Food

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We Work on the Front Lines Providing Your Food: Here’s What You Need to Know BY KATIE HENNESSEY I n my 15 years in the food industry, I have served customers by waiting tables, making coff ee, decorating deserts, serving counters, delivering sandwiches and stocking shelves. Whether in a warehouse, kitchen or racing through downtown delivering sandwiches on my bicycle, one universal objective summed up all of my food service jobs: the customers’ needs come fi rst.

The grocery store chains, restaurants and delivery services that value customer retention over the bo om line go out of their way to adhere to this golden rule. They eat the cost when service is unsatisfactory, they work overtime during holidays to give consumers stress-free gatherings, they stop what they’re doing to hunt down products on packed storage shelves.

They put themselves last, so customers’ needs can come fi rst.

But even the best of those businesses can’t keep up with coronavirus consumerism. Panic-buying has created product shortages, stay-at-home orders have put pressure on delivery services and demand for curbside orders have caused unusual waiting periods for food providers otherwise known for their timeliness.

On Easter Sunday, a line stretched from Smoke BBQ Restaurant’s East Commerce St. location all the way to the Alamo as customers waited for curbside takeout. Many turned to social media to vent about their wait. “Poor planning Smoke BBQ,” one wrote. “This line is outrageous,” said another. “Even if we wanted to cancel, there is not even a way out of this line,” yet another complained.

What the customers didn’t know was that 61 of the restaurant’s almost 400 Easter orders were dated for the following Sunday — mistakes made by customers when ordering online, its owner said.

“We tried to service these people, but we were ultimately giving food to people who didn’t have an order for Easter,” Smoke owner Adrian Martinez told the Current. “Things kept going from there. It fell apart.”

Even so, Martinez did what any good food service provider would do, he busted his ass to make things right.

“We started calling everybody to tell them to come an hour later,” he said. “I got on Facebook Live to explain what was going on.”

The restaurant owner even gave out his personal number so those in line could call or text for an honest explanation. Meanwhile, runners rushed ice-cold drinks to those waiting in their cars.

A reprieve came the following day, when loyal customers came to Martinez’s side, thanking him for cooking for everybody during the crush, even though he didn’t have to.

“Less than 20% of the big-name restaurants are still operating,” Martinez said, “We had a chance to say, ‘We’re going to close the doors, put everybody on unemployment and call it a day.’”

Instead, the restaurant opened a pop-up grocery market, altered its menu to meet consumer needs and hosted a free 400-meal giveaway for the community. Katie Hennessey

Panic Buying

H-E-B employee Jacob Alexander Henson has also wrestled with the tension of customer demands and product shortages. Once a bakery worker, Henson temporarily shifted to curbside grocery service when less-essential departments paused operation.

“H-E-B is defi nitely here for the customers fi rst and foremost, but because of the pandemic and items that are limited and shorted, it has put employees behind regular production schedule,” Henson told

the Current.

“Panic-buying disrupted supply and demand, especially around products like toilet paper and cleaning items,” he added. “We’re doing everything we can, but sometimes customers don’t understand.”

Curbside customers have become upset when their orders weren’t delivered with 100% accuracy or delivery was not as timely as they expected, Henson said. 5Meanwhile, employees are shopping for those orders as early as 5 a.m., three hours before stores open, to meet demand.

It doesn’t take an insider to know San Antonio-based H-E-B has staked its reputation on quality and customer service. But even companies with good reps are in new territory right now. Grocery stores can only work with the supplies made available to them.

And even though food providers are doing heroic work, at the end of the day, they’re still human. They aren’t immune from making mistakes in such a high-pressure environment.

If there is ever been a time to lighten up on service workers and give them our support, it’s now.

Local Support

One way we can repay food workers who put themselves on the front line is supporting locally owned restaurants, establishments that are often started by people who worked up the ranks.

Chef Johnny Hernandez’s La Gloria

Instagram / La Gloria

MA La Gloria staff er runs the cashier’s station at the restaurant’s grocery market.

at the Pearl converted its seating space into a temporary market to bring San Antonio citizens necessary resources. Later, it added convenient hours and online ordering to be er serve emergency responders.

“There was a hype in the beginning, then it kind of died down,” Juliana Ibarra, brand communicator for Grupo La Gloria told the Current. “Meanwhile, when I pass by McDonald’s and Burger King, they are just packed.”

He continued: “We keep a lot of people working, plus the owner was born and raised here, and he is completely invested in the community,” Ibarro said. “I would love to tell people, if they can continue to do takeout and curbside from local restaurants, man, it would really help.”

Though food service workers will continue to put customers’ needs fi rst, now’s a good time to return the favor.

They are on the frontlines, choosing to work when the cost is high, prioritizing customer health and safety above their own, strategizing about how they can be er serve their community.

Give them a smile, give them an air high-fi ve, give them a big tip. Recognize them for doing the work they know best — serving others before themselves, no ma er the circumstance.

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Cupboard Cocktails Don’t let quarantine cramp your style. Two ingredients is enough to make spectacular cocktails.

BY RON BECHTOL I ’m writing this on April 9, be er known among afi cionados as National Gin and Tonic Day. Just for the record, the international celebration of the classic drink is in October, and, no, don’t ask me why it deserves its own day here or abroad. For now, just catch up by having several.

In looking at news releases celebrating the occasion, I happened across several recipes purporting to give an old dog a new life.

One suggests starting with one-and-a-half ounces of gin in a tall glass with ice, then adding half an ounce of Suze, an especially bracing amaro. From there, dump in a quarter-ounce of lime juice and a couple dashes of Angostura bi ers. Stir, then splash tonic water on top to taste. I happen to like Fever Tree’s Indian Tonic.

Another approach is to go all-in Spanish by serving your gin tonic — Spaniards omit the “and,” although they otherwise retain the drink’s English name — in a large wine glass with added botanicals such as juniper berries or rosemary sprigs, slices of citrus and the like.

In its basic form — gin, tonic, maybe a squeeze of lime — this is the simplest of two-ingredient cocktails. Scotch and soda, the classic highball, is another. But you’ve got some time on your hands, yes?

Good. We’re moving on to two-ingredient cocktails, each with a couple of boozy components I’m hoping you have on hand — or can get delivered. All other ingredients, such as bi ers, simple syrups or relative trace amounts of liqueurs don’t count. They’re kind of like salt and pepper in a cooking recipe.

To start with, you go a love a drink called the Hanky Panky. Here it is:

Hanky Panky Ingredients 1½ oz. gin, such as Plymouth is good. 1½ oz. sweet vermouth, such as Dolin Rouge 2 dashes of Fernet Branca, an especially intense amaro

Directions Stir with ice, then strain into a chilled coupe glass. Garnish with a swath of orange peel you have squeezed into the glass and rubbed along the rim. Feel free to play with other slightly less intense amaros such as Cardamaro or Cynar, especially if you’re using a light red vermouth. appearance in The Savoy Cocktail Book, a classic published in London in 1930. The following is a variation that might be er be called the Jim-Dandy. It’s that good.

Jim Dandy Ingredients 1½ oz. rye whiskey, such as Bulleit 1½ oz sweet vermouth, such as Carpano Antica 3 dashes of orange liqueur, such as Combier Dash of Angostura bi ers

Directions Combine in an ice-fi lled glass, stir to chill and dilute, strain into a chilled coupe and garnish with orange and lemon peels. Or not. Feel free to up the Angostura — especially if using Carpano, a very big, sweet red.

I’m hoping you might have sake in your pandemic pantry. It’s great just served over ice in the summertime if a goad is needed. As initially published, the Midway Fuji is the purest of two-ingredient cocktails — just gin and sake in equal parts — bam! As such,

it’s a pre y naked drink. The same can be said for a martini, of course. The gin variety, naturally. Here’s the original:

Midway Fuji Ingredients 1½ oz. gin (I used Nikka, a Japanese coff ey-still gin, but any good London gin will do.) 1½ oz. sake (I used a junmai-ginjo from Arizona, no less, although the recipe suggests junmai-shu.)

Directions This one is shaken — unusually, as two spirits would normally be stirred. After doing so, strain into a chilled Nick and Nora glass or a coupe. As the junmai-ginjo traditionally has a li le added alcohol — the junmai-shu does not — the rice fl avor is less pronounced, so my preferred proportions veered in the direction of slightly less gin and more sake. I also felt the need for a li le salinity, so added just a couple drops of saline solution. But you’re the judge here. It all depends on your base ingredients. Go forth and create.