The good news is that the restaurant goes from strength to strength. The bad news is that it is showing huge holes in our organisation.
The restaurant space is quite small and can seat about 40 people. The difficulty is making sure that all 40 seats are optimised.
The two main problems we have are ensuring that each table is fully occupied and that not everyone comes to eat at once. This presents interesting challenges.
The kitchen staff are adamant we apply a system where there is a 15 minute gap between each table arriving. But they do not discriminate between table sizes. If, with 15 minute intervals, I send in successive tables of eight then there will be kitchen meltdown. But if I do not maximise the number of bums on seats the kitchen will not be earning.
This fine balance, between the maximum numbers and the maintenance of standards, requires diplomacy. I am trying to avoid getting the chefs involved and I am negotiating with their head waitress. She wants a complex scheme. I am arguing for simplicity. If the restaurant want my staff to take the booking - and they need to - then the system will have to be workable.
We have drawn graphs, grids, tables and plans. But time and time again it comes back that it has to stay simple. The truth is that we are dealing with customers, not jelly beans. They will turn up late, increase their numbers without warning, announce they all have dietary requirements and generally unset all the careful plans we make. And there isn't anything we can do about it.
So, for the moment, the simplest plan prevails and I volunteer to pop out for the ice creams. It is in stressful times like these, and I suspect the restaurant is going to provide me with plenty of them, that I seek the simple pleasures of comfort food.