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ADD TO RYAN LOOPER
  • Blog
    • THE REORDER (Sales)
      the salesperson experience
    • SPLASH DECANT (Market)
      streetwise stories of the beverage marketplace
    • FIVE QUESTIONS (People)
      insider questions and answers
    • TASTE (Gastronomy)
      a view from the table
  • About Ryan
  • Contact
THE REORDER 07/14/17

Ricordo – Ten Years

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Three days ago I found myself in the Theater District because of the messy, grindy and endlessly frustrating MTA of 2017.
So, I walked over to Carmine’s on 44th street and sat down at the bar.

Not much has changed over the years. Black and white uniformed aces move fluidly through the dining room like an elite restaurant special forces unit, and the same pictures of Tony, Frank, Deano and slick-haired wise guys cover the dusty walls end to end. Even the bar feels and smells the same.

I found my favorite picture of Enrico Caruso on the wall and took him in. I always used to cut lemons in the coffee station and then purposely walk by to catch his eye. That Tenor had the world by the balls, I would think. Grande.
Sitting at the bar with my pool-sized negroni, many old friends that still work the floor came by to say hello. I think they must put something in that just wilted family meal salad because they all look the same. A crew of smiling, Scarpariello slinging, Titanic Sundae serving assassins.

Memories came flooding back.

“ We laughed and told stories about the restaurant that I can't ever bring myself to write down.

They are a family-size portion of hilarious, a heaping side of hospitality warfare and a small side of tragedy here and there. Let’s just say that if you ever meet someone who has worked at Carmine’s, they have seen things.

After I had my Veal Parm combo, I made my way through the main dining room. Just next to the service bar, I ran into my old friend Peter and gave him a hug.
I trained Peter to be a server while he was high and jittery. I did my best to shepherd him through training because I liked him and I knew he really needed the job. For years we did the sugar bowl side work together before the dreaded Wednesday Matinee where no coffee was ever hot enough and the Penne alla Vodka was always missing “Brosciutt.” Peter was always good for a raunchy story, quick puns, and some deep philosophy. We laughed together a lot.

One day I called in sick and he had to do the side work alone. The next day I found an envelope in my locker containing this poem:

Looperless Wednesday

Sugars….rejected
Me….dejected.
No one to stuff the bowls with.
Blue hairs telling their trolls to roll with
the punch, the crush….of a Looperless Wednesday.

I hadn’t thought about that poem in years and it came back to me like a thunderbolt right there at the crowded service station. I recited it back to him with a mini Hamilton flourish and we laughed like we did back in the day.  I told him how much that poem meant to me.  It is nice to be missed.

After I said goodbye, I walked out into Times Square and realized that 10 years ago to the day was my last shift at Carmine’s.

THE REORDER 07/03/17

Clay on the Wheel

Purchase this image at http://www.stocksy.com:/107125

Once a salesperson gets past the opening struggle that is beginning as a wine salesperson in NYC, you come upon a problem. You have built up what you do with your run, your account connection, etc. and what worked before ceases to work. What you do cannot continue in the same way.  Stasis sets in.

But the fear of changing what you do and what has worked so well feels like a bone-chilling, mind-racing nightmare. That end of the world dream where everything you built goes away and all that remains is cold-calling, COD and a phone that never rings.

Here is the thing: if you don’t make some changes, the chances of losing big go up drastically. I have seen it. I have done it. I have lived it.

“ This is the moment in time where the real artistry begins -- you must use your imagination and get out of the way.

So how do you change? Ask yourself why you are doing the things you do.  Why email this offer? Why make this call? What is the real point??

Allow yourself to find the core of what you do.

The work used to be to open accounts and get them going.  Now you have to continue to develop your accounts while opening more, and/or letting some go.

Put the clay on the wheel and shape it. Be in the process. Don’t rush, just let it happen — allow the form of what you do to develop. And if the time where you have to topple the whole thing and start over, you will have confidence that you can restart it again.

All you have to do is throw clay on the wheel.