Off menu

Every Tuesday through Saturday by 4 p.m., family meal is served.

It’s usually in a large pot, placed on a wood-topped table in the back half of a busy kitchen at 50 Anderson Ave., the residence of Restaurant Good Luck. The staff meal is a longstanding tradition within the restaurant industry, most recently popularized by the Emmy Award-winning show “The Bear.” But family meal is not a new concept.

“It’s certainly not something that we’ve invented, but it’s certainly something that we think is important,” said Dan Martello, co-owner of Good Luck. Sometimes referred to as ‘staff meal’ or simply ‘staff,’ it’s a time to break bread among every part of the establishment, bringing front of house (servers, bartenders, hosts) and back of house (cooks, dishwashers) together.

Beyond nutrition, family meal serves as an opportunity to get creative, reduce waste and build a bond across the entire staff.

“It’s about camaraderie,” said Martello. “It’s about making people feel welcome and happy about their job.” As an owner and lead chef, Martello has been around since Good Luck first opened in 2008. He has placed importance on creating an atmosphere where people want to work, and family meal plays a large role.

Line cook Logan Moynihan has been with Good Luck for two-and-a-half years. On a Tuesday in late October, he prepared the onions for his family meal dish. The responsibility of preparing family meal is a daily rotation, and each person has their own strategic approach.

“Our goal here is to kind of help give people a creative outlet,” said head chef Ryan Simpson. “Day-to-day, if you work on a station, you (cook) the same things every single day.” Simpson has been with Good Luck for five-and-a-half years. He started out as a line cook, then worked his way up to sous chef and eventually, his current role.

That creative outlet begins with the staff shelf. In an effort to minimize waste, the shelf is home to excess ingredients ready to be used up before they expire. “It’s fun because you go in there and there’s a bunch of random things that you can use,” said Moynihan. “Sometimes, you make the weirdest random concoction of stew or some pasta that has a bunch of things in it.”

This hodgepodge of ingredients challenges the family meal chef of the day to come up with something unique. “Sometimes it’s really good, sometimes it’s not so great,” said Simpson. “But (my favorite part is) just seeing the creativity and the process of how people approach different ingredients and try to find a way to make it all come together.”

Prep for service is still in full swing while family meal is being made, so the balance and teamwork must be well-orchestrated. While line cook Nate Zimmerman preps tomatoes for dinner service, he also stirs Moynihan’s curry for family meal.

“I make a curry, that’s my go-to because I feel like you can add a lot of things,” said Moynihan. “It’s utilizing the staff shelf, but it’s also tasty.”

“Rain or shine, family meal will always be served (before) service,” said grill cook Faith Boyuk, who’s been at Good Luck for a year. “Some days are busy, but it’s important we share a meal together and when something is a priority, it’s not hard to be consistent.”

The tradition creates an opportunity to connect staff members who don’t always work shoulder-to-shoulder. “You want to have this connection with the rest of the people around you, because it’s a team,” said Martello. “If you’re having a bad night, someone’s going to pick you up, and vice-versa.”

Family meal is also something to look forward to, especially for those who may not have a chance to eat right before work. “I love staff because I usually wake up and go to work, so having a meal that is usually pretty filling to get you through the night makes a difference,” said barback Madeleine Dumont. “It helps me save money, (and) I work a lot, so not having to worry about making food on work days is a relief.”

Front of house staff tucks into Logan’s curry as they begin their pre-service meeting. “We always compare a service at Good Luck to a stage production,” said General Manager Mariel Brinkerhoff, who has been in her role for more than a year. “As soon as we open our front gate at 4:30 p.m., it’s like the curtains rolling back. It’s important for everyone to take a moment to sit down together, go over plans and details for the evening, and have something to eat.”

On Saturday mornings, back of house staffers Kaila Wheeler and Boyuk take pride in setting up brekkie (slang for breakfast, for the uninitiated). This once-weekly take on family meal stems from an era of Martello’s past, long before Good Luck’s inception.

“It’s our last day of service,” said Martello. “We’re coming off a hard week, coming off a busy Friday, let’s sit down. Let’s have a little breakfast.” What started out as a two or three-person affair has grown organically to anywhere from six to 10 people. “I think everyone looks so forward to it that it just grew to something bigger,” he said.

“Come get your brekkie,” yelled Simpson as Moynihan placed his curried oxtail shakshuka on the table. But first, the staff crammed into the walk-in to observe a tradition of their own making: Saturday brekkie officially kicks off with a toast where whoever chooses is welcome to a ‘car bomb’ (a shot of whiskey and Bailey’s dropped into a pint of Guinness). “As the team celebrates their final day of service for the week, “it’s a ra-ra moment,” said Martello. “We’re gonna conquer one more night.”

Roberto Lagares is a multimedia reporter for CITY. He can be reached at berto@rochester-citynews.com.