Remodeling A Miracle
We Have Plans!
Most of our regulars know our story. How we purchased the assets of a failing meal assembly store in the summer of 2008 and of how we floundered as we failed to differentiate our products and services from the business that preceded us. In October of 2008 the revolution began, that being the biggest recession since the Great Depression. We just died. The cash ran out. Our attempts to start a bakery and patisserie floundered. In the spring of 2009 we realized we had failed and we ran out of things to sell in order to pay our bills and meet payroll. Our landlord worked with us, our employees sat on their paychecks, our customers did all they could to support us. And we decided to convert the business into a full-fledged restaurant. No easy task given that we were broke and the recession was in full bloom. But we had very little to lose.
So we went for it. Ikea, craigslist sellers, ebay and Goodwill accepted the money we could scrape together by selling our possessions. I built tables out of some old growth 9x12's I'd been storing for years. We cleaned out our cupboards for dinnerware. Customers gave us a set of silverware to replace the cheap crap we'd purchased from Cash and Carry. Janet went to work full time as our chef. Our "sauté line" was a 3-burner cast iron camp stove that we purchased on ebay for $38.50. Janet would start a meal on the stove and race out into the dining room to finish it in the oven we'd installed for the bakery. Several times a week we'd have to race over to Walgreens during dinner service to exchange an empty propane bottle for a full one. We consistently worked 80-hour weeks and sold great food way too cheap. It was pure craziness. And the customers kept on coming. Now, two years later, we are ready to start a legitimate restaurant.
The obvious changes will be in the dining room. There will be a greeting area that doubles as an expanded wine bar. The 16 feet of reach-in coolers will be removed. The flooring and lighting will be improved and the servers will have a legitimate place to organize their work. But the important changes will occur in the kitchen. We will build a real line with a sauté station, a griddle and a double oven. Janet will have the workplace she deserves and we will be able to meet the increased demand for her meals. Won't that be nice?
The plans are mostly complete and we hope to start construction the last week of August. We'll need to close down for two weeks but we figure most of you will be on vacation then anyway, or focused on establishing a rhythm to get the new school year started. So far we have put together almost everything we need but the cash, but that will work out too. The whole story is a miracle, and it's one that you have created with us.
Click here to see the new floor plan.