We’re not sure how everyone else feels, but at WesWings and the Red & Black Cafe, we’re getting a little tired of this whole extreme weather global climate change thing.  We are very proud of our staff at WesWings and the fact that we remained open throughout the entire event.

It was more difficult for the cafe to keep open due to the fact that we share the space with Broad St Books and cannot operate if they are unable provide staff.  (besides selling books is not that critical during a blizzard)

WesWings’ staff was incredible throughout.  On Friday, most of our full-time and student staff reported for dinner.  After dinner, our chef Bill Nardi, walked to the Middletown Inn (his weekend accommodations) in blizzard conditions as did many of our other employees.   By Saturday morning as we all awoke to upwards of three feet of snow, Bill returned to WesWings to prepare for the day.  The grounds crew from Stonehenge cleared a path both in the parking lot and through the side yard to allow students to get to our front door.  With a pared down menu, we served between 500-600 students brunch.  It was the busiest brunch in the history of WesWings.  Over two hundred breakfast pails alone.

Dinner went down as the busiest as well with over 700 students fed during the three-hour period.  That’s an average of one customer every fifteen seconds, for three hours  MADE TO ORDER.  The line stretched to the parking lot the entire night.  While we may have made a few mistakes, everyone was patient and it was never anything so bad that a little cookie dough couldn’t fix.

By Sunday, Karen and Ed were both able to travel to Middletown to help.  The numbers were similar to Saturday.  Sunday brunch become the new number one, and dinner a close second to Saturday.

The line still stretched out the door.

The crowds inside were pretty intense as well.

While we owe so many of our employees a great deal of thanks, it was the Saturday crew that held it all together in our absence.

• Bill Nardi, Chef/Hold the place together chief
• Job Vasquez, sous chef/place falls apart without guy
• Rick Kmietek, cook/fastest sandwich maker ever!
• Michael Mitchell, cook/hardcore cook
• Ralph Morton, dishwasher/lifesaver
• Serena Berry, student worker/cashier extraordinaire
• Vivian Deng, student worker/coordinator powerhouse
• Emmie Finckel, student worker/marathon cashier
• Jackie Freed, student worker/brunch cashier queen
• Liza Goodstein, student worker/coordinator superstar
• George Gore, student worker/chicken parm master
• Elizabeth Litvitskiy, student worker/coordinating wonder
• Reid Meador, Student worker/coordinator stalwart
• Alex Papadogiannis, student worker/dominator of the fryolator
• Tong Satayopas, student worker/super helper
• Michaela Tolman, student worker/lost without her

Finally, members of the University deserve everyone’s gratitude.  For us, specifically,

• Nate Peters, Associate Vice President for Finance
• Joyce Topshe, Associate Vice President for Facilities (personally shovelled out the Red & Black Cafe)
• Everyone at Stonehenge
• Tennessee and Rebecca, two Red & Black customers who help shovel the front steps so we could open the building

We hope we didn’t miss anyone and if we did, please send us a comment and we’ll update accordingly.

Karen & Ed