Restaurant family trees!

[Robin Garr]

When was it? 5, 10 years ago? The CJ did a piece on the Grisanti influence.

I believe that was an early edition of Food & Dining. The Voice-Tribune did such an article (not be me) more recently. I don't recall the CJ doing one.

Robin, When you guys get serious about this excellent idea, let me know. I think it might have some commercial potential with personal recollections, Bio's and some innocent dirt on now defunct restaurants. Any way, I go way back, Original Bristol, Captains Quarters in the Mahon era, Rejuvenated Seelbach, Langtree's, Stouffers Top of the Tower, Harvest House, Jack Fry s, Equus, and on and on... with many stories to tell. Those are just a few that come to mind... many, many more. Me like the idea.

Suzanne, what did you do at Langtry's and when? I worked there as well.

I can remember going to Kunz's in the early 70's with my dad. The chef came out - he really was sporting the outfit then. I was so impressed as young person. He was in WW2 with my dad. Lived near us in the Highlands/Bowman Field. I'm afraid it's going to be a challenge getting much information on anything before the 80's. Everyone is dying.

I started offically working in the kitchen in1973 I saw alot back then
I believe the Chef your talking about was J.B.Hart .He was Chef since the late 30's
He never drove the poliece would pick him up and drive him to work. He'd fix them breakfast
Then when i started driving i'd bring him in was a learning experiance to say the lease he was a great Chef and a second father to me ...
What was your fathers name ?

Wow! What a neat idea! IMHO, I think It would be best to look at the "roots" (Owners, Executive Chefs, GMs) in five year increments starting in 1975 or so. And then follow the "branches" from there. This would make a really good book!
Just in my many of years experience in this town, I think I would be on at least three or four different branches.

Any ideas about how to impliment this tech- wise?

[Robin Garr]

Any ideas about how to impliment this tech- wise?

I'm not a tech guru, and I don't know of any obvious way to make a fill-in form or anything, but I guess a thread like this, where people could start a particular "tree" with the information they have, and others adding to it, would be one place to start. Or maybe a separate thread for each "tree," and people could respond? Then after we collect all the info we can, we can look for a way to display it more prettily?

I dunno. Any techies out there got better ideas? I'll gladly provide the online and server space if someone wants to build it.

What server OS? What type of database?

[Robin Garr]

What server OS? What type of database?

Beats the hell out of me!

Well ... MySQL. And I think it's unix-based, not Windows.

Do you want open access to post or acct/pw?

[Robin Garr]

Do you want open access to post or acct/pw?

Gotta be registration ... the spam gangs know about this site, and we have to find off dozens of offshore registration attempts daily. If it was open posting, it wouldn't be pretty.

Really, JP, I'm thinking that having it start in the forum makes the most sense. Enter information in forum posts; then we can come up with a pretty way to display it permanently in a page on LouisvilleHotBytes.

Maybe that's a better answer: The forum is run on phpBB3 using MySQL. The site runs on WordPress using MySQL.

I worked at Langtry's for one year. I remember the time Tim (RIP) had a meeting between shifts. We/he discussed the relationship between food and sex.
There was a server who was always running and dressing as he came in. I thought he was called in - no, just always late.
The server(s) who caught on that a check for two people at brunch - who paid cash - could be used over and over again.
Tim would come in one door of the kitchen and yell at us to take off some of the garnish; Bim would come in afterwards and yell at us to put more on. (Or vice versa).
Francise tried every kind of way imaginable to use leftovers in a soup. Creme of lettuce never went over well.
There was a $1.50(?) salad that too many women were coming in and having for their lunch and drinking water! Bim raised the price to $2.50.
The models at lunch, who may have had a side job in the Hurstbourne area that made news years later.
A mayor (RIP) whose girlfriend used his credit card for lunch.
A mayor (RIP) who had a bottle of his own collection at the bar. Probably an Old Forester.
Tim gave male servers big parties. I can remember another female and I having to help the male server wait on two parties at the same - two different floors.
The private dining room upstairs, the server got the extra $15 for the use of the room. That was pretty decent back then at lunch time.
And that is just some of the memories of just one restaurant. I would have stayed but Bim thought he was leaving for Lexington.

If it were on a Windows server with ADODB connected databases, not too hard to do. I am not that familiar with UNIX based systems. I think using the forum for user input is a good idea but you'll have to input the data yourself.

I worked at Langtry's for one year. I remember the time Tim (RIP) had a meeting between shifts. We/he discussed the relationship between food and sex.
There was a server who was always running and dressing as he came in. I thought he was called in - no, just always late.
The server(s) who caught on that a check for two people at brunch - who paid cash - could be used over and over again.
Tim would come in one door of the kitchen and yell at us to take off some of the garnish; Bim would come in afterwards and yell at us to put more on. (Or vice versa).
Francise tried every kind of way imaginable to use leftovers in a soup. Creme of lettuce never went over well.
There was a $1.50(?) salad that too many women were coming in and having for their lunch and drinking water! Bim raised the price to $2.50.
The models at lunch, who may have had a side job in the Hurstbourne area that made news years later.
A mayor (RIP) whose girlfriend used his credit card for lunch.
A mayor (RIP) who had a bottle of his own collection at the bar. Probably an Old Forester.
Tim gave male servers big parties. I can remember another female and I having to help the male server wait on two parties at the same - two different floors.
The private dining room upstairs, the server got the extra $15 for the use of the room. That was pretty decent back then at lunch time.
And that is just some of the memories of just one restaurant. I would have stayed but Bim thought he was leaving for Lexington.

We were there at the same time! I had no idea what I had been thrown into. I remember much of the same things you did. I remember catching the cleaning crew stealing bottles of Makers by submersing them in their filled mop bucket and rolling them out the back door.

I thought I was a crazy kind of girl until I got into the restaurant business. I didn't last long in that lifestyle and have nothing but awe and respect for those that make a living at it.

This is Bill speaking on Suzanne's site cause I can never remember my password. I worked at Langtrys towards the end and right before the Bristol opened. We finally had to ban Tim from the kitchen at the Bristol what with all his drunken tirades. Oh the stories.. I'm lucky I got out after about fifteen years without the life style killing me... and now back in it, sober and a wee bit smarter. Talk later.