place to store food for 300? Most people don't have refrigeration for that much food just hanging around in the garage. Check into renting a refrigerated trailer. Beer distributors have them for kegs and you may be able to get one cheap if you're serving their beer. Believe me, it’s a lot easier than sending gallons of potato salad home with members of the bridal party to refrigerator until the big day.

STAFF

Although food preparation is a time drag before the wedding, it is a consideration during the wedding celebrations as well. Obviously you and all your immediate family will playing their various roles in your ceremony. None of you will be available to get all the food out on the buffet - nor should you try to. Make sure to assign a responsible adult not essential to the ceremony to take care of any last minute cooking. This person also needs to get all the food out and arranged on the buffet right before the ceremony starts. And not forget about refilling the buffet. Depending on the size of your wedding, the buffet may need to be refilled half way through and YOU better not be doing that either. Here's a place you might spend some extra money on staff. Hire someone experienced to head this up and stick around for the clean up. Helps a lot.

BUFFET

A buffet is the only real option for a wedding do-it-yourselfer. Have you ever set up or stocked a buffet before? Stocking a buffet, especially for a large wedding, requires two people. They'll play tag team, a runner to check food levels and report back and the other to prepare the next platter of food to put out and hand it off to the runner. Weddings larger than 200 need two buffets and they should always be double-sided so people can go down both sides of the buffet. This will speed service time up and keep everyone in good spirits.

LEFTOVERS AND CLEANUP

Don't forget about clean up! Who's going to break down the buffets, wrap up all the leftovers, take down the decorations, and clear the tables? You'll get lots of volunteers to help with set up including bridesmaids and girlfriends of groomsmen. Don't expect these same people to stick around afterwards to break everything down on their own. This requires a special request on your part. Otherwise, it’s going to be the mother of the bride or some such responsible individual who gets stuck with it all at the end of the night. Many hands make light work and a word to your bridal party ahead of time is not out of place. Their role as part of your bridal party comes with responsibilities, not just the fun and games.

Like all aspects of your weddings, the food service is all about details. You will have to think of everything necessary for food service and make sure it gets to your reception whether by your own hand or delivered. If you still want to do it yourself after all this, go for it! The best thing you can do is to be informed. Don't be afraid to ask someone who knows what they're doing to advise you or even help you out on the big day.

Something Borrowed

2008-08-21T09:41:00.000-07:00

The wedding dress.Whether you're looking for a fairy princess dress or a more casual affair, finding the right dress for your special day can be an exhausting process. You do your research - checking out gowns online and scheduling consultations to try on a selection. You bargain hunt - checking Craiglist and ebay for deals. Where is that perfect dress?

Often brides are hampered by price range. The 'perfect dress' may cost more then the wedding itself if you are not careful. Rather than limiting yourself to the few dresses that are within your price range (and marginally close to what you are looking for) consider renting a weddings gown! This is apparently all the rage in places like Australia and Europe and is just starting to make headway in the U.S. Imagine a gown originally valued up to $2500 available for rent for less than $200. You can truly say 'price is no object.' You can have the wedding dress of your dreams for what it would have cost to preserve your bought dress for the next fifty years.

This is the route I personally chose for my wedding. Well, actually it was more out of necessity than choice. Time, life, and budget all worked together to keep my perfect dress just out of my reach. I was within two weeks of my wedding and just about to resort to altering a prom gown when I stumbled across an ad on Craigslist - Something Borrowed Bridal Boutique. Started by two friends, Carol Holm and Anita Sanders, these ladies had retired from their real jobs to open this business together. One was from Australia were renting wedding dresses is apparently a pretty common practice. Housed in the beautiful front room of one gal, the entire setup reminded me of a high end clothing store where models were going to walk out any second for me to look at dresses on. My mother, mother-in-law, and sister sat on comfortable couches and chairs just outside the screened area as I took my pick of the dresses on the rack. Each dress was unique and beautiful. Since they were all altered, size was relative and there were a lot of options. Shoes and jewelry were available with each dress so you could get the full impact of the dress as you show off in front of the full mirrors. It was truly a more pleasant experience than the more sterile one I experienced at David's Bridal. The ladies also took care of all the cleaning and pressing so I did not have to worry about anything on my special day.

There may a few sentimental reasons for buying a dress. You may want to keep it. Why? Are you thinking of saving it for your daughter? Come on! Did you for a second consider wearing your mother's dress? The likelihood that changes in fashions and your daughter's size would even allow for this is small. In reality, your dress will be carefully packed away (and expensively preserved) in the attic for years until you take it out for memories' sake to have a look. It's a bit of a waste of a beautiful dress really. Aside from the traditional sentimentality surrounding a wedding dress, renting the perfect gown makes more sense.

Doing it all yourself

2008-08-20T09:03:00.000-07:00

When it comes down to the practicality of budgeting for a wedding, a professional wedding planner is not an option for many of us. "How hard can it be," you may say to yourself - a thought you'll look back and laugh once you're in the thick of flower colors and invitations and catering bids. The biggest mistake I see brides make is to try to do everything themselves. Unless you are one of those people who love details, planning an event the magnitude of your wedding (even a very small wedding) will drag the life out of you. Even those of us who excel at organization and taking care of details, you will lose sight of the bigger picture - YOU'RE GETTING MARRIED! Here are a few tips to make planning your special a bit easier.

1) DELEGATE!
There are a lot of people who want to help you - sisters-in-law, bridesmaids, mom (of course), and mother in laws too. Use them!

2) Take Vendor Recommendations
You know people who've gotten married before. Pick their brains for the right photographer, caterer, florist, and reception location. You don't have to do all the research yourself.

3) Group Effort
Get everyone - bridal party and relatives - together for things like invitations and decorations. The time goes so much faster with more hands.

4) Know What You Want
Everyone will have a suggestion or an idea for your big day. Politely listen (especially if they're relatives) but remember this is your wedding. It’s your dress and your reception band and your dinner menu.

5) Appoint a Director
Someone has to be directing the action during the rehearsal and the actual ceremony and its not going to be you. Appoint a director and tell them exactly what you want to happen. They'll be on the outside looking in making sure it all comes together and you'll be better able to enjoy your day.

6) Time is Precious
Decide if it is worth the time and effort to do the entire running around yourself. Florists, bakers, and equipment rental agencies will deliver. Caterers may be able to handle decorations, set-ups, cleans ups and rentals. Your hairdresser will come to you. Make this as easy on yourself as possible.

Welcome to Community Involvement

2008-08-19T11:56:00.000-07:00

The greatest irritant of an event planner is to be a part of an ill-planned event. I know this is a hard gripe to identify with, as there are so few people in this category. Let me see if I can relate it to you in whatever profession you are in.

Think of whatever it is that you do really well. It could be baking or fishing or raising kids. Whatever it is, its got a lot components that have to come together in order for whatever it is to turn out well. Imagine you're asked to consult the person who is doing what it is you really should have been asked to do in the first place (because you actually know what you're doing). You're also asked to help this person by volunteering your time and actually doing a very small aspect of that thing you do really well. You do your best - answering questions, raising your own questions to make sure everything makes sense, talking through it with those involved trying to nail down all the details. All the while, you're trying not to be pushy or to take charge (as is your natural inclination) as that would offend. When you see all the parts failing to come together, your concerns are not taken seriously. Instead you are simply reassured that everyone's got their part covered and it will all come together in the end. You, in fact, end up looking like the bad guy who's stirring up trouble rather than the concerned (and informed) participant that you are. You step back and let the event take its course. There's nothing more you can do any way since "it will all come together in the end." You show up where you are asked and spend the entire time reminding yourself that you are not in charge and to just take deep breaths. Does that sound familiar?

Such is the bain of an event planner - an ill-planned event I am supposed to be a part of and, as in my case, promoting and putting your name behind. When committees are making decisions, where's the buck stop? Who has the final responsibility? Who gets the praises for a success and the criticism for the failures?

I've notice that committee and group leadership is especially prone to ruffled feathers - think non-profit organizations. While I am a firm believer in consensus and collaboration, projects require direct leadership and accountability. Committees can be great for spreading out the responsibility and workload and pooling talents, but you can end up with a faulty end product when there is no one to oversee the big picture and pull all the details together. Such is the case with events. Someone has to know everything about everything, be able to answer all the questions, and make the 'in the moment' adjustment decisions. Hopefully, some of this ranting makes sense. Out of context (as it must be for the sake of both the innocent and the guilty) you may not know the people, but situation may strike a chord with an experience you've had. We've all had times where all you can do is bite your tongue, get the job done, and then go home and vent to your husband.

Welcome to community involvement!

My Baby, My Business

2008-08-12T10:36:00.000-07:00

What do you do with your days off? Do they end up being catch-up days? You know, where you catch up on everything around the house that you couldn't do during the workweek. Or do you make sure you do something out of the ordinary like go to the beach or a festival? For us, its always a mix of both. We always end up picking up around the house, but I find it impossible to not use this gift of time together better. (Sunday is my husband's and mine only day off together.) Every once in a while, a day off to just lie around the house is exactly what we need. This weekend was not one of those! What the business demands, the business gets.

Here's the deal when you own and run your own business. A day off is never sacred. You do what needs to be done no matter the day or time, because this is your baby. Yes, your business is a baby that you have to see is fed and rests regularly, cleaned up and dressed properly, held when it wakes up and cries, and taught new skills as it grows. Hopefully, after years of care and training, the 'baby' will grow up and not need so much hands-on care as it learns to take care of itself. This is how I think about it anyway. The end result of having a baby (owning your own business) is not to have a 20-year-old baby that still can't fend for itself without you. Rather you want a healthy and independent individual that you can be proud of and will go out on its own and be successful. Such is the goal of owning a business. Twenty years down the road you shouldn't have to be just as hands-on with the business as you were in the beginning (i.e. 75 hour weeks to keep it running). You want to be able to set back and enjoy the rewards. Well, we are in our third year of ownership here at the ODB. In keeping with the baby analogy, my 'baby' is potty trained, walking and talking on its own, and just learning its limits with authority. This is a time of great growth, tremendous challenges, and wonderful successes. All that to say, we're all still on-call when it comes to the needs of the business and there are no sacred days off.

Spread the Wealth - Eugene 08 and the ODB

2008-08-06T14:54:00.000-07:00

What did you do the 10 days of Eugene ’08? Did you have tickets? Did you hang out in the festival area? Did you avoid downtown only to find it largely empty? My husband and I are in the latter group. Anticipating a huge pedestrian crowd, we were cringing the entire drive downtown knowing we’d have to fight our way in only after having to park a ½ mile a way. Much to our surprise, traffic – pedestrian and vehicle – was light. After walking the campus and deciding not to brave the festival crowds with two young children in tow, we went out to eat. The normally crowded 5th street restaurant was dead! In talking to our waitress, we heard that numbers were, in fact, down from normal during the trials and considerably lower than everyone anticipated for the Trials. The restaurant had increased staff for the Trials and instead had to send people home every night. We heard this same story repeated at yet another downtown restaurant later that week. What’s up with that?

Well, here’s the scoop . . .

Most of the tourists anticipated for the event (an estimated 10,000+) were just too well taken care of down on campus. Most of the athletes, families and such were housed on campus, were fed by the huge kitchen services there and even received food vouchers for the large food vendor set up inside the stadium. These people had no reason to leave the campus and a lot of incentives not to. Parking and transportation would be issues for all of them. A bit of a sorry thing for all of the restaurants and retail establishments anticipating that huge rush with no luck. Here at the ODB we noticed no change in numbers with a few Trial stragglers out and about in the country. I know Eugene is anticipating more competitions in the next few years; hopefully everyone in the area will be able figure out how to get all these people out and about so the rest of us can enjoy the spoils as well! Spread the Wealth next time why don't you?!

Getting Started

2008-07-25T18:58:00.000-07:00

Let me first start by introducing myself and giving you all the 'speal.' (For those of you who already know me, ignore this introduction.) My name is Tabitha Eck (new last name and still feels funny to see it after my name). I am part owner of Our Daily Bread Restaurant located in Veneta, Oregon which I own with my parents. Our restaurant serves all walks of life from the retired folks to wine tasting tourists. Located in a beautifully renovated country church, we have the perfect location in the middle of Southern Willamette Valley wine country as well as the atmosphere, service, and food to become a well-known destination spot for nearby Eugene residents and out-of-town guests as well.

OK! That's enough business for now. I want this blog to be much more than just yet another marketing scheme. This is a way for our guests (and future guests) to get to know us (mostly me) and our business a little bit better - to be a part of the ODB on a new level. The idea first came to me when I was searching out the owner of a local vineyard on the web and was directed to her personal blog. I felt like I got to know her and the vineyard on a more personal level than any profile I could have located. The more I thought about it, the more I saw a way to reach out to our guests.

Though business will always be a large part of the discussions here, family will be equally important. Our restaurant is the definition of a 'family-owned restaurant.' All four of my siblings have worked in the restaurant at one time or another with three of us still working here full-time. Our patriarch, Timothy, if our chef, while our matriarch, Catharine, splits her focus as much as I by taking on the finances and over seeing the bakery as well as the dining room on occassion. It was here that I met my husband, Marshall, whom I married this last December. I married into a ready-made family with a three year old daughter, Harmony, and a five year old son, Shane. These are the first grandkids and we are all enjoying (most of the time) the changes shifts in relationships like these bring to our business.

I think that is a good intro. Hopefully, you know where I am coming from and where I plan on going. I am sure there will times for venting a bit as well as opportunities for an inside look into our small, family business. I'll keep you posted!