This Is Not For Everyone

It takes a particular kind of person to do this work. Long hard and hot hours, testing body, mind and spirit. The endless drive to show up for others even when we may struggle to show up for ourselves. The heavy cost is only sustainable with an equally strong conviction that this work matters. It feeds our hearts and depletes our bones.

Curating every detail for guests during service then eating cold staff meal off a milk crate at midnight, missing the wedding, the birthday, the funeral again.

We do not pretend to be the most balanced or well-adjusted people in the room. The relentless and persistent challenges that come with razor thin margins, long hours, and high stakes creates a high performing ragtag scrappy tribe working as a single organism under high pressure until finally collapsing into shared delirious (and well-earned) exhaustion.

These people will likely see themselves in these pages, find a moment of catharsis in the humor. For others, it will offend. That's ok. It's not for you.

This is a love letter to the local restaurant industry, not only the owners + the staff but also the farmers, winemakers, that make what we do possible.

There are tools for other artistic endeavors — and as much as we appreciate their role in our city, this tool is not for you. Please use this space with respect for who it is intended for.

If it is you — if you recognize yourself in any of that — then this is for you. The zine, the site, the whole thing. Undiluted, by industry, for industry. We're not softening it to bring anyone else along.

Find what you love and let it kill you. The meek inherit nothing and the bold earn their scars.

It belongs to no one so it can belong to everyone.