$804.47 equals....

One Building Permit. Bah, why does everything have to cost SO much!??

But at least it's done and ready to go.

I will try to remember to get pictures when I am down dropping off the hand sink tomorrow. It is really coming right along... it is so strange to think all that chaos and dust and pipes and metal will be covered soon and look like a finished restaurant! Strange but wonderful!

This week was both interesting and and a relief all at once. I've had two people (friends/family) let me borrow the last of the money I will (hopefully) need to get the rest of the equipment. I had a fantastic article in the Martinez Record, where I think the author really captured my passion and enthusiasm (not easy to do!). And I had a fascinating trip into the City today to talk to the guy who had asked me to make him some sauces for his hot dog truck.

So Stein and I load up two coolers with the gallons and gallons of sauces and head into the city. We get there like a half hour early and hit this... like... a small grocery store but it said it also had Jaffa, Greek and something else (I can't remember) food for lunch. The food was KILLER. Cash only, I got this black hibiscus tea with spicy lamb meatball sandwich. Stiend got a loose meat sandwich. WOW they were SO SO good. Anyway then we headed across the street to this ramshackle old building which was the address the guy had given us.

There was a sign on the outside of the building for a Sushi restaurant and a large wooden door. The windows the sushi restaurant were covered with grime so you could not see inside and it had likely not been open for some time. There was an intercom button for a couple of businesses, but none of them had the guys name on them, so I called him and told him we were there.

He came down the two flights of stairs and we followed him up the stairs with the coolers. He was young and tall and slender, just rolled out of bead, shirtless in jeans with a very cute Irish brogue and some interesting piercings. We followed him to the top of the 3 story building, which was his apartment. It was all open with lovely views of the city, dirty like only men lived there with bits and pieces of furniture from various vintage Ikea eras.

He lit up a joint and asked us if we were interested (LOL! We said no thank you). Then we started talking about the products...

He wasn't a chef. He was like... this guy who I am pretty sure is an official grower or middle man for medical grade pot (I am NOT judging, just sayin') who decided to buy this hot dog truck because he wants to sell "the best sausages in San Francisco". So he buys his sausages from Costco and I think he tried to make his own fries, but he isn't sure what kind of oil he bought so they came out "weird".

He'd worked the truck the whole day their first day open and was pretty sure he wanted to ditch the fries. His apple sausages were too short for his buns so he wanted to know if I would bring him some chicken sausages. The gallons of sauces he bought were for the fries (that he is now not sure he wants to carry)... it was SO totally fascinating!

Like... I wonder... is this how a lot of people decide they are going to open a restaurant? He assured me that his process to get permits for the truck were more complicated than opening a restaurant. Stein and I were not sure what to say? When I think of the 20 years I've spent catering, the 3 years I spent in school, two years getting experience and past 6 months of working my ass off to start my tiny little deli... It just seems unfathomable that some guy who never worked in a restaurant a day in his life is like... I think I am going to go buy a hot dog truck and be the King of Sausage in San Francisco... which, BTW is a HARD core food crowd. I am not sure you can just waltz into the SF food scene with Costco Adell's Chicken Apple Sausages and figure on being the King of Sausage. In fact, I am fairly sure that assumption is pure folly.

We talked to him about how sausages are prepared for large scale eating in a commercial kitchen (we do thousands of them at Pebble Beach every year... you want king of sausage? Be the poor line cook who has to make sure every single Kohler Dog is perfectly browned before Kohler will serve them. Kohler is a sausage king), which was like a revelation to this poor guy. I mean, he will get up to speed quickly. I suggested he hire Galen to work with him at least a couple of times. Galen works at Top Dog in Oakland and knows how to sling some dogs.