The Table: Looking Back

Hindsight: Whew!

Shortly after we threw in the towel on our attempt to open a second restaurant, The Table, one of our regulars came in and asked about it. Learning that we had walked away, he gave us an outline for a deal to take over a restaurant space in a premium location downtown with extremely (very extremely) attractive terms. It was certainly worth considering. Perhaps our angels had only pushed us out of the previous deal to make room for this opportunity? (Though it had been my conviction that our angels were simply trying to save us from ourselves.) But here was this offer. I him it felt like he was asking me to go to work on having another child before the episiotomy stitches had been removed. Maybe later.

Now having had time to consider, and absent much pursuit by party to the second party, I think my first conclusion was the right one. It was a tough hit financially, but it was the right call to just stay put. Let’s simply take better care of business at Bethany’s Table, bring our great ideas home, build a bar, expand the dining room, take a road trip – not necessarily in that order. So that’s what we’ve done.

It took a bit to find and pick up all The Table’s pieces but all was wrapped up cleanly and everybody taken care of. We then shrunk the yogurt shop space, built new toilet rooms and expanded the kitchen. We can expand the wine bar area up front when we figure out how to take out the office and restroom without closing. Soon we can move to expand into the rest of the space next door but that’s a big bite. Hoping to add the additional dining space makes partial expansion is complicated because we don’t want to complete work that will be wasted if/when we move on to the next phase. So we ponder... and it’s time for another road trip.