"What exactly do you want?" Darlene asked. "Do you want a down-time style tavern, a cafeteria or a real restaurant?"
"I'm not certain, Frau Myers. I have eaten in the Plaza Room in the Higgins and at Marcantonio's Pizza place, as well as some of the other restaurants of Grantville, but, honestly, I don't understand the difference between a tavern and a restaurant all that well."
Darlene remembered eating at a Golden Corral in Morgantown before the Ring of Fire. It was sort of a cross between a cafeteria and a restaurant that called itself a buffet restaurant. And as Darlene thought about it, she figured that would probably be the way to go, especially if she could get a good handle on what the people at Twinlo Park liked. She could have most of the meals pre-made and ready and just put them out. Salads, soups, bread, and a couple of entrees, then if someone wanted something special, they could order it. Yes, that would work. And while she was thinking all this, she realized that she had taken the job. At least in her own mind. Darlene, like most up-timers, was not a good negotiator. She hadn't grown up in a world where all, or even most, prices were negotiable. It left her and most of the up-timers at a real disadvantage in dealing with down-timers who had probably negotiated the price of the first thing they had ever bought and most of the rest of their purchases. On the other hand, she was anything but stupid and she could figure out why she was getting this job. It wasn't because she was an up-timer. It was because she was thought to be Johan Kipper's girlfriend. Darlene let a smile slip out. "I think that a buffet restaurant would be the best plan. I will leave my compensation to you and talk it over with Johan in my next letter."
Josef Kunze swallowed and Darlene felt her smile grow a little bit. Johan was such a nice man. She really didn't understand why he scared people like Josef Kunze so much.
Johan Kipper laughed out loud when he read the part of Darlene's letter describing her negotiating with Herr Kunze. Whom Johan privately thought of as "the little Kunze," even though he was actually larger than Franz. He would show the letter to Franz at the next opportunity. Young Master David, as it happened, was reading of the same general events, but in a letter from Trent Partow, who was discussing the construction the new buffet restaurant, called the TwinloPalace. "It turns out that Darlene can make a mean fried rice and she went with this sort of German oriental style. But the food is from all over. There are baked potatoes and. ." The list of foods was surprisingly varied, and apparently Darlene had hired two support chefs, a baker and someone named Gretel. . Was there any woman in Germany not named Gretel, David wondered. . who made the most delicious soups. And best of all, Trent's letter burbled, someone had finally found pepperoni that almost tasted like real pepperoni, and the color was almost right, so the pepperoni rolls they were making were almost as good as the ones back up-time.
"Your Darlene seems to be fitting right in, Johan," David said with a grin. By now the splitting of the Wisselbank was agreed on and the party was getting ready to head to Antwerp to see to the installation of the radios that would connect the two branches of the bank.
"Trent can't stop talking about the food and patting himself on the back for hiring her."
"I imagine Josef Kunze is still complaining about the expense." Johan smiled back. "Apparently, Darlene threatened him with me."
There was a snort from across the room. "You have taken horrible advantage of my cousin," Franz Kunze said. "But the cost will be coming out of the profits of Twinlo. How much of Twinlo do you own, Johan?"
Johan considered. He had helped the twins set up the park, along with Franz and OPM. OPM owned forty percent, the twins owned forty percent, Johan had gotten three percent for his help, and the rest was spread out among the twin's family. "Not that much, Franz, but I wouldn't be worried about the cost of the. ." Johan looked back at the letter.". . buffet restaurant. It will pay for itself, I think. Especially since Darlene is complaining about not having time to cook because of all the electrical doodads that they make her look at."
"Is it a serious problem?" David asked.
"No. I don't think so. It's hard to tell just from the letter, but I think she actually enjoys it, as long as she doesn't have to do the actual wiring."
"Back to our real business, what about the guilders?" Franz interrupted, bringing the conversation to their purpose. "What are we investing in besides the spinning problem?"
"Well, your interference in the siege hasn't helped," Johan complained. "Now that the craftsmen have access to a market for their goods, they are less interested in whiling away their time on learning to make up-timer products. Not uninterested, but not nearly so desperate for work as they were when we got here."
"Fine. We're ruining your scam," David said, not sounding particularly sorry. "But what have you invested us in?"
"Shipping," Johan said.
"What?"
"I brought designs for fiberglass production and showed them pictures of fiberglass hulls, down at the shipyards.
"They can't sail their ships out, so there is no market for them just now. Even Don Fernando isn't letting them sail ships in and out of Amsterdam at the moment." Johan, while mostly pleased by the situation they had been able to support here in Amsterdam, found his sense of propriety somewhat outraged by a siege in which the besiegers were buying their boots and uniform tunics from the besieged. It was just not the way a siege should be carried out.
"They are in Antwerp," Sarah Wendell complained to Darlene over a bowl of mutton fried orzo. Which Darlene seasoned as much like beef fried rice as she could, except she added a bit of mint and some honey for sweetness. Mutton fried orzo had turned out to be one of her most popular dishes with the crew at Twinlo Park, and increasingly with people who found a reason to drop in for the food. The TwinloPalace provided buffets for breakfast, lunch and dinner for employees of TwinloPark for free, but anyone could come in, pay ten American dollars and have all they could eat. By now they were serving thirty people at most meals. It was a very fortunate thing that Josef had insisted on a large dining room, even if he had done it so that there would be room for more employees as the research and development center grew.
"I know. I got another letter from Johan. Why them?" Darlene said. She and Sarah had found themselves in a similar circumstance, since Sarah was dating David and Darlene was sort of dating Johan. Sarah was more than a little resentful of David's getting to go when she didn't, and Darlene figured there was trouble on the horizon for the kids, but it wasn't her business. Darlene didn't resent not getting to go to Amsterdam, but she did worry about Johan a lot more than she had expected to when he left.
"I don't know. David insists they are the only ones that the Cardinal-Infante and the Duke of Orange could agree on, but I think they just figured to get all the use out of the up-timers they could manage. The radio towers are expensive, even if they are using an existing building for a lot of the height."
"Sure. But Johan isn't going to be building any radio towers."
"Neither is David," Sarah agreed, then visibly considered. "It's probably HSMC and OPM. I bet the cardinal is looking to get up-time tech for the Spanish Netherlands. He knows that David and Herr Kunze are running OPM. If OPM decides to put, say, a light bulb factory in Antwerp, it won't hurt the cardinal's tax base any."