Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Farewell, Coconut Island

In Vino shut its doors this past Monday.
A little piece of my heart shattered when I
heard the news.  I had spent 4 years there, which
is still my longest stint anywhere. I worked with
some of my best friends and fell in love with wine.
































But it wasn't all coconuts and porcini ravioli. It was still
waiting tables, though some of the most horrific nights
are just funny stories now. My favorite will always be
Valentine's Day 2009, it was  decided last minute that
we would offer a Prix-Fix menu-Which we had totally
not prepared for. We ran out of EVERYTHING. We were
all in the weeds for the whole night,  customers were livid
and we were comping so much stuff. Every single staff member
cried at some point that night. It was horrendous, and the
worst part was that we barely made any money.
But we were all in it together.

















I will cherish my memories of doing the crossword puzzles
before the shift, having coffee on the bench and
people watching,turning the name of a bar into a verb (Croxley),
Friday's behind the bar, eating way too much bread, pasta,
and tiramisu, laying on separate banquettes and yelling about
coconuts, setting up with Eli and hearing him sing Kraftwerk songs,
belting out "I Want it That Way" and having a bewildered Japanese
couple walk in right in the middle of it, the time the power
went out and we had to eat all the cheese in the fridge-
dinner at Mama's followed, skee-ball at Ace Bar after a shift,
Sunday football at Mara's, that time we took a cab to Lakeside
because we didn't want to walk 4 blocks, the parties outside
of work(4th of July- or that Superbowl when Usher showed up!),
celebrating birthday/ weddings etc, truly loving the people
that I worked with and for.































In Vino was home for awhile. I'm glad that I got to be a part of it.


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