11.24.25 | "Chef, We're about to 86 Spam."
Some of you may know already that Becca and I are a couple of risk takers. Opening Zunzun almost two years ago was a risk, closing down a wildly successful somewhat famous / infamous restaurant was a risk. Playing the music we play in the dining room, projecting the videos we project, my fashion sense; all risks. Doing an entire week that was tiki-themed to feed hungry pets was a risk.
Becca, I, and the entire crew are all animal lovers, and each and every one of us put in a lot of work to make Tiki Week happen—fliers, emails, food prep, cocktail prep, trying to spread the word at every table without trying to sound like a used car salesman. We were all very excited about the event, but as the week grew closer I started to have doubts. “Do our customers want fruity rum drinks?” “Do they want Spam in eel sauce?” “Do they own any loud flowery shirts?” We weren't getting a lot of feedback and the reservations hadn't really started to pile up, the week was coming up and the prep load was increasing and it was starting to look more and more like the whole event would be a dud.
While as disappointing as a dud may have been, having a bunch of leftover Mai Tais isn't the worst thing in the world. When I walked into work Tuesday, I followed my usual routine of flipping on the lights, lighting the stove, turning on George Clinton and booting up the reservation system. What I found, to my delight, was Friday and Saturday night booked solid, Tuesday booked solid, and Wednesday and Thursday filling up fast. I came to two realizations. One, it worked! People are participating, they're coming out on this chilly November week for a good cause and a fun atmosphere. Two, we're about to get our butts kicked.
Tuesday night started with a bang and we hit the ground running, Mai Tais, Pain Killers and Banana Rum were slinging off the bar, tray after tray. The spam and crispy rice was plate after plate in the window. We were short-staffed and every one of the staff was running food and drinks, greeting people at the door and clearing tables. Tuesday came to a wrap up and we all collectively went “Oofta! We've got a whole week of this.”
We had some money-raising goals in our heads when we went into this. We would have liked to raise $500 for RARA’s Pet Pantry by the end of the week. We would have been proud of that number, proud of ourselves and happy to do our little part. We have done some animal benefits in the past working with the Rockbridge Animal Alliance. We did a Noodles for Poodles event where proceeds from ramen bowl sales went towards helping our fuzzy friends. Then we did a Biskers for Whiskers event, also with RAA. That time, instead of one menu item that went towards the benefit, we did three. This time we were really swinging for the fences, with the most number of items going towards hungry animals, including prix fixes, multiple cocktails, house-made banana rum, rum tasting flights and three menu items. Truthfully we may have surfed too close to the sun on this one. But when the smoke cleared after Friday night and everyone was wiping down tables, taking out the trash and sweeping the floor, Becca walked into the kitchen and proclaimed that we had already met our goal. $500! And a great cheer arose from the crowd! Just kidding, we were beat—proud but tired.
It also made us realize we still had one more night to go.
Saturday came and with it a tsunami of hungry and thirsty guests. The staff rallied and got after it. We were about three quarters of the way through the night when I got the call: “Chef, we're about to 86 Spam.” That's something you wouldn't have heard in the Red Hen kitchen. We made it by the skin of our teeth. Everyone got the Spam they needed and the rum drinks to wash it down with.
We had one particular table Saturday that came in with their dogs and ate out on the patio. Three generations of family members, family in from out of town, and two dogs. As I was explaining the cheese board, this sweet old dog came up to me under the table, put her foot on my leg and pressed her head into my knees, letting me know to stop talking about the cheeses and scratch her ears. I obliged. We brought the dogs and the table some treats and some drinks, flaming banana rums for the table and water for the pups. It was a great end to the evening and a wonderful end to the week.
When the dust settled, we had raised over $800, far surpassing our goal. After the week ended a generous regular of ours who hadn’t been able to make it in donated another $100 in our honor to RARA, bringing our new total up to $925. Then another person donated $75, bringing us up to a cool $1000. (Thanks, Pop!) The whole week, while a whirlwind, was so much fun. Later I found out that multiple places in town had been doing their own benefits the same week. How amazing is our little town?
Thank you to everyone who came out and participated. It really means a lot to us, but even more so to people who are food insecure right now. When feeding your family and yourself is hard enough, sometimes pets come in second. Speaking for myself, pets can be so beneficial during tough times. To have to make a choice on who to take care of … I would be distraught. It feels good to help and it feels kind of unbelievable that the community came out to help. Besides just the food and drink purchases, we had many straight monetary donations given, so thank you again to everyone that came out. For anyone who missed it, we will be leaving a special cocktail on the menu for next week to continue to raise funds for the Pet Pantry.
And you can always donate on your own, if you're so inclined.
—Matt