At 7:24 the ticket printer coughed confetti and quit, so expo went full play-by-play while we cooked from memory… I’m basting four ribeyes on the flat top, Jess is dancing with the fryer, Raul’s piecing together crumpled tickets like tarot, and somehow we nailed temps. Anyone else have a meltdown like that where the line snaps into one brain and you end up laughing in the walk-in?
Been there — our printer died on Valentine’s and @expo switched to “football huddle” calls while I Sharpie’d tickets on deli paper; lifesaver was a cheap magnetic whiteboard on the hood for fires/holds and a dry-erase timer grid. Caveat: it works until steam turns the markers into tears, so toss a roll of painter’s tape on the rail as backup.
We keep a grease pencil on the hood and sketch a quick ‘On deck / Fire / Pick’ grid when the printer taps out — expo slides names across and the line follows the boxes… @daniel_mar56’s whiteboard hack is solid, but the grease-pencil grid wipes faster and doesn’t fall when the pass gets bumped. Just make one person the timekeeper or it turns into cave art.