Day 86: Front Desk Fun (National Receptionist Day)

Today is National Receptionist Day, and while The Baldpate Inn doesn’t have a receptionist in the traditional sense, our Front Desk Associates serve as the warm welcome for the Inn. Working in the hospitality industry, it’s a surefire bet that every day is going to be different and interesting!

Family friend Harold was our first front desk man, and could patiently visit with guests, keep our books flawless and still always have time to give a hug or take a homesick staff member out to dinner!

Front desk is definitely one for juggling multi-taskers. Moving between three computer reservation systems, maitre’d for the restaurant, ringing phones, guests and staff constantly coming and going, and keeping the lobby fire going, just counting back change from a check can be challenging, not to mention finally balancing the books at the end of a busy day.

Folks love our front desk signs, especially this extra charge warning. Keeping that positive attitude when someone arrives grouchy, does take a special amount of good nature and understanding.

Giving the “tour” to our B&B guests, explaining the shared bath option and finding solutions (be it moving guest rooms or passing out earplugs) for our historically non-soundproof walls, all add to the adventures at Front Desk.

During snack time in the evening however, when the pace is slower, Front Desk staff often enjoys the best quality time visiting with guests around the fireplace. Stories are shared and connections made, from favorite hikes or even discovering that guests are from a town just next to their hometown. Do you have a Baldpate front desk story to share? 

There have been many surprises along the way, from shall-we-say older perceptions that ladies can’t serve as a bellhop hauling luggage, to folks showing up at the “wrong” hotel, but opting to stay at The Baldpate, due to its rustic charm and warm cornbread.

One Front Desk staffer was quite surprised at a dining guest’s request, but unhesitatingly rushed back to the kitchen to request “MORE MEATLOAF!” She thought she had been missing the meatloaf all summer, but as it turns out, the request was for our homemade honey “wheat loaf!”

Rain or sun, our Front Desk Staff shine with a willingness to serve. So today, we salute the Front Desk staff of The Baldpate Inn, always happy to greet and assist the travel-worn passengers of life as they reach the oasis of The Baldpate Inn. 

Written by Liz Rodgers & Lois Smith

Day 85: Back to School Daze

What do you think of when it’s back to school time?  A new box of crayons, new clothes or weekend parties!  Like most of our promotions, this idea came from our staff one fall.  The first few weeks of August, we often say farewell to a good number of our seasonal team as students return to school. Just those who have just graduated or are taking time off, and our international students, remain to complete our season.

We didn’t want to feel left out as those returning to classes eagerly planned their upcoming semester.  So Back to School Daze seemed just the thing!  Wanting to cover the complete experience, we decided to celebrate Fat Tire Friday, Sporty Saturday and Sleep in Sunday!

Since we really didn’t have enough staff for any team sports on those cool fall weekends, we struggled to come up with an individual sport that might work for a competition, when low and behold, we found this 1929 news story that answered our dilemma!

So we brushed up our skills for game on!And the good news is that so far, we haven’t broken any windows or put out any eyes!

Yo-Yo Champions!

Being from colleges and schools from around the world, we also love testing our guest’s skills with a Pop Quiz trivia game about our various mascots, countries and school logos.

How many can you name?

So just saying, start practicing your yo-yo skills now and plan to join us in the fall for throw back memories of your school daze and lots of fun!

Written by Lois Smith 

Yo-Yo Competition glory awaits!

Day 81: Cinco De Mayo (National Salad Month)

When you are known for your Soup & Salad Buffet, ya gotta talk about Salad and doubly so on Cinco de “Mayo” day!  

No “mayo” in this specialty salad, but one of our most requested salads is our Jicama Two Step with just the right southwest flavor kicks and unusual ingredients that our guests love. I always get a laugh hearing those not as familiar with jicama, trying to describe it to fellow diners or just pronounce it!  

I even had one sweet older lady, who thought it was our butter and suggested that we let it warm up more so that it would be easier to spread on her bread. (Jicama, sometimes known as the Mexican potato, is typically crunchy hard like a raw potato or radish, not really a spreadable option.)

One of our Texas cooks, Cori, brought the Jicama recipe to our attention, and although it is a bit timing consuming to prepare, it is worth the effort to enjoy this delicious and hearty salad. You can enjoy this salad at home as well, as it is included in our Collections of Baldpate cookbook!

Along with our fresh greens and bunches of toppings, perhaps you haven’t noticed the plan but we try with our specialty salads to feature a fruit salad, a vegetable salad and a sweet gelatin based salad. So we always looking for a new ingredient idea or flavor to incorporate. One of the newest is our Watermelon feta salad, wonderfully refreshing and delightfully simple to make!  

Not so easy, but one of the staff favorites is our Peachy Keen sweet salad.  Our refreshing peachy keen juice is a beverage enjoyed by our B&B guests during snack time each evening and so one of our creative staff members decided we needed to bring that flavor to the salad buffet.  A tricky combo of peaches, pudding and the famous keen mix, if you love the peachy goodness of this salad, you have “Doc Jeff” to thank!

Come enjoy our salad bar with a variety of specialty salads, or create your own delicious concoction! 

Written by Lois Smith

Day 71: Christmas in July at The Baldpate Inn

What is more fun than decorating for Christmas? Since we are closed during the winter, we didn’t want to miss out, hence Christmas in July! Noting this 1922 news story, our recent promo is not a new idea.

Our dining promotions have always been sort of a marketing idea, but intended as fun for the staff as well. An initial aspect of our Christmas in July celebration was our behind the scenes staff competition (who can sell the most gift shop items). When our cooks commented that they really couldn’t compete, we brainstormed how to get them involved.  Competition for specially decorated Christmas cookies for our B&B guests' nightly snacks was the first plan.

Somewhere along the way we decided on an even better idea ~ Gingerbread Houses!  With a cook or manager heading each team, the competition took on a whole new level.  Not to be left out, we decided our guests could be the judges to join in the fun. (Our resident Santa seemed perhaps a little biased!)

Our cooks are responsible for the basic shape, then only imagination is the limit! 

Yes, we have added some basic rules over the years, to limit size and edible-ness, along with, "Don’t eat the gummi bears off your opponent’s house."

Team bonding happens for sure, but also it has been a fun culture-sharing event especially for our international staff.

Of course the winning team loves the special bragging honors!

Written by Lois Smith

Day 4: Silly Little Things (National Random Acts of Kindness Day)

I always loved the story that Ethel Mace told, when they decided to open a hotel, she’d never even been in one and her husband, Gordon, had only been a “couple of times.”  If they could do it, I told myself (who had been in lots of hotels), then certainly I could.  I look back now and laugh about what I didn’t know. Maybe it was for the best!

Surely the first time my Kraft food service salesman went back to the office after sitting down to visit with me in front of the fireplace in a very cold lobby, that he roared with laughter telling his coworkers that I asked how many cups are in a #10 can (another story here, but that silly little # is read not as hashtag 10, but number 10) ‘She’ll never make it,’ must have been his summary!

For all I thought I knew about the restaurant business, since I’d worked during high school, college and even as a manager later, there was lots I didn’t know! And now 30 some years later, I am still learning.  Recently, how to bake gluten free, and along the way, I’ve too had my share of laughs about how you’ve got to be specific when dealing with untrained college students as staff.  Do tell them to peel the bananas before they puree them, and take the shells off the hard boiled eggs before smashing!

But along the way we’ve had some really smart staff that shared ideas for seemingly silly little things, which made it all work even better.  There was Pat’s idea about marking the sheets. Unless you’ve had the task of sorting 100-some white sheets coming back from the laundry, you probably wouldn’t appreciate Pat’s idea of marking the edges so you could quickly identify the twin from the double from the queen. And bless her heart, Pat spent one entire winter doing just that, putting a color coded zigzag stitch on the edge of our sheets. I am sure I didn’t thank her enough for giving us a system that works to this day!

 

My dear sister, Eunice (and her husband, Sherm) who helped so much in the first few years, advised I needed an “easy” pie and brought the recipe. Just one crust instead of two, a seemingly little thing that has saved hours as our chocolate crème pie remains a best seller!

 Then there was Fitz, who returned one summer during grad school to suggest I have him do a website for our business. Believe me, I had no idea nor could I imagine what he was talking about, the world wide web!

That world of the web brings me back around to the cook just a few years ago, making our famous beef stew the first time on her own, who came rushing into my office with the question “what’s 20 hashtags of beef?" This time the silly little thing, # after a number means pounds, I explained. 

Written by Lois Smith