Rotary Induction

This morning I enjoyed the experience of joining the Lancaster Hempfield Rotary. I am the guy on the left. The guy in the middle is Ed Bednar, also an inductee. He recently moved here with his wife, so I think he is just transferring his membership to this club. The guy out of the photo on the right is Bill Haynes, the friend who sponsored me.

This is a small club with about 45 members. My dad was a member 20 years ago when it was a dinner club meeting in Four Seasons.

Now it's a breakfast club, and everyone starts getting restless about 8:15am, and then they start sneaking out a few minutes later if the speaker runs long.

I look forward to being a Rotarian. We foster the ideal of service, high ethical standards, and the advancement of goodwill and peace throughout the world. We use the Four way test for the things we think, say or do:

1. Is it the Truth?
2. Is it fair to all concerned?
3. Will it build goodwill and better friendships?
4. Will it be beneficial to all concerned?

Service above self. It's what the world needs.

Isaac's Booths

I see the Isaac's Employee "My Space" has some interesting stories about Isaac's booths. I thought some interesting booth facts might be in order. This is my addition to the Isaac's employee discussion, but I decided to do it on mty blog, rather than intrude on the employee space. (The "My Space" page is totally not affiliated with Isaac's Deli, inc., btw)

The first booths were built in Downtown Lancaster out of Philadelphia Fencing which was salvaged from the upper floors of the vacant building. I helped build these booths, which was one of my first jobs at Isaac's. When we relocated that restaurant out of 44 N Queen Street into the new Fulton Bank building, we brought one of the old booths with us. Here is what it looks like today:


We have a plaque on the booth that explains the history. Here is a close up of the plaque:


One of the unpleasant qualities of the Philadelphia Fencing boards was the propensity to make splinters. We had lots of customers rip nylons and slacks on the booths. It the worst situations, a big long dagger like-splinter would lift up, and a customer sliding into the booth would have a huge splinter impaled into their butt cheek. We spent many hours sanding and polyurethaning these seats to fix this problem.

The original booths were very tight. Over the years, we have increased the distance from the table top to the seat back. Theoretically, you could estimate the age of qan Isaac's restaurant by measuring this space. We called this enlargement "American-sizing" the booths.

We have several booths that are modified for wheel chairs by having the seat on the one side removed.

Isaac's in Ephrata had a few deuce sized booths, but they turned out to feel weird, and are no longer there. We also tried some six-top booths, but they also felt weird - somehow claustrophobic, and tough to serve.

Most of our restaurants have about 13 booths.

The latest innovation was to add padded seats. What do you think, should we add padded backs, as well? Our original theory was that uncomfortable booths were a good thing, because they encouraged customers not to hang around - we could turn tables faster. Now we seem to be all about customer comfort.

During construction of one of our newest locations, Paxton Street, we installed the booths on the back wall, and discovered to our horror, that the wall lights were located wrong - they were off center! We played around with them, and discovered that if we spun the lights a quarter turn and had them hanging off-kilter, they looked kind of neat, and your eye didn't notice they are off center. That's why Paxton Street's booth lights hang the way they do.

Booths often get re-used after we close a location. Strasburg has booths from our old Greenfield location, as well as Sheraton. Ephrata has booths from Sheraton.

So that's the official position on booths! The question remains: should we add padded booth backs?

Auntie Annes

Several people, over the past few days, have asked me if I know what's up with Auntie Annes closing their Cafes. I really have no inside scoop, but all I can say is the restaurant business is a competitive business with razor thin margins. You need to have leadership and employees who are totally dedicated to making the enterprise successful. If not, you can lose a lot of money very fast. I imagine Auntie Annes just didn't have the stomach for this. Although I always enjoyed Auntie Annes Cafes, I think they were wise to return to their core business.

A Story of Goodness

I need to tell you this heart warming story that came out of the tragedy of the Amish school murders.

A customer, who requests to remain anonymous, contacted Isaac's, today, to see if he/she could help the families of the victims, the first responders, and the other folks working through this terrible event. She/he wanted to supply food to these people, in the same way someone would respond to a death by delivering casseroles and trays of sandwiches to the grieving family.

She settled on purchasing $1,000 worth of Gift Cards from Isaac's in small denominations, to be distributed to the families and other folks who are involved, by Bart Township officials. Isaac's kicked in an additional $200 worth of cards to bring the grand total to $1,200.

This person's generosity and desire to help is inspirational to me. He/she is a beacon of hope in this world that seems so topsy-turvey. In recent years, it has often appeared that the human species is dead set on a helter-skelter charge towards self destruction. This person's actions restore our faith in the goodness of humanity. Peaceful, loving and caring people will triumph, through good deeds such as this. We need each other, and we need to show it.

And I say to this generous caring person: "Thank You."

Alan

Isaac's Fresh Corn Chowder

Isaac's fresh corn chowder, made with fresh Lancaster County sweet corn during the summer of 2006, was one of our most popular soups ever!

2 tbl. butter
2-3 ribs of celery, sliced thinly
1/2 of a green pepper, diced
1 small onion, diced
2 qts. vegetable stock or chicken stock
2-3 large potatoes, peeled and diced
3 cups of corn, fresh kernels or frozen niblets
2 tbl. chopped parsley
1 tbl. Worcestershire sauce
1 pint of half and half or milk
salt and pepper to taste

Procedure: Melt butter in bottom of soup pot and add the celery, green pepper and onion. Saute slowly until the vegetables are soft, but not brown. Add vegetable stock and the diced potatoes. Simmer these together until the vegetables are tender. Add the corn, parsley and Worcestershire. Simmer this for 15 minutes. Add the half and half and simmer until hot. Do not boil. Makes about 8 servings.

Isaac's Red Potato Salad

Isaac's Red Potato Salad makes a fantastic summer time treat! Here is the recipe in all its' glory!

Makes approximately 2 1/2 Quarts
4 lb. Red Potatoes, scrubbed
1 small Red Onion, chopped small
2 C. Ranch Dressing
1 Tbl. Dill Weed
1 Tsp. Garlic Powder
1 Tsp. Salt
1 Tsp. Ground Black Pepper
Place whole potatoes in pot and cover with water. Bring to a gentle boil. Cook approximately 10-15 minutes until fork tender. Drain and shock in ice water to cool quickly. Drain and slice 1/4 inch thick. Add ranch dressing, dill, garlic powder, salt and pepper to taste. Toss gently. Refrigerate immediately.

Isaac's Ambrosia Salad

Here is a fun recipe from one of the seasonal menus we retired at Isaac's Deli.

Yields approximately 16 5-oz. servings.

1 can (20 oz.) Crushed Pineapples, drained
1 cup Green Grapes, cut in half
1 cup Blueberries, frozen
4 cups Mini-marshmallows
2 cups Sour Cream
6 T. Sugar
1 cup Coconut, shredded
2 cups Mandarin Oranges, drained

Combine all ingredients and mix gently but thoroughly. Cover and chill at least two hours.

TV Ad

We made a TV ad for Isaac's Meal Deal. Click here to take a look!