Monday, January 23, 2006

sweet treats


so Papa John's has featured these new desserts in their advertisements lately: Cinna Swirl, Apple Twist and Very Berry. we've always had the cinna swirl, but the other two are new editions since i've been back with Big Papa and they are selling like crazy. our store is continually borrowing 6 inch dough crusts for these sweet treats from other orange county restaurants every weekend. I enjoy the cinna swirl - its classic. I've tried the apple twist - not my thang... and I've yet to divulge into the the very berry - and not too interested to either.

this past weekend I have worked until midnight every night. we are under new management - and besides that fact I have no good explanation as to why things have changed... but i don't mind the extra hours. especially when its late at night because after you endure the rush from 5-9 the rest is a piece. i have had so much free time that I find myself making creations. tonight i moved from making dustinator castles to confecting cinnamon rolls. i slapped out a small, ten inch dough and rolled it out nice and thin and layed it out on a screen. i then took the cinnamon spread and used a spatula i found while rummaging through the clean kitchen supplies to make it nice and even. i then took the sharp roller and made several thin - about one inch - slices. after seperating the slices - there were about 7 - I rolled them up and seperated them on a large screen and set them on the oven belt, which takes about 6 to 7 minutes. i pulled them out early because i figured they would taste better undercooked and doughy than overcooked and crunchy. they turned out not too shabby and the crew's consensus was a thumbs up. the middle of cinnamon rolls are to die for.

the cinnamon roll experiment was early in the evening... around 10:30 we were down to one driver and up to 7 deliveries. I took a call from a Daniella who worked at Taboo - men's gentlemen club - they are one of our best customers... I warned her, though, that we had only one guy on runs so the wait time would be around 2 hours. I've never complained about our drivers before - but just know that for a bunch of guys who do very little they complain a whole lot AND THEY ARE INCREDIBLY SLOW AND INCOMPETENT.... okay really its just most of them - there are like two who have it together. so to make a long story short my new manager, Brandon, asked me to take the TABOO delivery - ha. I've always had a fear of taking a pizza run - i went on a ride along with my friend Tim one time when I first was hired in woarhsington, and i was originally hired as a driver - but that went to hades after I totalled paps' truck, but for some reason the whole thing phases me. But this time, who knows why, I thought it would be adventerous - and i was a little bored, so I went ahead and took the ticket, placed the two small pies in a heated delivery bag, and set out for Taboo on La Mesa. yeah so I got to the major cross streets ok, but this place was nearly impossible to find. I could remember seeing it from either the 57 or the 91 many a time on various athletic trips, but there was no access to it from the freeway. after failing to find the club after 15 minutes i called Taboo and asked for directions - a man who spoke terrible english tried to explain where it was from the intersection I was sitting at - and it happend to be a couple blocks over, tucked in among other random wearhouses - kind of safe, no?. so i figured out that you couldn't make a left turn into this place, so you had to go down a couple blocks and flip a bitch and then make a right and follow an alley that ran adjacent to the freeway. I pulled up all fast and frustrated and walked to the entrance where the bouncer had been prepared to receive me and gave me a 2 buck chuck tip - no he didn't give me wine. On my way back I cooled off and decided that - regardless of my incapability of finding the place in a timely manner - it was a fun experience, but i think i will stick to the inside. when i returned the store the other driver had already returned and was interested to hear the whole story because he could remember his first time trying to find Taboo. did i mention that Andy is a driver at my restaurant now?? - his first day is on tuesday.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey cole, I just wanted to say that I really enjoy reading about your daily adventures and thoughts and so on. You are a very interesting person and one that I am sad not to be playing with anymore. Let me know when you are done with your current novels and such and I'll give you a copy of one of my favorite books. :-)

Anonymous said...

Oh, by the way, this is bekah. Haha.

Nicole said...

heck ya man - just swing my omega 2-4-sizzle and i will hook you up with a good read... maybe i'll catch you at the info desk sometime =)