115 of 365 of What it is Like To Run a Resort

Sunday, November 7, 2010

We went back to Seattle today after hiking around the southwestern tip of the State of Washington. It was very beautiful and we even saw a double rainbow.

I have a very short "story" this time.

When I first started dating John, his friend, Tom, lived at the resort also. They were two bachelors running the resort by themselves.

One time John went to the dumpster on a Saturday to put some garbage in. There on top of all the garbage, lying there perfectly alone, was a big bag of unopened potatoes. He was very tempted to grab them. Then he remembered the Seinfeld episode where George grabbed a donut off the top of a garbage can and what happened. So John didn't take the potatoes. From that time forward, he swore he would start telling customers not to throw away any good food.

Weeks later, and after telling a lot of customers to give them good food, I arrived onto the scene. The first night I was going to eat dinner there, I thought John would make me dinner. I was surprised to find that I was supposed to eat from the many offerings of customers. John pulled out 3 large bowls of various left overs. Then he pulled out containers of Tupperware and even plastic bags full of food. He told me that the customers left "all this stuff" and to "help yourself-just put it on a plate and warm it up".

Now I'm not sure how most of you would have reacted to this. In fact, I wasn't sure how I should react. I slowly and tentatively looked at the food they were digging into with fervor. There was spaghetti and meatballs, noodle salads, sandwich meat and cheese and much more. It all looked good, and after I smelled the food that they were heating up in the microwave, I caved in.

From that point on, we have been eating what the customers give us. Some weeks we don't get anything, but other weeks, it is a buffet of gourmet offerings.

Why should they throw out perfectly good food? If they don't have room for it in their coolers or if they don't have coolers, give it to us we say.

Sometimes we throw away the bad food or food that is left over from a restaurant. Maybe they ate half and left the other half in the refrigerator, which we won't touch. Sometimes the food is unidentifiable, such as something in a red sauce - spaghetti sauce or tomato puree? Who knows. But more times than not, we have received some very good quality food.

Because of this, we have an inordinate amount of mustard, catsup, mayo and sauces. So if you're ever going to stay and want to buy some at the store, ask us first. We'd be happy to share.