ArchivedLogs:Our Kitchen

Our Kitchen
Brazilian food is awesome.
Dramatis Personae Gabriel, Lucia, Trib	2013-08-06 Lucia is so adorable.
Location <NYC> Nossa Cozinha - Queens
As you enter the door, the atmosphere tries to make you immediately feel at home. The staff are warm and friendly, treating you like a member of their family. The casual environment contains several wooden tables with small dining chairs, and the kitchen is open, allowing you to see the chefs at work making your meal. The walls are painted in a lovely green paint, with various pictures of different parts of Brazil on the wall. The menu ranges from various classic Brazilian dishes, and is made fresh every day. It's about half past six o'clock, right now. The sun is almost gone, and soon the moon will be fully up in the sky. On most nights like tonight, small restaurants in Queens aren't likely to be too crowded, and Nossa Cozinha is no exception. The restaurant isn't completely empty, but most of the tables are unoccupied, save for about two or three. There's an additional table near the back, which has two people in it. Both occupants are a darkish-tan skin color. One is about teenager-age, and the other seems to be an adult, judging by the tattoos, but then again, this is New York. The adult, a male, is wearing a denim jacket, light blue jeans, and a pair of brown boots. His hair and eyes are a darkish brown color, not unlike his skin. The teenager, a girl, is the more peculiar case. She is wearing a blindfold that covers her ears, and a pair of headphones over her ears, which aren't plugged into anything. She's dressed in a blue and white t-shirt, a short blue skirt, and a pair of tennis shoes. Gabrie looks up to his sister, tapping him arm for a few second. She flinces, and then begins signing something to him. Queens is a hell of a long way to go to try and find work, but that's why Trib is in this borough, instead of in the city proper. You can tell he's been job hunting by his outfit -- nice jeans and a button-down blue plaid shirt -- and the weary look on his face. Maybe it's the smell of the food that draws him into the restaurant, his large frame filling the doorway for a moment before he enters and finds a table, dropping into his chair and looking around at the interior of the place with sharp eyes. Thick fingers drum on the table as the big man looks around for someone who looks like a waiter, or like they could bring him a menu. Since none immediately present themselves, he sighs, and fishes his phone out of his pocket, sliding the index finger of his right hand across the screen and squinting at it critically. Still tapping at his arm, Gabriel hears the door. Spotting Trib, and no other waiters, Gabriel leaps out of his seat, quickly tapping at his arm again, before grabbing a menu and approaching the big man. "Hello! Is this your first time as Nossa Cozinha?". He smiles, as he looks towards Trib, politely. "Here's a menu. Would you like a drink, to start? Possibly a side?". Gabriel's mood is quite cheerful, but his eyes are elsewhere. Gabriel is currently silently sizing Trib up, but quickly stops after a few moments. "We also serve Caipirinha, a national drink from Brazil, if you're in the mood for alcohol.". He smiles again, before looking back at the girl. He taps something on his arm again, and she quickly signs back to him. "Everything here is made fresh, guarenteed.". Trib looks up as the man scrambles to get him a menu, and he closes his phone with a punch of his thumb. Then he slides it back in his pocket before he takes the offered menu. "Oh, yeah. 's my first time," he rumbles, Jersey-thick, and the smile he offers is hard and tightly pulled to one side. "I like Brazilian food, though. It's got a lot of flavor. And I'll have a glass of tea," he answers the drink question with a nod before he scans the menu briefly, and hands it back. "I'll take an order of arcaraje to start, and then I'm gonna have the feijoada." He looks up, and frowns. "Unless you wanna suggest somethin' else," he grunts, eyes tracking over to the girl in the blindfold for a half a blink before he looks back. "You'd probably know what's the best food around here." Gabriel smiles, writing down his order. "A glass of tea? Alright then!". He smiles again when Trib asks him about the order. "Well, I like everything here, so, I think I'm a bit biased.". He laughs a tiny bit. "So, the Acaraje and the feijoada? I don't think I could recommend better, personally. Give me one moment.". He begins tapping at his arm again. When he stops, the girl is standing up, grabbing a wooden cane. She walks into the kitchen, is in there for about a minute, before coming back out, tea carefully in hand. She slowly taps away, placing the tea on the table, before returning to her seat. "Okay, I'll get started on your appetizer. Please enjoy your drink.". He smiles, heading into the kitchen, tapping something on his arm along the way. The girl in Trib's direction for a second, though not staring directly at him. Trib blinks at the cheerfulness, smiling lightly before he catches himself and nods. He watches as the blindfolded girl retrieves his tea, his eyes tracking from the floor and the tapping cane to the careful way she carries the glass. As she nears the table, there's a visible tensing of the boxer's frame that remains until the girl has set the glass down and moved on. And still Trib watches her, until she reaches her table. When he reaches for his glass, he actually /sniffs/ it before he takes a sip. He rubs at the back of his neck, suddenly, and frowns in the direction of the girl in the blindfold for a moment. Then his attention shifts to the kitchen, and the waiter who is also a cook, apparently. "Business seems slow," he says, raising his voice to a /louder/ rumble so that the man can hear him. "Been open long?" When Trib tenses, the girl frowns a bit. And then when he raises his voice, she's putting her head down, holding it with both her hands. Gabriel's voice comes back, quietly but still loud enough to hear. "About..20 years now? My parents opened it when I was a toddler. They'd be here right now, but they're slightly busy.". A few moments later, he's bringing the Acaraje out. "Before you get any ideas, I'm not the cook. They're back there cooking it.". He smiles a bit, before noticing the girl still shaking a bit. He rushes over there, not too fast however. "Lucia...". He places his hand on her body, signing something to her. She stops shaking, holding his arm. When she's calm, she lets go, allowing him to head back into the kitchen. "Sorry about that.". Trib looks a bit disbelieving at the length of time the business has been around, but he doesn't say anything. Instead, his attention focuses on the girl who seems to be in pain, and he frowns a bit. "Is she okay?" he asks, when Gabriel comes back out with his acaraje. But, the other man seems unconcerned, so Trib is content to lower his level of concern back to almost nothing. "So this is a family place, huh?" He frowns, and leans back in his chair, picking up an aracaje and biting into it. "Bet that's nice. Always guaranteed a job, at least." Gabriel sighs, telling Trib from in the kitchen. "She's a little..special. She was born with a disease called Ushers I, so, she's both deaf and blind. To make matters worse..well, maybe you can figure it out.". He smiles, as he goes in to help with the stew. "Yeah, but I'd rather not take money from my family, so, I'm technically unemployed. I just help around. We're currently still looking for help though, as we never seem to have enough people on hand.". He comes back out with feijoada a few minutes later, setting it on the table. "Enjoy! If you need anything else, just ask.". He smiles, before heading back over to his sister, to tend to her. "Huh." Trib looks over at the girl with this new information, and his frown now is a contemplative one. "She gets around pretty good," he notes, swallowing his mouthful of aracaje and chasing it with a swallow of tea. "Sorry that it's worse than that, though." Whatever might be the cause of that is beyond his figuring, though, so he abandons it with a shrug. The comments about needing help gets a snort, and the big man waves a hand at the dining room. "Don't seem like you're hurtin' for the extra hands too badly," he rumbles, eyes crinkling. "Unless this place does fuckin' bananas business on the weekends." Gabriel sighs, shaking his head. "Weekends are usually more crowded, but that's not really it. Most of our employees have quit, for who knows why, and we're going to go out of business sooner or later.". He then looks over at his sister. "We get by, I guess.". He brushes his hair back. "So, I must ask..how do you like it so far?". He smiles, grabbing his sister's hand, still communicating with her via tapping. Trib makes a 'huh' sort of sound around the bite of food he's taking, and his brow furrows. "Like, they just up an' quit? Out of the blue?" He frowns, chewing a couple of times before he swallows audibly. "That seems weird, 'specially if you got a crowd of regulars." He wrinkles his nose thoughtfully, considering that. The question breaks his train of thought, and he looks up. "Oh, it's good," he says with a bob of his head. "Got a lot of flavor to it." Which seems the biggest selling point, the way he stresses it. He watches the tapping as he speaks, sipping at his tea. "Tell your folks I said my compliments an' all of that." Gabriel shrugs back at Trib. "I guess most of them are starting their own businesses or something, I'm not exactly sure.". Lucia signs something, causing Gabriel to get up. "I need to grab something in the back, if you need anything, just make a loud bang or shouting noise, and Lucia will let me know.". He nods, getting up, and heading into the back room, looking for something. Lucia is reading a book in Braille, slowly and carefully. She looks up, speaking slightly and sort of strangely, due to not speaking enough. "Just. Ask.". She smiles, looking back towards his direction, as she reads some more. Trib frowns. "Seems like a weird time for a sudden bout of being...whatacallem. Entrepenuers." He rolls his shoulders. "I think I'd be lookin' at the Families." The way he says it, it's clear that he's not talking about neighborhood residents. He nods at the semi-farewell, and lifts a hand. "I'll do it,' he promises, and leans back in his chair, watching the blindfolded girl as she speaks. The lift of his eyebrows speaks volumes, but he nods and taps experimentally at the table twice in acknowledgement. Which seems to be enough communication to suit the big man. After all, there are still aracaje yet to be eaten, and a man /does/ have priorities. Lucia immediately springs her head up, looking towards him, as he taps. The tapping seems to get her attention immediately. "Help?". She waits for a second, as Gabriel comes out, giving her a small bear. She grabs the bear, holding it tight. He then heads over to Trib. "Okay, well, I have to head out, but continue to enjoy your meal, and we do still have people in the back, so you're not alone in here.". He smiles, as he heads for the door, but gives one glance to Lucia, tapping to her. Hopefully, nothing happens tonight.