Category: retail

The Minimum Wage Debate

switzcafeshop

February 2018

  We’ve all read the news stories lately which debate the minimum wage laws for restaurant servers.  It’s an interesting subject with many layers and even more points of view.  Some people say all workers should be paid along the same scale.  Others say that a low base rate with tipping added creates an incentive for the server to be attentive to their customers, smile and work hard to make customers happy.

   In NC the minimum wage for servers right now is $2.13 hour.  All servers however, must be guaranteed the minimum wage that other workers receive which is $7.25 hr.  So at days end, tips should be counted and reported to the restaurant owner.  If a servers hourly wage that day is less than the $7.25 an hour, the owner must make up the difference.   So everyone in NC is guaranteed a basic minimum wage of $7.25 hour – even servers.

Taking into account the real cost of living in NC the real life minimum wages appear below.  This information comes from the group livingwage.org. 

The living wage shown is the hourly rate that an individual must earn to support their family, if they are the sole provider and are working full-time (2080 hours per year). All values are per adult in a family unless otherwise noted. The state minimum wage is the same for all individuals, regardless of how many dependents they may have. The poverty rate is typically quoted as gross annual income. We have converted it to an hourly wage for the sake of comparison.

Hourly Wages

1 Adult

1 Adult 1 Child

1 Adult 2 Children

1 Adult 3 Children

2 Adults (1 Working)

2 Adults (1 Working) 1 Child

2 Adults (1 Working) 2 Children

2 Adults (1 Working) 3 Children

2 Adults (1 Working Part Time) 1 Child*

2 Adults

2 Adults 1 Child

2 Adults 2 Children

2 Adults 3 Children

Living Wage

$11.36

$23.80

$27.25

$34.16

$18.71

$21.55

$24.57

$27.15

$16.59

$9.35

$12.77

$15.20

$17.39

Poverty Wage

$5.00

$7.00

$9.00

$11.00

$7.00

$9.00

$11.00

$13.00

$3.00

$4.00

$5.00

$6.00

Minimum Wage

$7.25

$7.25

$7.25

$7.25

$7.25

$7.25

$7.25

$7.25

$7.25

$7.25

$7.25

$7.25

Lora and I struggle with this often.  Can our menu afford to pay $27.25 an hour?  No.  Not at our price range.  However, our servers do make that much on average.  Let me repeat that…our servers make a  good real living wage here.  Our regular hourly wage kitchen & store workers do not.  We do strive to pay above $11.00 or more per hour though.  Is it enough?  It’s doubtful.   Not for seasonal employment.

  President Trump is floating the idea that business owners should collect all tips and pay their people whatever they want above minimum wage.  A laughable idea on so many levels. 

  I can imagine that there is a different argument for every other restaurant.  An inexpensive burger place, a buffet restaurant, a deli with a walk up counter….it’s all different. 

  We work side by side with our employees.  We sweat, get tired, get angry and joke with them all together.  This is a poor community for sure.  Hospitality is all that is left here but it is a growing industry and we are hopeful things will improve here for everyone.  For us, being responsible to those we entrust with our business….that’s a paramount issue.  We do our best to pay a decent wage and seek out the best workers.  Our hope for the future is that all businesses, corporations and employers begin to understand that they have a moral obligation to treat workers fairly. 

NEW! – Huge Hot Sauce Selection!

switzcafeshop

the switzerland cafe hot sauce selection is huge

UPDATE: You can now order our BBQ Sauce Online! Click Here!

The Switzerland General Store now carries a HUGE selection of hot Sauces. Yes, we are riding the wave of popularity made famous by Sriracha and Tabasco because we LOVE the flavor explosion they offer. Generally, the varieties of peppers that are used most often in hot sauces are cayenne, chipotle, habanero and jalapeño. But there is so much more out there! Serranos, Poblanos, The Caribbean and Thai influences as well as Indian spices .

Evidence of hot sauces have been found in all kinds of ancient ruins, and ships. Hot Sauce has been important in making food more palatable as well as being medicinal, aiding in digestion and is great for the liver. It is also believed that it releases endorphins with that surge of HOT when you eat chilies. Some hot sauces, notably Tabasco sauce, are aged in wooden casks similar to the preparation of wine and fermented vinegar. Yes, hot sauces can be fermented. Fermentation not only adds a complexity to the taste, but also can be make your sauce more palatable for some folks.

As far as what’s available in our store, let’s start with those that have no heat at all. “Smoky Mountain Hot Sauce” from Hillside Orchard Farms in Ga. The label includes goofy images of hillbillies and banjos. You know the style. We like it because it has a smoky yet fruit sweet flavor with no heat. Not overly sweet at all. It works as a flavoring for those that are fearful of too much heat. It’s actually a lot of fun to try with beef or pork or just as a substitute wherever you would normally use hot sauce.

Next we offer something called “Cow Pie Hot Sauce” from Hillside Orchards again. We found this one at the Asheville Farmers Market and really love it. Very Mild, no heat. It reminds us of a Remoulade sauce and can be used as a handy enhancement to any appetizer or main dish.

A big seller for us is the Georgia Peach and Vidalia Onion Hot Sauce. Considered mild to medium heat. It’s a little Sweet so it would be great on a broiled salmon or tuna. Another quick and easy meal enhancement that’s just handy to have around.

”Iguana Deuces” brand from Half Moon Bay Trading Company. The label says it’s a “Golden Habanero Pepper Sauce”. On a heat scale from 1 to 10 we give it a 6. Medium-hot, made with veggies and “exotic spices”. We liked that it seemed to have layers of flavor. Good with fish or chicken, or just with steamed veggies.

“Blair’s Jalapeño Death” from Extreme Foods of NY is a green hot sauce that scores a 7 out of 10 in heat. We found it to be one of the freshest sauces we’ve tasted with a good flavor and a versatility that can lend itself to any South American inspired dish.

“Hotter than Hot” is a locally made sauce that scores an 8 out of 10 on the heat scale. One can taste flavors of chilies and even a hint of fruit. Great on wings or BBQ, it’s richness should make even the most seasoned hot sauce lover happy.

A nifty new product from Belize is called “Marie Sharp’s Beware”. It scores a 9 out of 10 on the heat scale. It offers a strong flavor of vinegar, lime and chilies.

Finally, the hottest sauce we found that we liked is “Neal’s Delicious Suffering” from a company called Sauce Crafters in Fl. An interesting blend of dried, toasted chilies, it scored a 9.5 out of 10 on our heat scale. We found hotter sauces, but none with this kind of complex flavor.

It’s common for some sauces to simply provide heat, with no real addition of flavor. Steer away from these. Hot sauce can be a delightful addition to your kitchen if you are brave enough to wade through the hype to arrive at some real flavor.

Buladean, Blue Ridge, and Bacon

switzcafeshop

house smoked bacon western north carolina

“I was the only one that could jump on em & hang on,” she says.
“We had 6-7 pigs year round. We’d kill 4 every winter, all in one day.”

Our waitress Amanda tells of hog killing up on Toms Creek in Buladean, or “Beautiful Dean” as the locals call it, a fitting name for a stunningly gorgeous mountain community in Mitchell County NC, west of Little Switzerland and close to the Tennessee line.

“The grown-ups, they were busy pouring boiling water on the skin and scraping the hair off of the last one killed. So I was the one to slit their throats. I liked it. Then my Grandaddy would bring the tractor up and we’d hook the carcass and lift it up to let the blood drain.”

The Moffits farmed 40 acres on that mountain and still do. Amanda’s cousin still farms up there. They had cows, chickens, grew tobacco, cabbage and potatoes, most anything they could to get by. This was not long ago. Amanda is under 30. That’s what Lora and love about the Blue Ridge. It’s like stepping back in time. Many of the old time practices are still beloved here. Recessions come and go and we don’t really notice.

“One time my daddy, cut off the pigs head, made it’s face scary and chased me around with it. I ran to the house and hid under the bed!” She is laughing as she tells this. I ask her if she ever felt sad or cried about killing animals. She says “no”, it meant they would eat good.

Now I should say here that while the childhood picture Amanda describes may sound chilling to some, it is real. The meat we American’s consume is killed in a way no less humane than the family farm. Some would say less so. Hiding the messy details of animal consumption may make us feel better, but it is still there and is still a part of our lives. Lora and I do not support cruelty to animals. But neither do we support cruelty to people. Our world is changing fast and not always for the good. The loss of the family farm is a big part of that change.

“Later, after we got done, we’d have fresh tenderloin with biscuits & gravy for breakfast.”

The Moffit smokehouse had stacks of hickory and oak and a steel set-up with rotating racks for meat and hooks for slabs. Using salt and smoke the men would fuss over the meat for near a week or two until it was just right. “Pork is good eatin,” says Amanda with a smile.

At the Café, we use pork shoulders for our pulled BBQ. The tenderloin, the most tender part of the loin, contains no muscle or fat and can be cut up as a kind of small steak or roasted in one piece on a backyard grill or in the oven. The 12 bones of the ribs are smoked and served with our own sauce, whether cut as St. Louis style, (meaty) or as baby backs. In many parts of the south, pig intestines and skin pieces are fried up and eaten as a snack called “chitlins”. The feet are pickled and represent a treat to many a mountain child. And then there is our beloved belly meat, which when cured we call bacon.

Unless you have been living under a rock for the past few years you probably know that bacon has become a very big deal in culinary circles. It has permeated everything from chocolate to mayonnaise. There’s a National Bacon Day and even Burger King has a baconized a dessert. But until you’ve tasted honest to goodness old fashioned, sweet, smoky, real American-style bacon, made in your home, you’ve never really tasted bacon.

Along with bacon’s rise in popularity, pork belly from which bacon is made, has moved from Asian menus to mainstream menus across the nation. The major difference between the two is that bacon is cured with a lot of salt, slightly sweet, and smoked, while belly is often just rubbed or marinated, and roasted without the smoke. But when it comes to both, there’s room for a lot of creativity, and the lines are blurring.

Far from the beauty and solitude of Buladean, large meat companies make commodity bacon by injecting pork bellies with a brine and flavorings such as liquid smoke. Then the slabs are sprayed with more liquid smoke and baked. The result is the product we have loved and come to know, but there is no substitute for the flavors of slowly smoked bacon made the old fashioned way.

Now supermarket bacon is usually cut from the belly and chest where the ratio of meat to fat can be 1:3. But our favorite bacon is made from the layers of fat and meat that lie on top of the spare ribs, called “side bacon” or “streaky bacon”. It can be about 1:1 or 1:2, with more meat, depending on the breed of hog, age of the hog, feed, and other variables. When shopping, ask your butcher to order some fresh, unfrozen, raw side bacon.

Curing bacon is surprisingly easy and the results are leaps and bounds better than the stuff from large commercial producers. Once you have the basic recipe down, you can vary the ingredients to make a flavor profile to suit your taste. It is an easy process of curing pork belly with a salt and sugar. This process takes about a week, rinsing, drying, then smoking over wood. The smoking can be done in a steel box, a grill with a lid over hickory chips, in your fireplace – most any set up which applies smoke to the meat and maintains a 200 to 250 degree temperature, will do.

Or you can call up Amanda’s cousin. He might could help you out.

Sunday Drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway

switzcafeshop

blue ridge parkway restaurant switzerland cafe

Sunday Drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway

Sundays in my childhood were reserved for Church, family dinners and a drive in the country. Mass was something I endured, dinner was always great but the drive was the highlight of the afternoon. My grandfather always drove a Packard and my Dad loved his Chrysler Fury, which we kids referred to as “The Yacht”. They were huge cars with backseats that held 4 or even more if the youngest ones sat on somebody else’s lap. That would be me.

In the winters we would drive to Ocean Ave and “walk the boards” as they say. The shops were all closed but the Boardwalk was filled with families just like us strolling along . There was usually a guitarist sitting on a bench somewhere and in my memory his melody fills the background along with the ocean roar and the occasional scream from a happy child chasing gulls along the shore.

On other days we would head out to the NJ countryside in search of wildflowers in some field or perhaps a roadside ice cream stand. Mom loved to look at old houses & barns while my Dad loved the yard sales. We kids loved the adventure of finding a tree swing somewhere or a field with horses. Western NJ is filled with horse farms mostly associated with racing. But it’s awesome farm country too. Nothing better than a NJ tomato in the peak of summer, or corn from a roadside stand. They call it the Garden state because it really is.

How do you critique barbecue?

switzcafeshop

north carolina bbq trail barbecue restaurant smokehouse best in nc

What do you look for in a good barbecue restaurant? I’ve heard people rave about a place because the portions were “huge” or because a famous person once enjoyed a meal there. Barbecue books are published in which the writer raves endlessly about the metal chair and folding table atmosphere. Some aficionados wax endlessly about how “real” barbecue is always enjoyed with sweet tea and others insist upon enjoying theirs with a cold beer.

Pork barbecue is a honored tradition in the south. According to the North Carolina Barbecue Society, our state is the “Cradle of Cue”. North Carolinians are passionate about their barbecue. But there are two different styles here. Easterners will cook the entire pig, chop it fine, and generously douse it with a vinegar-based sauce. Here in Western North Carolina, barbecue often means cooking meaty pork shoulders, chopping it a little coarser, then serve it with a darker, sweeter tomato-based sauce.

Lora and I kind of fell on the idea of adding barbecue to our menu. The Café has always been known for fresh garden fare, homemade soups and such. But the opportunity was there and we enjoyed playing with different methods, meats and ingredients.

Our “smoker” at the café is actually a wood fired grill with a traditional chimney and damper. After creating a fire in the early morning we bank the hickory coals and pull the damper about three quarters of the way down. This makes the fire hotter & creates smoke in the grill box above the fire pit. It’s a quiet morning ritual during which I have an opportunity to talk with my neighbors out for their morning walk or just simply sip coffee and read last month’s paper piled up in the corner awaiting its use in the next fire. We smoke 20 pork butts every other day. First they are rubbed with a mixture of 12 herbs and spices, then smoked over well seasoned hickory. Lora’s Texas influence has always included a little kick of heat in many of her recipes and this rub is no exception.

We keep the smoker temp at around 200 degrees for 10-12 hours until the meat falls off the bone. To me, the pork is delicious at this stage and would go great in a roasted corn tortilla with a good salsa fresca or just enjoyed by itself.

It’s usually very late in the day when we take the pork off the smoker, so we cool it down and the next day the meat is hand pulled and then slowly simmered in our vinegar and tomato ”que” sauce.

So we have a 2 day, labor intensive process. Our BBQ is always fresh, never frozen, which makes planning to keep enough on hand can be a little tricky.

I know that most Chefs do not dream of becoming a BBQ expert and Lora was no exception. However, we both enjoy pleasing people with a meal that is fresh and familiar, a dish that can be made better with a little hard work, patience and skill.

The Western North Carolina mountains and the Asheville area in general have become an amazing place for good food. The average Mountain traveler however is looking for comfort and an experience that is both delicious and authentic. I hope we bring that flavor to Little Switzerland. I think this barbecue meets those standards.