Friday was probably the worst day of restaurant preparation I've had to deal with so far...

The building dept met myself, my contractor, my landlord and the engineer to discuss the retrofitting fo the building (surpise! All that "Grandfathered in" stuff... isn't). It will be a multi week process just to figure out what needs to be done, then the steel frames needed to brace the front are custom made in Santa Clara, and then shipped to the East Bay. We don't know how much work the side wall needs. If it is thick enough (in relation to the height of the wall) then it might not need a bunch of stuff. If it doesn't need a lot, we can get started on the inside of the kitchen, then at least be working on getting the kitchen permitted and start some prep while they are working on the front of the building. They also let it slip that they are tearing out the patio next week to repave the road... and not putting the patio back in. So I've just lost about 1/4 of my seating area. Also, most disturbingly, the guy who brokered my lease, is a city council member and likely knew they were tearing it out when we signed the lease... which is why he did not mention the unreinforced masonry issues, but he DID make me sign a waiver acknolweding that the patio did not belong to the landlords and could be taken out by the city at any time. He was SO adamant about it... I should have known. The sad part is, I think they were stalling on telling the landlords so they did not have to deal with Stan's mom. At any rate... I am feeling like the broker should have just been honest about what was going on; I certainly would not work with him in the future. So... not only is my restaurant indefinitely delayed... I won't have the patio seating I was planning on. But I suppose on the upside, I don't have to buy outside seating. And the landlord is paying for the fixes to the front and seems determined to get the stuff done quickly. And he's talking to his family about delaying when I have to start paying rent... but still... I am feeling pretty down about the whole thing.