We apologized to the firefighters who came to turn off the alarm and the sprinklers. I made a note of their station house so Marie-Our-Pastry-Chef could make up something special and send it over. We apologized to all the guests and took names so we could pay the dry cleaning bills. We called our reservations for the rest of the night and apologized for being unexpectedly closed and offered to reschedule.I even apologized to the rest of the staff as I called and texted (being especially nice to Marie-Our-Pastry-Chef) to let them know what had happened. I also let them know that tomorrow we would need all hands on deck by noon to get prepped for dinner service.We tore the kitchen and the dining room apart, looking through every place where the fire suppressant foam might possibly have collected and cleaning it out. By four a.m., we had mopped up and gotten most of the dishes washed and the linens wrung out and bagged. We’d just taken a delivery on Thursday, so thankfully we had enough clean tablecloths and napkins for Saturday dinner service.At four thirty, I sent everybody home to get a few hours’ sleep.
