I hear ‘Jaws’ music every time I see that word. But for now, I’m talking about the San Jose Sharks. I’ve been to Shark Stadium a few times when I volunteered to work at the United States Figure Skating Championships. So when Damon suggested we call them for advice, Kyle and I jumped on it. Damon said the Sharks had a full-time restaurant in their stadium and it did well.

Since Kyle was an experienced bartender, we decided he should be the one to call. Whomever he spoke to at Shark Stadium was happy to help us and gave Kyle all the advice he could think of. Far more helpful than Todd, Damon, and the rest of our local hockey team landlords. You know what the Sharks didn’t say? They didn’t say we should fry our French fries to be successful. That’s right, Todd, Mr. Self-Proclaimed Food Service Expert who lets his employees contaminate our ice and steal from us, the successful Sharks did not validate your advice.

So what was the first thing the Sharks said??? You must have a ‘no outside food or drink’ policy in the arena. Of course that’s what they said. We’ve been saying that all along – it didn’t take us long to figure that out and now we had validation. But to no avail. Todd and Damon were determined to avoid helping us in any way. Everything Kyle learned from the Sharks involved help from our landlord to which Todd and Damon said ‘no’. The good news was the Sharks had no criticisms of our restaurant and bar setup and handling. The bad news was our best avenues to success were completely blocked by our landlord.