David & Janet's Wild Ride
Constant Striving
There are so many stories to tell about our year of restaurateuring adventures. I want to tell them all and I hope I will get a chance to.
In October of 2014 we signed a lease to build a new restaurant just less than four miles from Bethany’s Table at Timberland Town Center where the new Market of Choice is located. Named “The Table,” it has about 120 indoor seats, a full bar and a premium group dining and private events space. There will be 60 outdoor seats with a covered fire table out front.
We have also signed a new lease at our current location, which will allow us to expand into a portion of the space next door, get the refrigeration out of the dining room, build a bar, new men’s and women’s multi-use restrooms and finish the upgrades to the kitchen. It’s our intention to build The Table and then close BT’s for the remodel. This will allow us to employ our tried and tested staff to ensure successful operation during startup. After 90 days or so we will split our staff and reopen BT.
How It Began
How Bethany’s Table began is a tale all its own. Now that we have finally brought the restaurant into compliance with local codes (we upgraded the kitchen in September) we can pop our heads out of the hole we’ve been hiding in and tell the full story.
In June of 2008, just before the recession began raging, we purchased the assets of a business that had been a meal assembly store. We intended to buy the assets of that failing business, turn it around and resell it. Our timing was less than perfect. That following spring we decided that with nothing to lose we should convert the meal business into a restaurant. There were a few challenges: we had little money, no cooking equipment, no furnishings, plates or silverware. Once we resolved these niggling details we cruised for a few years, growing at a steady clip.
Then we thought we might like to build a fire pit and a cover for the back patio so I went to the building department to inquire about the permitting requirements. Bad move. The jig was up. A few months later we received a “Code Enforcement Letter” from the building department. It seems that the meal assembly business had permitted as a “B1” occupancy and a restaurant our size must comply with the more stringent requirements of an “A2” occupancy. Plus, the kitchen lacked a hood (required even though we grilled on the back porch) and we needed a second restroom.
Immediately after receiving the County's letter Janet and I bolted to Europe for a few weeks. We used the spaciousness of that vacation in Northern Italy and Southern France to contemplate plans for our business future. It seemed like an appropriate topic at the time. (The previous year we had used the time to plan our personal future, and then came home and promptly got married.) We began our trip staying with family at their house in Monaco. One day I was watching Janet bob around on a floaty chair in a pool on a hillside overlooking the city. (It turns out Janet is a big fan of floaty chairs, something I didn’t know before we were married.) Through the iron rail at the edge of the patio was the Prince’s Palace. To the right of the Palace rooftop was the French Riviera, where a classic-ship regalia was underway. Janet looked up to get my attention, which I was lucky to catch as I had been studiously admiring her classic French sunbathing uniform. She stated simply and innocently, “You know, I could live here.” It seemed to occur for her as a surprise revelation, though she has dreamt of owning a restaurant in Provence. This is a dream I do not share as I am not nearly as much of a fan of French restaurateuring as I am of the countryside. That night we dined at a restaurant on the beach in Monaco. Twice my nephew left the table and twice came back soaking wet, despite having changed into dry clothes between departures. He was swimming in the Mediterranean between courses. I decided then and there that I could live there too. This, too, strangely caught me by surprise.
Getting Out of Dodge
We came home to a busy restaurant and I began the work on drawing up plans to bring the restaurant into compliance. I respected the fact that the folks at the County had a job to do and I will say that they treated us quite fairly. For years it had seemed liked the frozen yogurt shop next door “couldn’t last much longer.” But they kept hanging on. And we needed more space. I tried fruitlessly to negotiate a buyout. Finally I decided to draw up preliminary plans for an eventual expansion and design a new cooking line and hood in a configuration that would accommodate a larger restaurant. There remained the problem of adding a second restroom, which I hoped to ultimately avoid.
We closed out the year with a bang. After the conclusion of the holiday season, construction crews began erecting scaffolding shrouded in black plastic webbing around our building, which affected our business as well as our third-floor condo located immediately above the restaurant. As construction commenced our quality of life was seriously diminished. The construction day began Monday through Friday at 7 AM. Working 9-5 is for pussies. It seemed like every day began with somebody strolling around the walkway checking for loose nails and laying five hard whaps on our bedroom wall. My seasonal affective disorder came into full bloom and I knew that sooner or later I was bound to launch out onto the scaffolding and teach these punks a lesson about old man’s strength. With Janet’s blessing I left in late January to take a walkabout on my motorcycle to places warm and sunny. The decisions I made while lolling through the Southwest and Mexico gazing at the soft desert horizon changed our lives. It was time to make a change.
Next: Commitment – That Which Makes All Things Possible