Bistro Newsletter

​Last Sunday was our annual “Christmas” party. We usually celebrate the holidays on Superbowl Sunday, long after the rush of the busy season, after we’ve had a minute to catch our breath. But this year Amanda was in Florida, and I had high hopes the Lions would be in Vegas, so our party was delayed.
We met here at the Bistro on Sunday. I was super happy with the turn out. Not every restaurant can get their staff to come in on their precious day off. We’re lucky, we actually like each other! Amanda designed a great new shirt for the gang as their swag gift. I made a few batch cocktails (the purple party is featured this weekend, if you like tequila) and we catered from La Marsa. Wonderful Mediterranean food from Farmington Hills. I highly recommend them. Super easy to work with, delicious and more food than expected.
I love to play games and split the group between Front of House & Back of House (FOH/BOH). I wanted to recreate a cross between traditional family Christmas games and drunk Olympics. I think we succeeded. The two captains, of course, were Max (BOH) & Amanda (FOH). They each chose a player from their team whom they thought would be good at the individual games I had designed. Then each player went head-to-head. Most of the games were “minute to win it” style. We had 10 different games. Kiddie Golf, trivia, build a Lego set, blind snowball fight, WAR card game, egg basket toss, coin toss, bomb drop, bouncy ball catch & animal popgun. BOH started strong and then FOH crushed it in the end. I laughed all day and they all won money. A win-win for everyone! Bragging rights and a medal for FOH.
The competition continued as we went to play Whirly Ball after our games were complete here at the Bistro. I wasn’t sure everyone would love it, but I only saw smiles out on the court. The next day at work… I saw lots of bruises (the cars don’t have brakes) but mostly lots of smiles, trash talking and funny stories were swapped about the party. I’m a lucky girl to have such a cool, fun group to work with.
Speaking of my killer staff…If you’re not celebrating Lent this weekend (don’t worry we have lots of fish and chips) be sure to check out Max’s version of my dad’s Stuffed Peppers. This should be a nice challenge for Max as he will have to recreate a food memory that I hold dear. There is no recipe, I must give him a list of ingredients that I think my dad may have used, describe how I remember it tasting and he will have to muddle his way through it. Great cooks can accomplish this through their own food “muscle memories”, the knowledge and understanding of how ingredients work together and years of perfecting flavors. I’m happy to be the taste tester on this one and I’m excited to see how Max interprets this homey meal!
Cheers,
Sharon