The good, the bad and the ugly...

It's been so busy I haven't had time to write!

so on the restaurant front... David asked me for the plans etc last week so he could submit for final final on the building permit. He got the plans and was kind of like... what a mess! So he spent a few hours redrawing some stuff and submitted on Friday and got the ok to get started any time! We have to get inspections and stuff along the way, but we are looking at 4-6 weeks to be in a kitchen. YAY!

The food booth for the Peddler's Fair... we totally lost money on the thing. I think we made like $400 bucks total and spent that on just food and containers and stuff, not to mention buying the canopy ($350.00), sign ($150) and renting the kitchen ($600.00). So that is the ugly part. I would have to say it was worth it in marketing however.

We had tons of people who work in the area come by and get food, ask us about the Cafe and one person (Janet, who I went to school with) got a bunch of stuff and took it back to Shell Oil (where she works) for people to try. Plus I got interviewed for TV (but I am not sure which TV station it will be played on? I suspect some kind of web thing). A bunch of people took our cards and catering brochures as well.

So while I wish we had made more money and it feels a little irresponsible to have spent the money considering we still have so many things we need to buy for the restaurant, but it wasn't a total loss. The biggest problems I saw with the food booth thing are:

Our food is too busy and fussy for the crowd. People don't know us enough to be willing to eat anything we make. A few people came into the booth saying, "I am starving!" and looked around and then left. I think there were too many choices, and none of them were very simple. People come to a street fair for Kettle Corn and Funnel Cakes... not charcuterie. I think if we cut our selection in half and lose all of the fancier stuff, we would build up a decent clientele

Two, People are not used to cold food at a Fair. I think they could GET used to it if we were around enough. But it is a novelty currently. People are used to terriyaki chicken on a stick and hot sausages. I think if we had one hot item, it would be really helpful. I think if we test out the Sunday farmer's market, we will bring sliced meats vacuum packaged which if we don't sell them we can just take them home, fewer sandwiches, one salad and one hot item (maybe something we grill once we get our cool new grill). If the restaurant doesn't open right away due to the ADA stuff we can use the kitchen to make hot food and serve it at the farmer's market. It just seems like the Martinez farmer's market is kind of quiet, especially compared to the Concord one.

So ultimately it might be a good marketing tool until we open the restaurant, but if I can't figure out a way to make money doing it, it is not worth it over the long term.

Last night I came home to my awesome friends having a fantastic party at my house. It was just what I needed to recharge my batteries. Now for next week, we have a final sausage viewing at T-rex, so Stein and I need to make sausages on Monday. Then we plan to do some pickling for the opening of the facility while the produce is so gorgeous at the farmer's market.

Whew!