Hanmer Guest House cafe already officially had its first use, last summer when we fed about 15 guests in it. At that time, however, the place still had no water running in or out. Now it does, and we have decided to use it for most of our guests’ meals this summer.
We made this decision when the bookings began piling up for a date a short while ago, and we thought we were getting 31 guests for a night! This is beyond our bed capacity, but my wife, never one to turn anyone away, made arrangements for the overflow people to stay with a neighbor, splitting the price with her.
In the end, we had a large group from Bulgaria; a smaller one from the Czech Republic (a 5-person discrepancy from the booking, later rectified in the booking); a trio from Israel; and a couple from the UK. Everyone was trekking, spending just the one night, with supper and the morrow’s breakfast for all, with a majority also wanting packed lunches, our standard overnight deal.
Complicating things was the departure the morning of the same day of 9 other guests, necessitating quick laundry and drying in the warm sun. Plus, we were a helper short, so it was just my wife and me, with a local teenage girl drafted for a few hours as well.
At least 1 of the 9 previous guests was our special handyman friend from the USA, who has come on numerous occasions to conduct repairs or do other work: He is lately famous for orchestrating the setting up of the village’s new crown, the playground set, about which I wrote recently. This time we asked him to ensure that the cafe’s water supply, in and out, was fully functional. This would give us on-site hot water for washing up, and also two working lavatories. He put everything right.
For the first time ever, we were also going with a buffet-style service instead of the usual set of dishes of food. We had the space, the tables and chairs, and the numbers of guests to make this the best choice. But it did mean that all that furniture, and all the food, crockery and cutlery, had to be taken to the cafe and set up there. And yet it was the easiest choice. The machinery ground into motion.
Lali still did almost all the food preparation, hot and cold, as it’s her strong point. I took care of as much of the laundry, refitting of bedrooms, and cafe setup as I could. At least we had several days for most to this; none of it was really last-minute. A few hiccups, such as not having a huge amount of beer, ended up not being significant (we don’t serve any alcohol to local people, as they have demonstrated that this is a mistake).
People started arriving mid-afternoon, but we were ready for them, and no one was expecting more than a snack from the shop until supper. The several vegetarians were taken care of (we always ask about special dietary needs in advance). Despite plenty of stress due to the workload, it went off mostly smoothly enough. Our three Israelis were the only ones farmed out to our neighbor for the night; they arrived late enough to necessitate supping en route, coming by taxi straight from Tbilisi airport, and we only saw them the next morning.
Next morning was rinse, repeat. I’ve long been aware that most guests will choose tea over coffee at night but have coffee with breakfast. We now have two drip coffee machines and a French press, and two electric kettles to meet this volume of hot drink requirements fairly smoothly. Everything continued well, people satisfied, while we worked like mad to get it all done at speed and with a smile.
The only other thing was that I had a pressing Tbilisi date to leave for right after breakfast. With the booking calendar showing no other sizable groups for a few more days, Lali released me, as I had been able to help her through the worst of it. She could plod through cleanup and laundry, with plenty of food to serve for anyone showing up suddenly unannounced (quite common in the summer) and just a room or two to make ready for such. Phew, we can do this. And we will.
Blog by Tony Hanmer
Tony Hanmer has lived in Georgia since 1999, in Svaneti since 2007, and been a weekly writer and photographer for GT since early 2011. He runs the “Svaneti Renaissance” Facebook group, now with over 2000 members, at www.facebook.com/groups/SvanetiRenaissance/
He and his wife also run their own guest house in Etseri: www.facebook.com/hanmer.house.svaneti
