Bahhhhh – bah -bab bab baaaahhhhh

(*Awards ceremony music*)
(*curtain raises*)

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Ladies and gentlemen, restauranteurs and esteemed members of the academy… the day you never knew existed is upon us! It’s time for the first annual Justamere Cafe and Bistro Awards of Excellence! Just in time for Business week in Antigonish, and in the spirit of the awards they give, I’ve decided that the Justamere Cafe should have its own virtual ceremony. So lets not waste any more time – I’ve got lots of awards to make up and then to pretend to give out!

Let’s start the night out on a sweet note: The Award For Most Popular Dessert goes to…

Our Homemade Coconut Cream Pie

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This dessert is always a winner. People who don’t even like coconut love this pie… Ah Heck! people who don’t love pie, love this pie! It was a clear choice and the vote was unanimous… from the creamy filling to the fluffy whipped topping, this pie never fails to sell itself – a clear winner and our 2013 choice for best dessert! Congratulations pie!

The next award goes to a Justamere All-Star and a personal challenge for myself… the Award For Favourite Breakfast goes to…

The Big Breakfast

Big Breakfast

If you ask anyone, they have their own theories on how to polish off this behemoth! Some say to start with the pancakes… others say to finish with them… and some just panic when they see it and it in no particular, nor attractive manner begin shovelling food into their mouths. All I know is that it’s a hit! It wouldn’t be rare on a Sunday to have a table with 6 students, and every one of them ordering a BB – and some brave souls even adding another pancake or two! Congratulations Big Breakfast, you are a 2013 winner!

For now, I’m going to take a moment and step away from food awards and focus on the people… The next award had very few nominees, but even if there were oodles, there would be no competition… the Award For Favourite Pregnant Server goes to…

Miss Carrie Cogswell

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They don’t come much sweeter …. and they don’t come much pregnanter… (?) than this little lady! Carrie Cogswell is the Justamere Cafe 2013 winner for favourite pregnant server! Congratulations Carrie – We all love you!

Our next award is perhaps even sweeter than our Coconut Cream Pie! It belongs to a little lady whose dedication and love for the Justamere has been concrete for her ENTIRE life. Our 2013 award for Youngest (and Biggest) Fan goes to…

Miss Mhairi Wilmott

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She’s already a regular and she’s only 3 years old, Mhairi Wilmott has got it all! She’s cute as a button, polite, and has got a fierce appetite for Justamere pancakes! The waitstaff are always delighted to see her and she never fails to brighten our day! No other restaurant will do for this little lady – She even plays pretend Justamere at home – which makes Mhairi our 2013 youngest (and Biggest) Fan! Congratulations Mhairi, your next pancake is on us! 🙂

Now it’s hard to top a category like that, but it’s time for one of our biggest awards of the ceremony – Our 2013 award for Biggest Seller goes to… (“The envelope please…”)

Quesadilla!!!

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 There was no biased involved in this choice… but while I do eat one of these at least 3 times a week, the numbers don’t lie. Honestly, if I served tables for a day, and didn’t listen to anyones order and brought them all a Quesadilla and Caesar salad … at least 60% of the time, I would have been right anyway. These are definitely a best seller. It’s not rare that we hear that these are the best quesadilla’s for miles and miles around! There you have it, our 2013 … and 2012, 2011, 2010… best seller is the Quesadilla!

On to beverages! While the Justamere Cafe and Bistro isn’t necessarily known as a hip drinking spot, it isn’t unheard of for us to sell a hearty amount of one particular drink on sunday’s… Nabbing the Award for Most Popular Drink for 2013 is…

Caesars! 

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It’s unofficially Caesar Sunday every weekend at the Justamere! These are one popular drink with the brunch crew! Whether you like them spicy, dark, or by the litre, we make caesars just how you want. And let me tell you… serving these bad boys all Sunday long sure makes you thirsty by the end of the day… By 4pm I’d take them spicy, dark, light, or mild, but definitely, definitely, by the litre.

Now Award ceremonies have an irritating habit of running quite long, so now that the big awards are given out, I’m going to quickly run through some honourable mentions…

Best Original Song: Dwayne Burke – It’s Getting Hap in Here
Best Desk of 2013 – Devlin the Desk
Best New Lunch Menu Item – Fish Tacos

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Fish Tacos! – 2013’s Best New Lunch Item

Jumpiest Waitress – Kelsey Macdonald
Broke the Most Mugs in 2013 -Stephanie McCarron
Most Popular Lunch Special – Chicken Bruschetta Pizza
Best Justamere Blog Writer
 – Jillian Pulsifer

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It was an honour just to be nominated!

 

There you have it folks! That’s the end of the first annual Justamere Cafe and Bistro Awards of Excellence! There were some surprises and some upsets, but all in all it was a great evening! Thanks for tuning in and taking part and I hope you all enjoyed the ceremonies!.. But it must be said before I go that although I was the only one choosing the categories and doing the voting, it’s not hard to find favourites when it comes to the Justamere. This restaurant becomes filled with great people and food everyday – stories collect and customers become friends and it all works together in my favour. Blogs write themselves sometimes, and people like Mhairi and the food we love to make her can turn into inspiration… and just looking around you can see that it’s all pretty award worthy from where I’m sitting.

Onsie Clothesline

It’s been quite some time since I’ve written a blog, and it’s been weighing heavily on my mind. I’ve started many and abandoned most, finding that a blog cannot be built solely on topics such as: “Summer’s Over”, “My Desk Hasn’t Broken Yet” or “What I Watched on TV This Weekend”…

But, if there is ANYTHING, ANYTHING at all that can bring me out of my writing slump, it most definitely is Miss Carrie Cogswell and her soon to be born bundle of baby. (Alliteration, Hizzah!! – back at this writing thing full force!)

carrie's belly!

As I’ve stated in previous blogs, everyone who works at the Justamere Cafe becomes quite close… we spend a lot of stressful times together and relationships tend to grow strong and fast! You can only imagine then how attached we were to Carrie by the time she found out she was pregnant (over a year after she began working with us!) Right from the beginning then there was NO question that this wouldn’t just be Carrie and Tyler’s baby, this would be a Justamere Baby!

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Now there’s a lot of legality involved with taking claim of someone else’s baby… so instead of starting that whole process, Eileen and I decided to throw ourselves into the task of hosting a baby shower for Carrie! There’s no sweeter little mama we know than Carrie, and no one more deserving of a celebration!

babyshower scene

All things PINK! Oh, and Partymix!! Babies love Partymix!

The party was a hit! There was tons of food, lots of presents, and.. ONE GAME! That’s right everyone… Eileen and I managed to come up with ONE game to play after 1 month of planning… and it was the classiest of baby shower games I might add….

Ryan diaper

 Yes, that’s correct… the name of the game is “Guess That Poop!” and the objective was to mush a chocolate bar into a diaper and have the guests guess the brand of chocolate bar. I regret this game… I immediately regretted this game. It’s quite graphic. There are so many photos I can’t post on here. So many things I’ll never be able to un-see. I will never… NEVER eat a Wonderbar again.

The gifts were a hit, lots of diapers and necessities, but top gift has to have been from K.Ship from the kitchen staff! She bought Carrie the cutest little pair of Nike sneakers!

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So there you have it! The story of Carrie’s baby shower and if there’s one thing you should all take away from this blog it’s that having a Justamere Cafe baby is the best type of baby to have. Carrie may be on maternity leave, but we are in no way done with her. She’s now got a whole slew of professional cooks at her disposal ready to puree all the pancakes and bruschetta that little baby can handle, plus a team of servers ready to wait on her little girl hand and foot! That baby will never want for anything, least of which is a strong and capable mother. We couldn’t be more proud of Carrie, and while a baby shower is a great way to gather, eat, and open presents… it is best for welcoming family!

 

Shortly after I began managing at the Justamere, Eileen started pestering me… er… I mean “supportively encouraging” me to start a restaurant blog. It was something we had talked about fairly often, but I had always been to shy to put my thoughts into text for everyone to read. Eventually though, I just decided to do it (wine may or may not have been involved), and while it may have taken me some time to work up the courage (possibly liquid courage), I’m really glad I did….. I never thought this blog would go over so well, or spur as many encouraging comments from friends and customers… It’s really is wonderful and never ceases to make me feel special!

BUT wait, holdup! It’s not all rainbows and butterflies and horse dresses….I now find myself constantly under stress when trying to come up with new blog topics and better posts. I feel pressure to keep the people happy!

So… fairly often now as a solution, I combat my writers block by Googling “Interesting blog topics”, “Restaurant blogs”, “How to write a good blog”, or “how to beat level 97 in candy crush”… and so on… For a while this was helpful. I found links suggesting I make lists; hence the blogs about My Final Meal, or My (Not So Guilty) Guilty Pleasures. I found blogs based on interviews, from which I created A Casual Chat with Mark Curry, and my homage to Chelsey. Then there were all my blogs on notable events at the restaurant, like the time the water was shut off, or my article on the Menu Tasting Evening… It seems though, that since Devlin the Desk arrived in my life, I just can’t quite think of anything to write about….

Once again though, Google saves the day and I stumbled across an interesting article about how to build the reader base of your blog. This particular article suggested that I should find the most popular Google searches of the last week and write a blog about that… therefore, when anyone searches this very popular topic, they may be directed to my page! Genius!

So… that is why my blog is about Beyonce’s Haircut… which received over 1,000,000 searches in only one day! Holy cow Beyonce, she even beat out OPRAH!… OPRAH!

My hope for today is that when people Google “Beyonce’s Haircut” they will be led here… where I will…

 

1. Show them photos of Beyonce’s Haircut…

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2. Comment on Beyonce’s haircut: Oh B, you can do no wrong… Is that Oprah in the background of this photo?

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And then….

3. BOMBARD THEM WITH PICTURES OF FOOD FROM THE JUSTAMERE!!!!

MUAHAHAHAHA

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4. Shamelessly plug restaurant:

Come to the Justamere Cafe and Bistro where your food is made fresh to order, the service is outstanding and the atmosphere is comfortable and welcoming!!