feliz my babies feliz!

So the experiment that was and is Isla Mujeres has moved to a new place.  The experience was fantastic, the people were inspiring and the learning curve for this fifty something chef was worth all the world.  The restaurant is built, the menu, wine list, servers and bar are in place.  The space is fantastic, seriously one of the most beautiful rooms I have had the good fortune to help birth. So now I move on.  Did I want to live on in this beautiful job. of course!  But like all things in my career of opening peoples dreams in the form of restaurants, the track is unpredictable and the path unknown.  Ilsa proved to be like many challenges I have confronted during my life's passage in kitchens.   Language, infra structure, and the staffing, were all at once difficult, befuddling and gratifying. The cuisine, something I felt really conformable with, was even more enlightening that I had hoped.  The people were far more complicated than their gentle disposition would ever reveal.  When I moved to Florida from Philly some almost twenty years ago , I experienced a culture shock.  A northern chef was unaccustomed to the south and the way it worked.  Isla presented yet another chance to confront my ignorance of a people and their ways.  I learned how a hard working, genuine people, work with extraordinary fervor for very little compensation, all the while representing the craft that we all come to recognize as truly mexican. I got to satisfy my "anthony Bourdain", eating in markets far from the gleaning tourists crowds.  I sat at tables with people, the only communication was a love of the food they put so generously on the table.  I got to sit by an azur sea every day and feel her gentle wind and her salty tongue.  Other opportunities have presented themselves .  The chance that I will get a chance to help steer other "joints" on this island, this region or even other countries that string long latin america has popped up due entirely to the situation that both Isla33 and Nico's Cafe is affording me. So...gracias Joe Mendez y todo el mundo  que hizo mi experiencia en la isla, por lo fanastico. Feliz Navidad amigos!!!