Running a restaurant during normal times is no small feat, but overseeing multiple operations in the midst of a pandemic? It can be infinitely more challenging. Just ask JJ Quintero, our General Manager currently overseeing late-night operations. With the carousel of Covid restrictions, JJ’s day-to-day is full of tasks requiring quick thinking and the agility to adapt quickly to changing circumstances.
With our venues currently closed from 6pm, JJ’s recent focus has been on shifting dinner operations to GO, ensuring our guests can experience the same magic of Black Sheep Restaurants, wherever and whenever—whether it is within the four walls of our restaurants or from the comfort of home. With the group for over three years, JJ has become a pivotal member of our team, keeping the machine well-oiled night after night and ensuring we deliver on the same consistent experience, despite unconventional times.
From managing supply to cooking for our Cubano pop-up, conducting team trainings to running deliveries on GO—and still finding time to whip up a gourmet dinner at home at the end of the day—read on to see how JJ keeps our operations firing on all cylinders in his ‘Day in the Life’ diary below.
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7am: Wake up! Water plants, check emails and messages. I try to call my mom once a day, either when I wake up or when I get home from work. She lives in Miami so there is a 12-hour time difference. My family lost my younger brother last year and it has been hardest on her. Our relationship has completely evolved, and we are the closest we have ever been. I’ve realised that she relies heavily on our daily interactions.
8am: If I’ve had a very late night, I’ll try to go back to sleep until 11. If the world is right side up, I’ll wake up at 11am, and that’s considered an early start for me. Because I look after late night venues, my day usually starts around 1-2pm and ends after midnight. I am grateful that I can at least have breakfast and sometimes lunch with my partner. These last few weeks, I’ve been waking up early to make breakfast for the both of us. He starts work at 9am, so I try to have it ready by 8:30am. Today is not that day. Instead, I watch last night’s season finale of The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City in the living room.
9am: Alex starts work (from home). He is much more simple than me: happy with a piece of toast, jam and milk tea. I am complicated: I want Eggs Benedict, a Bloody Mary, sparkling water and a double macchiato. We try to compromise and meet in the middle. Some days I even let him treat me to Fairwood. My favourite delivery breakfast is a black pudding bun from Bacon & The Bun. Most days I just fry us two eggs and one sausage each. If I have time, I’ll also try to sneak in some laundry, dish washing and general cleaning. I love cleaning.
10am: Make coffee! Depending on how I feel, I’ll have two double espressos with cold milk or 500ml of pour over coffee. My dad is from Colombia, and I grew up in one of the biggest coffee growing regions in the country. I try to only drink Colombian coffee because it is something I am trying to learn more about. My favourite coffee beans are from Urban Coffee Roasters. I don’t drink coffee on my off days. So, if I’m on holiday, I need to slowly increase my caffeine intake to get back to homeostasis.
11am: Today I am at Fukuro for lunch service, so I arrive at 11. We open at noon and there’s usually a few pre-orders on GO for delivery. The first hour there’s always lots of moving parts. I will call all the incoming reservations, explain the current dining restrictions, accept kitchen delivery orders from suppliers and beverage orders from beverage suppliers. We also document all items and products that enter and exit the venue. Lots of excel documents to fill in. Today we have five pre-orders that all trickle in at once from 11:45-12pm.
12pm: Fukuro is open for lunch service! Once we’ve opened the doors, I will check in with my chess pieces for the day and try to sort out any ad hoc errands I need to take care of. Mondays there’s usually a cash drop that needs to be made at the bank and change to be made for the till.
1pm: Check on the pork shoulder that has been cooking overnight for the Cubano special we’re running at The Last Resort. This was marinated the day before and put in the oven late night so by 1pm it is ready to be pulled out. It will then be rested, seared and roasted for two more hours before it can be pulled. I went to culinary school in NY and Singapore, so I wanted to do something culturally representative of where I come from and of my brother. I feel very lucky to get to do something creative and bring a little sunshine during a tough time.
2pm: A friend who began as a guest is having lunch at Ho Lee Fook, and we are surprising her with a large gift: she is being invited into an exclusive VIP rewards program, and I’ve been asked to greet her for the surprise. This is the highlight of my day.
3:30pm: I walk over to Maison Libanaise and conduct an hour-long training with the frontline teams from SoHo venues. This is a refresher for new and old team members on how to create magic on GO, connect with guests and build trust when you can’t physically interact with people. I’m lucky enough to sneak in a few stuffed cabbage leaves that chef Teya pulls out of a lowboy.
5pm: I check in with the team coming into The Last Resort for the afternoon shift and the team finishing their lunch shift at Fukuro. I also start getting ready for dinner’s GO dispatch. From 6pm on, all GO orders in SoHo are delivered to a central location (Chôm Chôm) and are then distributed to GO riders or GO walkers to deliver to guests.
6-9:30pm: From 5:30pm on, Chôm Chôm is filled with team members from all of SoHo: walkers, riders, managers, dishwashers, bartenders—all waiting their turn to help deliver food. We have all adapted to the current situation. Sometimes I’m in a cab with Burger Circus bags, sometimes it’s in the big bosses’ Range Rover delivering Motorino. The energy in the air is palpable. It is magical to see these overqualified people from all over the world happily waiting their turn to deliver food to hungry guests. For a lot of us, this is also our neighbourhood, so we are delivering food to our friends and neighbours.
9:30pm: My day is over. I want to drink two ice cold beers and figure out if I’m bringing food home or cooking. We were gifted an Anova Precision oven as a housewarming gift, so I generally make a valiant effort to cook for my partner and myself. The beauty of this machine is that it can make stir-free risotto in 20-30 minutes, which is what we are having tonight. I will pre-set the oven via the app so my partner can put it in the oven by the time I’m walking home. I also pick up a chicken breast from Don Don Donki to grill on our balcony with some green beans.
10:30pm: Watch an hour of TV (Below Deck, Raised By Wolves, The Guilded Age, The Dropout, The Real Housewives of Miami).
11:30pm: Shower.
12am: Turn into a pumpkin and do it all again the next day.
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Find out how our chefs keep busy in “A Day In The Life Of”: Ho Lee Fook’s ArChan Chan; Butter’s pastry queen Karys Logue; and Carbone’s head honcho, Jack Carson.
Craving a delicious dinner from the comfort of your couch? Pre-order on GO now and check out our delivery-only exclusives.
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