#4 Go There (Field Analysis Blog, Bundle 2)

      For this "go there" I had a lot of fun. I got to go to my uncle's restaurant and eat! Can't complain about that. I went on a Wednesday evening with my girl friend Amy. We got there around 6 at night because we were starving so we went out to eat for an early meal. There wasn't anyone waiting so we got sat right away. Thank God! We were sat by a nice new host, that I had never met before. Our waiter was Tim, a man who has been working for my uncle ever seen I've been little. I ordered a buffalo chicken sandwich with french fries and Amy got a cheese burger. Very plain American meals I know. The service was excellent! The manager Judy came over to our table to talk to us and she is the one who took all the behind the scenes pictures for me! She has been working for my uncle ever since the restaurant stated, I've known her forever. A few of the waitresses also came over to talk to us because my girl friend worked there over the winter break. Overall, we had a great meal and had a great time talking to everyone and taking pictures. I can't wait to go back and get another dose of my Crossroads Cafe food!

#3 Ask Somebody (Field Analysis Blog, Bundle 2)

    For my "ask somebody" I obviously did my uncle Jay Manning who owns the restaurant. I talked to him about a week or two ago about his restaurant. I told him I was doing my English project on his restaurant, he was flattered when I told him. A lot of the information I'm about to summarize that he told me, a lot of you may already know. You may know this through my article item from my bundle two. I met up with him at his house, which is literally less than five minutes from the restaurant. He told me about the history of his restaurant and some of the updates he has done and is planning to do in the future.
    The history behind the restaurant is that he opened it over twenty years ago. Its an "American" food restaurant. At the same time he had another restaurant open named J&B's (after my two cousins, Jay and Bret), this was in a town nearby. Although that restaurant closed because the no-smoking inside law was passed so he lost a lot of business an was unable to keep both restaurants open. So now he just owns Crossroads Cafe in Acton, MA. It has a wide variety of items on the menu and a decent sized restaurant. He told me he has about 40 staff members. The updates he plans to do is the computer system and maybe make re-arrange the dining room to make it more accommodating for more people. He also plans to update the menu soon because it hasn't been changed in a few years, he says because people love the menu now he doesn't want to change it. I think that he could update it a little and everyone would still be happy. Again, talking to my uncle about this restaurant has taught me more than I ever knew before.

#2 Read More (Field Analysis Blog, Bundle 2)

     This blog post was one of the more difficult posts for me to tackle. The topic is to read more, but since many of you may know I am doing my unit two bundle on my uncle's restaurant. So my read more for this blog post is going to be a little unique. I read a few of the reviews for my uncle's restaurant at Yelp.com. I decided to give everyone a summary of the good, the bad, and the ugly reviews. I also borrowed a text book from my girlfriend who is in the hospitality and tourism management major at Umass. The text book has a lot of information on the food and beverage industry. I also read through a couple of recipes for food that is made at my uncle's restaurant.
      On Yelp.com there were about 25 reviews of my uncle's restaurant. The overall rating of the restaurant was three and a half out of five stars. Most people generally said that service was really friendly and attentive. The food was decent and moderately priced. A lot of people also commented on how generous the wine pours are. Many people also consider this place "convenient" and "good, comfortable, standby place". There were not many horrible reviews, but there were a few, just as you would expect with any place. You can't always make everyone happy!
        In my girlfriend's textbook I read through a few things about the food and beverage industry. There is a lot more put into owning and running a restaurant than I originally thought. There are so many components that you have to have when running a restaurant, you have to do advertising, safety for food and people, a place, a liquor license, and much, much more. Not only those basic things but you have to figure out a layout to your restaurant, hire reputable people to run the business when you aren't around, and make sure you hire professional and trustworthy staff. Something I didn't realize is how much thought you have to put in to the menu and how the prices of food and liquor fluctuates. How you have to refill things such as napkins and send them out to a storage place, there is so many things that I didn't realize my uncle does. He makes it look a lot easier than it sounds, that's for sure!
       The last thing I did was look through a few recipes online for some of the things he has in the restaurant. I looked up recipes for baked lasagna and shrimp scampi. Both are meals that I thought would be very complicated to make and take a long time but don't. I talked to my uncle and he says the lasagna is prepared at night a day in advance so it can just be popped into the oven and cooked, the shrimp scampi he told me, was quite easy. All you do is sautee everything in a pan with some sauce and add some shrimp and boom, you have your shrimp scampi. I once again, thought this would have been the more complicated part of owning a restaurant but clearly I was wrong. Through reading more about my uncle's restaurant and about the food and beverage industry I have learned so much more than I thought I would have learned. I thought I knew it all, but clearly I didn't!

Works Cited

Chelo. "Lasagna." Allrecipes.com - Recipes, Menus, Meal Ideas, Food, and Cooking Tips.   

Allrecipes.com. Web. 29 June 2011. <http://allrecipes.com/recipe/lasagna/detail.aspx>.

"Crossroads Cafe - Acton, MA." Rev. of Crossroads Cafe, by Yelp.com. Yelp.com. Web. 29

June 2011. <http://www.yelp.com/biz/crossroads-cafe-acton>.

Walker, John R. "Food & Beverage." Introduction to Hospitality. Upper Saddle River, NJ:

Prentice Hall, 2001. Print.

Watkins, Lori. "Shrimp Scampi Recipe." Allrecipes.com - Recipes, Menus, Meal Ideas, Food,

and Cooking Tips. Web. 29 June 2011. <http://allrecipes.com/recipe/shrimp-scampi-

3/detail.aspx>.

#1 What I Know (Field Analysis Blog, Bundle 2)

        My uncles restaurant Crossroads Cafe is located in Acton, Massachusetts. He has had this business for over twenty years.  About ten years ago he also owned another restaurant in Townsend, Massachusetts which was called J&B's (named after my two cousins Jay and Bret). That restaurant closed about ten years ago because once the no cigarette smoking law in restaurants took place, he lost a lot of business and had to close that restaurant and then put all efforts into his current restaurant Crossroads. He started in the restaurant business because my great grandfather (my mom and uncles grandfather) owned a restaurant in Concord, Massachusetts named Russo's (this was years ago). Anyway, in present day my uncle owns Crossroads and it has delicious food and delicious drinks (at least I think so). The menu has Italian, Mexican, and American food, also many other dishes with a wide array of ingredients. I am really excited to do bundle 2 about my uncles restaurant because I am really close to him and it's something I know a lot about and would love to share with others.

#4 Go There (Field Analysis Blog, Bundle 1)

        I visited the Delaney Project on a warm Sunday afternoon with my dog, Holly. I was surprised at just how many people were there (and that was only a few... maybe 4?). Just from the parking lot I saw kids fishing with their parents and people bike riding. I walked down the narrow path that leads to the park and noticed how high the grass was and the beautiful Delaney pond in the distance. There were a lot of joggers and people walking their dogs just like me. I took a lot of pictures of the area (which you can see in my bundle). It was a good trip seeing as I hadn't been to the project in a while.

#3 Ask Somebody (Field Analysis Blog, Bundle 1)

             For my first research analysis blog I am supposed to ask somebody and get some personal input from others about my topic. My mom has lived in Stow all her life so I decided to ask her about the Delaney Project and how long it's been there and what not. I asked her if it was around when she was a kid and she said of course "I'm not 100, I'm only 50!". I also asked her if she ever went there and if people were still doing the same outdoor recreational activities she said yes things were still the same forty years later and nothing has changed. I asked her about the history and if she knew any of it, not surprising to me she didn't know any of the history behind the Delaney Project. In turn, I told her all of the history I had found out about the Delaney Project. She was intrigued with the fact that the little Delaney pond right near our house used to house not only one, but two different mills!

 The day I went to the park there wasn't really many people around to ask so I thought interviewing my mom about it was just as good because she has lived near the project her whole life. I didn't learn too much from my mom that I didn't already know but it was a good chance to share my knowledge about the Delaney project with her. So even if I didn't learn anything new I'm glad that I taught someone else something new. Overall, no one seems to know too much about the Delaney project (my dad has lived here his whole life too and didn't know anything). And there isn't even that much on the internet about the Delaney project. I think it would be really cool to further investigate the Delaney Project and see if anything else interesting occurred there.

#2 Read More (Field Analysis Blog, Bundle 1)

I did a lot of research on the Delaney Project in Stow (a small conservation land). Surprisingly, there weren’t many articles about the reservation.  However, I did manage to find a few articles about the park. The first article I found spoke about the Delaney project also known as “Stow Conservation lands”. The article goes speaks about all of the conservation lands in Stow, Massachusetts. The article states how the area now known as The Delaney Project, was originally designed to be a flood land for the Elizabeth Brook. The Elizabeth Brooke now flows through the pond at the project. The Delaney Project was also designated to be hunting ground during certain times of the year. Now it is a recreation ground for hikers, cross country skiers, dog walkers, children, bikers, hunters, and many more. The Delaney Project is run by the Massachusetts division of fisheries and wildlife.

The second article I read, “A Walk around the Delaney Project” goes over a few of the activities that Delaney Project has to offer. Shockingly to me, there are actually some jumping posts set up around the park for horseback riders. The article also mentions what a great place the project is to go for a jog or walk your dog. In the last article I found, it discusses the history of the first mill that was built on Delaney pond. The first mill that was built there was called Brown’s Mill in 1830. Brown’s Mill was a saw and grist mill. The mill eventually became known as Zander’s cider mill after Thomas and Nils Zander. After the death of Thomas and Nils the mill’s equipment was moved to Bolton which is the next town over. The cider mill was used until 1983.

Works Cited

 Childs, Ethel B. History of Stow. Stow, Mass., U.S.A.: Stow Historical Society Pub., 1983. Print.

Crowell, Preston R., and Olivia S. Crowell. Stow, Massachusetts, 1683-1933: Compiled in Honor of the Two Hundred Fiftieth Anniversary of the Town. Salem, MA: Higginson Book, 1995. Print.

Solins, Joanna. "Elizabeth Brook History." OARS. Oars Inc. Web. 06 June 2011. <http://oars3rivers.org/river/tributaries/elizabeth-brook/photos-history>.

"Stow Conservation Lands." Conservation Land. Stow Conservation Trust. Web. 06 June 2011. <http://www.stowconservationtrust.org/land.php>.

"Stow Things to Do." Virtual Tourist. 25 Oct. 2007. Web. 06 June 2011. <http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel/North_America/United_States_of_America/Massachusetts/Stow-796416/Things_To_Do-Stow-TG-C-1.html>.

What I Know (Field Analysis Blog, Bundle 1)

            What I know, I surprisingly don't know that much about the Delaney Project. This is a little strange considering the fact that I live less than a mile away from the park. I've lived near this park for about 12 years of my life and I've only ever visited it a few times to walk my dog Holly. What I know mostly about the Delaney project is that it is a conservation land in my hometown, Stow, Massachusetts. I also know that people go biking, hiking, walking, fishing, canoeing, and walk their dogs there. I also see photographers there sometimes when I drive by. The Delaney project has a beautiful and peaceful landscape with a lot of trees, flowers, and wildlife with a nice bike/walking path.