Following up from Max's introduction, my name is Alyssa, and I have been working with the wonderful Lemon Grass team for just about two months now. After studying hotel, restaurant and tourism management at SUNY Plattsburgh, I must say I honestly never saw myself choosing a career path in the restaurant industry. I just didn't think it was for me. However, to my surprise, I have been enjoying (almost) every minute of my time here, and I am eager to continue to work under Max & Pook and further my knowledge in restaurant management.

These past months have been the hardest of my life, starting with my right hand girl Ali leaving us after 5 years of hard work. We hired two new girls with a new title: Operations Manager. For the past 4 to 6 weeks they have worked so hard, meeting with us all day - even skipping a few lunches. Alyssa and Ploy will be our hand to hand combat with all of our customers, our wine list, legalities, social media, management, restaurant policies, etc. We never realized how much of a work load it would be when we want everything to run properly.

Menu Update*** Last week we replaced our Pear Salad with our new Baby Romaine & Maytag Blue Salad with Berkshire Bacon. This week Neal also made Roasted Red Pepper Soup for our seasonal soup special. I will add fava bean and young leeks to the menu where I can to celebrate the arrival of spring.

It looks like I am fading out from blogging, actually not. The Grass has been very busy. We broke all kinds of records for the past four months. Normally a well established restaurant like the Grass and our Elephant should average out about a 5% increase yearly. Since 2003 we have averaged an 8% increase per year. We would like to thank all of our customers with out each and everyone of you we would not be this good!

Hello and happy holidays! Its been a while since my last blog -so this is a year in review blog.

I was so exhausted, as all of downtown was after the record breaking weather last winter. March was the worst ever since 1989, the first year we open our operation in Mattydale. Of course, the Grass faced a huge sales drop the first and third months of the year. February was good due to Valentine's day and dining weeks.

It's been a while since my last blog - it has been very busy here at the Lemon Grass and the big Elephant. We have been through a lot of changes on the menu and the company structure.

Last week I went to see my little one Danielle in Chicago. She and Kevin bought all of us tickets to the restaurant "Next." Yes, you heard that right, tickets to get in! Every three months the Chef prepares a new menu and sells tickets for it.

As you guys know we order our oysters from JP Seafood. They are the only ones that are really serious about what they are selling. They care about the environment and the cleanliness of their product. But most of all their quality is always the best!

This heat is killing us! Its causing all kinds of problems with our equipment from refrigerators and freezers to our new AC units in the dining rooms. But the kitchen heat is the worst. It must have been over 100 degrees in there. We barely made it through the MOST Gala this year. Pook's balloons collapsed and we had to get a new tank of liquid nitrogen three hours before service to make a new batch. It was too hectic for me!

OK, after a full month of entertaining friends and family and hosting my kid's wedding I am getting back to business!

Last weekend Pook and I drove down to Boston to drop off my kid's car and see them back from their honeymoon. Boston has a lot of great new restaurants popping up like mushrooms after a heavy rain. I'm so jealous of them! I would love to have a blank canvas to do what I really want to do.

I always try to come up with a good excuse why I haven't posted any new blogs. I got a good one this time... My daughter got married!

This was real serious because my kid requested to have the wedding at "The Grass." We tried to tell them that we aren't big enough. The restaurant will seat 258 top, top top!