GMs: Karen Twelves, Dale Horstman, Sean Nittner, and Matthew Klein
Players: Karen Twelves, Dale Horstman, Sean Nittner, and Matthew Klein
System: Dogs in the Vineyard (rethemed to Kitchen Nightmares)
We had to reschedule the game a few time so I was eager to see how Mara, Tess, and Ruben would handle their first restaurant.
Restaurant Background
I had been watching Bear Season 3 when I was mulling over ideas for a restaurant and I kept seeing characters who desperately wanted something, but their own inhibitions stopped them for going for it, sometimes even from trying. Carmy wants to make up with Claire, but he’s too embarrassed to apologize. Sydney can’t decide if she wants to stay or go. Nat keeps dodging her mom even though she wants to tell her how she feels. Richie can’t forgive Carm, even though doing so would make him feel so much better.
A lot of those issues are very interior. We learn then from long, poignant shots of the characters suffering. I wanted some troubles that mirrored those, but were a bit more exterior so the DOGS could learn about (and address them) quickly.
Here’s what I came up with:
Friedman’s is a family owned business in Cape May, New Jersey that thrived for a time but as the location has become less of a tourist destination, the restaurant was suffering. 10 Months ago, one of the owners Emily Friedman made the executive decision (she owns 51% of the business and the building it’s in) to sell the restaurant to JBA holding, a UK-based investment firm. Per the terms of the contract Emily and her husband Micah (the two co-owners) had to stay on for a year transitionary period where they would train a new manager and get the restaurant ready to change hands.
Micah, who loved he business, and believed in it, is broken-hearted. First that he lost his business and that his wife made this decision without him. They’ve both been upset and it his own way, he’s been sabotaging the the transfer. No manager has been up to his standards. He works all the time, but barely talks to Emily so they have a hard time getting on the same page about anything. And the restaurant has suffered because of it. Sales are down, staff have left, and the vibes are off.
Time to call in the dogs.
Introducing the Dogs
We saw a few opening shots of the character doing their thing to set the vibe for the show:
- Ruben was smiling as always, giving high fives and finger guns to people in the kitchen, all smiling back at him.
- Mara was surrounded by five immaculate plates inspecting them. When a sous chef brought her a sixth with a slight imperfect she gave him a hard look and he quickly took it back to do it again.
- Tess was sitting at a diner table with her portable camera rig setup taking a cute selfie shot with them artfully displayed around her.
Love Letters
In the shower just before the game, I remembered the way Queer Eye opens every show. The Fab Five are in the car together discussing what they know about this week’s makeover. Everyone had something to share about them based on their research, and that felt like the right way to open up the session. Driving along the coastline of New Jersey on the way to Cape May, with each of the DOGS (rather than me) the GM doing some exposition about the restaurant, Emily, and Micah.
So I wrote three love letters and let the players pick who they wanted to be connected to. Each letter had information followed by a question about how the Dog feels about that person (or in the case of the restaurant, the company that bought it). For instance, at the bottom of Emily’s letter the Dog got to choose one:
- It was a touch choice, but Emily did the right thing. This is the path to the Friedman’s financial security. Add a 1d8 positive relationship with Emily.
- She had no right to make this decision on her own. Add a 1d4 complicated relationship with Emily and a 1d6 trait “I can tell when people are hurting”
Here’s the letters I wrote up:
Arriving at Friedmans
We determined that though the restaurant knows the Dogs are coming, they don’t know exactly when so the arrival is a surprise.
The Dogs entered and noticed immediately there was no host at the host station, business was slow, and there was one woman (Sherice) at the register who was filling drinks, ringing up tickets, and serving pie. She greeted them and told them to take any table that’s free. The dogs parked themselves right in the center of the action so they could see everything and take it in.
Their table was covered in slightly tacky (as in sticky, but also maybe classless) vinyl to protect from spills. Beneath it were cute pictures of historic Cape May including the beach, old buildings, and other scenic shots.
Shortly after they were seated their server Puneet arrived to welcome them, give them menus, and take drink orders. Just before she got there she sneezed and apologized that allergies were getting to her. Ruben was his characteristically gregarious self and asked if Micah was around. Puneet took their order: Arnold Palmer, Ice Tea, and a Diet Coke and headed back for the kitchen when Micah called after her “oh, and could get get a bread basket as well”. She nodded, smiled, and headed into the kitchen.
As the Dogs looked over the menu they spotted other imperfections in the place. The menu hadn’t been updated in a while, there were speakers but no music was playing, everything showed signs of wear without attention to sprucing it up. If they had tried to make things nice before the Dogs arrived, it must have been really bad before. The menus clinged to the vinyl tablecloth like a nervous child clings to a parent on the first day of school.
Ruben extolled the virtue of the “Free” Burger (which, despite it’s name was 11.99 on the menu) as Micah’s signature dish. Mara looked through the rest of the menu and besides a beet salad, it all looked like pretty standard diner fare.
Here’s the the layout. For this first part I covered up the back half of he map so they only saw front of house:
Micah Friedman
Micah came out with the drink order and bread basket and stopped halfway to the table. “RuRu, is it you?”
Ruben jumped up to give him a hug “MyMy. It’s so good to see you!” We learned form Micah’s exposition earlier that he had been the Friedman’s years ago and met Micah then. The two of them hit it off and the next thing they knew they were both in the kitchen together and Ruben was showing Micah a dipping sauce he had been working on. He noticed that it was now called “Ruben’s aioli” on the menu.
Micah was full of smiles just like Ruben is. He introduced himself and welcomed everyone. He was incredibly thankful for their help, though he also seemed embarrassed about needing it. He held onto his smile like a shield. He took their order, which as it should be, was extensive: Two Free Burgers, a beat salad, an appetizer sampler, and nearly one of everything else.
He headed back to the kitchen and when chef Steve got the order, they heard a louder than it should have been “who the fuck orders this much food”? Steven and Sherice bantered back and forth in a combative but familiar manner. Nobody seemed alarmed or surprised by his complaints.
Sherice Jones
While the were waiting for the food, the cashier Sherice came back out to refill their drinks and generally keep the Dogs occupied while the food was being prepared. She looked cheerful but tired. As the camera moved outside to the parking lot we saw her car covered with Uber and Lyft stickers and if we had a look into her phone would have seen apps like DoorDash and TaskRabbit showing all the side gigs she was doing to make ends meet.
Tess got right down to business and asked her about the restaurant. How has it changed? What went wrong? What does it need? Sherice revealed that a few employees left recently. Tom’s mom was sick so he went to take care of her and Geri left after a bit blowout with Micah. More staff had been lost before that and Micah had been trying to make up for it all on his own.
Sherice said that she liked working here and inadvertently made a glance towards the dishwasher and busser Mike Chen. She also did horoscopes and when Micah told her he was a Virgo she said a new business opportunity was going to present itself soon!
Food is served
By this time word had gotten around that the Dogs were there and when the food was ready, all of he staff came out to deliver it (then needed to, the Dogs had ordered a lot!).
- Emily Friedman thanked them for coming and said “we just need to make it through the next two months.” Ruben offered Emily (who he called “Em”) a homemade maple syrup in a bear squeeze bottle which she at first tried to decline, not sure if she should be making changes to their menu without it being official, an then Tess interceded that this was just for personal use. It was awkward.
- Micah, Sherice, and Puneet had already introduced themselves, but did so again for the camera.
- Mike Chen was all smiles and hamming it up for the cam. He gave them all big handshakes and went over the top welcoming them.
- Steve, the line cook, gave them a curt grunt and then said “those burgers aren’t going to cook themselves” and retreated back into the kitchen.
The food was served and everyone by Mike retreated back to the kitchen. He stayed out, happy to gab with the Dogs, asking them a dozen questions about why they picked this place, how you become a Dog, what was the worst restaurant they’ve ever saved, etc. Tess answered few of the questions but came back with questions of her own.
Mike knew all about people’s problems and was happy to share, but he was useless in the “how to fix it” department. According to him the vibes had been off ever since the business was sold. More specifically
- Micah and Emily are hardly ever seen in the same place and they barely talk to each other.
- Sherice (who he looked at with fawning eyes) is in major debt because of her brother Kenny.
- Puneet’s got allergies that really mess with her and her sister is sick, which means she’s had to take off time to take care of her.
- Steve’s an asshole, but he was born an asshole. Nothing to do about that.
Once he got the cue that they wanted to start eating, Mike flashed another smile and got back to work.
Decidedly Mid
They ate the food and it was meh. The service was okay. The decor was diner-acceptable, but not great. The Free burger had an American Flag on the end of the floss pick, and they heard a group of bikers in the corner chant out “FREEDOM” as they dug into their Free Burgers, but otherwise, the place didn’t have a lot that was making it stand out.
As Tess said (the producers know she said it first) “A restaurant can have mid service and good food, or it can have great service and mid food, but it can’t have both. And this place is mid all around.”
The Dogs made a plan to redo the whole front of house, revamp the menu, and get the staff all on the same page again, starting with the top, Emily and Micah!
A Tour
Before they could start their plan, Micah came out to give them the tour of the place. When he first came out of the kitchen and observed their body language and how much of the food only had a bite or two take out of it he was crestfallen, but mustered up another smile and good cheer when he approached he table. “Hoped you loved the Free burgers. Can I show you the back?’
The toured the space and found it was in working order, with probably only a half dozen health code violations. The slicer had a chainmail glove, the Osha posters were up in the staff lounge, the employee washroom had a side that “employees must wash their hands”, etc. In particular the brisket offset smoker was Micah’s pride and joy. It clearly was used and tended to constantly. The grill however was a mess, it looked like the oil hadn’t been cleaned since JFK died. The kitchen organization was also a mess. Knives far away from cutting stations, pots and pans far away from the stove, years of grease caked on everything, dry food stored all over the place, etc.
Micah tried to avoid showing them the office where Emily was working as he didn’t want to distract her but Ruben is terrible about reading social cues and he barged right in. “EmEm!” She grimaced ever so slightly and then smiled for the camera. “Welcome to our office, there’s not much to show.” There was an old computer she was was using the try and balance he books. They had a CCTV security system that was also turned off. Plenty of filing cabinets that looked stuffed papers and bills. There was one framed picture of Cape May with an inspirational quote about the place dreams come true, but it was covered in post its and barely visible any more.
Ruben gave a hug, said some encouraging words and the ambled out with Micah. Mara stuck behind for a bit and talked to Emily. Emily (not Em, not EmEm) really knew they needed help. She showed Mara the numbers and they saw a lot of work would be needed to hit their 80% of 2022 sales numbers for the JBA contract.
Oh, how I want a smoke
Micah and Ruben went outside for a real heart-to-heart conversation that turned sour. Ruben wanted Micah to change, but Micah felt so overwhelmed trying to do everything himself that he didn’t know what else to do. And every time his relationship with Emily was brought up he got defensive and told Ruben to stay out of it. Micah kept longing looking at the burnt out cigarette butts Steve had left on the concrete just outside the restaurant and reflexively patting an empty pocket looking for smokes that weren’t there.
They ended it with harsh words and Micah left saying “Okay Mr. Friedman” believing their friendship had dissolved right there, if it had ever existed. [Mechanically, Ruben lost the contest and took some short term fallout, temporarily lower his d8 relationship with Micah to d4. Also, it was a contest that felt stifling and left Matthew as a player unsure where to go next. More on that in the wrap up.]
Let’s take a walk on the Beach
Mara invited Emily to take a walk on the beach with her to talk about the restaurant. The walked till the wooden boardwalk ended and then took off shoes (for Mara, this wasn’t her favorite thing) and walked barefoot on the sand. Emily was clear. She just wanted to get the numbers up enough so they weren’t in breach of contract. She also thought that things with Micah right now were just too complicated, but they would get better once they had the money and weren’t running the restaurant anymore. Much as Mara pushed, Emily refused to apologize to Micah (even though she admitted she hurt him) and once again the Dogs were shut out [Mechanically, Mara didn’t want to escalate past talking and Emily’s 1d8 “I can see the big picture”, 2d8 “I can make it a year”, and 2d10 “I’m the responsible one” traits won the day. However she did take some short term fallout and now has 1d4 “Doubting my choices” for the next conflict. ]
Operation: JBA Investigation
Tess knew from her past that JBA often setup deals to fail. If the Friedman’s didn’t meet their 80% sales level and train a new manager, JBA could withhold the big balloon payment they were due at the end. She had seen other restaurants bought by JBA fail and JBA picked up the pieces for pennies on the dollar and the owners got nothing. She wasn’t going to let some technicality ruin things for Micah and Emily.
That night while the DOGS crew were emptying out the front of house for the renovation Tess broke into Emily’s office to find the dirt. She technically didn’t “break in” since Steve gave her the keys but she knew she wasn’t supposed to be there and didn’t want to get caught. Keith the camera man followed her in for the clandestine adventure.
At first it looked like Emily had caught and red-lined all of the unreasonable clauses in the early drafts of the contract, but eventually she spotted that JBA could withhold the balloon payment for up to six months, and could cancel it all together if the restaurant didn’t continue at the expected level of sales. It had to last longer than just the next two months, they needed to make some SERIOUS changes to get things on track.
She also had a hilarious moment with Keith the camera man who said “you can’t just email legal documents that you’re not supposed to look at to a friend. We could get fired.” Tess replied they were going to Ashley, the in house legal advisor and that they would be fine, and besides he owes her one [Karen added a 1d8 “Keith the Camera Guy” relationship on Tess’s character sheet. Tess won the contest and because of this duplicity we raised the level of “sin” from Pride (level 1) to Distrust (level 3), but she also had a plan of what to do next!]
She also found unsigned divorce papers… for Steve of all people. What they were doing in Emily’s office, who knows?
A New Plan
That night in the hotel room the Dogs related what they had found during the day. Tess shared what she found in the contract “We need to do something more than just a makeover if we want Friedman’s to succeed. So are we just here to get them through the next two months or do we want to turn this restaurant around?”
As camera panned Mara said “We’re here for the restaurant” and then to Ruben “That’s what Dogs do.”
So they decided the kitchen (and with it, probably the cook) had to go. It was more than the producers would want to spend, but they’d reallocate everything they could to fixing the big issues instead of just wallpapering over the problems.
You’re not changing MY kitchen
In the morning when the plan was announced Steven did lose a second to push Mara and Keith out of the way to go stand guard over his kitchen. “I’ve been flipping burgers here since we opened the place. I know this kitchen and there’s nothing wrong with it. So do whatever you want to the front, but this is my domain and you’re not touching it.”
Mara showed off some parkour skills and slid over the counter into the back so she could get right in Steve’s face (he had been blocking the doorway, but she found a way around), Ruben tried to come to her aid and rifled through is belonging to find bug spray to spray in his face, but it took too long and the moment was lost. Tess pulled out her camera and started recording. “Do you want this shared with my 16.1 million followers?”
Steve backed off but he wasn’t giving up the fight. Tempers flared and Tess yelled “You’re fired Steve, get out of here!” Once again the fight was on. Mara eventually deescalated the situation by saying “Steve, we’ll work something out.” He looked to Emily [Steve as a 1d10 relationship “Emily pays me in cash”] and when she nodded he once again backed off. Steve left the kitchen out the back, and the demolition began! [The conflict included talking, getting physical and fighting. There was a LOT of fallout that happened but in the end the Dogs overpowered Steve and he backed off]
Meeting with HR
The fallout was rough and everyone took some long term fallout, for Mara though it could have been job ending. We flashed forward to an HR meeting where Tess was helping to defend Mara, who legal said was in trouble for telling Steve they would work something out, which implied an offer on behalf of the Dogs. Mara told them she was just trying to calm the situation down and they seemed satisfied. Legal was still concerned about getting sued, and production was mad they couldn’t use the footage, but they were letting her go with a warning.
[Mechanically we fumbled around here a bit. At first I said we were rolling d10 Fallout Dice because Tess had called on an authority, but after some discussion we decided she was just making a threat without anyone to back it up, so we kept the fallout dice at d8. Even with that Tess only nearly avoided “Death” (which we interpreted as being fired) and Mara had to have an HR meeting to keep her job. We handled the follow up conflict by rolling Mara’s Will + Tess’s Acuity (speaking in her defense) against the fallout dice (4d8) and the demonic influence (3d10). Still a tough conflict!]
[Mid conflict Matthew also pointed out that as side can and should give in a fight when it makes sense. HR didn’t want to fire Mara so they didn’t have to push to the bitter end. I agreed (and was glad Matthew said something) and HR gave on the fight, but told Mara she had a warning (keeping a “10” on a d10 for a future conflict). More discussion how staying true to the fiction followed at the end of the episode.]
Closing Montage
We closed the episode with the Dogs working on the kitchen, When the stove was removed, the found the sheetrock had crumbled behind it and the wiring for the stereo was there, a mess of multiple installations done over and over. Likely melted from the head of the stove. We caught a scene with Mara carrying a piece of it out to the dumpster, past a grumbling Steve.
We also showed a moment of Micah and Ruben reconnecting at a bar. “I shouldn’t have snapped at you.” and “I shouldn’t have pushed so hard.” and a few apologies later Micah finally admitted “I just try to so hard to make things right with Emily but I can’t keep it from falling all apart. I poured everything into this place and now it’s all going away.”
How to do better?
Matthew pointed out that after the Ruben’s conflict with Micah, he felt really shut down, like the dice were constraining him and the mechanics didn’t give a way forward. Had we talked about it more in the moment, I think he would have folded at Micah’s first raise “I’m just overwhelmed” rather than fighting on and possibly ending their friendship.
We talked about the levels of escalation (they had stayed at talking) but also how we shouldn’t let the dice dictate our actions, and that people should give when it makes sense for them to give. It was a great conversation that helped us all align and find a way forward for the characters and turned into a lovely final scene (above)
Questions for next time
- Can they train Sherice as a manager? Will the pay be enough?
- Will Steve get fired? If so, who’s going to be the line cook?
- What are they going to do about Puneet missing work to take care of her sister?
- Are Mike and Sherice going to keep fucking on the DL, break up, or make it official?
- I can’t believe I’m asking this, but…is Mike a traitor [our version of possessed]?
- Has Micah’s conflicts with would be managers been because they weren’t good enough or is he sabotaging the effort to make the transition?
- And probably biggest question of all…can Micah and Emily find their way back to each other’s heart?
