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At the end of it we talked about her book, Taste Memories—”my only book,” she says, containing every recipe she treasures from her years in business (yes, including her unbelievably light Heavenly Hots pancakes). She published it herself, and she’s doing a brisk business at the only three places you can buy it—her restaurant, online, and at Women and Children First in Andersonville (where she’ll appear Friday night). Stop by Ina’s and she’ll sign it no matter where it came from; you are herewith offered a holiday gift suggestion. The interview is below.

Michael Gebert: So how’s closing? How was 33 years?

The process of winding down is really the process of gearing up to take care of these people. I don’t think I’ve ever worked this hard before. We are busy from opening to closing; we recommend reservations—without them there’s a long wait. I’ve never seen crowds like this. It’s quite wonderful, because every restaurateur should have the opportunity to go out debt neutral. I know some have closed leaving big bills behind. I know that restaurants have closed, employees show up to work and there’s just a sign on the door and they never get their last paycheck because they have no idea who the owner is.

In the old days it might go across two kitchens, when the economy was good and people worked two jobs. So you could have 25, 30 guys in a tanda. Now it’s usually very specific to a restaurant. And we’ve done four or five cycles since the recession has tapered down.

Part of it is because of how many restaurants are opening—I mean, everybody needs labor. Something like Mario Batali’s Eataly will suck up three, four, 500 people. Where is Boka [Restaurant Group] going to get the staff for a 500-seat steak house?

This is what we do, everything you have loved in here, the Heavenly Hots and the baked French toast and the frittata. And things from my bakery that I did for many years. So the stories are memoir, how did I get from Brooklyn to breakfast? How did I get here? I didn’t bake my first cake till I was 37 years old. The memoir stories are very sweet, some people need a hanky when they sit and read it, that’s OK with me.