Jaguar son

WILL THOMPSON, Sunny’s

WORK • Thursday Routine

WILL THOMPSON • owner • Sunny’s 
Neighborhood you live in: North Miami

It’s Thursday morning. What’s the scene at your workplace? 
There’s not nearly as much routine as I’d like; I’d say chaos is the routine. But a normal flow is: Get up, check the first round of emails, make coffee, and take an hour or so to catch up on admin stuff. That’s the most productive part of my day. From there, once the team is onsite at Sunny’s, it’s making sure people have what they need to hit the ground running, and making sure they know you appreciate them. Depending on the day, we’re focused on getting ready for service and identifying all the small stuff. There’s always something — things we forgot to order, what did we think was coming in today that’s not? Everybody’s scrambling a little bit. No two days are exactly the same.

What’s on the agenda for today?
Today we went live telling the world we’re ready to go — and Resy went completely down. So the last hour’s been spent reaching out to anyone I could to get that sorted. Then, freak out. It’s gonna be our first service, so it’s particularly interesting, making adjustments to the floorplan, layout, checking music and lighting levels. Making sure permits are printed and hung where they’re supposed to be. Then, checking in with the kitchen and seeing if there’s anything we need to take care of with the menu. It’s a very long list, and everything is significant in seeing whether we have a good night or a bad night.

Any bar or restaurant plans this weekend?
Not this weekend, or any weekend for… a while. But I like to get out and support my friends Alex and Luci at Boia De and Walrus Rodeo; they’re obviously great. I really enjoyed Recoveco in South Miami recently. I like going over to Palma. If I have a chance, I like a small, independent restaurant; that always makes me feel better than supporting a corporate chain.

Any weekend getaways?
I think if you can get to Mexico for a couple of days, that’s as good as it gets. Even if it’s Mexico City, I’ve given up on trying to seek out fine dining and just like going where everything around you is delicious and pretty great. Here in Florida, I have some friends in St. Augustine with a bar called Boat Drinks; it’s just a fun town. It’s old, it feels like Florida — but not the Miami kind of Florida. There’s surprisingly good food there; it’s just a good hang, like Key West, without the fuss.

What was your last great vacation?
It was probably before I moved to Miami. I used to get to travel for work a bit and we went to Jamaica to see the Hampden distillery, and to Oaxaca. Not necessarily to see one distillery, but to just sorta bounce around. Another time we did a Moscow bar show and had events out in St. Petersburg, which was pretty insane.

What stores or services do you always recommend?
Sweat Records and Technique Records are always worth celebrating. We used to do a record night at Jaguar Sun when we were just getting started, and being able to go out to a couple record stores and find great things was a real treat.