The Daily Diary of a Wandering Restaurateur
Exploring the Hot Spots
It might be wishful thinking, but it actually feels a little cooler today ... at least a bit more the temperatures we expected (and packed for!) After another of Carol's endless breakfasts (she just keeps piling on the goodies to a point where we hardly need lunch!) we headed off to see a bit of the area.
Roy and Carol Carpenter moved to the Algarve from central England about twelve years ago. Roy is still a practicing opthamologist (although with a patient load he purposely keeps light) and Carol is developing her own body work practice. Every day has started with breakfast on the patio and today I learned how to make scrambled eggs in a pot -- a new technique for me. Whenever there is a free moment, you can usually find me camped out on the couch updating this bit of daily drivel.
Roy was telling us about how he was pleasantly surprised to get relief from a bad shoulder after a session with a local practitioner of Thai massage. Margene's knee had been giving her some trouble so we arranged an appointment this morning. The spa is part of a new upscale hotel/guest house called Casa Rei das Praias (House of the King of the Beach) and is very soothing and Zen-like. The mistress with the strong hands is WiWi (pronounced in a way that would make American children snicker). However there is no question but what she is a master of her craft. Margene feels much better for the session and we have arranged a return appointment when we leave on Friday morning.
We drove a few miles west to Portimao, one of the largest beaches on this part of the coast. A boardwalk dotted with restaurants runs the length of the beach and seemed like a good spot to find a light meal. It was. We split a small (tasty if uninspired) pizza. A bit of shade, a cold beer and life was good. The logistics of running a place like this have to be challenging. It appears that everything has to be lugged down the hill and across the boardwalk on a hand truck!
Then we headed down the coast a bit farther to the harbor in Lagos (pronounced La-gosh). As with most of our day trips, we really had no particular idea what we were looking for, we were just looking. Lagos is the party town of the Algarve and the harbor was a nice place just to sit and watch the boats come in and out. As you can see, there was quite a range of watercraft from the traditional to the modern. The one that looks like it dropped out of a Star Trek scene is a glass-bottom hydrofoil. I have NO idea how that would work! It was only as we were leaving that we discovered the old fort at the end of the harbor, but by then we were about done in for the day.
For dinner we headed back into Carvoeiro to Algar Seco, the spot where we had lunch our first day in town. It was a known quantity and they had a parking lot. Trying to find a place to park in the downtown area is difficult to impossible and I just wasn't up for the struggle.
We didn't really want much to eat -- a salad would have been perfect and they had some lovely salads on their lunch menu so no problem, right? When we didn't see salads listed on the dinner menu, we asked the waitress and were told that salads were only served at lunch and they could not make one in the evening. Wrong answer! We were the only people in the place at that time. In my book, the best response would have been, "We don't have salads on our dinner menu, but I can ask the chef to make one especially for you." The ingredients are obviously on hand and there weren't any other demands on the kitchen at that point.
I am all for rules and systems to keep a place on track. It would be mass confusion if everyone in the place had their own way of doing things. But everyone needs to be clear on what the purpose of those rules and systems are (making the guest happy) and have permission to break the rules occasionally if necessary to assure that happens. Does YOUR staff understand that? Do YOU reward people for taking the initiative?
© 2012 Restaurant Doctor
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