Gluttony: My Second Favorite Vice

A day of rest...

2012-02-04T16:27:00.000-08:00

Today is Saturday. I met up with Stein and his lovely bride at the Restaurant Depot for some weekend shopping for the cafe, then we hit Aunt Mary's in Oakland for a noonish breakfast. It is odd... everything was really good, but not really to my personal taste. The portions were really big! Above is a Eggs Benidicto, which was a corn based cake with an egg, (really good) mole, guacamole and pico di gallo.

It feels strange to have down time... a guilty pleasure. I should be working! I spent some time designing the labels for selling sliced salumi in the cold display. We have so many customers ask for salumi by the pound so we got some nice vacuum seal bags and new labels and we are going to roll out some sliced salmi for sale next week. I also trolled the Internet and picked up some aluminum individual sized pie pans for future pot pies and quiches.

It's been a strange few weeks. My long term (6+ years) relationship ended (amicably). The foodies continue to embrace the restaurant more than we could have possibly imagined and Stein and I slip into an ever more regular and comfortable routine. It feels strange to be single. I've dropped a bit of weight and it is nice to feel sexy, in control of my life and thriving in my vocation. I feel like the next year is going to bring about changes that I cannot begin to fathom as I sit here in a sunny corner of my house. I feel excited and energized about the future.

Money is still a constant issue, but it feels like there could be some progress and things are getting better and better.

Foodie Fridays are developing as we'd hoped with our regulars coming in for extended lunch time schmoozing. It is my favorite day of the week!

Tomorrow I will go to the restaurant in the morning to prep for next weeks specials and fill a catering order. I will probably head over there around 8am. We got a delivery of organic beets that were too small for chips last week so we pickled the golden ones and will serve them next week with duck confit, arugula and some soft goats milk feta. The other special will be apple bourbon sausages with beet greens (we chopped them off the organic beets) and I am not sure what starch we will serve with that? I am hoping to done prepping by noon to get the catering stuff delivered and get home in time for the super bowl and to prep the food for the Culinary Symposium here at the house.

Very Cool!

2012-02-04T08:25:00.001-08:00

http://www.martinezgazette.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=8434:old-world-italian-meets-modern-delicacies&catid=39:opinion&Itemid=57

Amazing week at work...

2012-01-28T15:34:00.000-08:00

This week was an amazing food week for us. We made porchetta (pork belly stuffed with rosemary and garlic, braised in red wine) and Kabocha squah polenta. I felt like we managed our food product really well (the pork bellies had been in cure for Residual Sugar just in case they needed a second round of potted pig) and we are getting the produce thing under control.

We were approachd by Catalan family farms (organic, Merced) for produce delivery to the restaurant. I ordered a case of romaine (Which we run out of ALL the time), onions, celery, beets and I think red onions. The produce was gorgeous! But the caseo of romaine was HUGE, like 4 times what we would use in a week. The beets were too small for making chips, but they were some of the most gorgeous beets I've ever seen. So we par boiled them and put the golden beets in the Italian pickle brine. Weare going to serve it next week with the duck confit we just made and some kind of decadent locally made soft goats cheese. I hope people will go for the beets; they are so beautiful and delicious. I am not sure what we are going to do with the red beets? Borscht?

I think our customers are starting to trust us to make good food but I am not sure they are going to for Borscht! LOL

I am in love with my restaurant. I am in love with Martinez.

Foodie Friday has really started to catch on. We get a late crowd that is mostly dine-in and likes to linger and talk. I get to chat up everyone and even my shyer sous chef gets out and mingles with people. This week my "Boyfriend" (foodie extroinaire) came in on Friday as well and really enjoyed the Pumpkin Beer Brat soup and the special. There was a group of three in the restaurant that (all three) ordered the Charcuterie plate (which is very unusual). I figured they must have read about us in the paper and came specifically for the meats, but it turned out they just happenstanced in and like charcuterie and were pleasantly surprised that we made our own on site. They sent me an awesome video via email this morning of a friend making Slovak sausage (what we would think of as Keilbasa).

I love the rythm of the town. The jurors come and go. We have a new crop in this week. Two older gentlemen have adopted the restauant as their lunch time hang out and they are both really into food. I love to hear themmaking happy noises when they have lunch! One of our original court house regulars, Ginger, came by with her best friend for Foodie Friday. I was so excited to see her I jumped out and gave her a big hug! Her friend thought this very impressive; Ginger was THE Man for being so in with the chef. They had a great time with their carafe of wine in the sunny corner round.

We have hit our break even point more weeks than we've not in the past 6 weeks, which is pretty spectacular. I've been told this is highly unusual for a new restaurant and I am just so proud of Stein and I and so exited for the future. I am at the point where I can sit down and get started setting up repayment of the pesonal loans from friends who have helped me get started. Nothing would make me happier than to pay off my debt this year and actually start taking home a paycheck!

I love my early mornings in Martinez. I am up before light and the little bayside town is usualy glistening with morning wet when I roll up. Mornings are our quiet time and there is something about a hot cup of really good coffee and sun streaming in and a quiet anonymous space to think unfettered. We get the translators in the morning, happily chattering away in Spanish. They love the morning buns and french press coffee.

Every Fridy my first patrons of the day are Jeff and his dad. They get beignet and french press coffee and I chatter away to them both, sometimes grabbing my mocha and sitting down. Stein usually comes in right around this time and we pre-shift what needs to still be done to get ready for lunch. Our food is very labor intensive and there is little down time and much coordination needed to get everything done.

Watching Food of Medieval England on the Cooking Channel

2012-01-14T20:23:00.000-08:00

Which is hysterical. DEAR SWEET BABY JESUS it is good to have some down time. I am just vegging out, I spilled some red wine on my shirt, I made boxed pumpkin pie (which is on sale at my local Safeway), tried to coerce my friend Debbie in to coming over for football (Niners ROCKED it tonight)... and we put the brisket in brine oday so I don't need to go in tomorrow (other than to hit he famer's market).

I also cooked down he rabbit legs in port wine and mire poix and got that stored for Monday's ragu, plus made the layered polenta and goat's cheese. Now we just need a soup for Monday and we will be set. I have been wanting to do a pumpkin beer and bawurst soup. I saved some bratwurst from our special from two weeks ago and I will see what kind of pumpkin beer is at the store... only people in Martinez really seem to want vegetarian soups... but I like beer and brats... and pumpkin.

I am madly in love wth Martinez. I have been so embraced by the local foodies... so much more than I could have ever hoped for or imagined. It is flattering and wonderful, but I am also worried about meeting expectations. When people have so much faith in you, there is long way to fall. I just hope I can deserve all the kudos. I really really want to be that good.

Sleeping in til 7:00 am is so totally going to rock! Snuggling with the kids will be sublime! What will I do with day (almost) off!?

What I didn't do... case the Sec and Tusca for Savour. I feel especially bad about it since I am drinking the left over awesome wine they gave me for the salumi! I realized whenI went to case it that I had not added te fat. I broke the blade for my buffalo chopper and won't b able to replace it until Monday. But I alreaady bound the meat! Argh... at least it's salted so it is preserved properly.

(ohhhh the Medival Feast part of the show)

I love my vocation

2012-01-13T22:35:00.000-08:00

Today was La Patrona carving a lot of chaos into something less chaotic and some truly beautiful moments. My absolutely indispensable sous chef had the flu. He's been sick for a while but he finally was too sick to come in. Brion saved me and the week was one of our slowest ever, so I made it thru and put out our weekly special and our Friday meatball slider special without losing my mind.

It was a week of magic. I am still tired but I feel clearer. I feel like I am embracing my reality. It seems too good to be true; this beautiful little bay side town with so many passionate food people. I feel embraced; like I am home.

This morning two of my favorite regulars (Lita and her husband) came in for Beignet and a charc plate and I got to putter around and talk salumi. The day was sunny and bright and I hustled to get the stuff done that Stein would normally do, fry off some chips, slice the smoked duc for the special... plus my own prep; the pasta, the charc plates, the Muffuleta sandwiches for Savour's Groupon special.

Dejan From Savour came by to grab the sandwiches and Bri and I chatted briefly with him. It was a busy and happy day. Hirsch and Aldith came in for lunch. So did the beautiful and fabulous Alicia Stein. The woman who had the horrific ccustomer service experience last Thursday came back in (YAY!) and I got to 1. grovel for forgiveness (much to her amusement) and 2. Buy her a salad. I think we both had a good laugh about my abject miserableness over her prior experience. And I think she was charmed by my honest desire to make it right, and that I had been waiting for her to come back for that purpose.

Then at the end of the day a group of seven come in, three women, three men, and a beautiful tiny baby girl all wrapped up in a cloth around momma's body. There was something special about the group... a euphoria... like people who had just seen the face of God smiling directly at them. The mom and dad of the baby were starving; they had not eaten all day but he had a tiny scrap of paper in his lapel with his list of food allergies... dairy... eggs... nuts... I sold them some of our beef and potato soup in duck broth, two teas and a latte. They all sat in the middle of the restaurant with grins on their faces... This BTW is pretty unusual for people who were clearly in town to deal with stuff at the court house.

We got to chatting, while baby girl flirted with me (giant blue eyes, big dimples) over the top of the snuggi she was firmly wrapped in. Today her adoption was final. Momma and Dad were there with her aunts and uncles and they had just left the courthouse with the papers that made it official that they all would belong to each other forever. And the whole family was glowing with joy, relief... joy.

Life can be so unbelievably beautiful.

The nagging anxiety...

2011-12-25T19:20:00.001-08:00

We got another awesome 5 star Yelp review. Why is it that no matter how positively people respond to the food, I always feel like I need to try harder?

I am really unhappy with how the holiday meals have been going out this year. Fridays are busy and it is hard to get them as prepared as I would like (everything labeled etc). Last Friday I forgot to put the salad dressing in and the customer had to come back for it. We were almost closed and drinking wine and I feel like I wasn't very professional when he came in.

It is terrible to want to be great, but (due to exhaustion) only have energy to be really good.

Also I am running out of staple items like corned beef, and They take 6-9 days to replace. Stein would like to see us run a limited menu next week to avoid disappointed customers, but I suspect if they come in for our house specials and we are out, they will be just as unhappy. It is not a good spot to be in.

I just need to think of something awesome I can make in a day that will blow people away. Like house made bratwurst with spetzle and bacon and wine braised red cabbage.

We won't have a quick fire vegetarian dish other than soup next week unless I make some quiches.

I just need to carefully organize my time tomorrow so I use it all to good advantage. Shop for product early, have a tight to-do list and delegate as much as I can to Brion.

Christmas Day

2011-12-25T08:47:00.000-08:00

Kids have gone off to dads after the morning carnage and Brion is back in bed. I will head in to the shop today to get more briskets in brine for pastrami and corned beef. We will most certainly run out next week, at least of corned beef if not both. We were so busy we blew through the product we had and didn't have time to make more.

I am very nervous about next week. Stein will be in Southern California with his family (a vacation he more than deserves) and while it should be very quiet (most of the local businesses close between Xmas and New Years), it should have been very quiet last week and it wasn't. I am going to just take each day as it comes and if we run out of stuff, I will do the best I can with what we have. Brion will be helping me most of the week, but will have to work on Thursday, so my daughter will come in and be counter help. It will mean we are doing a very pared down menu, one daily soup and no complicated specials.

I also need to proces one pig head for testa and get some duck breast into cure for a client. I really want to make some bratwurst for next week, or some Andoullie for the special. It has been far too long since I've made sausages and I am mssing it. Plus it would be a pretty simple special I could put in the steam table up front... like brats, spetzle and bacon and wine cooked cabbage (or something along those lines) or Andouille with dirty rice and colard greens.

I also got a giant pork loin to put into cure for some ham and some lonza. If I can work on meat stuff today, I can probably just come in and work on soups and specials tomorrow and get a little ahead that way. It will be strange to be in the back of the house next week. I really like seeing my regulars and chatting. I know Brion will do a great job though. I am still not sure what I want to do for soups.. I think a white bean and bacon soup plus maybe.... I am not sure. Maybe leek and potato? Fennel orange beet? With cream and bacon?

I am looking forward to things being more in a groove so I don't feel so fuzzy and unfocused. I know that time is coming, I just need to keep moving things into a more settled pattern.

What a Rush!

2011-12-24T17:59:00.000-08:00

I felt like a rock star last week! I had multiple foodie groupies come in and hang out, which was AWESOME. We were packed all week long, the holiday Charc platters sold like hot cakes and even though it should have been super quiet because he county was all but shut down for the week, we had a bunch of local traffic. And best of all, the majority of new customers were there due to word of mouth!

It felt so good to feel (even if it was a beautiful mirage!) like we'd ben discovered a bit and I am loving being in the slip-time-differential of people appreciating our food and being really excited and into it, and also being so new and passionate to what we are doing... every day is an amazing new discovery and wild ride.

Friday I had an uberfoodie come in with some wild duck he'd caught; we hung out, drank multiple bottles of wine, sampled a ton of Charc and just kind of... geeked out about food and generally had a ball! It was everything I imagined being a chef and owning my own restaurant woudl be like (at least the cool fun parts).

I am on this amazing high and things are so much better in so many ways than I could have possibly dreamed. Working with Stein is magical. I while am sure he wants to kill me every once in a while we have a great time and his strengths compliment mine. I always think with my Schwein-Stein by my side, I can conquer all of the goals and hopes and aspirations swirling in my brain.

I am madly in love with our customers; food savvy and they DIG the food. Northern California has such an educated food geek culture and they seek out the chefs doing the things that interest them. It is such an intense and amazing sub culture and I am so thrilled to be a part of it.

So Happy Holidays to everyone and I hope you all reach for your dreams no matter how scary and hard they may seem.

The State of Me

2011-12-19T20:12:00.001-08:00

POOPED! I need to clone myself. This past weekend I tried to go shopping for the shop. It was epic fail AND I had another negative experience with my landlord. I think he is pouting, but he is always so grim, it is hard to tell. At least the tile work is getting done on the store facade. I tried to go shopping for the shop again today and STILL failure. I am not sure why retailers who cater to Businesses close at 5:00 pm during the week (and close on Sundays!? WTF?!)? It is a bunch of crap... CRAP I say!

It was gorgeous today. Sun shining. Albeit, I had my first customer complaint. She was totally justified in complaining (I am not sure if this makes it better or worse? Probably better, I would rather be chewed out for something I deserve)! We were expecting a quiet day and when we got hit with a lunch time rush, we were unprepared, still working on other projects and had loose ends all over the place. Monday is our largest prep day for the week and it is also often our slowest day as well, money-wise. So in the fluster I mixed her order up with someone else's and she walked all the way back to her office with this tiny portion of soup (she was given a "side order" of soup instead of a meal portion) that she paid full price for and then didn't have time to walk back to fix it. If she comes back in I will comp her something, but she probably won't and I feel terrible that she probably was starving all day because of my mistake.

AAAHHHH! My gorgeous cat, Geoffrey, caught a mouse like three days ago and he keeps trying to do the manly thing and take care of his family by gifting us with a "tasty kitty treat". AHHHHH!

Anyway, and I am losing weight rapidly. I find it mostly annoying that my pants and underwear are falling down while I am trying to work. I feel like I am going to have to start flashing gang-sign with my pants at half-mast all the time. I don't really prescribe to the "thinner is better" mantra, and I LIKE my clothes, but there is not much hope of stemming the tide while I am working so hard... so tight-jeans Fridays have now turned into baggy jeans Fridays... it's really not the same quite frankly. At this rate, it will be jeans around my ankles Fridays, which just might get the authorities called.

Today Kevin (my favorite customer) got me a pound of this locally roasted coffee he likes! I can't wait to try it. MMmmmmm... Xmas morning, freshly made cinnamon rolls and good coffee.... mmmm. It was a fun day outside of my pants trying to escape from my body. I had a meat-savvy customer come in and grab a Reuben and I think soup? He said he'd tried Boccalone's Nduja and wasn't impressed. I haven't had Boccalone's, but the stuff at Perbacco is KILLER, really really good (Mine is more mild and less smokey, and I ferment mine longer, I also use Sichuan peppercorn in mine which gives it a back of the throat heat that burns low and slow). Anyway, so I grabbed him a sample of my Nduja and also some of the new Pork Rilette we are making for Residual Sugar in Walnut Creek. He really seemed to like it and we joked around about how I was planning to get a tattoo of a Celtic pig (boar) on my arm. Before he tried the Nduja, he was like... "Guys are NOT going to be too interested in a chick with a pig tattoo" but then AFTER he tried the Nduja he said, "Oh yeah, I totally get the tattoo now." It was awesome.

I am starting to be more relaxed about the amount of business we are doing. I know it is probably normal when you first open a restaurant but I have been getting up Monday morning and thinking... "What if no one comes? What if I open the doors and it's crickets all day!?" But we have a solid core of regulars which is growing every day and even our slow days we get extra sales in charcuterie platters and holiday to-go dinners that all seems to add up. I am hopeful I will be able to pay myself starting next month and start paying off the friends and family who helped me get started.

Next week should be the slowest of the year, almost everyone has the week between Xmas and New Year's off. Most of the court people come back on Jan 4th. But Stein will be visiting his in-laws with his wife and son and my Brion will be helping me at the shop for his week off so I will be saving some money there and I think January will be a better gauge of what kind of business I can expect going forward. It is good to feel like I am starting to get a clearer picture of what I can expect going forward.

I am madly in love with my customers and Martinez. I am not sure what I expected? Maybe more grouchy people or something, but really everyone is pretty lovely and I am really enjoying getting to know people.

A day in the life...

2011-12-13T20:35:00.000-08:00

I can't believe it's been 5 weeks since we've been open!

It's been the most amazing experience... Money is still terrifying, but we are working towards getting that under control and everything else has been totally awesome!

So a day in my life as a small business owner/restauranteur. I get up really early now, around 4:30 am, so I can get in and start the pastries and get started setting up. I roll into Martinez when it is still dark and the streets are barren of people. I turn on the lights and put away the batch report for the credit card machine. Then I turn on the oven and the fryer, plus the hood fan and hood lights.

While the oven is heating up I put out the floor mats and sanitation buckets, take down the chairs, check the cold display and mise en place (which is chef speak for pull down all of the stuff I need to start my first dish of the day)

This is the mise en place for our almond croissants. I assemble the sweet and savory pastries and put them in the oven. Then I grind coffee for the morning and bring the milk, whipped cream and spoons and cups for the coffee set up. I put the pastrami and corned beef in the sous vide so they are hot and yummy for lunch service.

This is the line all set up for the day. I make myself a mocha, which I am totally addicted to! We use Weaver's espresso roast and Ghirardhelli chocolate...

I set up aprep station in the ront of the restaurant so I can prep and still help people as the come in. Stein usually gets in around 8:00 am (xcept Monday, when he comes in earlier for our big early week prep).

When Stein comes in he sets up the back lunch line and we get started prepping the daily specials. This tends to be very collaborative and a lot of fun. The town seems to snap up seasonal soups and anything vegetarian. I cannot wait for summer when we have the full California produce pallet to play with!

We try to get lunch pretty much set by 10:30. There is a small lull time where I can return phone calls or walk over to the printers to get copies of the menu, or flyers for the specials. I also make sure the dry erase boards have the right prices and specials listed.

This is my walk back from PDQ Printers. Downtown Martinez is gorgeous and magical. Brick walkways, old street lamps, turn of the century buildings, the smell of the Bay nearby and almost all of the businesses are small owner/operator and really really cool. It is a labyrinth of small strange and wonderful shops... The yarn shop that is never open, the impossibly high ceilings in Pandora's Box hung with colorful middle eastern chandeliers and walls lined with jewelry and hookas, the pot bellied stove shop, the Ultimate Fighting Club, the people walking by with cross bows on their way to the Bow Rack, the many bail bonds shops and law offices... sign shops, the optometrist, the florist(s).

I just love it. I feel like such a grown up with my own little shop on Main Street, USA (literally!)

Our "lunch rush" tends to be all over the map, often in waves starting around 11:30. We do a lot of take-out business, with many folks picking up a quick lunch to take back to the office. Our space is very tiny and cramped, so this is a good thing! We are talking about ways to open the space up a bit, possibly taking out one of the smaller tables...but frequently the tables are all in use, so there really isn't a great solution to the space problem...

Our best seller, bar none, is the pastrami sandwich. There is something about a fragrant steaming hot pastrami sandwich on a bitterly cold day that seems to appeal to a wide audience. It is a lot of fun to see how people make it their own, what they add or take away, how they react etc.

Here is Stein during the lunch rush, pulling Charcuterie out of the meat cooler for a Plouhman's Lunch. You can see how tiny our kitchen is (but not as small as Genisis' kitchen over at Residual Sugar!)

Around 2:00 it usually slows down enough so I can spend time with customers who have questions about the salumi, or Stein and I can start shutting stuff down and cleaning up for closing. Last Friday we had a rock band come in around 3:00 called White Wives. They were really cool! Below are two of the band members

Then I close the register while Stein closes down the back line and we get things tied up so we can go. The last thing we do before leaving is mop the floors and I head to the bank to make the deposit (and get change if we need it, we often do!). It is hard work but I really do love it.

Life and all it's nuances...

2011-12-05T20:35:00.001-08:00

Wow, having a restaurant is expensive. You don' think about it as much when you are trying to pull it all together because you aren't making money yet so of COURSE you are hemorrhaging money. But you just keep thinking once you are open for business it will all come together and the dough will start rolling in. And then the two weeks before you open and you turn on the phone, water and everything (each needing a $300 to $1200 deposit because you are a new business without established credit) you realize that you are kind if screwed.

Most people plan to barely break even the first year they are open and many businesses don't survive the first year. I kept my overhead purposefully low to try to counter this a bit. I think I figured I would open, and then miraculously have all the money I needed to start paying off creditors and buy upgraded equipment. I am not sad or pouting, I am only being honest because this blog is meant to be a road map for others who want to open their own restaurants and if I pretended everything was perfect all the time, that would not be a very accurate map.

Money is a constant stressor. I keep thinking back to every chef I ever had who owned his own restaurant... they are notoriously miserly, failing to pay on time, tyring to get free work out of employees (like they should be as invested as you are in the success of the business) and then I realize... I am THAT guy now!

I love my job... but the pay sucks. My ex husband (who is a close friend) sent me a spread sheet today showing me what he thought was my break even point... I think I am doing half that a day... and that is with rave reviews, rabid and loyal fans, a prime location and so many other advantages.

I really really love my job tho. I am madly in love with downtown Martinez. Our clients are savvy, quirky, food sophisticates and (I know this is going to sound like a strange qualifier) really snappy dressers. I've never seen so many nice suits in my life! And I've worked in the Financial District in San Francisco! I am crazy about my regulars. I am extremely proud of the food we are putting out. And the Downtown is beautiful. I think I am going to try and do a "Day in the Life" blog soon, with pictures so you guys can see what I see.

If I can just make it thru the next year...

The Dichotomy

2011-12-01T20:51:00.001-08:00

God how I love my job. And whoa-boy how the pay sucks.

The Good: Amazing customers and LOVING Martinez. People are food savvy and enthusiastic. We have steady business and even though it is the slowest time of the year we are getting decent traffic and new converts every day.

The Bad: We opened mid month in the slowest time of the year. The courts are all but closed for the holidays, and many of the buinesses close down for holidays as well. While our reviews are great, our regulars hard-core and awesome Downtn Martinez is a bit of a ghost town this time of year... even despite the really pretty amazing efforts of the local management groups (like Main Street Martinez and the Chamber of Commerce).

The Ugly: We are just not making enough money to support our current staff and menu. We've been back burnering catering and wholesale business to get the resaurant going and so those avenues of revenue are lower then they've been... well ever. So we are reducing our dishwasher hours and taking a hard look at the menu. We have a staple item that isn't selling that is also super labor intensive to make (the meatballs. Not only are the meatballs labor intensive, we are making the slider buns by hand because we could not find buns in the right size) and another static menu item that I love and does have a hard core fan base, but it is not a GREAT seller and all of the products ued to make it are exclusive to that sandwich; they are not used in anything else. We are also going to be developing our specials toward a higher price point and passing take out menus to all the local businesses and law offices...

But reducing Galens hours feels really shitty. I know they say personel issues are the hardest to deal with, and theyre right. I had a friend come work for me and he quit his job (a really shitty job, but a steady one none the less... and in this economy, better than nothing) to do it. Now, I had to make a choice to keep hemoraging money and beggging/borrowing to make ends meet in the hopes (rapidly dwindling) things will get better in the face of all signs pointing to the contrary... or try to manipulate my overhead to something more within my means.

It is really hard not to second guess my choices... everyone said, "Why Martinez?" Oddly especially people who live in Martinez. It's is kind of a sleepy little town. I feel like I am getting the best possible response; people seem to love the food and the place. There just isn't a reason to be down there if you don't have to go to court for some reason.

Weekend Fun

2011-11-27T18:08:00.001-08:00

Thankgiving was a nice respite from the work week. I made a 24 pound turkey and somehow we have no leftovers? I feel like I was very scattered all week and didn't do things as well as I would have liked. I relaxed on Friday all day and then Saturday went to a friends wedding. It was a spectacular wedding; the bride was in a vintage satin gown looking very Marilyn Monroe and the groom was very dapper. It was a Greek orthodox wedding with the reception site about a half hour away on a foggy windy river road in a hauntingly beautiful mansion with big fireplaces, cozy nooks, tapestries and lacy filigree chairs.
Today I wen in nd smoked more pastrami, processed out the corned beef, put together a few vegetarian options, made more romesco, roasted off chicken for the chicken salad sandwiches and various other odds and ends. I did not get to the remulade, or make the muffin batter that I wanted to make. I need to clone me...

Now I am hanging out with Mary (sous chef, Peasant and the Pear), Galen and Brion watching Lord of the Rings. I am still hung over from way too much fun a the wedding and I am really sore from dancing all night.

I am sure a good nights sleep will have me clearer in the morning

Amazing first two weeks...

2011-11-25T17:46:00.001-08:00

It seems strange that today is only the 25th... the soft opening was the 7th thru the 15th and we've been officially open since then. It's been different than what I expected, so much better in some ways and yet scary in some ways as well.

The thing that is the most scary... we are pretty steadily busy, but we are not hitting our break even point regulrly. The thing that makes this so scary is... how much busier do we need to be? Can we really take a whole lot busier?

My mood is tangled up in the weather today...

2011-11-19T15:54:00.001-08:00

A quiet day today with overcast skies. I can't seem to get warm (despite my very fluffy wool socks and layers of clothing). I went to Costco this morning to pick up a few odds and ends for the cafe. I hate spending money right now, but it can't be helped. The next few months will be very precarious as it is generally the slower time in the downtown and I opened at an awkward time of the year (for making money anyway).

But... I can't help but be hopeful. Friday was slammin' and so many of our preconceived notions have been way off (in a good way). Like for example, we thought the Ploughman's Lunch would be pure vanity on our part... a plate of house cured meats and cheese and stuff; who was going to buy that other than the hard core foodies??? We figured we would sell 5 or 6 a week... we are selling more than that per day! And the crazy awesome interest in the cured products is... the most pleasant surprise yet. I knew charcuterie was vaguely trendy right now, but I had no idea just how savvy the general public (at least my general public) is about what I do. I am not sure who is more surprised/excited, me or my customers, that we've found each other.

I had a group come in yesterday early in the day (11ish). They'd been on their way to Starbucks, but the weather kind of sucked so they popped into my place (which was closer). They were like explorers who'd found an alien planet, examining everything... the walls, the bathroom, the menus. They asked a million questions and then we started talking about our wines. I gave a little taste of the Valdiguie to one of them and they ordered wine as well. One of them popped by today to grab some pancetta to bard their turkey.

My favorite customer is still my first; Mr. Hot Chocolate, Esq. I suspect he's made it his mission to help me succeed... It's been restorative to have my own passionate cheering section. The courts are closed thru Nov 29th and I am really going to miss him! But it should be a good experiment to see what business is like without the surge of jurors that are affiliated with the courthouse. We were calling Friday "Foodie Friday" because the surge of foodies in the shop on Friday was totally fantastic.

We are still not hitting our break even point on a regular basis. I based my business plan on only two of us working in the shop and having the third person has been throwing the numbers askew. I think if we can just get thru the next couple of months, we will be ok... but I have to find a way to raise revenue. I have some ideas, but I am so tired, it is hard to focus on much in my down time. I know that will change, hopefully soon. There is only so much Bejeweled Blitz a small business owner should be playing on her day off. What happened to my once thriving social life? Konstantina's Bachelorette party is tonight and I am probably going to be snoring on the couch by 8:00 pm.

But I suspect it is normal for where I am in the process.

Things I did not expect:

To still be having money struggles
So many awesome foodies!
How beautiful the space is

So some good things and some bad... but my feelings of gratitude for the good things have been growing exponentially every day. I am so lucky! Lucky to have a Stein and a Galen, lucky to be doing what I love, lucky to have made it this far.

The GRAND Opening!

2011-11-17T18:27:00.001-08:00

Was totally amazing and awesome! Here is the press and the picture of the shop during the grand opening:

http://www.martinezgazette.com/news/story/i3485/2011/11/17/compass-star-opens-doors

I am SO tired, but things are picking up every day. I've heard business drops off after December 15th, so I am a little nervous about that.

Soooo... the Grand Opening... I got into the shop at like 5:00 am and started prepping everything. We are all so tired, it has been harder for me to focus lately. But we still got everything prepped and the line semi set up. My Brion helped pour the wines and Stein did as much as he could before going to get his son for Boy Scouts. People started milling and hanging out around 3:00, the Chamber folks and the Mayor showed up around 4ish and the ceremony was really cute. They have a bunch of chamber members and local business people come introduce themselves and hang out for the ribbon cutting. I had a ton of friends and family roll in. OH and my friends from An Tir sent me flowers, along with Lucrezia, Eric and Jess (they look WONDERFUL in the shop!).

We served a sweet potato gnocchi with a bresaola and arugula salad, plus porchetta, plus a glass of wine for $15.00. It was a mad crush right at 4:00 and we were plating up as quickly as we could. I didn't think so many people would want sandwiches, but a lot of people did and now we are like OUT of pastrami for the week. I have some in cure now and I will smoke it up on Sunday for Monday service, but the pastrami sales have taken on a life of their own. We stopped putting it on the "Magical Board" (anything we put on our outside dry erase board sells like crazy) because friends are telling friends to go try the pastrami and now it is our most requested sandwich. I ordered two brisket from Del Monte today, but they are both kind of small, so I suspect I will need to go load up on brisket at some point this week to put into brine. If I get them in today I can hot smoke them next Wed The problem is we are using the lean end for pastrami and the fatty end for corned beef and we just don't need that much corned beef... we might have to put "Reuben" on the Magical Board...

So many strange details... most of our customers are in suits and skirts with jackets, it is a strange thing in California where people tend towards casual dress. My favorite patron ordered lunch for his team today and then stopped back with his partner (law firm) to tell us how good it was... this kind of positive input is really the fuel I am currently running on about now (Bri is bringing home a pizza, I plan to have a beer with mine and go pass out!). We have more and more former East Coasters coming and wanting a "Pastrami on marble rye with just a schmear" (of mustard, of course). I am beyond grateful that we are finding our target audience. I am not sure how, but every day more and more people are coming in for charcuterie.

Of course, I am nearly out of marbled rye too... I am going to have to go forage for things this weekend. Have I mentioned how tired I am? I wanted to write something super profound and awesome... and I think I've dozed off twice and woken up to either my own snores or drooling. I think the thing I am the most excited about has been the people. I really love Martinez, it is a town that is very comfortable in it's own skin.

Next week will be all about prepping the Thanksgiving to-go dinners, plus my own fabulous dinner at home with a bunch of my friends coming in for dinner. I will get the Turkeys in on Friday to make sure they are totally thawed and get them into brine. I will smoke them next Tuesday and people will be in to pick them up on Wed. Ok, I promise to post something more in depth and coherent this weekend!

The week lies ahead of me like glistening pearl in the sun...

2011-11-13T20:42:00.001-08:00

I lounged around on Saturday and today I kind of wished I hadn't. I am gearing up for the week ahead, servicing our existing patrons in addition to preparing for the grand opening. Last week we had a limited menu, no espresso drinks, no soups or specials, no muffins and no cured fish and bagel breakfast. Our espresso maker magically starting working over the weekend and I cured the fish last week and smoked them today. I am still not sure what kind of bagels I am going to end up serving. I can make a decent bagel, but our menu is already so labor intensive I am not eager to add anything else to our morning to-do list. I also mixed up a batch of pumpkin muffins with a crumb and pumpkin seed topping.

When we got in today the Sandwich prep station was hot instead of cold, so we had to toss all of the sauces we'd left in there over the weekend. I need to remember to make more mayo tomorrow morning. Our ice machine still isn't working. I turned it on today and it promptly overflowed the floor sink into which it drains. I contacted the project manager for the construction to see if they can fix the floor sink soon. Stan has still not started on the tile work for the front. He said he would do it before the Grand Opening, so hopefully he will still have time to get it done.

I smoked all of the pastrami we had in brine today, plus packaged all of the corned beef into the sous vide bags. I smoked the salmon and dover sole as well and did the refrigerator pickles (cucumber, and red onion). We are really low on the fig mostarda and I as hoping to grab more figs at the farmer's market today, but didn't see any at all. I need to see what kind of organic fruit I can find tomorrow morning at the store. I also need to get milk (all of ours was out in the inappropriately hot sandwich prep station) so we can make some mochas and latte's tomorrow :)

I puttered around at the Farmer's market this morning as well and picked up more cheese for the ploughman's lunch. I totally over cooked the sweet potatoes for the gnocchi today so I will have to buy more sweet potatoes tomorrow too.

It was another really fun day with the locals. People walk by my place on the way to the farmer's market. This morning the sun was shining when a tall blond man walked by with his 8ish year old daughter in a brightly colored sweater dress, toting her rolling cart for future farmer's market treasures. They stopped and read the menu we've posted then peered in the window and spotted me. I walked out to greet them and the father admitted his daughter's favorite was pastrami. I asked if she wanted a nibble of my pastrami and her freckles danced a smiling yes. They were delighted when I slipped them a piece of parchment paper with the pastrami and said they would come back soon for a sandwich.

I also received an email Saturday from a lady letting me know she had to work during our opening hours and was wondering if she could get some of our Nduja shipped to her house. I said I would be in the shop prepping today and asked if she would like to come by and try it? So she stopped by with a friend and I made them a small plate of mortadella, Nduja, Lardo, capicolla and finocciona and did a sampling of our red wines. It was a lovely sun filled chat with fellow foodies; the kind of one on one sharing of food passions that a chef rarely has time during opening hours to have with clients. And I made two new friends! Plus my Nduja will be traveling to Colorado for Thanksgiving!

So many good things in the midst of all the craziness of being a restaurant owner. I am really looking forward to the week ahead! We are building good buzz and I am loving the people. It might seem a little silly but I am really excited to have the espresso maker working... it is really starting to FEEL like a Cal-Euro cafe, with local high quality hand made products, a gorgeous bayside old downtown and a community of engaged, food savvy locals. I am bracing for the questions about the espresso drinks... we don't serve the flavored syrups. God knows what is in them! I think I will experiment with vanilla bean sugar to see if I can make a vanilla latte that is a little more of a natural product.

I am not trying to compete with Starbucks. It is like the McDonalds of coffee and there will always be a place for McDonalds. But not everyone wants to eat at the golden arches!

Anyway, once again I am really looking forward to next week and all of the adventures that will likely come my way. I am super stoked about the grand opening! I am curious what, if any, effect the recent advertising will have on business this week? It is all shining up ahead of me...

And now what?

2011-11-12T19:11:00.001-08:00

I had a pseudo day of rest today, which feels a little strange.

I mean, in reality, I did some shopping for the cafe. We didn't have to-go bags or straws, and there are still a lot of things we are missing that we can't afford to get just yet (like more ergonomic floor mats). I picked up little stuff, clips for the dry erase boards, more neon pens... another 25# bag of flour for beignet and slider buns next week.

We still can't seem to convince Allied Waste to deliver a garbage receptacle for us, despite daily phone calls and actually SEEING them drive by with the one yard container one day. I am still slowly moving all of the salumi from the rental kitchen fridge to the shop. I feel remiss that we've not made any salumi for at least two weeks now. The house feels strangely empty with so much of the equipment we were storing here now moved to the storage unit.

Things are still so lean money wise that things always feel vaguely precarious. Galen says I can logically focus on the future, but the fears still loom like specters in my haunted mind. We've been so well received and I am madly in love with Martinez, I know I should just relax and let things flow. There is something magical about the Downtown, the old buildings and the smell of the Bay, the Magic Shop and old Campbell Theater... the tiny print shops and bail bonds and small nooks for sitting with pretty benches... the sound of the trains rolling through the Amtrak station... the antique shops with lacy curtains and brightly colored glass... the restaurants that have been in the same spots with the same decor for years... the art deco building that houses the McDonalds (which is not open in the evening or on the weekends)... the beautiful pastry shop with the filigree chairs and wedding cakes in the window.

After meeting the public last week, I feel like I have hit the foodie lottery. I knew we would eventually see the people who were into charcuterie and hand made food etc, but to see so many so soon is... it's just really exciting. I forget sometimes just how sophisticated the food culture is in the Bay Area. I feel so blessed as a chef to be able to work here.

Tomorrow I will do a billion things, pickle some veggies (green beans and red onions), make gnocchi, smoke some fresh dover sole and the newest batch of pastrami. I need to find bagels at the farmer's market, plus more beets and romaine, plus some seasonal greens for the side salad. I also picked up little salad size containers for some kind of pasta side. I just need to see what looks good at the market for putting IN the container.

I made a pumpkin muffin batter tonight, but I don't like it. It's not sweet enough... I might add honey and see if that helps. In the oven now... (product testing... is delicious!). Bleh... I am still not impressed.

I still need to organize our Passover and Christmas pick-up dinners. I think I want to make a Beef Wellington for at least one of the Christmas ones. I will probably go theme-y for the Passover one. I just need to find some super cool specific food tradition (like Sephardic Spanish) and do a little studying to refresh my memory on kashrut.

Sated and Happy...

2011-11-11T10:46:00.001-08:00

WOW! What a week! Galen says we went from "zero to light speed" in 30 seconds flat and that is exactly how it feels.

Things are how I expected on some ways, but in many ways the experience has exceeded my expectations. The thing I am most thrilled about is our regular customers. We had quite a few folks eat at the CS both breakfast and lunch every day we were open! I have at least ten favorite regulars... from the pretty cosmopolitanism mother of Elliot (my youngest regular is an adorable 16 month old with a head full of blond hair, ready smile and built like a tiny tank), to Tori, the smoking hot Sheriff, to the eccentric and charismatic high powered lawyer who likes hot chocolate and typically has a reverent posse of well suited underlings walking a respectful ten paces behind. The downtown is both quirky and loveable.

Also, the number of food geeks I am seeing every day is phenomenal; they found us and fast. I was not sure how much time it would take to connect with that audience, but they are there in far greater numbers even the first week than I could have possibly dreamed... I am over-the-moon ecstatic to be communing with such a food-sophisticated audience (insert happy dance here). One of my favorite customers is a slightly built and well dressed older man with an indefinable accent. He came in a few times and thoughtfully looked around before ordering, his manner as quiet and understated as his fine wool vest (with heirloom pocket-watch tucked tidily into his breast pocket) and Melton cap. The Charcuterie platter, of course.

I had a middle aged couple come in, the raven haired wife was very quiet and shy and didn't take her eyes off me. Her husband was clearly the spokesperson for their lunch and ordered himself a pastrami sandwich and for her the meatball sliders. I asked him how he wanted his pastrami sandwich and he asked how it was usually served. When I said the traditional New York Deli way was to have it on marbled rye with a "Schmear" of deli mustard, his wife's eyes danced and she tugged on his jacket. He laughed and said she'd lived in New York; she was thrilled that I knew how a hot pastrami sandwich was served in a New York Jewish deli.

We ran out of pastrami and the meatball sliders yesterday, but not terribly early in the day. I had a friend write a blog about the restaurant... everything was done incrementally and over many months so it was sobering to see it all on a few paragraphs; how much work we've done... to read our story so well summed up...It all sounds really high falutin' and fancy! I guess I don't really see myself as having much food pretension... I think I am more of a food-hedonist than a food-snob; but to read about the deliciously laborious process of filling our larder with charcuterie, wines and fine coffees... I am so proud of our menu!
Here is the blog:
http://areyougoingtoeatthat.ladywilde.com/?p=353

About Martinez being quirky... Wednesday we had a really slow day. I suspect it was due to a man who got upset at his lawyer and sat outside her office yelling, "(insert lawyers name) stole my retainer, she is the worst lawyer in the world, don't use (insert lawyers name)". So she got a restraining order. I suspect he has had many restraining orders, as he just measured out the proper distance from her office and started up again an hour later. When the police told him he was not allowed to loiter by standing in that spot yelling, he went and got his dog and circled the block, still yelling. Finally he walked into a local merchant's place and started ranting and raving, then punched the merchant, who then proceeded to kick the ever loving shit out of him. The whole of Main St was in a twitter about it! Business was back and robust on Thursday.

I am just so thrilled with our week. We just got another great plug in the Contra Costa Times and our ad will come out in the Martinez Gazette this Sunday. And our espresso machine is working!!!! It made one of the most beautiful cups of espresso I think I've ever seen.

Money, as always, is a worry. But I am hopeful we will be in the black soon and can start paying investors back. If I can just get through that part of it, I think we will be ok .

WE DID IT!!!

2011-11-07T19:29:00.000-08:00

I am exhausted, haven't really slept for days (this post will likely be very rhummy)... but we opened the doors today for our "soft opening"!

The bad... we had this guy who has come in a few times pre-opening to chat and SO excited about us opening. He wanted to be the first customer (and he WAS) but he ordered for his first thing a hot chocolate... and we didn't have it! The espresso maker isn't working properly so we decided to do the soft opening without it, so we didn't get whipped cream. I think he was really dissapointed. I left right away to go get the stuff to make whipped cream, but we didn't see him for the rest of the day :( This is the hardest part about being new... you only get once chance to make a good first impression. I hope he comes back and I get a chance to wow him.

But everything else was pretty awesome! I am so proud of the food. We had some mishaps, like a surprise dunking of the sous vide circulator into the water bath. And we were not exactly ready at 11 when lunch service started. And we need more signage.

But we had some hard core meaties in there, totally digging on the food and Sean Andrade (from the Andrade Wine Group) came and hung out for a bit and we chatted food and wine. Plus, I am starting to think I have really underestimated how meat-geeky people are down there! I cannot tell you how cool it is how many people missed that we were open during their lunch hour (we have been trying to be super low key about the soft opening so we could really work out the bugs for a smaller audience and not embarrass ourselves) and came back around AFTER lunch to chat, grab menus, and just basically talk about what we are doing.

It was a gorgeous day and Sandra and Aldith were two of my early customers! My mom came by too, which was so awesome. I miss my family a lot and this past year has been totally insane, so it really meant a lot to have my mom there.

I am thrilled with how well we all seem to work together. Galen has really jumped in and taken leadership on a few things that have really made a huge difference (like programming the register and taking charge of the front of the house) and Stein, as always, is full of Stein awesomeness. He is getting things organized, which is his gift (one that I sadly don't share).

I am so relieved. So grateful and relieved. And tired lol... really tired. Above is the Charcuterie Platter. Nduja, Capicolla, Rilette and Crostini, Achadina goat's cheese, pate granmere. finocciona and honey balsamic fig mostarda.

There is a ton more... the happy smiling middle aged man of Italian descent sitting and almost laughing with pleasure while dining upon the above Charcuterie plate. Talking to me about the food. Drinking Pelligrino. Sun shining. The first cut into the hot pastrami, the smell of smoke and coriander, hot red flesh.

I still can't believe we DID it! But we did. YAY!!!!

And then there are the super cool Chef awesome things...

2011-11-01T21:41:00.000-07:00

So this last weekend, we went and got our wines. Two from Napa and two from Sonoma. All family vineyards, second or third generation wine makers, 5000 cases per year or less.

It was magical... it is harvest time and the wine makers were bleary eyed and working hard. It had been far too long since I'd seen the wet end of a mascara wand and I even donned high(ish) heels and done my hair! It was a laborious process, what does a Chef wear to taste wines for her restaurant? I want to be taken semi-seriously... but then I wasn't sure why? Thank goodness I've lost a few pounds and had a few clothing options. White semi-low cut shirt, tan short sleeved cardigan, tight jeans, black studded high heel clogs... and the piece de resitance... a dragon necklace I got at the Halloween store... trying to rock it up a bit.

I know it seems silly to be such a girl and think about how my clothing might present myself, but I was in a hurry and I want to capitalize on non verbal cues. I am forty, I am a woman business owner in a largely male dominated industry and what I do is pretty rare (albeit getting more mainstream, thankfully) and I am pretty confident in where I am.

That said... I know nothing about wine. My favorite sippin' wine comes in a box and by the magnum. I drink Miller Lite on a regular basis. However, I had a few secret weapons in my arsenal and the foolhardy braggadocio of an arrogant Californian who just KNOWS that there are a million fantastic wines out there. I mean, duh... it's CALIFORNIA!

Secret weapon number one... Mike Wipple of Vin Underground. Brion's friend of many years. He has become an avid wine aficionado and expert and is especially into small batch vintners. We hit our first winery, White Rock, around noon. It is SOOOO Coool! A tall stately man meets us in the parking lot with the faintest of accents, like someone who has lived in California since he was very young. He talks about his wife and the vineyard, his sons... his grandson is eating lunch on a picnic table in the corner, he waves and smiles with chipmunk cheeks of sausage.

It is a beautiful winery, working it way towards an organic certification. Henry patiently explained their philosophy. His sons now run the winery. Christopher (the father of the adorable blond picnicker) is the wine maker.

We tour the caves. The winery is named after their
white rock caves which were forged from volcanic ash. They are amazing! They store the reds to age on site in hollows in the wall. The one above holds 4000 bottles. A cute brunette in cut offs is busy with the crush, everyone is bustling. She stops to check out my charcuterie (we brought some to try with the wines) and suggests I enter the The Good Food Awards competition for next year. I take some notes. I can tell she would like to talk more, but the grapes are waiting...

I pick one of their wines, a Chardonnay. Clean and bright, we all love it. It is the only wine in my price range and it is perfect. I talk to them about the wine makers dinners, they are interested.

I tell Mike we are going to a friend's winery (my second secret weapon, Danny Brakesman, is one of the winemakers at Summit Lake Winery. I catered his wedding). Mike is REALLY interested in checking it out, Howell Mountain is one of his favorite appellations and he is particularly interested in small vintners. We all head up after a yummy lunch at one of the roadside sandwich shacks.

The winery is gorgeous, late harvest time, everything is sun burnt auburn and gold. We meet up with Heather, Danny's sister. She looks just like Danny's daughter Sophia, gorgeous! We try the wines, they are amazing. A little bit pricier, but so worth it. the appellation is rare and highly vaunted and for good reason. We pick up four cases after a lovely tasting, with the dogs running around and Mike excitedly asking a million questions, How old are the vines? 135 years old. How many cases do you do a year? Around 1200.

We leave and hit Savour to drop off some product. We end up sitting and chatting with Dejan and Meghan for a while, it is hard to leave... they are so much fun to hang out with! It is easy to see why the place is so popular. We try wines, we share charcuterie, we genially chat.

We meet up with Mike shortly after at James Cole. An upper class couple is well into their cups out in the sunshine on the large loungy chairs on the patio. I stop to chat. They know what I do and want to chat all about it. I grab another tasting platter from the car and the husband sausage hoovers the plate in about 10 seconds. We all giggle in that wine-induced euphoria. the wines are great. It is clear by this time that the wine club members are a huge part of the success of these small wineries. Some of the wineries have 4000 club members that shell out $300 or more every few months for a shipment of club-member exclusive wines.

The last winery is Obrian. The matriarch of the winery joins us on a picnic bench outside. She brings us a plate of exquisite cheeses and laments that she cannot sell us any wines. We drink them anyway (of course) as the sun sets behind sweet smelling vines loaded with tiny ripe blue black grapes. The dogs run free amongst the vineyards and we are not really ready to go home, but we can't stay as the Obrian's are on their way to dinner. It was a lovely end to a beautiful day. And two wines selected! Both amazing and unique in their own ways and dear to me personally for their stories, my admiration for their makers, the land, and the vines.

Vegging out watching the Cooking Channel

2011-10-29T20:30:00.000-07:00

Hanging out after running around all day picking up odds and ends for the shop. We tested the acid etching for the wine glasses and the prototype looks great. I am mulling over our opening night special and gathering ideas so Stein and I can make some choices on Monday. We will offer a commemorative wine glass with a first glass of wine ($5.00 for refills, $10.00 for a 10 ounce carafe) and I would like to 1. showcase our style of food and 2. give people a preview of our specials for the week so I am thinking mini porchetta with 3-4 sweet potato gnocchi in brown butter with parm, and a single slice of bresaola topped with lightly dressed arugula, caperberry, thinly sliced red onion and a lemon wedge... so $10 for a wine glass, with a initial glass of wine, plus a plate of small bites for $10 for the first 40 people who order the special. I know Stein will have some great ideas too, so it will be fun to collaborate on that next week.

Stopped and picked up the bar tables today and put them in the space and took out the extra table and chairs.It looks SO good. I am so happy with how it turned out (so far). We found there are thee appliances that are not wired correctly and the thee plugs for the fridges are tripping the breaker in the back. I unplugged the empty one, but I will be very relieved when the electrician comes in a fixes the problem this Wed or Thursday.

I also laminated the open and closed sign, hours open sign, the menu signs so they can be hung in the window on Monday, plus the small tags for the framed photographs by Kelli Thompson in the shop. Plus I got fabric for the curtain hat will hang in the doorway to the back and some fabric to make Galen a water proof apron. I worked on the long slender menus for the grand opening (I will have to add in the food items and the wine selection once Stein and I decide on those).

Tomorrow we will go to Napa to get the wines!!! Yay!

Too busy to post as much as I would like...

2011-10-29T08:50:00.000-07:00

All of the final details of the restaurant are piling up but we are working through it all. We are planning to do a Grand Opening special and we purchased 40 wine glasses to glass etch . We are still bantering ideas but I suspect we will offer the first 40 customers some kind of deal like... $10 for a commemorative wine glass with a glass of wine of your choice, plus a sample plate with 4-5 small bites. We need to hammer out which small bites we want on the plate and how that is going to work, plus get the wine glasses etched.

Since we are doing the grand opening after our normal hours of operation, we will offer our static menu plus the small plate special. There is a TON of things to try and organize, thank goodness I have a fantastic staff!

Things are really coming together, we got the bar height tables and bar stools, plus shelving for inside the chemical storage closet and the mural is done and is gorgeous! It's really starting to look like a restaurant in there!

I got my first shipment of meat from Del Monte Meats AT the restaurant. I asked for fat pork bellies and SCHNIKIES, they are fat. Four bellies weighted like 15# each... we will be rolling in the bacon, that's for sure. Everything but the turkey breasts (Which were still frozen) went into cure or brine yesterday. It feels so achingly familiar to be in the kitchen, making brines, trimming meat, Galen in the dish station, music on, Stein puttering around hanging signage.

I am worried about our outlet/plug situation. We have three fridges on one outlet basically and it keeps popping the breaker. I unplugged the curing fridge because we still haven't moved everything in from the rental kitchen and that one is empty, but we have an electrician coming in on Monday to clean some things up so hopefully that will fix the problem.

I have so much to do today. I am going to go find the paper for the open/closed signs, plus print out the cleaned up menus, order new cleaned up menus and a stamp... finish my order form list for US Foods... work ont he commemorative glassware and the menu.

Tomorrow we are going to Napa to pick up our wines. This will be fun! Then I just need to get over to Rabbits Foot to get some cyzer and after that we really just need to order our big order from US foods and program our cash register. I also want to finish up the product for Residual Sugar today or tomorrow. Whew! Lots to do...

What a rush!

2011-10-25T22:41:00.000-07:00

Day two of "whoa, this is really happening". I know that probably seems a little silly, but with the delays we have had, it's amazing to feel like we are making great progress. Today, we got our final funding too. Wow, just Wow.

So Stein and I decided we would head on down to the shop with our laptops to... well really just to be in the space in an admiring way and to make out prep lists for opening. It was a very surreal experience. We sat in the chairs near the front with the sunshine streaming in, and passersby coming in to say hi and just generally overhearing the ebb and flow of the conversation outside.

I am surprised that there is so much wild speculation about why we have not opened yet! I mean, people were talking about it right outside the door where we could hear them! "Oh they are having so much money trouble! I hear they are way in debt" (we are not, we owe less than 10k and none of that is to a bank, it is to some generous friends who have helped me out along the way which I should be able to pay back within a few months of opening)... stuff like that. But most of the people who came by were super nice and very curious about us and our products. We even had someone stop in to buy one of our holiday dinners (yay! our first purchase at the shop!).

I also got my parking pass for the downtown today ($106 every four months). Stein and I had a heck of a time getting the wireless to work, so we signed up for our business phone and internet service. I also signed up for garbage service, albeit I am not sure where we are going to stick a garbage receptacle?

We've been making long lists of products we need so we can get started brining the pastrami for opening, plus the bacon and smoked/brined turkey breast. It is this crazy process where we are checking all of our food vendors per pound prices and trying to get everyone who's been delivering to the rental kitchen to deliver to our new location.

Tomorrow we need to find the last few pieces of the restaurant. We need two bar height tables (four if we can find them at a good price) plus 12 bar stools, a robot coupe, a toaster and a cash register. That is pretty much it for furniture. We need to try and fix a couple of the electrical odds and ends (they did not wire the cold display outlet for the right voltage), hang the picture Kelli sent, laminate some signage (open and closed sign, hours, etc). We need to get our wines and hit the meadery for some bottled cyzer. Thursday should be fun, we are hanging out at the restaurant while my friend Chris Walls works on the electrical system and my friend Brian Shellnut finishes the mural. I am tentatively hopeful I will be set up enough for Stein and I to cook the guys dinner. The first meal in the shop. Wow.

I am nervous and worrying, but I am also so excited to have the onus on me to move forward and not be waiting on construction, or a governing body to make a determination. I sent David pictures today of the progress and he called me to tell me how cool it was and that I should be really proud of everything I've accomplished. Stein said the same thing today. The waiting has been such a hardship on everyone that while I do feel proud, I also mourn for their hardship as well. I just hope the forward motion is everything we hope it can be.

I am especially nervous because Martinez is a beautiful old world town and many locals are passionate about being just that... locals. I am worried about any perceived effect potential success may have on other local restaurants. I wish there was a way to convince everyone if one of us succeeds, it is a success for everyone. The two largest employers in Martinez are walking distance from the downtown; 10,000 potential customers. If this demographic felt they had a wide range of high quality food choices, they would be more likely to wander downtown for lunch. I suppose I just need to get in there and let people try my stuff. I know how to cook, I am a passionate advocate for my craft and I love people. My shop has been built on love and hard work, with a foundation made stronger by a shower of faith and support from my friends and family. I know I can do this, with trusty Super Stein by my side and Wonderboy Galen, we can DO this!

We passed our Health Dept Inspection today!!!!

2011-10-24T16:43:00.000-07:00

WOO HOOO!

We are SO excited! So we've been frantically prepping for our inspection and too nervous about it to post anything so we wouldn't jinx ourselves.Here is a picture of me with my temporary health permit and some of the restaurant... it's all coming together!

Tonight my friend and artist Brian Shellnut is coming to paint a mural on the wall. Stein and I are SO excited! I will write tons more later (Lara, I promise!)... but now... I have to get to work!

Here is the kitchen with the refrigerators, the shelving, prep area, and the stove

Here are the pictures of the space and a picture of the condiment table Brion and my friend Matt made for the space.

Fun food day...

2011-10-18T19:23:00.000-07:00

I feel momentum. It is a strange thing in my business... how it all works. So you have a product that you think is pretty spiffy. It's you... in your own kitchen... alone... with this awesome product. So how do you get that product OUT THERE? You let everyone you know try it, you make it a bunch of times, with friends, with employees, on your own. You are GIVING this shit away. Of course, everyone loves it.

Then your friends start asking you if they can have some of it (for free) for their parties, and you are making the awesome thing even better all the time. Now you have 40 variations on the awesome. Then you go to school and get your degree, work at some cool place where you learn how to make the awesome thing even BETTER. Then your friends (you gave all that free stuff to) start giving your newly minted cards out to their friends. Then slowly, so slowly, you start getting calls. They want the awesome thing, at a rock bottom price. You think to yourself... well I have to start getting paid somewhere!

Then five years later (flash forward, with that hazy dream sequence) you turn around and realize you have this KILLER client base, you are not even sure you can TAKE on another client. THAT is how bad-ass you are.

So I got a call from one of my favorite former schoolmates. She works at this kind of trendy wine bar in Walnut Creek. It's called Residual Sugar. The need a reliable source of Charc, and can I bring my stuff in? I am stoked. I local customer! No shipping required! Plus Residual Sugar just SOUNDS cool! So I wash the "opening the restaurant" grease off me, toss on a chef coat and slice up a decent selection of our stuff, plus grab some of the orange fennel and andouille fresh sausages and drive (the 12 minute drive) over to Residual Sugar.

They are closed but I can see Genesis in the back prepping. I wave and she lets me in. I love the space (I grow increasingly envious of well funded restaurants); it reeks of testosterone like a British club where hard bodied sons of former royalty drink beer in very tight very expensive jeans. The space is narrow and long with high ceilings and lots of dark wood. Her boss is, indeed, a smiling handsome early 30 something who clearly knows his way around a gym. The Bar Manager, slender, blond, like an impish Puck with a rakish hat. Genesis and I seem at home with all of our masculine energy, amazons in the sleek dark space.

She cooks up the fresh sausages. They smell amazing. We all sit down as I unwrap the plate of sliced Charc and start my schpiel, we start from lightest to heavier/spicier. The ThingTM happens. Each bite is a story, a history... they are trying to observe the social contract and look at me when I am talking but they can't stop looking at the meats on the plate... blood red to creamy white, smelling of salt and tang and spice. Soft and supple, "The Bresaola is so tender! I had some the other day that was like beef jerky". "Do you like head cheese?" "I like this head cheese!"

I slip into details, how I inoculate my refrigerators with our local lactobacillus "This lactobacillus is one of the reasons our San Francisco sourdough is some of the best in the World"... how we make everything by hand. I end with the andouille. I am not sure they will be into it (pepper spice can interfere with wine tasting) but they love it. We talk about the texture of hand made sausages vs. commercially produced. There is just no way a machine will ever be able to make sausages as good as a trained charcutier. To have one is a true treat that many Americans will never experience. But we are trying!

We talk about my process, I only have 3-5 wholesale customers at any given time and it is a very collaborative relationship for me. You have a signature wine? I will make Sauccision Sec with YOUR wine. They talk about what they want... they really want some rilette, can I make some? Do I do terrines? Why yes sir, I do.

So tonight I feel inspired by my craft, by my clients, by my world. I am grateful for this respite to the stress of opening the restaurant. I called my meat purveyor to get the pork, pork liver and duck and picked up some duck tongues as well. Tomorrow I will make confit for rilette and take the ducks apart for rendering the duck fat. I will cure the livers a bit in spices before I start the pate. These are the Charcutiers pleasures; these complex little works of edible art that allow us to dance for you, to sing for you, to show you who we are. Most chefs get few opportunities to show off this skill-set in a modern world that rarely craves such food.

I love what I do so much.

Happy Dance! Happy Dance!

2011-10-14T12:26:00.000-07:00

We have floors and we have walls! WOO HOO! And I had such a nice chat with Stan today too. I am working on getting my home loan modified so that won't be such a burden going forward as well. Plus, I sliced up a bunch of meat this morning for a fund raiser and noticed how gorgeous it was. Suddenly life feels more cheerful and bright (the beautiful day is adding to the general cheerfulness).

Plus Stein is being my good luck charm and not believing it until he sees the whole thing DONE. Which is kind of like knocking on wood. I just need a couple more shelves to get up to the 144 sq ft minimum for the Health Department and we are SO SO SO Close.

Stan said David can come in this weekend and put in the wood/vinyl flooring and finish up the last little bits... I know it is a fool's game to hope, but I am feeling pretty good today.

Yay! Some good news!

2011-10-13T09:29:00.000-07:00

We did our hood/fire suppression inspection yesterday and balloon test and passed! This means whenever my landlord can pull it together and get the front of the building done, we have all of the hard stuff done to get our Health Dept permit!

Here is the list of stuff we need:

set of completed plans
finish schedule
equipment cut/spec sheets
lighting plan
hood details
ventilation plans
airflow test (done by ACCO)
Fire Department inspection
plumbing plans
holes in walls have been patched (one more in the floor will be done when they finish the floors)
Grease trap info

As of yesterday they had still not started to sheet rock the front of the space. We were supposed to get in this weekend and get the floors done, but that isn't going to happen. It is extremely annoying that it sometimes feels like my employees and I are the only people with a sense of urgency. I have been feeling very hopeless that the project would ever be completed because of this strange phenomenon. But my practical side knows it can't go on forever (Actually if you'd ever dealt with the people I am dealing with, you would know it actually potentially COULD... hmmmm was that my practical side losing out again?)

That said, I have a tasting at Residual Sugar next week, which is a fabulous little place in Walnut Creek. A friend of my from school works there. I am going to bring in a pretty wide sampling of what I have and let them know to make them a full complement of salumi will be about 8 weeks.

This week I am making mortadella. My meat purveyor has some beef shoulder bits from Neiman Ranch that are $3.50 a pound. I will probably make andouille and orange fennel sausages for them to try as well. I might blow out the rest of the bresaola since I just hung another 8 pounds or so, which should be ready in a few weeks. I have around 5-6 pounds of Tuscan out in the curing fridge and I can't remember why I haven't pulled it? I think it was part of that batch that had the funky lactobacillus that I mostly tossed (it was unpalatabley sour). I am going to try it again today and see if the flavor hasn't improved.

I also need to start some brisket into brine. I have one brisket already and I am picking up another from Del Monte today. We have about 40# of pastrami and corned beef done. I'd like to have another 20# or so, it keeps for a long time and I don't want to run out our first week open.

I am contemplating doing two mortadellas, one with pistachios and one with olives. Hmmmm... I DO love making sausages. It will make me feel better and it's something I can control.

Progress is sometimes two steps forward and one step back...

2011-10-11T21:55:00.000-07:00

I have found this week, even my typically sunny nature has been dimmed by the difficulties of the remodel situation. It is very difficult to talk about it because while I am comfortable (for the most part) being a public person, not everyone in the situation feels similarly. My landlord in particular is kind of old world Greek and a pretty private person. As frustrated as get about his lack of speed on the project, a lot of the delays stem back to one of the contractors (the retrofit Engineer) who is just a flake. He basically took the money and ran (he didn't even pay the sub-contractors). I feel so bad for Stan that he's had to deal with someone who is doing a very complicated job, and doing it so badly.

Stan got a new engineer to come look at the space today and it's a big ole mess. They will probably have to redo the whole thing. It is a complicated issue that could drag a few local politicians (who recommended the shady engineer) into the morass, as the local (very widely read) newspaper is now showcasing the problem, both in the article on my situation the other day and another article this last Monday on the retrofit in general.

What it means for me? I am not really sure. David has told them over and over they just need to button it up so I can open. If they need to fix it, they will have to do it around my closed hours. This doesn't really seem plausible to me. But... David has asked them to get their part of things done by Friday so he can get in and finish up a few things this weekend so we can go for Health Department Permitting next week. I have little faith any of this will happen. I don't see how they are going to get the front sheet rocked and the sub floor done before this weekend. That is a multi-day job, and it has taken 6 months to do a job that should have taken 6 weeks. They haven't even started working on it this week and it's already Tuesday.

Meanwhile, I am not sure how I am going to pay my house payment this month. I feel like I should just capitulate and go get a job. At least I would be making money while I was waiting for resolution. It is so spirit crushing.

I am trying not to be so pessimistic, but it is hard to disregard the lessons of the past.

Aren't I a cheerful little bag o' joy.

We went in on Monday and got some shelves put up and fixed most of the back of the house little issues. It is a functional kitchen, or at least pretty close. We got our ice maker and figured out how we are going to work the front of the house flow a bit more. I am still 10 square feet short of shelving space! ARGH. And I still need a large chaulkboard and some chairs (and to make the condiment table and get some pots and pans, and a robot coupe)... but we are really pretty close. If we could just get them to finish up the front area, we could pull all that together as well.

That said, Stein and I found some AWESOME little wall mounted condiment holders. I think they are going to look really gorgeous with the pictures Esme sent for me to put up on the wall (black and white pictures of cathedrals and gorgeous architecture). I am pretty stoked about how things are coming together aesthetically. Money is still a constant pressure. It wasn't meant to take this long and be so difficult. I've spoken to other friends who have opened restaurants and they all say I am experiencing a really special kind of hell. I am still working thru my to-do list for the Health Department permitting process (redoing the visios for the shelving and lay out). I wish I felt like I wasn't wasting my time. You can't call the HD for permitting until the construction is "100% done". I have little faith the construction will be done in a time frame that will do me much good.

ARGH. I also think I might be even more sick of my own whining than anyone else. I don't know how people live feeling like this? I guess they do it because, like me, they really don't have a choice but to see something out no matter how unhealthy and stressful it might be. Maybe I just need a rest day? I can't DO anything to fix the problem anyway. I do need to finish up the HD packet (I need to make the changes that have occurred since we started the remodel on the blueprints and paperwork). I should go down and drop the stuff off and write down all the of product numbers so I can look up all of the spec sheets again.

I also need to put in a bit more pastrami and I got the brisket to do that today. I need a break from stress. But the only way I will really get a break is if things get resolved. It is a terrible catch 22 to need a break from stressors and not be in control of the things stressing you out (particularly for a control freak such as myself).

Anyway, I will try to refocus on more positive things. Life is really pretty wonderful other than the work stress. My kids are amazing, my lover is wonderful, I am getting many accolades for my food and the weather was really beautiful today. OH please universe, let good things happen this week and next.

In the paper

2011-10-07T18:49:00.000-07:00

http://www.martinezgazette.com/news/story/i3253/2011/10/06/compass-star-navigates-through-retrofit

This paper is like one of those old school papers with great writers, which is very cool. But I am really anxious about people knowing that we are having so many problems. I am also worried that Stan will be upset that I spoke publicly about the problems. Even tho I was very complimentary of him, he is so private. This blog is out there in the nebulous stratosphere, but the Gazette is incredibly widely read in Martinez (as it deserves to be, it is a fantastic little paper). Maybe it will spur things to move a little more quickly?

It just feels lately like anything that could even remotely possibly go wrong, has gone wrong. Both in my personal and professional life. I know that is a VAST exaggeration. But it still FEELS that way. In fact, my fiancee and I are happy and well, my kids are amazing, my food continues to get accolades and good reviews. Professionally I have the most amazing Sous Chef and apprentice and we love working together and things ARE progressing.

Oh Universe, if you are out there, please send some good energy my way...

Some movement

2011-10-07T16:38:00.000-07:00

So David talked to Stan today. Stan cannot get the engineer/retrofit guys to finish the work. He is going to have to sue them. They have been total crooks and I feel really bad for Stan. But meanwhile we cannot wait forever for him to thru the legal process so we are going to patch the roof, finish the floors etc this week and try to get going next week.

I am now worried that whatever the engineer did wasn't up to code and they will have to redo it. It's so depressing.

BUT last night I had a dream I was back in a kitchen. It was huge, with high ceilings. It felt like a very chic place. I was making a mango pepper couli. I miss it so much.

The upside is... it is possible we may be ready to clean and get permitted in 9 days. It doesn't seem likely, but it is possible. I just hope we can all hang on for a little bit longer.

The waiting is the hardest part...

2011-10-06T20:51:00.000-07:00

So everything is now on hold pending the Retrofit contractor fixing the leak in the roof. We were supposed to get the floors in this weekend, but the sub floor is wet now, so I don't think that is going to happen.

The Martinez Gazette called today and asked when we would be open. I feel so bad when I say... I honestly don't know. I am just not in control of anything that is stalling us (currently). We have a small thing to fix on the fire suppression system, but Bri and Alicia will be working on that tomorrow night. Then we can do the balloon test for the fire suppression system, which is a requirement for our Health Dept permit. Then we have some cosmetic stuff to do in the kitchen and clean up and that is about it.

Sadly Stan is having a really hard time getting the contractor to fix their mistakes, or finish the job. I know he is trying really hard and is just as frustrated as we are. It is hard to be SO close and then everything stops (again). I feel especially bad for our Plongeur, who quit his job a few weeks ago in anticipation of the restaurant being open. It is just a horrible situation all around.

We still have some catering gigs coming up, and the wholesale to restaurants is doing really well. I am going to put in more product tomorrow (more finocciona and capicolla). I still probably need to make another 24# of pastrami and corned beef.

I feel depressed and stressed. It is hard to think about the future right now or feel very hopeful. It just seems like we've had problem after problem. I knew it was going to be difficult, but this seems over and above what anyone should have to deal with to start a business.The rainy weather has been relaxing and soothing in the midst of it all and I've been able to take some time to myself to recharge.

Into each restaurant some rain must fall...

2011-10-04T13:38:00.000-07:00

OR NOT!

So last week the Engineer was in the shop on Friday. I spoke to him and he said all of the work should be done Friday or yesterday at the latest. So last night we went in and the roof was still leaking water and it doesn't look like they've done anything. Dino (the project manager for the contractor I hired to do the kitchen) had been in however and dropped the front counter (it had to be lowered because the floor was dropped 3 inches to accommodate the ADA stuff) and done a bunch of stuff (like put sheet rock on the pillar in the back).

As you can see, the front is nearly done. The wood at the bottom will be tile. It looks really nice and I am really happy with it so far!

I feel so bad for Stan having to deal with the retrofit guys; they seem like scam artists. The fact they told us directly they would be done with everything no later than Monday and refuse to keep their word (repeatedly), is horrible. And the worst part is we can't put in dry wall or the floor until the roof is not leaking all over everything. So, once again, everything is stopped while we try to get the retrofit crew to do what they have said they are going to do.

That said, things ARE happening. We are working on small projects as best we can and getting organized for the rush before opening. It's still very frustrating to have my livelyhood in the hands of unscrupulous contractors, but I am hopeful we are closer to the end than the beginning.

Chaos and all the fun to be had therin...

2011-09-26T14:55:00.000-07:00

It's been a crazy week. I made 80 # of sausage for my favorite client to bring to the Folsom Street Fair (which is a kind of... fetish celebration in San Francisco). Plus 20# of brats for Creek Monkey, plus a wedding and a food booth at the Italian Street Painting Festival in downtown Martinez. Whew.

The street painting festival booth was a loss. We have tried the food booth thing twice now and both times we've lost money. I know the property management group really wants us to participate, but we can't afford to lose money on anything right now. I think people really don't want to eat cold food at these festivals so we will try the hot sausages at the craft brewing festival and if that doesn't work, I think we are giving up on the food both thing all together.

The wedding food came out really well and I was really happy with it, but my meat vendor once again screwed up the order for the pig. We ordered a 100# pig and got an 80# pig. I think I probably need to find an alternative meat vendor who can get the pig order right.

The Italian Street Painting booth thingie... well it rained the second day and was cold the first, so I told Galen to just give away the rest of the sandwiches and salads for free Sunday when it started raining in earnest and come home. It was a good marketing opportunity so it wasn't a total wash (no pun intended).

This week we are waiting again. I still don't think the engineer has a plan to cover the wood beams with the sheet rock and we really can't clean until he does (sheet rock is a really messy process). I feel bad for Stan; yesterday I noticed the roof was leaking where the retrofit was done. He's had such a hard time getting them to finish the work. They seemed like a really shady outfit and now there is a leak in the roof too. You can't believe how pretty it is looking in spite of all the troubles.

This week is waiting week. We got the air flow test done on the ventilation system, and we are waiting on the paperwork. We are waiting to fix a small glitch in the fire suppression system. We are waiting for the floors to go in. We are waiting for the sheet rock to be put on the beams. We are waiting to pick up the new prep sink so we can install it. Just a whole bunch of waiting. I feel really bad that Galen has now quit his job and I have no work and can't afford to pay him for this next week. Thankfully he can pick up a few shifts at his old job.

The thing that sucks even more is I have no idea when all this stuff will be done so we can move forward. They plan to put in the wood look floors this weekend. But I am not sure how much longer Stan will have to fight with the engineer/retrofit people before we will get the beams sheet rocked. We can't get a health department permit until that is done.

I hate not having control. It always feels like nothing is in my hands (which I know is a overly dramatic dramatization).

The Ants Go Marching...

2011-09-18T19:18:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a lot of fun and very productive! I am co-coordinator for a historical food event in Feb 2012 and we have been struggling to find an event site that would fit our needs. It needs to sleep 100 people, have multiple kitchens, plus outdoor cooking area, classroom-like areas, within 1 hour to an airport... you get the idea.

Anyway, yesterday my co-coordinator, Donna Green-Tye, and I found an AWESOME site. I know our historical foodie friends are going to love it and I cannot wait to see what classes and demos people will come up with to fill the space. Donna and her amazingly awesome spouse (if Dicken's Feziwig was tall and slender, and a Burgermiester from a fantastic wine-making town in Germany, he might be much like Andrew) gave me a ride home and came to check out the restaurant. We popped on over to Lemon Grass for lunch and had a very enjoyable and delicious meal and got to chat with the owners. They have been somewhat following my progress and were so welcoming! They thanked me for my kind words about them in the Gazette article, and said a few customers had saved the clipping and brought it in for them.

Then we headed down to the shop and met up with Brion and Stein and our friend George (who offered to help for the day). They put the casters on the cold display case (it has to either be moveable OR 6 inches off the ground... it is SO freakishly heavy, we decided to put on wheels), hooked up the water to the espresso maker and the coffee maker, figured out the drainage system for the steam table, built shelving and moved things around, plus I started cleaning the stove. It felt good to get so much done! It is really starting to come together more every day. George is madly in love with my friend Phoebe and wrote Phoebe plus G on the bottom of the cold display case... I think having all that love around is pretty great!

I also had to put together a large order of fresh sausage for my favorite customer, who is taking the sausage truck to the Folsom Street Fare next weekend. I still need to put together the chicken apple bourbon sausages, but the brats are mostly done (some still need to be poached off).

Next week, we need to put together the order for the Folsom Street Fair, plus get the wedding food for next weekends wedding prepped and fabulous, plus prep for the Italian Street Painting Festival next Saturday. AND still work on getting the kitchen ready. Lots to do lots to do...

Still getting closer!

2011-09-17T07:42:00.000-07:00

Yay! Here is a photo of our almost finished new ADA compliant front entrance. It looks fantastic and we are SO excited to get in and get started.

Stein, Brion and Galen will get in today and get started on building shelves and securing racks to the walls etc (I need to go check out an event site in Marin, but will be helping as soon as I am done).

So this week is clean up and hopefully the various contractors will get in there and finish their parts of the job so we can clear away the dust and get inspected by the health department some time after next week.

We worked the Martini's on the Plaza event in Martinez last night. It was a really fabulous with many folks dressed circa 1940's (when the martini was created). We served a smaller version of the our meatball sliders, which people really seemed to like. It was fantastic to get out and talk to potential patrons and give out samples of our product.

Also funny story... so a friend of mine was in downtown Martinez a few days ago and went into Legal Grounds (which is the guy who used to be in the space we are now leasing) for a coffee and overheard the guy telling a customer that we "Were never going to make it... she is in way over her head... she is $200,000.00 in debt... my customers are loyal and she isn't going to be able to steal them!" This gave my friends a chuckle of course because I am less than $10,000.00 in debt (to a few friends) and I am hoping with all of the great new places going in downtown that instead of needing to "steal" someone's customers, we will be able to see a whole new crowd of potential diners downtown. But... it still worries me that the business culture down there seems so negative. Jim Blier of Creek Monkey and the crew over at Roxx on Main are all very friendly and supportive, but some of the old guard... well I hope we will eventually win them all over :)

Motoring thru the to-do list....

2011-09-13T19:13:00.001-07:00

Today I stopped by the DMV to register the BBQ trailer that Chuck built for me. DMV is a fascinating people study! $53 to register and get new plates. Then I ran over to Home Depot to see if I could find the fire bricks we need to replace for the stove/grill. They did not have them, but Bri thinks we can get them in Concord.

Then off to Costco to pick up the making for meatballs for the Martini's on the Plaza event this Friday. They didn't have everything I needed including the 1.5 ounce scoop to make them, so I ran over to Smart and Final and grabbed a few other items. Stein was busy setting up some infrastructure items, plus making some equipment arrangements.

I got a call from my absolute favorite clients who is taking the sausage truck out to the Folsom Street Fair which is a very jovial LBTG and fetish event in the City. He wants tons o' sausage, but not sure exact numbers yet. Creek Monkey wants more Brats for this Saturday, so I am going to have to try and squeeze in some serious sausage making some time this week. The upside is, Creek Monkey wanted to try some of our other sausage varieties so we can set aside some of the Andouille for them to try. Pete was also interested in the Orange Fennel fresh sausage. He and his friends are addicted to the Berber Blackberry Organic Katsup. My sauce went to Burning Man this year!

And a dear friend asked us to cater her cast party on October 9. I am really looking forward to this one as I get to make some British food (Bangers and Mash, Pork Pies etc).

So things are busy! I just hope we can juggle it all!

Today had a bit of a planning meeting...

2011-09-12T21:03:00.000-07:00

With the Steinster and Galen (who was falling asleep... I am going to have to try and spruce up my staff motivational speeches) . Then we ran out to Ikea to check out things like wine racks and... shelving. We also had some Swedish meatballs and Pancakes, plus... I can't remember what else. Ikea is kind of like a Disney ride for hipster soccer moms.

Then we hit the restaurant... which WOO HOO! It looks like they are framing out the last stuff before they put the windows in, and there is this really pretty light fixture they are putting up... I am not sure where? But I like it!

Wow things are going fast now and we have so much busy work to do. In addition to opening the restaurant we have our regular catering schedule. This week we need to make 500 meatball sliders for an event that Martinez Chamber of Commerce is putting on called Martinis on the Plaza. It is going to be a perfect marketing opportunity; 500 locals. So we decided to serve something small that is a static item on our menu. I am really proud of my meatballs and I think they are really unique, so people can sample an original menu item that they can look forward to when we open. We are also going to make some small coupons for the month of October for a free 12 ounce coffee with a purchase of a morning breakfast item or pastry. Plus have our static menu and business cards out. I think it will cost me about $220 in product all together (I am having a really hard time finding the right size slider buns, we used to make them at school but I am not really wanting to make 500 of them).

We also will have another marketing opportunity at the Martinez Street Painting Festival on Sept 24th. While Stein and I are catering a wedding, we will have Galen manning a food booth with an Italian Ciabatta Sub, Pasta Salad and a green salad. This should be a week or two before we are ready to start our soft opening.

We will once again pass out coupons for a free coffee with purchase. Since we are showcasing a locally roasted and truly superlative coffee, we WANT the business crowd to get in and try our coffee. We are the closest coffee to the court house, but we are competing with Starbucks about 4 blocks down. So what we have going for us is 1. we are a small local place and some people do try and shop the small guys and 2. Our coffee is just better. John Weaver was the master Brewer for Pete's Coffee for years and his coffee is kick-ass.

I am pretty excited about getting out there and being so close to opening!

One week from crazy time...

2011-09-12T08:48:00.000-07:00

Stan called David on Friday and said he thought they were about a week away form completing the front entrance. Which means...

Well, I am not sure who exactly is installing the flooring and I am not sure if they are still planning to move the water heater... but other than that... we should be able to get in there next week and get started! There will be one week of cleaning and moving stuff around, plus we need to install some shelving (both in the front and in the back), then we should be able to get the kitchen permitted and then a week or two of food prep... then a week or so of soft opening off the grid and then... voila! GRAND OPENING!!!

Stein is coming over today so we can work more on our to-do list and then we are going to Ikea to see what kinds of wine storage/racks they might have. I am still absorbing the information that we are so close. I know there are a billion little details that need to be dealt with...

A Spoonful of Sugar Makes the Medicine Go Down...

2011-09-06T17:42:00.000-07:00

I had a dream last night that Stein and I were in the kitchen getting things organized to open. I was standing near the refrigerators looking at the new drywall on the wood beam they installed for the earthquake retrofit and we were discussing whether we should split the fridges and put tables in between or how to best use the space with the beam jutting out a bit. I remember thinking I wanted to get stuff into place so we could start cleaning and wondering if Galen was done moving the chairs in the dining room around.

It was good to know I still could think past the construction and so with that in mind I got up and started the post-construction to-do list. I set up a meeting with Stein and Galen tomorrow to talk about the weeks ahead. There are a lot of odds and ends on my mind...

I stopped in to Creek Monkey on Sunday with the girls and talked to Jim (Blier, the owner). He wants brats (bratwurst)... and I want his wood charc platters that Huge bought to showcase my salumi. The new chef does not seem interested in Salumi (he interned at Olivetos and might want to make his own?). We did the tasting a while ago and they have not shown interest since. Anyway, so I made 10 # of brats on Monday and I am going to see if he wants to trade me wooden platters (which are just taking up space and not being used) for Brats.

I also lost a whole batch of sopresatta. I was too lazy to go get the meat from someplace good and used stuff from Smart and Final (which is on the way to the rental kitchen). Lesson learned. But I grabbed 10# of pork today and need to probably to at least grind tonight and try to mix and stuff tomorrow.

I need to confirm which salumi we will showcase on our initial "Ploughman's Lunch". I know we will do Finocciona, Nduja, Capicolla and Testa (head cheese). This is my proudest menu item and I need to really nail it right away. I am marketing myself as one of the very few chefs who is deadly serious about charcuterie and I cannot afford for my showcase menu item to be anything less that ALLThat, no bag of chips necessary. A good Charc Platter will showcase the Charcutier's general mastery of various techniques including fresh, smoked, cured, dried and emulsified salumi... generally speaking you want some type of terrine or potted meat (pate or rillette), smoked (like andouille or chorizo), cured (lardo), emulsified (mortadella) and dried (capicolla, finocciona, sauccision sec etc).

It feels insecure to showcase too many of the long cured items; they tend to seem very showy and difficult but in reality making a really good mortadella takes more skill and is far more difficult to really nail. But I am only planning to do five on a platter and Stein and I have been working so hard to build our quiver of the longer cured items it is difficult to fight the urge, like tacky new money, to flamboyantly show off these products.

We can't put everything on there :( I am leaning towards doing a Mortadella). Ours is really good and I met a couple at the farmers market who raises the cattle you see grazing on the Martinez hillside as you drive on the freeway... I am going to see if I can get some beef from them so I can make local Mortadella. Mortadella only takes a few days to make so I can wait until we are in our own kitchen to start that process. Plus, no one knows it really but other charcutiers, but Mortadella takes the most skill to get really right. It is a tempestuous dance of buffalo chopper, dry ice and really good beef, then sous vide cooking to the perfect temperature for the shortest time possible to bring it up to temp. Dry cured salumi is more forgiving IMO.

So once we figure out which salumi we will be using, then we need to choose condiments. Definitely a pickle of some type (house made). We did Gardineri, but not as much as I would like. We need a cheese (OH NO! I forgot the name of the cheese we picked! Back to the Cheese Board I go...) and some type of sweet preserve appropriate to meat (fig mostarda?). Probably candied pecans as well.

I am also experimenting with cold shipping methods this week. I am going to ship 4# of capicolla to Montrios. A very funny trip to Coldice in Oakland... I come to the door and there is kind of... no way to get in. So a lady comes to the door and leans her head out and says, "Can I help you?" And I introduce myself and say I am looking for cold shipping. She says, "we don't sell retail". So tell her that I am a professional! Anyway, we got the stuff and we will be testing it out tomorrow!

Woke up feeling fantastic today!

2011-09-02T08:14:00.001-07:00

I have had so many small stressors lately that it's been hard to feel good. I have been clenching my teeth in my sleep and waking up really sore etc. But I had a really great chat yesterday with my boyfriend, my plongeur resolved some stresses from the extended wait (to open TCS), my sous chef got his little guy off to a successful start at his new school and we had a great time catering Savour's promotional party this last Wednesday... so the morning feels bright and shiny and new.

I also pulled the new Capicolla from the curing box and cut some up for the party on Wed and that cheered me up too! It is really lovely. I am not sure why I keep waiting for someone to go, "this is CRAP!" When I know how good the stuff really is, but I think partially it is because the demand is so high we've been putting stuff out at the earliest moment instead of waiting an extra month or so for it to get a more familiar dryness. So I feel I am putting some products out "wet". I know once we get the flow down, it will be fine. But it will take 4-6 months to get enough stuff in the queue for that to work. It's really only the ground sausages... but still.

The party was a lot of fun! The Wineries count on the limo drivers etc to guide consumers towards their tasting rooms, so they will have invitational parties to promote their wines directly to these tourist support industries. It was a very fun local insider crowd and they seemed to really like the food. I got a chance to chat with several folks. Meghan (the tasting room manager) and I collaborated on a salumi cone delivery system and it worked out splendidly!

I had a friend (Wendy Bliss) do the service/FOH stuff and she did an awesome job. It is a relief to have someone so capable on the roster for FOH since that is not really my area of expertise. I feel like every day I am collecting pieces of the puzzle to make things better!

I have not gone down to the restaurant in a week or so. I am letting them get their work done. Stan gave all the info to David on the time frame which sounded like 2ish weeks BUT there was some caveat about a wood that needed to be ordered that was going to take longer, so I need to try and figure out if that is going to hold us up or what?

As always I am worried about money. But I am feeling more hopeful and mellow about the whole thing.

Finding a Zen place...

2011-08-28T12:32:00.000-07:00

I am still adjusting my to-do list to the possibility of getting in the kitchen in the next two weeks or so and the flow of sausage (LOL). I think my two wholesale clients will be doing about 12 - 15 # of salumi per week. This means we need to be putting in 40- 45 # of sausage every two weeks. I've also discovered that for clients with smaller charcuterie platters, they really need more accessible salumi to make it work for their patrons. As bad-ass as it is that I have a large quiver of salumi varieties; the vast majority of people are not very adventurous eaters.

Brion and I went to Napa yesterday and I found a zinfandel I think will go well with my salumi. I want to carry at least one from Savour (I am leaning towards Dejan's Chardonnay as it seemed to go well with just about everything. I just hope it is within my price range) and one from Summits Lake (most likely a red), so then I just need one more white... probably a Pinot Gregio.

I think I won't put it on the printed menu, but the more I think about the small select group of potential hard core foodies that could potentially discover the shop and WANT to try a sampling of the full breadth of salumi techniques and varieties, plus the wines... the more I think I will have an off-menu sampling of a 1/4 ounce of each salumi, plus a 2 ounce sampling of each wine... I think I can do it for like $20 - $25 and still make some money.

So today I made some sopressata (northern-mild style). I've never had so many clients ask for a a sausage by name so often and I have not made any since I left Perbacco. I did a simple coriander, fennel, pepper, salt and a tiny bit of garlic. I am worried my buffalo chopper needs it's blade replaced. I think it's been sharpened so often it is not quite touching the bottom of the bowl. I am sure it is not very much to replace it, I will contact the Hobart shop next week.

I am also concerned about the rate of inoculation in the new curing fridge. I had a client contact me because some pastrami smells like it's gone bad. Pastrami shouldn't go bad... I mean it might dry up or get moldy but it should not rot... there are nitrates etc, plus a lengthy wet curing time (8-9 days... sometimes longer depending on the size of the brisket) . So I am worried there is something already in the fridge. We bleached it like crazy when we got it and I can see the good/white yeasts/molds are growing on some of the salumi that has been cured in there... I suppose only time will tell. I will bring some fresh pastrami to the Client next week. It makes me really sad because our Pastrami is something I am really proud of so I hate to see anyone's first experience with it be less than perfect.

I still need to get the tuna belly into cure today for the Savour party on Wed. I am a huge fan of cured tuna belly, which is not something we see very much here in the states. We tend to see a lot of Asian preparations for Tuna in general and especially tuna belly. My inspiration for my version is from a 1570's manifesto on food by master chef Bartolemeo Scappi (the then Papal Chef to Pope Pius the V). He slices the tuna belly very thinly and serves it drizzled with olive oil and fresh sour orange juice. I am going to serve it on beet chips with a citrus... something...

OK back to work! I hope everyone is having a lovely weekend!

Whew!

2011-08-25T14:03:00.000-07:00

We had a two hour meeting with Kevi and Stan today. It was mildly contentious but also pretty productive I think. I feel like I got to understand Stan a bit more and I felt we really kept to relevant topics instead of contentious ones.

They have a plan, it was going to be submitted today. David and Stan talked at length about how to maybe do things a little easier or less expensively and then the architect showed up and It think he was really annoyed they were thinking of changing the plan. So the architect had the plan they had all agreed upon with him to submit to the Building Dept. It had been approved by the planning dept and the building dept verbally and was good to go. I couldn't tell when we left if Stan was going to submit the plan as is, or try to explore some of the other options. It was kind of confusing at the end because David has another appointment to go to and I think Stan was hoping they could all go down to the Building Dept and talk about it.

I can tell Stan really REALLY doesn't like me, but he was polite and I hope I was too. We talked about his honey (he is a bee keeper) and he showed me some stuff. Really beautiful honey and beeswax. I love the smell of fresh honey! I made a list of the things he was hoping to get addressed and took some pictures too so I hope we can get all that stuff taken care of so he is happier about that.

ANYWAY, so it was a little confusing when I left but I think they did submit a plan today to get a building permit. It is hard to tell if the structural/retrofit guys are done? BUT, if they can get started soon I would expect the construction to take 2-3 weeks. Which means Stein and I might be able to get in and start moving stuff around Sept 15th which would put our soft opening at October 1st-ish. Send me lots of good hopeful vibes!

A ray of sunshine in the clouds...

2011-08-23T13:23:00.001-07:00

Today David and I went down and talked to Kevi. She was so sweet; she told me her story a bit and how her and her husband saved up to buy the buildings they owned, along with some of their siblings. Her husband passed away some years ago and the living siblings are all getting older, some are in very expensive assisted living. She knew that Stan had lost it with me and she chided me a bit for putting too much pressure on him.

At any rate we all agreed that we really just wanted to get the restaurant open and needed to collaborate and help each other out. It was a big relief to just be able to sit and talk in a reasonable way about everything. I know Stan is very stressed about other stuff (that has nothing to do with me) and seems close to some kind of break down. I just have to be a business person and work thru whatever obstacles come my way.

So Kevi said she would set up a meeting this week with David and I and Stan (hopefully Thursday). David said he would help with some of the finish work if needed and then on the way home he said if he needed to help me financially get thru to the opening, he would. This is a huge relief to me but I am still hopeful we will be open some time in September. Stein can't be out of work much longer and he is a huge part of my 10 year plan. I will find a way...

David said on the way back from Kevi's, "The end is always the hardest part of any project. You will get thru this." And today on my Facebook... I had an outpouring of love and support from my friends... it really restored my faith in the goodness of the world, my place in it and that I am part of something that is good and meant to be. Thank you Universe for showering me with inspiration just when I need it.

Paralyzed with grief...

2011-08-23T08:26:00.001-07:00

I know in some ways I am over reacting by taking all of the obstruction personally. I get it, Stan really doesn't like me. He treats me totally differently than he treats the guys... like I am a woman and thus below him in the hierarchy. I am not really here to educate him on the modern view on sexism; I just want to open my restaurant. I have also had the dubious pleasure for most of my life of being very very beloved by 90% of the people I meet... the other 10% hate me with a white hot passion that is normally reserved for Hitler or Pol Pot.

So it hard not to take it personally when he is clearly stalling on purpose. I am not sure what the reasoning is... maybe they are hoping I will give up and they can re-lease the new improved space to someone else for more money? Maybe they are just really tight fisted and hoping if they stall long enough I will finish up the work on my own dime? I wish I knew.

I just know that every day now I am visualizing what failure looks like. To me, to the people who have believed in me and invested in me, to my family and my ability to support them... it is totally terrifying. It is hard to keep going forward right now. I am so angry, so afraid. Yes, lawyers are one option. A long lengthy option that is very expensive. It also would pretty much kill my dream of having my own restaurant any time soon. I can't afford to start over.

I wish they had been honest with me about all of the problems the building had so I could have found another place to lease. I wish they had done the work while the place was empty before I leased it. I wish I wish I wish. If wishes were fishes...

I have to find a way to get things done in a hostile environment; I really don't have a choice. This means stuffing my grief as far down as I can and thinking outside the box. The hostile man that I have been working with is no longer willing to work with me. He said I need to go thru his mom, who is clearly not the organizer for the work on the shop and is not a native english speaker, and thus very difficult to understand. I am so upset and emotionally invested that I am having a hard time talking about stuff rationally and calmly. The other problem is they clearly do not see women as "the boss" and don't feel they have to treat me like one.

So, for the sexism issue, I have two men in my life who are willing to be the point of contact, David and Brion. I hate having to abdicate my voice to someone else but I need to get things done too. David is willing to go talk to Kevi with me and see if we can set up different line of communication besides Stan. I will do that tomorrow when David's schedule is a little looser. We have gathered the information that they do have a plan, it just needs to be formally submitted with the fees. We will see if Kevi is willing to do that this week so Busby can get started soon.

I think I am going to have to call the retrofit contractor myself and get them to remove all of the equipment they have been storing in my shop so we can get started on the floor and ADA work. Stan has damaged the relationship with them to the point they just walked away, leaving stuff half done and their equipment all over the place.

I just want the angry weird guy out of my life all together, so maybe this is a blessing in disguise? Maybe I can just wash my hands of Stan and get on to solving the problem? Maybe Kevi has other children who are capable and competent who can help out with the language barrier? We just have to find the work around. I know he is going to continue to try to block my opening, but maybe if we can find a way to ignore him and focus in a more positive direction things will start to fall into place.

I think that is the hardest part of all this. I really never believed that Stan was organized or interested enough to get the work done, and it always kind of bothered me that I had to abdicate control over something so important to someone so apathetic and unorganized... and that was BEFORE he started seething with hatred and anger. So maybe if David and I can help Kevi get the stuff done, I will feel a lot better? Maybe it is a blessing to let Stan off the hook as well, so he can have less stress and be happier? Better karma. Maybe his blow up is the catharsis everyone needed to move forward?

Anyway... I feel better after venting. I just need to be ME and find a plan and then implement it. I am not a shrinking violet. I am a bad ass and I can DO this.

The nightmare continues...

2011-08-22T16:29:00.000-07:00

So Stan finally called me back today. He told me he was refusing to let me open until this wacky list of things he wants David to do is done. He point blank refused to tell me when the work was going to be done so I could open. When I said, "that is not acceptable, it's been months, I need to know". He basically told me to go to hell. He also told me he is no longer speaking to me.

So now... David is going to try and talk to him, but I suspect I will have to get a lawyer. It's such a nightmare. I cannot believe that the 100 things I had to coordinate (ABC, Health Dept, Building Dept, County Sewer... you name it) the thing that was the biggest nightmare was my landlord. It just doesn't make any sense. Don't they WANT me to open and be successful? What is in it for them that I cannot open? They agreed to let me not pay rent until it is open, so they are not getting anything out of this. I just don't get it?

Landlord still is not calling me back...

2011-08-22T13:51:00.000-07:00

So there is no new information except what I can track down myself. They do seem to have some kind of plan down at the Planning Dept (which is in the same building as the Building Dept, so they are pretty good at inter office communication) for consideration. I found this out by physically going to the Building Dept and asking Dave Scola and crew. I found out what the tentative plan for the ADA fix was by tracking down the contractor Stan hired and asking him directly. Stan has not returned calls in weeks, in fact I think he is pissed I can't "Wait patiently" for an answer. I think 7 months is plenty patient.

I am losing thousands of dollars in revenue every month. The wait is a real hardship on my Sous Chef's family. It is so depressing. I am not sure if it should make me feel worse or better that our products are so popular we can barely keep stuff in stock. I need my own kitchen. I can only do stuff half assed until I have my own place to store and process products.

I am so burned out. And the hard part is yet to come. You know... the part where I actually get in the kitchen and get started and open the doors to the public. And I can't afford to be anything less than perfect for that part. Did I come here to be a girl? Or did I come here to KICK ASS? Kick ass... of course.

Feeling a little down today...

2011-08-16T22:36:00.000-07:00

I can really feel the strain the never ending delay is having on mine and Stein's lives today. I know there is not a lot a can do about it, but it sometimes seems so unfair that my landlord's apathy has such great effect on our lives. If either of us had known how little a priority it was for them to fix the issues with the building (or if they had disclosed the issues going in), we could have both gotten jobs, or I could have picked a site that didn't have so many problems.

There is no use in my crying about it now, when we are finally getting close to stuff being done. But I am so tired of the stress and lack of control I have over the situation. I can't ask Stein to work forever like this. I know realistically we are looking at opening next month, but even typing that out loud strikes fear into my heart... like I am jinxing myself by even hoping.

I talked to Dave Scola down at the Buidling Dept today. They are trying to hammer out the aesthetics on the new front (it is a historical building) but they seemed amenable to the contractor doing the floors in the meantime. Jeff Taylor was down there. That guy really doesn't like me. He can barely look at me and then he hurries away as fast as he can. I tried to extend an olive branch by talking him up in front of his boss at Creek Monkey, but clearly that didn't work.

I called Stan to tell him the building dept seemed ok with them getting started on some of the work, but he hasn't been calling me back recently. I would guess it is because he doesn't feel he has answers, but he calls Stein and David back and I can't help but wonder if he has some issues with my being a woman. It is actually pretty rare in my experience so I really hesitate to think that direction. It is such a crutch, "Oh I can't do that because I am a WOMAN... or I can't do stuff because I get treated DIFFERENTLY". I can do anything (well, minus the peeing standing up or flying or that type of thing) and I am more than capable of working with any personality type.

I know I am being whiny... it's so silly, it feels like we are actually getting somewhere recently. Our clients love the Charcuterie, we are doing a brisk business. Only one more hurdle to overcome, getting the ADA work done. The Contractor who is doing it seems like the NICEST guy and he's been so good about calling me back and explaining things to the best of his ability.

I sometimes hesitate to express how stressed and discouraged I get because anyone can read this blog. Clients, my landlord, strangers... the press if they so choose. And I suspect I should always be strong and collected in public. But that is not reality. This is an incredibly stressful and difficult thing I am trying to accomplish and since I am trying to help others who might some day try to do the same thing, I want to be as honest as possible. Like Hansel and Gretel leaving bread crumbs in the forest for others to find their way; if I forget to drop them in the difficult places, what good does it do?

At any rate, I am going to try and get some sausage made next week on my own so Stein can get some family stuff done before the restaurant opens and before his little guy goes back to school. It will be strange to work alone; Stein and I are an amazing team. But it will be meditative for me to just putter around my kitchen making whatever I feel inspired to make and getting things organized so we can really hit the ground running when we find out low much longer for the build out. Pray/hope for me that it won't be much longer!

YAY!!!! Earthquake Retrofit is DONE!

2011-08-15T10:07:00.001-07:00

So the most complicated part of the reconstruction is done, whew! David talked to Stan this morning and the plans for the ADA fix have been submitted to the Building Dept. Sooooo maybe we WILL open in Sept!

Why Opening a Restaurant is such a special adventure....

2011-08-14T13:15:00.001-07:00

So as regular readers will know, Stein and I found the perfect smoker last week! I'd been looking since February of last year with no luck. It has to be electric, it has to be a very specific to work in the space. It really basically had to be an Alto Shaam. Go US for finding the smoker!

This is one piece of equipment among 40 pieces of equipment I need to open my business.

So we move the Shaam into the space and check out the plug... which of course is this weird three pronged 220 plug. So now we need to find an electrician who can come wire a special outlet for the plug. Stein's wife is a boat electrician and she thinks she can probably install it, but it is not what she normally does so she asks for some guidance (the person giving her advice happens to be wrong, but we don't find this out until after it's installed).

So we get the outlet and install it. Then the bad advice comes to fore when we flip the main and their is a flash of ozone, and then darkness. So then we need to find out which of the breakers outside is ours. None of them are marked, it's Sunday and nothing is open and they all have ancient locks on them. Needless to say, it was a LONG day.

Then we go to plug in the smoker and... it is the wrong outlet. Apparently there are like 2 billion of these 3 pronged 220 outlets and we grabbed the C073 instead of the C073.25 and so... after all that, Alicia had to go back today and put in another one! Thank god for El Tapatio and their very strong margaritas. Which we did imbibe in after leaving TCS.

Today got this via text from Stein and his lovely bride. POWER WORKING To Smoker!!!

And this, my friends is why it takes 8 months to open a 720 sq ft restaurant. Every flipping appliance has a special outlet, or needs hot and cold water running to it. OR needs a special floor sink. OR needs to be hooked up to the grease trap. It's not like you can just buy a thing and plug it in. OH NO. Some appliances have TWO different plugs, and the two different plugs actually need two different shaped outlets and are different voltages. I kid you not. Your plugs at home... all standard. In a restaurant... a whole rainbow cornucopia of different shapes, sizes, prong counts, prong shapes and voltages.

Like finding a needle in a haystack...

2011-08-09T15:24:00.000-07:00

We've been looking for a smoker since last October. Once we were in the space it became a requirement that it be 1. electric (so we don't have to put it under the hood, and it doesn't need a special gas hook up and fire suppression system) and 2. small (the kitchen is TINY) and 3. That it could cold smoke (so the heating element and the smoking element are on separate controls) and so the ONLY smoker we really could use was the Alto-shaam holding oven with smoker.

In all of this time only ONE came onto Craigslist, it was $1800 and was sold in hours. So yesterday another one came on Craigslist in great condition (only four years old) for $2100. I didn't have that amount of spare cash on hand so I asked some friends if they would be willing to help me out and they said yes!!! TOTALLY saving my bacon (pun intended!). So today Stein and I trekked into San Francisco and grabbed the smoker... It is the piece of equipment I've been looking for the longest, and it was almost the last thing I found. It is so beautiful!

We also dropped off the Charcuterie for Savour this morning. I am so proud of our salumi!

This week will be a lot of salumi production, both for a catered lunch on Friday and my favorite San Francisco client. Apparently everyone LOVES the blackberry berber catsup. We will try to put in some whole muscle salumi as well.

All I really want to do is put my meat in your mouth...

2011-08-08T14:07:00.001-07:00

Sausage innuendo is THE BEST!

I feel like things are kind of stagnant again on the restaurant front. I think Contractors live in a different time/space continuum when it comes to how long a "day" or a "week" might be. The Retrofit Guys said they would be done on Friday. I went in today and several new beams have been brought in, and the floor has been torn up. Like... there is a whole new project that was started? Something? I am not sure? It's all just confusing insanity.

I went in today to finish up the Comp-u-pay paperwork, which hands over payroll (accounting and disbursement) to people qualified to disburse that competently. I still cannot believe how large the steel beams are! Our front is only maybe 14 feet wide and now 3-4 feet is taken up with beam! Beam that still needs to be sheetrocked in! Of course it is impossible to get information out of Stan, who is no longer really responding to our calls.

But we found the EXACT smoker we need!!! I just need to find $1200 to go grab it, which I feel pretty confident I can do. (fingers crossed)

This weekend was pretty awesome, we catered a beautiful wedding, delivered more Charc to Tony Baker at Montrio's Bistro and got an order from Savour (which we will deliver to Napa tomorrow). It is interesting to note there is a huge demand for cured meats. Stein and I are trying to gauge as best we can what we can afford to sell to restaurants vs. what we need for Compass Star. It is so difficult to gauge when we don't have a clear idea of an opening date. I think we will need to do about 25# a week for Montrios, and probably 12-15# for Savour. Plus another 15# a week for ourselves. That's a lotta salami. We really need to explore some of the hot smoked varieties so we have a few super accessible salumi that only take a week or so to make. We are going to put in some Spanish style chorizo this week.

I feel like a bird about to jump off a cliff... can I fly or not? I set up my life post-divorce to work towards this goal. I went to school, worked in the industry and moved to open my business in the time frame where I was getting both alimony and child support. Alimony ends next month and the stakes are huge. My business will likely open within weeks of my needing to take on a much larger financial responsibility for myself. I own a home, I am a head of household with three children, I have three room mates who count on my being able to pay the mortgage... I have a lot of responsibilities.

And a lot of restaurants fail... in fact most do. I've done everything I can to avoid the common traps. I have almost no debt. My overhead is a fraction of what is normal. I have a very conservative business plan based on 80 covers total per day (evenly split between breakfast and lunch). I have a true partner in Stein who is willing to work hard for future rewards without seeing them up front. I am getting great advance buzz. We are picking up clients for regular income slowly but surely, and they are really cool places to be showcased.

I cannot control how fast the construction is done BUT I suspect it is moving forward at a decent pace now. I feel pretty zen about my leap of faith... I think I should be more afraid of financial ruin but I am just eager to get started and show the world my food.

COOL!!

2011-08-05T22:15:00.001-07:00

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Tid Bits...

2011-08-04T16:43:00.000-07:00

Tid bits... were this awesome sampler platter that my mom used to order for us at Dave Wong's in Stockton. Dave Wong's was this fantastic American Chinese place that had a side deli with the best "Garlic Chicken" ever, deep fried to greasy perfection with moist chicken and perfectly crunchy crust. Tid-bits were deep fried green beans, crab puffs dipped in toasted sesame seeds and I think foil wrapped chicken. They opened a new place shi-shi place in even northerner North Stockton. I didn't like it very much.

I love the old Chinese Restaurants in Stockton. There was one with private rooms, the little accordion door would shut behind the stooped old waiter and the big round table with the lazy susan in the middle. Primarily Cantonese food... via 3 generations in America.

Stockton... I loved it there. Unpretentious but trying, with the largest inland shipping port on the West Coast winding like an artery out to the bigger world. Stockton always felt like an older woman from the wrong side of the tracks with a lot of soul and twinkle in her eyes. Lazy docks bumping against mossy shores, deep gray clay under pete soil. Sunshine and BBQs and flip flops and mangy beaches covered with bloated river plants. We dug for clams with our toes and sold them for bait to grizzled old fisherman on dilapidated aluminum boats. A gallon baggie for $2.00.

This week Stein and I are prepping for a wedding in Santa Cruz. I really like the menu, simple but elegant. We got the stone fruit for the mostarda at the farmer's market. We tried the peaches and apricots and cherries, so full of mid summer flavors, before we bought them. Today the slow delicious process of shopping for just-the-thing went in earnest.

I want granite serving platters similar to the ones we used at Wente. They were elegant, natural and kept food cold. Such a simple thing. So we found a small purveyor online and toddled over to their Concord store. A small Asian man showed us around the discard pile of granite. It was all cut very straight and I asked how we could get the jagged natural edges I was looking for and he held a slab over his head and dropped it, shattering it... PERFECT!

Then we scoured some local stores for the pillars to hold the smaller pieces over the larger ones (I promise pictures later) and found just the thing at Big Lots. I felt triumphant!

Tomorrow prep goes into high gear. It is going to be fun!

Retrofit and Life in General

2011-08-02T16:41:00.000-07:00

Went down to TCP today and the road was marked off with caution tape while they were working on the retrofit. I peeked in and saw the steel beam has been put in place. They had to put it in thru the roof. I am sure this was really upsetting to my landlord, who has positively freaked out every time something has had to come in through the roof, or any holes have had to be cut into the roof. I am only thankful it wasn't one of the people we'd hired as it is so upsetting to him and I am never sure what to say. It seems obvious to me why holes must be cut in the roof for ventilation systems... oh well, at least we are closer to the end than the beginning.

I dreamed last night that I was in my kitchen and everything had been cleaned and was all shiny and ready to go. Oh how much I long for that time!

I took a picture of the steel beam, it is HUGE. I can see why it was not a good idea to start the ADA stuff until it was in, I suspect the door is going to need to be in a totally different place from where we thought it might go. I have given up trying to plan floor layout until the dust settles. HOWEVER the good news is, the retrofit is projected to be done this Friday, including covering the beams with sheet rock! YAY!

Since I met the contractor Stan has hired to do the ADA work and gotten his business card, I think we should be able to call him some time next week and see what the time trajectory will be on him completing his work, then we will just have to finish the floors and get the kitchen permitted! (sort of, I am sure there is more, but those are the biggies)

Here is a picture that was posted on the Montrio's Bistro web site of the Compass Star salumi they are carrying (pictured are the finocciona, andouille and Nduja). We are SUPER excited about how pretty it is. I think Chef Tony Baker does plate composition courses for other industry professionals.

Stein and I went out to check on the newest batches of Salumi in the curing fridge. It is a new one for us so we need to constantly monitor to make sure there is no bad mold residual in the workings and the good molds take hold. It is extraordinarily wet. Like I've never had a fridge that maintains humidity like this one. This is AWESOME for salumi... but it is going to totally mess with my drying times. We always let clients know what our lead times are (typically 2-6 weeks for simple stuff, 3-12 months for more complex items) and stuff is drying a lot slower and I am not having to mist anything with water... there is no way the Capicolla is going to be done in two weeks though. But that is the downside of making a natural product :)

A nice slow drying process yields a much better salumi without the dark red overly dried out ring on the edges of cut slices so a wet fridge is great. Big manufactures have to control humidity as much as temperature.

I've been trying to get through this blog all day (it feels like great progress is being made on my projects)... but I keep getting distracted. Stein and I filled out the paperwork for Compu-pay today (which is my payroll company), I also printed out all of my hazardous chemical information and put it in plastic sleeves in a binder and got some of the prep lists put together for Christy's wedding this weekend. I am pretty stoked about the food and I think people are going to be really pleased. (knock on wood, of course)

As always there is not enough money to do everything, and I had to pay for my business insurance today ($575 for a half a year), but I am pretty happy about the progress on one of the more complicated aspects of the remodel. It is starting to feel like the future is blank vellum... I will soon dip my quill to ink the next chapter of my life.

It's SO pretty!

2011-07-29T19:52:00.000-07:00

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=211441375575213&set=pu.156270787758939&type=1&theate

The Pig Plate at Montrio's Bistro with Compass Star Nduja, Andouille and Finocciona. I love the way it's been plated! I feel inspired :)

Woo to the Hoo!

2011-07-26T20:38:00.000-07:00

Today Stein and I dropped by the restaurant to meet with Compupay, which is a payroll services company. It ended up being about $60 a month for them to do all of the payroll tax figuring etc for up to 6 employees and cut the checks and automatically deposit them. I am relieved I don't have to decipher payroll taxes and all of that stuff! We then met with the artist painting the mural in the restaurant. As we were getting ready to go to lunch, a guy walked into the restaurant and said he was the contractor that Stan had hired to do the ADA stuff. YAY! We chatted a bit and then we exchanged business cards.

It sounds like he will be starting with his part once the retrofit is done. So I got THAT going for me :) We walked over to Creek Monkey and had lunch after then the kids went to the best candy shop in the world (Main St Sweets) and got ice creams :)

One of my friends from the SCA popped in (Robert) to see if we were open yet and we chatted a bit. Then Stein and I popped over to the kitchen and made 25 # of bratwurst and Andoiulle and then a bunch of mustard. We will deliver to my favorite Sausage Truck owner in the City tomorrow.

We are also meeting with the Health Department tomorrow to get a list of stuff to get done so we can get permitted, then with David and Dino to try and tie up loose ends. We bumped into Stan a few days ago and he was really upset... and it was clear no one is communicating any more. He's been so confrontational with Dino that it's all white noise now, but I would like to know if some of his concerns should be addressed. I fear my lack of experience in restaurant design is the real problem and the plans were so incomplete when they started they just couldn't be as organized about stuff as is normal in these situations. Plus... it made me sad to see how badly communication had broken down. We've tried to call Stan to get as list of his concerns and he isn't calling us back. He really is not a bad person and his honey is really lovely local honey. I would love to be a regular buyer of his products. Oh well, I hope things get better soon.

I was super excited to see that there is a plan forming for the ADA fix too... man, this thing might actually be happening! I am SO stoked!

Lots of busy work...

2011-07-23T20:23:00.000-07:00

Today Stein, Brion, Galen and myself put the large equipment into the facility. There were some real challenges due to the sidewalk being about 6 inches lower than the front door. But we were expecting that part to be a challenge and everyone pulled together and overcame.

We had a couple of really inebriated guys come by and start messing with stuff, and Brion almost got into a fist fight. There is a really dive bar around the corner and up a block... like one of those ones where not everyone has all of their teeth and I've seen girls come in and out of the place wearing no shoes, halter tops and misspelled ink. It is not very noticeable during the week, but on the weekends when most other places are closed... it is more so.

So we got up early and headed into Oakland to Danny's place where we picked up the refrigerators/freezer and then headed back to the storage unit. The guys got everything loaded with remarkably little fuss and we headed to the restaurant and started unloading stuff. My mom and her husband stopped by to say hi (right around when the drunken youths had their incident) . Then Danny came by with a cohort named Jimmy to help hook up the stove and fryer.

Stein and Galen and I walked down to El Tapatio and had lunch and this GIGANTIC margarita. The food was good and inexpensive.

Anyway, it was so awesome to really be able to get the stuff in there and brain storm how we are going to organize the space! We nearly cleaned out the storage unit (everything but the catering stuff) so I will downsize that next week as well.

Our... I am not sure what to call it? Caseworker? Our guy from the Health Department is named Phoung and I know people complain about the health department, but they have really been awesome. I mean it is a REALLY difficult process, and be glad it is for you own health! But they are also SO SO good about helping you understand the requirements. Our guy is coming down informally on Tuesday to go over everything so we can get in there to get permitted.

They are clearly working on the earthquake retrofit, but I am still not sure if they have a plan to fix the ADA stuff? I will have to call Stan about it next week. Sadly I suspect he thinks we will open without it if he stalls long enough, but I just can't afford to be sued so I can't open until it's fixed. Thankfully I suspect it is a much easier fix than the earthquake stuff. And I might get lucky and he might actually be working on it!

Either way... things are progressing! I will have a better idea of timing after we see Phong this week.

ARGH! Money money and more money,,,

2011-07-19T19:57:00.000-07:00

So this weekend we are moving in the equipment (Stove range, refrigerators, fryer, steam table etc). This means

$250 for rental of the truck with the lift gate and pallet jack
$100 for a guy to come hook stuff up
$350 for two quick release gas valves

Yep, $700 just to move the stuff in and get it hooked up. I also need to get gas and water turned on, but the plumber hasn't finished stuff so I hope that will be ok!

On the plus side, Ecolab came out to the site today and did the once over and they are giving us a bunch of stuff (hand dryers, soap dispensers etc) for free for using their products (this is pretty standard). AND very awesome, I talked to my most awesome equipment reseller today and he is going to work something out so we can lease to own a 20 qt mixer and ice machine. And he is being beyond helpful about us getting stuff hooked up this weekend.

So all in all... I am pretty excited about the next chapter... I think this thing might actually happen !

New pictures of progress on the kitchen...

2011-07-18T16:33:00.000-07:00

Wow! What a difference a floor makes! So awesome to check it all out!. today we went down and met with the new Exec Chef at Creek Monkey and did a tasting and also had some lunch. We had the pulled pork sliders and an arugula salad plus the paninni. Everything was really good! YAY!

We also got to to meet the master brewer for the Creek Monkey and some of the wait staff. They were all very personable and fun to hang out with. I think Stein and I will be having a beer after work on a regular basis over at Creek Monkey!

Exciting Week Ahead!

2011-07-17T22:02:00.001-07:00

Tomorrow Chef Tony Baker from Montrios in Monterey will be visiting the restaurant site. This means Stein and I will be hanging out in the morning at the almost completed restaurant! I will try to remember to get pictures for the Blog. He is picking up the first order for Salumi for the restaurant. We are then meeting the new Chef at Creek Monkey to do a tasting and have lunch.

Then we will be spending the afternoon grinding the offal for Nduja. I cleaned the hearts and kidneys today and kitted out the spices. I would have ground everything but I had to take pork out of the freezer to let it thaw anyway.

I only have about 4# of Nduja left and every one of the restaurant clients we've seen have seemed to prefer it. Tuesday we are making spicy lamb Slim Jims with really small casings. Then we are organizing all of the equipment to be moved into the restaurant next weekend. (YAY!!!)

Then we will spend some time moving stuff around and making lists of stuff we need, and then... (insert drum roll) going for our permitting! Wish me luck!

No one else can feel it for you, only you can let it in...

2011-07-15T09:26:00.000-07:00

Feel the rain on your face ~ Natasha Beddingfield, Unwritten

Today is kind of a day of rest... KIND of.

Stein and I took the measurements of the space and got the measurements of the cold storage units from our fantastic equipment purveyor (Danny). So I've been hanging out this morning playing tetris on paper with the spaces, which are simply going to be really tight.

I am worried. This is a constant state of being for me currently. I am worried the sink is not big enough to wash all of our larger equipment. I am worried about having the money to buy the last of the equipment we need. I am worried they put the hand sink in the front on the wrong side of the wall and now I may have to build a barrier between the walkway and the behind the counter area. I am worried about having a sneeze guard for the sandwich prep station. I am worried about how I am going to get an ice maker and a standing mixer. I am worried about how we are going to work out the smoking. I am worried about where and how we are going to clean and degrease the stove. I am worried about Brion's back for next weekend when we are supposed to be moving stuff into the space. I am worried that David won't remember I need another plug/outlet on the wall the left. I am worried I won't find an espresso grinder for a decent price.

I am just so very very worried.

But, dappled like sunshine in the forest, rays of light keep shining through. We are getting so much interest for the salumi that I may need to stop at my current number of wholesale clients (at least until we see how production goes in the new kitchen). I am so proud of the clients and potential clients we have currently; really dynamic and serving the kinds of foods and wines that are SO exciting. That part of this process has been such a fun journey. Meeting people who are similarly passionate about what they do; true believers and ardent advocates for real hand crafted food. I am deeply grateful for the California food and wine culture that encourages craftspeople to push the envelope whole-hog (pun intended).

This past summer has been busy busy with catering, but I am finding that I am still largely catering for friends or friends of friends. Stein and I plan to hit a few of the wedding conventions this fall to see if we can change that a bit. There is one on Sept 18 on Main St in Martinez which we won't have top pay to attend, so we will likely start with that and see how that goes.

I am really getting excited about the prospect of opening too. We have been passing the new hamburger place on our way back and forth from the restaurant and it seems pretty hopping. It is hard to imagine how people will receive us. So far the people in Downtown Martinez have been really awesome.

When we did the Peddler's Fair, the local business people were really curious about us. We had a young couple from the bank come by and introduce themselves, plus several of the artists that participate in the Co-op at the end of the street, plus others. They really seemed to enjoy the food and sought us out specifically to sample our products. I will be so glad to be in my own kitchen! But there is still so much to do before that will be a reality. Bleh... back to worrying lol

Salumi Tasting at Savour in St Helena

2011-07-14T13:17:00.000-07:00

Stein and I drug Galen into Napa today to do a Salumi tasting at Savour in St Helena. It was a lot of fun! It is a co-op tasting room for 7 micro-wineries and it is run by Dejan Nikitovic and Meghan Farley. We got to try some KILLER wines in conjunction with our salumis and... it was just a lovely space and Dejan and Meghan were really personable and knowledgeable.

They are looking to serve small hand crafted charcuterie with wines that are also handcrafted and from small wineries. I think it is a genius concept. Some of the most exceptional wines in Napa are not generally available to the public because the vintners are too small to have the big flashy marketing machine (nor would they likely be able to provide wine in the quantities needed by Costco) enjoyed by the large Wineries. I think the hard core foodies and oenophiles really WANT those hand crafted one of a kind products to be available to them in a beautiful setting like the one Savour has created.

I think they really liked the products and I am pretty excited to be given an opportunity to be a part of something so timely and... well cool!

It was fun to drink fantastic wines and hang out and do a brain dump on salumi. They seemed genuinely interested in all of the historical coolness of the Garde Manger kitchen; enough to ask me if I would be interested in coming to do a tasting/teaching demonstration with the wines. How cool is that!?

Some days... I really REALLY love my job.

Exciting News!

2011-07-14T13:08:00.000-07:00

Stan started the ADA and Earthquake work! WOO HOO!!! This means this part of the construction may be done in a few weeks.

SO the floor for the kitchen is going in this weekend which means (drum roll please) we are going to be moving fixtures in next weekend! (July 23/24)

SO if we move stuff in next weekend, we could spend the week getting everything settled and then go for our kitchen permit in a couple of weeks. (July 24-29)

THEN, assuming we go for our permitting on a couple of weeks and they flag a few things that take us (hopefully not more than) a week or so to fix. (July 29- August 5)

Then two weeks of food prep time (August 8-19)

Then our soft opening (August 21st) for friends and family.

then one shut down and processing day (August 22)

Then a week long test run/soft opening (August 23-26)

Then MAYBE just MAYBE (and there is a ridiculous amount of monket-wrench that could be thrown into any part of that plan) we might able to open like Sept 1st.

Strange to think... this thing might ACTUALLY be really happening (knock on wood)!

Wine happens...

2011-07-12T19:40:00.000-07:00

Today was whiplash day. One minute you are standing with your Sous Chef admiring the wall of work you have accomplished (frankly, not unlike how Michelangelo must have stood back after finishing the Sistine Chapel and admired his accomplishments). And then the next minute, you are on the phone hearing that they've started the structural work on the restaurant and... if everything goes perfectly (and it won't... but if it DID) you might able to open on September 1!

Whoooa... so Steinster and I hit brain overload on the billions of details... but in a good way. And now I've had a lot of wine. I will have to list the litany of details streaming thru my brain... tomorrow... some time.

Jeez, can you imagine... I might actually be opening a restaurant!

Monday starts with M

2011-07-11T18:04:00.001-07:00

And M is also for Money!

Today was a good paperwork day. I wrote down the new new recipes (Saffron Salumi and the Saucisson Sec) and answered an email from a small tasting room that is interested in our Salumi for wine pairings. I am kind of excited about the tasting because it is a shared tasting room for 7 small vintners and I am looking for small wineries to showcase in the restaurant so it could be really mutually beneficial. Stein and I will go down there on Thursday and bring a nice sampling.

I also chatted with Chef Tony Baker (online) and we will be filling the first order on Monday for Montrios Bistro in Monterey. YAY! I love this restaurant and I feel like the garage band who just got signed for it's first major recording deal that my stuff is going to be not only served there, but I am going to be credited on the menu! It is SO cool.

I was also contacted by the Contra Costa Times today by their Food and Wine columnist who is interested in doing a piece on us! It is so frustrating that I still don't know when we will be able to open. Stan has told me point blank on the phone last Friday he does not have any idea when the stuff with be fixed. I will go down some time this week to see if the retrofit has been started, but I am less concerned with the retrofit than the ADA issues. I really can't open until he fixes both, and I suspect he isn't sure how to even start.

So I called David and whined mightily and he will probably call Stan this week and try to get something rolling. Unfortunately Stan just doesn't respect me and trying to get anything done is like wading thru molasses. I am hopeful things will happen a lot more quickly if David can help talk him thru the process. Go Team Compass Star!

Tomorrow Stein and I will stuff the capicolla into bungs and hang them and then work on some duck sausages.

WE HAVE SAUSAGE!

2011-07-10T09:11:00.000-07:00

Stein and I looked at our cache of product a few weeks ago and went, "AHHHHHHH! We are dangerously low!" So we got down to bid'ness and have probably made 120 pounds of charcuterie in the past two weeks.

And what beautiful Charc it is! To the left you will see the most beautiful head cheese known to man. Yes, we flayed the entire flesh from the head and wet brined it for 5 days, then sous vide cooked it for 36 hours at 150 degrees. It is a solid mass of deliciousness. That strip of white that looks like bacon is actually part of the jowl.

We also made Summer Sausages, Saffron Salami (with whine and cardamom), Saucisson Sec (hard French salami with out added fermenting agent, just garlic oregano and wine), Finocciona, Tuscan (sweet) Salami, capicolla, hot coppa, Nduja and... and... lardo... and... pastrami... other stuff too.

It is a big relief to feel like I have product coming since our stuff takes SO long (sometimes 6-8 months).

Mr Toad's Wild Ride

2011-07-07T22:27:00.000-07:00

It was a really weird week on the restaurant front...

Apparently my landlord showed up at the inspections to close the walls and tried to talk the inspector into making them do a bunch more work before we could pass the inspection (this was after the inspector was done approving the work). Then he called the inspector again the next day and talked him into going down to the site when the contractor wasn't there to crawl around under the building and try to get them to... I am not sure? Rescind the approval?

David finally got fed up and told him off. He's been in the industry for more than 35 years and never had that happen... ever. It sometimes feels like this nightmare I cannot wake up from. I don't know how it got so bad or why? I am taking a very outdated simple space and making $70k worth of improvements and the building owners are furious with me and trying to prevent it (They were fully aware of everything I planned to do and even had input into the scope of the work). I just don't understand how they think? They are always full of rage and complaints, obstructionist and abusive. David was going to try to help them get the ADA work done, but none of his guys want to work with Stan/Kevi any more. Stan has no idea when the work will be done, or even how he is going to get it done. It's all so unorganized and angry and strange... I don't understand why they are trying to sabotage my business. It just doesn't make any sense. We all succeed when I succeed.

I informally called a good friend who is a real estate lawyer to see what my rights are. We've set up a chat tomorrow morning. God I hope we can come back from this and forge something good from the chaos.

Wow!

2011-07-05T13:42:00.001-07:00

Bri and I visited the facility on Monday and (of course I forgot my phone so no pictures yet) there are walls and everything! Plus David called this morning and said the engineer Stan hired was getting started this week. Whew! Finally movement on that end.

So this week we will go to Oakland to my favorite equipment guy (Danny, he is fantastic if you are looking for used restaurant equipment) and finish paying for our cold storage. I also need to send Brion over to pay for the under counter keg storage in the So Bay as well. I am hoping we will be able to move equipment in there in a couple of weeks and get it all hooked up to make sure everything works and make any repairs that are needed as well before we try to get our Health Dept permit (another $500 bucks).

I am hoping Stan will get back to me soon about the time frame on the front so I can start planning an opening date! Whew! There are times I thought that would never happen (knock on wood). I am SO ready to be in my own kitchen.

Cheering myself up is not so hard to do...

2011-07-02T15:24:00.000-07:00

I did some Tarot, and it made me feel cheerful. I think there may be some inertia short term, but things will flow eventually.

I also finally hung the Finocciona Stein and I made last week. It is so pale! I think the shoulder-butt we used was really really fatty. I am sure it will make for yummy salumi, but it is definitely not the standard color. I wish we had used the fattier pork for the saffron salumi as it would have showcased the mild yellow color really well.

I also put some hot coppa to cure and used my new "Smoking Gun" to cold smoke the Nduja with some apple and cheery woods. I used Alder last time and I wished for the sweeter wood when I was done, so this time I used fruit woods.

The Smoking Gun works well but it has to be frequently refilled with tiny wood chips. It worked well when I cater-wrapped a lexan and left the gun inside for two bowls full of wood. . . I am curious however how much smoke flavor it really imparts? We shall see!!

The last batch of Finocciona is almost done curing, the beef middle sized ones maybe need another week or two. I am going to mist them with water so they don't dry out too fast!

Bri and I are spending the lazy weekend at home with me getting some loose ends tied up for work. I still need to case the Tusan which means I need to clean and tie some beef middles and set up the stuffer. The problem is it is easily 100 degrees today and not the best weather for stuffing sausages. I will try to get to that early tomorrow morning when it is still cool.

I had a fantastic day on Thursday with Stein and his best friend, who is moving up to the area. We went to the city and dropped off product then out to Napa. Napa is one of the world's most perfect places. Rolling vineyards, great food, goats roaming in pastures... we came home and watched Bottle Shock and drank two bottles of V Sattoui Sangiovese and then we watched Sucker Punch, which I also thought was fantastic. I slept most of yesterday... and was grateful for it.

I have been feeling pretty depleted, but the rest has cheered me up and I am feeling a lot more zen today. I have come so far and I am doing great! It is not my fault my landlord is not very organized and I have enough catering and restaurant business that I should do ok until he can figure it out. I wish things were moving faster, but I need to stop being a spoiled baby about not getting everything I want, the first second I want it. I am pretty sure I will survive this process!

Feeling worn out...

2011-07-02T08:05:00.000-07:00

I think human beings can take a ton of stress for short periods of time, but to have it go on for months at a time is grueling. The saddest thing is my primary reason for stress can be summed up as having landlords with a personality style that is really different from mine.

We had inspections on Wednesday. Stan and Kevi came by and actually tried to sabotage the inspections by pointing out the thing they thought were wrong. The really strange thing is, I know they want David to help them get the front fix done, but they have been so miserable for the guys to work with between the outright sabotage of the inspections and the ongoing bizarre accusations (peeing on the roof and "Critters" etc) I am not sure why David would sign on for more abuse? I just don't understand how they think. They act like I am the enemy and everyone is out to get them and the only way they can do things is by being totally antagonistic. It seems a backwards way to get things done to me.

Now Stan is not returning my calls and I suspect I know why... he has not taken the steps he needed to take to get the front fixed and now I am nearly done with the kitchen, so I am not going to be able to open. And there is no solution in sight. I think the problem is pretty complex and will take some time to get thru the design, approval and construction process and that process, as far as I can tell, has not been started at all. He hired an engineer that is a total flake and has refused to hand over drawings to the contractor. So we really are at square one. I wish he would get help from someone who can follow thru and get the work done.

The thing that gets to me the most is how carefully I planned for my dream and how excited I was to reach for my goals but the reality is the logistics have been a total nightmare so far. I can't continue on like this forever but the primary cause of stress is not going to end any time soon. I can't make Stan and Kevi be reasonable and predictable and they will be my landlords as long as I am at this place. I am losing sleep and irritable. I worry that by the time I open I will be so worn down I will not have the energy and enthusiasm to do a good job. It is clear they have zero respect for me and seem to be trying to sabotage my business. I just don't understand this... if I am successful we all win.

In the lease there are provisions for mediation and I think if there isn't movement soon, I will try to figure out what the process is to go thru mediation and see if that doesn't help get things back on track. I am worried I am going to have some kind of nervous breakdown.

I am so sick of delays...

2011-06-28T18:26:00.000-07:00

Today the plumbers came to do some work and Stan wasn't there to let them in so they stood around for three hours (at $350.00 per hour)... Stan says he wasn't told he was supposed to be there and his Aunt had a stroke so he is trying to deal with family stuff right now. I feel really bad for his family, but I am so sick of delays. We should have had inspections last week and we are still waiting for the plumbers to finish so the inspections can happen... and it doesn't look like it's happening this week either.

I just feel SO frustrated. I know they are angry I am not paying rent, but I don't think I should have to pay rent on a space that is functionally unable to be open for business for something that they should have fixed when the space was empty (for almost a year) that they did not disclose to me in the first place. It doesn't even seem like they are working on it at all either. It's kind of like a horrible nightmare between the insanity and the language barrier.

The worst part is it is setting up this horrible antagonistic dynamic that I hate. REALLY hate. I need these people on my side. We are basically married to one another for the next 3-5 years. We can have a horrible dysfunctional marriage or things can be nurturing and helpful. I just fear if I start paying rent, they will never fix it and I will be stuck there for the next 3 years living out my lease and unable to open because they are happy they are getting their $1500 a month and don't want to spend the money to fix the problems.

It has been such a miserable experience for everyone. Even the construction workers have commented on it. They are used to working on multi million dollar projects that have less problems and less issues with the landlords.

I guess you can look at it two different ways... that the trail of it is the bad juju out of the way and all the good stuff is yet to come, but after my past few years of issues in my hobby (the SCA) with no resolution, I am having a hard time ascribing to this. And I worry it is a cultural thing, they like to grouse about everything, and if there is nothing to grouse about they make something up (last time it was that the construction workers had let "caged critters" out on the roof and now the building was rife with "critters" that were getting in to the other businesses, I shit you not... the other day the accused the roofers of "peeing on the roof" and harassing passing women). I can't work that way. I am not interested in grousing about everything. I want solutions. I want a pleasant and fun working environment. I want collaboration and team work. This antagonism is miserable for me.

In more cheerful news I got my second real restaurant order today from Creek Monkey. It was smallish, but I am so low on product that was pretty merciful. Stein and I are in the process of building up again, but we'd planned to be in our kitchen by now so we are down to almost nothing.

I need to talk to Stein about us putting in some quick fire salumi (mortadella, murguez, jagerwurst, ham) so we have something to give to people in the interim. but we need to fill the orders we have in the queue now. 25 pounds of fresh sausage tomorrow (the organic Berbere Blackberry Catsup is done) for delivery on Thursday, plus the rest of the dry cure stuff, plus we have two more heads for Testa that need to go into wet cure. I am also totally ashamed to be out of pastrami. It is in the cure now, but as one of our signature dishes... I have to have it on hand all the time.

I have three regular wholesale clients now, with the expectation that T-rex will come online any time. I suspect that will be my limit until we get the restaurant open and see what our needs are. Stein will kill me if I take on much more restaurant business (and he is right to be concerned).

So I suppose I could see this as... my time to find my bearings and get comfortable with my restaurant clients needs unencumbered by the needs of the restaurant. I also have a steady stream of catering through October. I just need to take a deep breath and try to focus on the good things. The holiday catering season will start shortly after that. If the kitchen is at least licensed, I will offer seasonal delivery dinners and New Years Eve salumi platters etc.

I think I just don't have confidence that my landlords are ever going to take care of the stuff they need to take care of. I don't think it is malicious... it is just a really complicated process that takes focus and determination and not everyone has the ability to manage that type of process. If it were me, I would be ALL over it... like I am with most things... to just see this sort of... lackadaisical attitude like the stuff is going to fix itself is just killing me. I guess I can't expect everyone to be as excited about realizing my dream as I am...

ARGH! My kindgom for a shank of middles!

2011-06-27T21:29:00.001-07:00

We were stymied today in sausage production by not having enough casings on hand. I am out of Beef Middles and we need a (no pun intended) crap ton of them to fill with Tuscan and Finocciona, which are both ground spiced and ready to go in giant lexans. We cased the finocciona and then ran out. I added about 4 more grams of fennel pollen, plus 170 g of moscato to the recipe and it is indeed the most delicious finocciona I've ever made. 6 weeks in a cure and I will be flouncing all about town trying to get people to put my meat in their mouths (again).

The last batch of Tuscan is nothing like what I wanted. I used a really fast acting lactobacillus and the spices were overpowered by the acidity. It is such a unique and wonderful salumi that this was a big dissapointment. The recipe is from a manifesto written by Bartolemeo Scappi and published in 1570/ Scappi was the master chef for pope Pius the V (and others). It was one of the first medieval salumi recipes I found with weights and measures included in the recipe and it is still to this day one of my favorites. I don't think I will buy the fast acting lactobacillus again. I want to taste the pig and the spices in my salumi. So I am pretty excited to be putting in another batch to cure that I think will be much better.

Tomorrow Stein and I will rest while he helps his best friend find housing up in this area. I need to do some paperwork, and to put the recipe changes into my database. I will also get out and get some more pork. I think I am roughly 30# shy of what I need. I also got my new sous vide immersion circulator and it looks great! I can't wait to try it out on the Testa next week! We will also be using it to poach off the fresh sausages for my SF Client.

Wed the fresh sausages will be the priority. Get them ground and cased and poached for delivery. I need to make another gallon of the Berber blackberry organic katsup as well, which I can do while Stein is busy tomorrow.

I am SO excited about this new Finocciona... I used the very minimum of nitrites and lactobacillus. I love the flavor of fennel pollen and I really want it shine thru.

So this week

2 pig heads flayed
2 pig heads into wet cure
1 Brisket trimmed out and in cure for Pastrami
10 pounds of shoulder in my new special cure mix for capicolla
Finocciona ground and cased
Tuscan Salumi ground and ready for casing
2 pig heads boiled off for traditional head cheese
Fat cut and frozen
Ordered a butt (no pun intended) ton of casings
got my immersion circulator
ordered my cold smoking gun

Not bad so far! I am pretty stoked at our progress. I think next week we will mostly case the capicolla (late in the week), sous vide the testa/heads and put a bunch of pickles into brine. Maybe make another round of preserves.

I feel like a kid the week before Christmas... euphorically excited about unwrapping my treasures in the not so distant future!

How do you spell busy? S_A_U_S_A_G_E

2011-06-26T18:38:00.000-07:00

So my cute stoner client asked me for more the katsup (berber and blackberry added), plus he wanted to try my bratwurst and needed 5# of andouille. We said we thought we could do a 3 ounce dog, so he asked for a 3 ounce, 7 inch dog. We made them, they looked really sad. I almost didn't want to give them to him, but they were what he asked for so we did.

Yesterday he said they were great and he wants more, only bigger (thank god), plus more katsup. I think he will be selling them next weekend on his sausage truck?

Stein and I also got started on the charc for Montrio. We already have Nduja and Finocciona in the queue but we needed to make Testa*, hot coppa, capicolla, hot smoked Andouille in the beef middles (vs the one for the sausage truck which are in sheep casings). We got some killer Neiman Ranch back fat and started more lardo as well.

The trick right now is to supply our clients, plus have a good stock of items on hand for our opening, whenever that happens. I know we will have a Bresaola on our first specials menu (in a salad), and we will always have Finocciona on the menu... we are making more the Tuscan salami as well. I think we can serve 3-4 restaurants with a Charc platter, in addition to the fresh sausages for our friend in the city, plus T-Rex.

Stein is trying to temper my tendency to over extend myself... but I am so proud of my product that it is hard not to want to show it off. He is completely right, of course. We are very limited on storage and while fresh sausages are pretty easy for us to do, all of the dry cured stuff will need to be judiciously managed.

I was talking to my friends Stacey and Anthony the other day (they are looking to start some product in the Sacramento area) and commenting that I am surprised at how much demand there is for artisan-locally made meats! It is highly unusual to be getting as much business as I am via word of mouth, with almost no formal marketing. I could probably have a thriving business of just supplying restaurants with hand made Salumi.

I am so grateful for the work, and I am hoping it will help to tide me over until the restaurant is open, but I cannot wait to get back in a kitchen. Between the restaurant business and my catering I think I will be ok through September. God, I hope my landlord figures out how to fix all of the problems before then.

I just put in a bunch of capicolla that I am really excited about. I used the smoked sea salt that my friend Gislane gave me, plus just a tiny bit of Juniper. I am going for a very earthy subtle flavor like a speck I tried recently. We have about 100 pounds of sausage we need to make, and soon. We cut and froze the fat on Wed, today we cut the flesh from the pigs heads and put them in brine, plus started some pastrami, a pig head stock, ground 31 pounds of lean, put the capicolla into cure... and... and... cleaned up the stuff from Stephan's party. Tomorrow we need to kit out our spices and grind the fat in the buffalo chopper.

I think we should get our casings so we can case all the small stuff by Thursday. I ordered a new Sous Vide circulator and I hope it comes in the next week so I can finish up the testa. I saw an inexpensive cold smoke gun that I need to remember to pick up. I could really use it for the Nduja and some of the other cold smoked items (bacon).

Anyway, we are very busy and I think we will need to start planning our pacing a little better. Thank goodness Stein and I get along very well!

*Testa is head cheese. We take a whole pigs head and remove the skin and meat in one piece, then put it in the wet brine for 5-6 days. Then it get sous vide cooked for 36 hours at 160 degrees. Then it get hung until it is nice a solid. We also took the skeletons and I am boiling them down fora more traditional head cheese as well.

Really Fun Private Dinner Party yesterday!

2011-06-26T10:27:00.000-07:00

I love my clients!

Stephan is gluten and pork free so we got to really play with our food this time!

These are Beet chips with house cured salmon, lemon aioli and capers.

Below are tomato gelees with pickled crayfish and tarragon cream

I used Parmesan crisps, fingerling potatoes and beets as the starch delivery systems, and it just felt and tasted more delicious and creative. I might stop being lazy and serving crostini and incorporate more of these types of items on my party menus

The state of Being...

2011-06-24T08:22:00.000-07:00

Things have been crazy hectic here, almost too much so to be able to write much (which kind of sucks for me because it helps me to get focused).

I have not been down to the shop recently because 1. I've been really busy and 2. After my landlady's last melt down I am kind of avoiding them in general.

For the busy... my newest restaurant client needs a bunch of Charcuterie and soon, so today Stein and I are breaking down two pig heads (for Testa) and 60 # (this is pounds in restaurant-speak) for pork and fat for Cappicolla, Finocciona and some other stuff. This is in addition to the much anticipated dinner party for Stephan this weekend. We will likely focus on Stephan's stuff today and hopefully get to the pig fat (so it can get frozen by Sunday)... and then work on the rest of the stuff on Sunday/Monday.

This means I will need to make arrangements for Stein and I to smoke the meats at school (the rental kitchen does not have a smoker) in a couple of weeks. We still have not cold smoked the Nduja we cased last week, plus we have a brisket for pastrami that will need to be hot smoked.

I talked to Stan finally yesterday (the landlady's son, and the property manager for the facility) and I hope that I calmed them down a bit. I had no idea they were so worked up about the build out until I talked to Kevi last week. I know it is really stressful, but Richlen is an excellent construction company and I wish they would give them the benefit of the doubt. OF course it looks chaotic when the walls are all open and the there are holes in the floors. But it will come together in the end.

I am more worried about their ability to get the ADA and earthquake retrofit done. The engineer they hired is a flake. I suspect he might be a scam artist. I feel really bad for Stan and Kevi that they gave this guy money and now he has point blank refused to give them the engineered drawings for the fixes. He's already stalled the project a month by flaking out on the drawings for the side wall... which when we finally got them they were like... hand drawn on a napkin and not even real structural drawings. And now... I suspect once they get the drawings they have at least 6 weeks of work to do, maybe more.

It is frustrating to not be in control of how quickly this stuff gets done. I am getting side business from restaurants and catering, and I think I will be ok through September... but after that I just don't know what I am going to do?

Yay! New Restaurant Client!

2011-06-22T16:08:00.001-07:00

Had a fantastic time in Monterey with my good friend Carol Brink. She hoooked me up with Chef Tony Baker from Montrio Bistro and he LOVED out Charcuterie. He's placed our largest Restaurant Charcuterie order to date today and I am so excited to have my Salumi in fantastic restaurant like Montrio! Plus he is even going to give The Compass Star billing on the Charcuterie! I am so SO excited!

We can realistically only service 3-4 restaurants with Charcuterie in our current kitchen and storage space, and we have already cultivated a relationship with Creek Monkey (due to open soon) so this is restaurant #2 and I could not be more thrilled!

Plus building up the supply will be keep me happily busy making salumi for the next few weeks!

I came in around 4:00 and we chatted about who I am and what I do and who is and what he does. He is British by birth (and SUPER cute, in a very safe-married way) and has been involved with Montrio for the past 15 years. He tried the stuff I brought and then the staff tried it as well, which was a hoot! They were so excited about it and liked it so much! You guys have no idea how validating that is after spending the last six months so focused on opening the restaurant, and paperwork and governmental agencies etc. I miss those interactions so much!

Anyway this morning he placed a large order and we discussed viable delivery times and now... I just get to work to pull it all together doing one of my favorite things in the world... making salumi!!!!

Motoring right along...

2011-06-20T08:40:00.001-07:00

A few odds and ends...

I still don't know when I am going to be able to open. It stresses me out so much every time I talk to my landlord that I am avoiding calling to ask how the ADA fix is going. I justify this in my brain by saying, "They know it has to be done, they are working on it." I know David is talking to them about it.

I was shocked the other day to bump into my landlady and see how stressed she is about the project. I got an earful about the construction workers being on the roof (they are installing the ventilation systems for the hood and bathroom), and everything else. It is a primary reason I unconsciously avoid them; it is just SO stressful to try and manage how out of control she is. I know she is old and from another country... and I really don't have a choice... we are in this together for the long haul. But deep down inside I really hate it that I feel so uncomfortable around them and the adversarial dynamic seems to be set-up now. I have never had that type of relationship with anyone that was a constant in my life and it is really messing with my brain.

What is worse, I feel like when I am nice about the craziness I am somehow encouraging it. But I can't imagine what else to do? I don't want the relationship to deteriorate further. I really would like to have a pleasant collaborative relationship. I feel like all this conflict is so necessary; we all want the same things... for the space to get built out nicely, for my place to open and be successful, for rent to get paid on time. I just don't understand why they want top nit pick everything apart... like the construction workers being on the roof... of course they are on the roof, they are doing their jobs... or the cutting of two holes in the roof, of course they have to have two ventilations sytems, one fire-proof for the hood and one not for the bathroom. Why can't we just trust them to do their jobs without harassing and micromanaging? Or accusing them of "peeing on the roof"?

So today's post is about managing stress.

How to manage stress has been an unforeseen issue that I need to deal with and soon. It isn't the random stress that crops up with the various issues and surprises... it's the relentless stress that does not abate for months and months. It is the feeling that you are juggling a million balls in the air and cannot afford to drop even one of them... and you might have to do it indefinitely. It's the stress when you realize that a core relationship that affects your business will be uncomfortably dysfunctional... probably forever.

I am trying to compartmentalize it. I need to learn that skill. My ex-husband used to be really good at leaving work at work. I feel like I've been not working for so long that I have this large gap in my skill-set that I really need. I take everything so to heart and personally! So... priority number one... thicker skin.

And I need to take a deep breath and get a little more organized. Part of my problem is I keep feeling like I should be DOING more. There was so much activity initially when I was going thru the permitting process for everything (a truly ludicrous gauntlet in California), that now I feel remiss that I am not schlepping around to every government office in Northern California on a daily basis to file and fill out paperwork.

It is time for me to be very client focused and let the contractors do their job. It's time to keep interactions with my landlords to a minimum and be strong enough to not let conversations drift into insane territory. Its time to get frosty, deal with my demons and be the bad ass I am. I am living my dream, a dream I've worked for the past five years to achieve. I knew it would be hard. I knew it wouldn't be perfect. By sheer force of will I am carving my path in this amazing world.

OH and on that note... I am getting some pretty cool buzz! I was at Smart and Final renting some equipment for Boone's wedding and the guy recognized my name and Compass Star! He said, "oh you are that lady that makes the sausage!" LOL it was awesome! I felt like a famous rock star!

And Sue had an electrician out working at her office who had heard of me too! I am pretty stoked about all that... bring it on, my meat rocks ;)

And the funniest thing... the pot smoking hotdog truck guy... he wants me to bring him more sausages and ketchup (specially made with blackberry preserves and berber spice)... I am starting to think I am like "Gourmet Munchie Night" delivery service. Whatever, he pays in cash! Go Munchie Night! Plus he is really cute and has an adorable Irish brogue.

OH and new grill, isn't it gorgeous!!!???

WOO HOO! Fire Supression system approved...

2011-06-15T18:33:00.000-07:00

So Bri can pick up that stuff tomorrow morning.

Things are motoring right along ad we might even have a potential opening date formulated after the electrical stuff is done!

$804.47 equals....

2011-06-13T16:08:00.000-07:00

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.

Article in Martinez Gazette about The Compass Star

2011-06-11T16:59:00.000-07:00

http://www.martinezgazette.com/news/story/i2708/2011/06/07/old-world-cuisine-finds-home-main

She's Crafty... She Gets Around...

2011-06-07T16:50:00.000-07:00

So I have been (obsessing) thinking about how to get the last bits of my equipment with quickly dwindling funds. Danny (Hobart Fetish guy) from Oakland had all of the cold storage (outside the sandwich prep station, which I already have and the keg storage, which I already have lined up) I still need for $2100. That and the espresso maker are the last big expense items I need.

Danny mentioned if I bought the items, he would store them for me. I started thinking about the plan to leas the espresso maker and decided I would email Jessie (the guy I got the sandwich prep station from) and ask him if he would let me give him a down payment for the espresso maker he has been advertising and then pay it over over the course of a few months. I also emailed Danny and asked him if I gave him a $500 deposit would he store the items til July. So both of them went for it, but then I saw a 2 group espresso maker online for $600...

So I am going to check out the $600 one tomorrow morning, then meet with Wendy for Drinks and then FP tomorrow night! YAY! This means I can pretty much get all of the larger ticket items reserved for $1100, then make another $1100 payment on July 1st and pick them up.

I know sometimes it is so hard to visualize a way to do the things you need to do when you are getting low on funds, so I wanted to stress the importance of being creative and trying to think outside the box if you can. This way the only things I will still need to lease are the POS system ($140 a month).

Other items I still need to purchase are forks, knives and spoons, chairs (22), bar stools (6), a condiment table and other kitchen small wares (saute pans, 200 pans, pencil pans). I will probably still need one more coffee grinder. We also still needs the dunnage racks, cabinetry and wine storage. Hmmmm... phones and fax machine. It's so totally endless really! LOL

I was contacted by a guy from the City who is starting a gourmet hot-dog cart. He wants to try some of my house made sauces, so I will take those into the City next week (thanks Anthony for recommending me!). He wants to try my Brats too... only... Brats... well some Americans seem to think they are en emulsified sausage. I am not sure how to explain there are several German regional varieties, and likely within the German-centric parts of the country another regional variety... and those are all pretty chunky. Meaty and chunky with a dominant marjoram flavor. Not light and fluffy like a hot dog. I am just going to bring a real brat and hope he knows where I am coming from. He seems really nice, and pretty passionate, so I could totally get lucky.

Bits and Peices

2011-06-06T19:44:00.001-07:00

I think the most disconcerting thing about opening a restaurant is how chaotic it all is. My horoscope said today that I would have to inspire myself; that my inspirators were tired.

I had an interview with the Martinez Record today. One of their front of the house people looks exactly like Winona Rider! And she was so curious about all the stuff we are doing; it was a lot of fun to just hang out and talk. Then I went back to talk to my interviewer, Greta. She lives in Berkeley with her SO (who is a big foodie) and I found as I talked about sausage and history and food that I got more and more excited and animated. I'd met up on the street with Jim (Blier, owner) and Huge (exec chef) from Creek Monkey. We hung out on the street talking and it just felt good to talk to other people who are doing the same things I am.

They think they may be open in about 3 weeks. I think I may be open (knock on wood) in 4-6. It is such a journey and labor of love... it seems miraculous to have come so far. They are getting an elevator put in to comply with ADA laws... the space is three stories, like a grand old pink Victorian home on a little creek, just on the other side of the Amtrak lines and the grand park leading into the Marina.

My big question mark now is... how and when will my landlord fix the ADA issue with the front entrance. I cannot open until he does, so the space is not really viable until it's done. I know it is a big priority for them and they've hired an engineer to draw up plans for them... but he seems like a huge flake. It took him almost a month to hand draw in a few things on the visio *I* generated and it's been 6 weeks and still no actual drawings from him. The steel structure they need to embedded into the facade needs to be designed to EXACT specs in Santa Clara, then it needs to be partially installed, then the moorings need to be measured exactly so the rest of it can be made, then installed. It is a pretty complicated process and we are already well into the Kitchen and bathroom remodel.

My greatest concern right now is there doesn't seem to be a plan in place for those corrections. I can see the end of the tunnel for my part of construction and preparation... but I don't think there is a plan for the complicated engineering plan and concrete work etc that will be needed for my landlords part of the build out. I am trying to be mentally prepared for some delay, but it will honestly be pretty heartbreaking for me... well on a level that I will just deal with it because there isn't much else I CAN do.

It was really fun to talk about how far we've come; all of the fantastic local producers we've discovered, all of the great people we've met who are so encouraging about the food... and I look around at the changes happening to the space and I think... is it ok for me to trust this thing is happening? That this burning desire that is difficult to comprehend unless it's a part of your very blood might be consummated? It feels like no human being should be given their deepest wishes, we just are not worthy of that kind of largess from a loving and benevolent universe.

But it DOES happen. People do strike it rich, and become famous and marry the prom queen and buy the house they've always wanted. And I am not even doing it for the money! I am doing it for love.

I am worried that my landlord seems anxious and unhappy about his level of control over the situation. OF course it is his building and he has every right to have that kind of control... I am not sure how to communicate better and I am very anxious about the dynamic as it is. Hopefully after the stress of remodeling is done, thing will get better.

Darn didn't get pictures today!

2011-06-03T22:42:00.001-07:00

But they are motoring right along getting the space built out!

I had a very awkward run in with my landlord today and I am trying not to extrapolate that into years of potential misery... and as open as I want to be about the whole process, I am still praying that after the angst of getting open is past, things will get better and I still hope for a healthy constructive relationship with my landlord(s). So instead of winging mightily as I am tempted to do, I am going to take a deep breath and try to compartmentalize it all.

I am so so so stressed. And even saying I am stressed... is making me even more stressed! I've been getting sick right in the middle of everything else; making me both stressed and uncomfortable. Even little things are starting to get to me, on top of the shortage of funds, the busy work of summer catering, the dishwasher at the house broke tonight, our female cat is missing again... I am having trouble focusing... I am going to have to find a way to pull it together.

In the past when I get to this point, usually something inspiring happens. but all of my inspirers are getting just as tired as I am.

I count my blessing... instead of sheep...

Bri and Galen are watching 30 Rock and laughing hysterically
My kitchen is actually being built
I have some amazing fire power in my corner with David and Stein and Brion
My kids really are awesome
My food is really good
I am on top of the prep for this weekend (thanks to Alicia and Stein)
I got the meds for my ailment without having to deal with going to the Doctors office and Kaiser, and should be feeling better tomorrow
I will shortly be snuggling Brion

Oh please let me get thru the next few weeks and come out the other side with the enthusiasm and fantastic positive attitude I need to not only realize my great dream... but enjoy it if it does... and have the fortitude to see it thru over the years to come.

And then it all starts to fall into place!

2011-06-02T17:53:00.001-07:00

Wow, the past two days have been insane.

David called yesterday and said... we need all the sinks! AAHHHHH! I have not been buying that stuff because we don't have a place to put it all. So Stein and I flounced out to San Jose to check out some sinks. today we found a hand sink, plus the sandwich prep station in Petaluma. then we dashed over to Oakland and picked up a used 3 compartment sink, plus a prep sink and the hardware for the prep sink.

The Oakland place was really interesting. We met up with Danny, a slender young Asian man, in a orderly clean space with neat rows of items. I liked him right away. He showed us the sink, and then I asked about a Hobart mixer (20 quart) and he said, "Oh, I don't sell those. I collect them... I have a bit of a fetish." ?? Fetish?? I mean Hobart appliances, with their beefy strength and long running gears... I can kind of see it. They were spotless and shiny. It was kind of weird... but kind of cool too.

So we asked him about freezers and refrigerators. He had nice stuff at good prices. I should be able to get my final stuff for about $2100.00... only I don't have that much money left. I do have some work this month, which will help, but I am worried that my equipment money is running so low right now. I still need to pay for the fire suppression system, the keg storage and the refrigerator and freezers. I know I will come up with is somehow, but it is really stressing me out currently. Plus I just paid $400 for the fire suppression system permit. Bleh.

But the really exciting news is when I went to drop off the specs at the restaurant I walked into the most lovely site! they have started the demolition! This means... well this thing might actually happen!

Plus I went to ABC today and signed the last two things I needed to, so it is pre-approved pending the remodel! WOO HOO!!! So, as the title suggests... things are finally starting to come together... (knock on wood so I don't jinx myself)

The waiting is the hardest part...

2011-05-31T11:10:00.000-07:00

The weekend was just what I desperately needed; some time to organize my house and my thoughts... the pause that refreshes (and staves off burn out, hopefully).

It is a cold rainy day here in the East Bay Area. I can't remember a grayer summer. Our house is full of large windows and I see the various inhabitants gazing outside in confusion and tired resignation. We know we are very spoiled when it comes to the weather here in the Bay Area, so it feels ungrateful to complain about a little drizzle... but I do miss summer.

I am tempted to drive downtown and see if they've started on the remodel yet, but Sara and Sam are both home sick and it definitely feels like a day to hunker in. There are only odds and ends to focus on... so many tiny details that need to be dealt with now. A lot of the big stuff is done, which is great... but those are also the things forward in the mind and the smaller things are harder to focus upon.

Over the weekends we had Hirsch and Aldith over for a movie day. Bri set up his lap top so I could design the final opening menu on Vistaprint and I spent a lovely day in my pajamas with the laptop and friends and fabulous movies and pounded it out and got it all ordered. I really love the cover art Mike and Sherry did for us (it's really rather perfect with the nautical theme and all)! Now there are only odds and ends left to do until I have my own licensed kitchen...

Strange things like...

Over the weekend we:

Ordered the replacement plastic for the sneeze guard from Tap plastics
Ordered the replacement hopper for the coffee grinder online
Completed Opening day menu
Talked Mrs. Stein into fixing the cord for the Bunn brewer

I still need to:

Order my window decal
Create my vendor account with Spikes Produce
Finish the process to get my POS sytem and espresso brewer leased

Stuff I still need for the facility

forks, spoons, knives
condiment table
chairs

I already have plates, bowls, 16 ounce glasses, wine glasses, tables... I know it will be easier to visualize once we get what we have in there and see where the holes are.

So this week... so strange to be waiting. But there is Dani's party to prepare for this Saturday and the kids school year is about to end.

I think I am most frustrated by a strange lack of vision right now. Why can't I see exactly what it will look like and feel like? I am one of those weird people who really doesn't like surprises. Life can be full of joy and grace, but it can also be capricious and cruel.

I am not sure why, but the new that Sarah Bouchard left Barbacco is somewhat disquieting to me. She was (is) so competent and capable and got burn out and left. I really thought of her as the ideal female Exec Chef. Competent and capable, confident and professional. Supportive to her underlings, calm in the kitchen... none of the stereo-types of the difficult female boss. More than once I saw someone approach her about interpersonal gossip or drama and heard her say, "I am not interested in exploring those topics, let's focus on the task at hand". Beautiful and generous of her knowledge and gifts. She was the one who smirked at me struggling to stuff a hot capicolla into it's casing (I had to literally punch it with my fist mutiple times to get it thru the sausage tying thingie) and when I lamented it's difficulty she said, "Did you come here to be a girl, or did you come here to kick ass?". I often times think of her words when things get tough, or I am walking into a room full of skeptical men and have to prove myself, yet again. I think of her often and I hope where ever she lands she is well.

So today I have a house full of my gorgeous, yet quite ill, children who are getting caught up on Dr Who as the rain makes the work shiny and sleek outside. I wish I could sneak into the City and wander around China Town and smell all the strange things and maybe pick up some herbs and nice teas. It is the perfect day to get lost in a crowd. I think I may have a few weeks at loose ends before things start to get crazy again and maybe next Thursday when I meet Jeremy and Andrew and the Crew in the City for dinner I may go even earlier this time to wander the streets and slowly pilgrimage to Leopold's.

Strange, this life's journey. I have been dreaming of David, my ex and the life we lived of domestic simplicity with the children and then waking to think about how different my life would be if I have stayed married. I would have never attempted to become a chef and open my own business. It wouldn't have fit into our busy lifestyle. The girls are doing a Canterbury Tales Theme for the big Arts and Sciences event in a couple of weeks and it seems very appropriate for my life right now; coming to the age where you realize that as long as you are still breathing there is still more path to travel and "destinations" are only pit stops along the way. Landing the big job, or getting married, or giving birth to your first child... these things only create forks in the road and more choices... and ultimately a more complex and richer journey; they are not an end in themselves.

And so today, I will continue to rest my mind for the hectic time to come, spend time with my beautiful children who are growing up so fast and putter around the house trying to right the chaos that is ever present in our busy household.

Time to pull it together!

2011-05-27T19:21:00.000-07:00

I've been feeling very out of sorts since the Peddler's Fair. It was such a waste of resources in that we spent a good amount of capital to get the stuff needed, and then didn't make nearly enough to justify the expenses. Now I need to figure out a way to build up more capital and soon.

Dave took Dino over to the space yesterday and they seem to think it will not take long to do the build out, maybe 3-4 weeks. Then we just need to manage getting our final permits (Health and Fire) and then... well we will be able to open any time after that pending our prep time. I guess after the long journey and being so involved in the minutia of it all... it seems impossible that it could be only a month or two more.

We still need our refrigerators, plus I need to pay for the under counter keg set up and chairs and ton of other stuff. I feel like I don't even know where to start on the next phase. Stein and I put in some Finocciona (in big and smaller casings) and we also made a big batch of pickles. I put in a giant Bresaola today with the California Wagyu. It was finally fully cured and now it just needs to hang to dry. I want to do an opening special of a salad with thinly sliced Bresaola, arugula, thinly sliced red onion, capers, parmesan and a light vinaigrette. I also need Bresaola for the Molpus Wedding in Sept.

I know I need to sit down and figure out where all the loose ends are and set up a schedule to deal with them. I still need to create a vendor account with Spikes for produce. I am going to use Semifreddis to start, but we can't travel to get bread forever, so that will have to eventually be dealt with. I know I am just feeling panicky because I need to switch gears from jumping thru governmental hoops to get the facility ready to go to... well what do I need to actually open!? I will feel so much better when I get my shit together and have a more solid plan.

I went out to Leopold's in San Francisco last night with Jeremy Fletcher (the guy who taught me how to make bacon) and Andrew Tye-Green. It was so amazing to eat a great sampling of German style charcuterie. I feel like I have been up to my chin in Italian style food for so long... that a lot of stuff is tasting brand new to me.

Brion got beer in a boot!

I also have been feeling a bit at loose ends. Now that things should progress finally... I am having a hard time switching gears. I think it was such a shock when the Building Department was so difficult that for my own sanity I made the mental adjustment that it was going to take a looong time and would try to fill my days with busy work.

Now, I desperately need to switch gears back to food, my menu, all the prep of the slow food plus all of the many catering events I have going on this summer. My original menu was focused on early Spring foods, now I need to revamp for a mid summer menu. I am slightly nervous that I don't think I've really fully explained all of the stuff I need to David. Especially shelving and storage. I think I will go take a bath and try to start forming all of the various lists. I don't know why I feel so daunted by it all... but I know I will feel better once I get my thoughts more organized.

Cool! We are on TV :)

2011-05-26T12:07:00.001-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPHZniod_Ow

Up early... not sleeping very well

2011-05-24T07:36:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was a sausage making day. Today we bring in the sausages we've been showcasing to T-rex for them to see the whole plate together. The sausages they liked were the Andouille, Orange Fennel (pork) and Bourbon Apple (chicken and pork). I am frustrated because the first batch of orange fennel were too salty so we added pork and then didn't mix it up enough to achieve the bind, so they were grainy. Which meant I had to start all over again last night.

Also, I ordered the slimmer casings from Sausage Makers and they did not come in in time, so I made the 3 ounce portions in the larger casings but they are still not going to be what they will likely have on the plate if we decide to case in the 1 inch (diameter).

Stein was funny yesterday, he was nervous to talk to me about the financial disappointment of the food booth and make the suggestion that we not continue to explore that avenue but I had already come to the same conclusion. I just can't afford to gamble with resources we will definitely need to open the business in a month or so.

I did Tarot which of course Galen and Stein were highly skeptical, but it was soothing to me and it does help me to gather my thoughts. Stein was amused because the #2 position card (which represents the problem or the issue you have to work thru) was the Hermit, which is kind of a card of "Stop fucking around and focus on the prize". It really is time to refocus. I think I was looking for stuff to do while we waited for resolution on the facility but now that things are rolling, I need to get organized about getting equipment, product testing (specials for the opening) and organizing the weddings and party activities for the month of June.

I am glad we got the food prep tent, and many of the other items. I could really use some portable cambro storage systems for hotel pans for upcoming weddings. These are not very expensive so should not be too big a deal to get a couple of them.

Things I still need are:

Smoker
Refrigerator
Freezer
Dedicated sausage fridge
Sandwich prep station
Sous Vide set up
forks/spoons/knives
coffee mugs
espresso maker

Of those things these things are mandatory
Fridge
Freezer
Sausage Fridge
forks spoons knives

I can lease the espresso maker and use the smoker at school and the Sous Vide set up can wait.

Today we are hitting the farmer's market for product to pickle and preserve for the sandwiches and the biegnet. As soon as the casings come in we will also be making more Finocchiona. I will try to get to the site soon to take some pictures of things as they happen. I may even have an opening date in the next few weeks! YAY!

The mind and it's delicacy

2011-05-22T20:17:00.000-07:00

While many aspects of my personality are well suited to my current journey... there is one that works against me. My tendency to take a small thing and extrapolate it to the sky is falling (The failed Rapture aside).

There is very little room in my plan for gambling and after the poor financial performance this past weekend I am beating myself up for wasting precious resources. I am not afraid of success, I am terrified of failure. What if I've been wrong about Martinez? What if I open the restaurant and no one comes? What if I can't afford employees? What if I go to T-rex Tuesday and they say the sausages are too expensive and they are not going to carry them? What if we run out of money before the kitchen opens and I can't afford to buy the last few items I need?

One thing I extrapolated out of this weekend is I think it is going to take a while for me to find my customer base. People were just not buying the more fancy food. The words of a friend echo in my brain, "It is a blue collar town, and they want blue collar food". I won't be happy making turkey sandwiches and french fries all day forever. I won't do it. I can't do it.

So for me to succeed I will need the people who tried the food and loved it to spread the word and build a clientele over time. I hope I can afford to do that. The basic items we still need are refrigerators and a freezer and some work tables. Everything else (smoker, we can use the one at school once a week. espresso maker we can lease) can wait.

I feel like the universe isn't pleased with me right now. I feel like the sky is falling. I know on a conscious level that I should be grateful that we got so much good publicity this weekend and that the food was so well received. I am super grateful that we finally got a building permit and will get started on the kitchen soon.

That said, I am scared that we did not do well as far as selling a lot of product last weekend. I am worried that my food might not be an instant hit in Martinez. I am worried that I spent money on a tent and all this non-essential stuff and it didn't pay off and what if that is a general reflection of my business acumen and I am doomed? I am worried because it seems like some of my clients lately are surprised that I would hope to break even (not make any money, just break even) on events. I know they just don't have first hand knowledge of how much stuff costs and they are not doing it on purpose but I hate being the bad guy and it is really hard (and kind of embarrassing) to say, "I can't afford to pay for a big party for you right now." I think people are so used to me being able to do that... it doesn't occur to them that my circumstances have changed.

I am also wondering if I shouldn't have waited and gone under the radar longer on getting all the stuff to be "legit" like insurance and a commercial kitchen rental ($250 to start the insurance and $600 for the kitchen rental). No one ever seems to check any of that stuff. But I worry that the one time they would check it is with me and I would be screwed.

I am worried that Stan and Kevi will insist I start paying rent when the kitchen is built out and before the ADA issues with the front entrance have been resolved. They want me to just go get the little certificate that says "I am working on it" and put it in the window, but that is not a guarantee I won't be sued. And they are targeting the people who make improvements downtown (two business sued in the last two years in 6 square block area). I just can't afford to give away 10k right off the bat. And I don't have time to wait forever to open.

I know I will feel better next week. I hope good things happen.

The good, the bad and the ugly...

2011-05-22T10:22:00.000-07:00

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!

Lots of movement, lots of busy...

2011-05-19T20:48:00.000-07:00

Stein and I are prepping for the weekend Peddler's Faire and it's been SO busy. Today we prepped the romesco, all of the creamy dressings (Blue Cheese, Ceasar, Ranch), smoked all of the meats and did the big Costco run. Tomorrow we go to the rental kitchen and prep out everything else and package all fo the food in disposable containers. I have a brutal headache.

I have the $600 for the kitchen rental, the copy of the insurance with Kitchen by the Hour as additionally insured, all of the produce and meats etc. We will need more large plastic containers and the disposable cutlery. I am also going to need a 50 cup coffee percolator. My brain is fried.

I am terrified that this whole thing is going to be a colossal waste of money I could be using for the restaurant. I called Trisha at Main St Martinez to see how many food vendors there were and there are only 3-4. We are all supposed to be in a bank parking lot that may or may not be in the path of foot traffic.

But either way, I should be able to market my product, get some advance buzz for our food before opening, talk to people about what we are and what we do etc. And nothing I bought (other than the food, which is perishable) can't be used for other purposes, especially catering.

Also, JeffTaylor called yesterday and was so nice, I almost forgive him for being such a pain so far. It sounds like Dave should be able to get a permit tomorrow and start my build out next week. I know I am probably jinxing myself, but I could have a kitchen in like 4-6 weeks. Weird huh?

I am really excited about the food we are making for the fair. It is simple food, but really well done, with really good ingredients and most things from scratch. The turkey, pastrami and bacon are house smoked and cured, the hummus from scratch and my favorite North African recipe. I just hope people like it. I have to try and remember to put the sumac on top of the hummus and maybe a little olive oil. (Can you tell my brain is fried?) I just want things to be perfect, even if I know that is not really realistic.

I will try to remember to take pictures of the kitchen tomorrow and the fair on Saturday!!

Nights are stronger than moonshine...

2011-05-16T22:33:00.000-07:00

The days are becoming a blur of activity... like I am the soul of the hurricane, the wind and noise and rush of everything rising up around me, everything in motion. So much happens that I am struggling to keep track of the details.

Today Stein said to me, "Everything happens for a reason. Think of how stressed we would be if we were only a couple of weeks from opening. We've been given some time to get our bearings and explore many options." I do think the forced delay pushed me to bump up the implementation and exploration of the food booth and festival idea, plus giving me some decent time to market my products to higher end restaurants (which has been a lot of fun).

Today David talked to Jeff Taylor. If I sign a paper saying I know of the ADA and masonry issues, and Stan signs the paperwork saying I have permission to do the work, and I (re) submit the approval of County Sewer... I can give Dave the new keys I had made for the facility, plus the packet I made for the health department that has everything in it... and they will be able to get the building permit and get started (knock on wood).

We still need to talk to the ADA lawyer and get the sticker that says we are working to fix the ADA issues so I (hopefully) don't get sued right away. I am still really leery of opening with the front entrance as is. Apparently the same group that hit up the Mexican place just hit up the new place, Roxx, for money as well.

I am focused on at least getting this one piece of the puzzle, a working functioning kitchen, moving. It seems strange that after resigning myself to possibly being stalled for months, this thing could be done in 3-6 weeks. Of course something will happen and it won't happen so quickly... I think I disbelieve after so many struggles and the labyrinth process that anything will ever happen.

But time marches on and this week I am focused on the Peddler's Faire next weekend, plus the third visit to T-rex with the chicken sausages (tomorrow). It seems like such a simple thing, but there are myriad tiny details that must be attended to and I have an SCA project this week for my room mate that will be at least a days worth of work. Stein and I will have to divide and conquer tomorrow. He will go to Petaluma to check out a local goat cheese maker, plus a used pastry case and grab the Weaver's coffee for the weekend, while I gather all of the stuff for David to meet up with the Building Department and then deliver them to him. I will try to prep out a few items (candied nuts, aioli base, romesco). Then we will both head in to T-rex for the chicken sausage tasting.

I am just going to fervently hope we can actually get a demo/building permit and get going soon.

Set up the booth today... and made sausage!

2011-05-15T16:44:00.000-07:00

Stein and I planned all week to set up the booth today so he and Bri could work on the sign-frame for the front. Bri is deathly ill and it rained/hailed today... so we set up the canopy in the living room! It went up really easily and was in good repair. We messed around with the tables to see what looked best and Bri and Galen made the frame to hold our banner. (reminder, I need to paint the PVC frame this week)

Then Stein and I made the new sausages for this weeks tasting at T-rex. We made a chicken mole sausage, a bourbon apple sausage and a BBQ garlic sausage. They are all really good! I have to admit the bourbon apple is my favorite.

I am glad we set everything up!I realized I need to make a few more signs and especially the pricing and signage for the coffee and morning pastries. We also need to go by storage and grab the Bunn coffee maker, plus clean and sterilize all the coffee apparatus.

Next week should be busy and exciting... I just it's exciting in a good way!

Time to regroup...

2011-05-12T06:48:00.000-07:00

The process has gotten into somewhat of a rhythm; We take some time to research "the next step", then we gather the pieces of the puzzle, put it together and it doesn't quite fit, go get a few of the pieces corrected, then all in a rush a bunch of movement happens and we are done with that step. Last week, we were figuring out how to do the Peddler's Faire legally (what are the health department requirements, City of Martinez etc), this week we tried to get all of the pieces of that puzzle put together, plus ongoing relationship building with clients and potential clients, AND still keeping tabs and monitoring the progress on the restaurant and encouraging that where we can.

So now that we have a kitchen, the NSF tent/canopy and feel relatively confident we can put out a safe delicious product... what is NEXT on the agenda?

Making sure the booth is visually attractive. To this end we bought a very nice lightly used all black enclosed canopy ($350), 10 lexans (used $10 each) to showcase food in ice, a laminator ($20) to make signage, some printable stickers ($12) to label food, a banner ($150) and the clear plastic food containers. We already had a few things too. I don't expect to make a lot of money this time because of all of the initial expenditures, but hopefully we can start doing a regular thing at local farmer's markets and other street fairs that will be worthwhile over the longer term while we wait for the kitchen/restaurant to be completed.

I still need to finish all the signage, call Weaver and order coffee, call Semifreddi and order bread and nail down my purchasing/product needs before next week. We will only be in the kitchen for about 8 hours so we really have to nail it. We will hit the farmer's market on Thursday night for produce.

I need to stay on top of the restaurant thing... I think we are going to go ahead and build out the kitchen while Stan figures out what to do about the ADA and earthquake retrofit. At least then I can use my own kitchen and start prepping my own products for sale to the wider public. I found one more piece to the equipment puzzle (A vacuum sealer) yesterday, now the only hard to find item I need is a smoker. My teachers had been willing to let me buy theirs, but it is a complicated process for them to sell it to me and I don't think it will be completed before the school semester ends and they go home for the summer (CURSES!). So now that piece of the puzzle is a question mark again and I really need a smoker.

I put a ton of stuff up to hang and dry yesterday, including hot beef American Wagyu coppa and hot capicolla. I also put the pastrami into cure for next weekend. Stein and I need to prep the chicken sausages for T-rex next week. We were going to do it Sunday but I have a client who wants some for Saturday so I may do at least one today or tomorrow. I also need to make some croutons with the copious amounts of bread given to me by Semifreddis, plus the cherry mostarda for next week (need candied citrus).

So on the agenda today:

Prep all of the signage for the booth
Make a purchase order for all items on the menu
Call David about progress on the restaurant
Try to organize some of the equipment in the front room and see if any of it can go to storage
See if I can find vacuum sealer bags
Decide which salumi is going on the Charc platter for the fair
check out cheeses for the platter (maybe be naughty and hit Berkeley with Wendy today and check out the cheese board)

I am sure I will thin of more stuff I need to do... but it is a good start!

Found a kitchen...

2011-05-11T19:11:00.000-07:00

It is in Hayward, but it will totally work and we can store stuff on site. WHEW! It was a really interesting set up. Like 6 individual work stations with their own ranges etc. Plus... apparently there is this guy who makes sausages there and he has this ginormous grinder and mixer... it can do like 50 # of sausage in like an hour. And I can use it if I need it! Pretty cool!

We also went by Semifreddi's for a bread tasting, which was hysterical. Wendy meets us at the back with a full on hairnet and has racks and racks of bread for us to try... whole loaves! We came home with this much bread. Like four giants bags full of bread, four whole sliced loaves of bread and a giant box of pastries. I have the most amazing Carb-haze going on right now... it is hard to really fathom the depths of it....

We also stopped by this place that said they had some restaurant equipment for sale. I thought it was the place we tried to hit in Hayward last time (but the guy wasn't there), but it ended up being a different place. A dad and his son... they had the biggest pita baking oven I've ever seen... it was bigger than my suburban! He said it could cook like 5000 pita breads a day...

Anyway but we also found a Berkel vacuum sealer! YAY! It was kind of funny, the guy said it was $1200, then we grabbed 10 lexans with lids and he dropped the price (for all of it) to $1100. The Berkel sealers (new) are in the $5000.00 range. This one is an older model, but the chamber is huge, I will be able to make head cheese!

We also stopped by Del Monte Meats to get the product to cure for the Peddler's Faire. I also got all of the loose ends out of cure and hung up today, YAY! And I had one of the guests at the catering job in the city this weekend contact me for some personal chef gigs, plus another friend is getting a bunch of my sausages for a friend for her birthday this weekend... All in all not a bad week!

I still have not heard anything new on when the restaurant would open. But we did go drop off the final bit of paperwork at the ABC today, so (whew)... Tomorrow I should play with chicken sausages, we will go show them at T-rex next Tuesday (3rd Tuesday in a row that we get to go hang out in a super cool restaurant and talk shop and play with food).

I am so excited about the Peddler's Faire next weekend! I get to hang out all day with my beloved Brionator, Mr Galen and the Schwienstein (our new nickname for Stein) and sell my products and interact with my future potential customers.

Still frazzled from yesterday, but recovering...

2011-05-10T20:51:00.000-07:00

Today was insane. I had three tastings, all of completely different products, in different cities. Plus we ran into the city to check out a potential vacuum sealer, which I desperately need.

I got up and Stein and I went to the farmer's market to find a bread vendor we'd seen last Thursday. He wasn't there but we had fun anyway. Today Stein's wife Alicia came with us on all of our errands, which was awesome (I am not sure what it is, but she has a very relaxing effect one me). We tossed her into a Compass Star T-shirt and drug her all over.

Trisha (from the Main St Martinez property/event management group) texted and said that Huge, the exec chef from Creek Monkey was interested in my charcuterie, so I texted her and asked if we could meet up with him at noon with a full charc tasting? So we ran home, sliced some meats, and ran into Martinez for the tasting. God it was a gorgeous day. The large rambling old house they are building into their brewery is full of charm and happy ghosts. The owner (and master brewer) Jim took us for a tour. I just loved the bones of the place and we chatted about our passions (beer and pig!). It was awesome to recognize a fellow freak, even if we freak about different things.

Huge (the Exec Chef) showed up and we talked and talked about meat. He is super interested in collaborating on some projects (like bring in a whole pig and bust that bad boy up and make some killer food). The funniest moment was when Jim (who is really cute) kind of did that thing where your eyes roll back in your head while he thought about this awesome beer that would go so perfectly with my cured meats. I live for those moments!

Then we dashed out to meet up at T-rex with the Sous there, Ryan. I happen to kind of love Ryan. Passionate, smart, personable and (the word doesn't really do him justice) capable. We took in four fresh sausages: Orange/Fennel (pork), French fin spice (Seafood), Andouille (pork) and the Compass Dog (all beef). My favorite moment of that was the kitchen manager trying the fennel orange sausage and the look on his face when he said, "That was the one I didn't think I would like... and it is my favorite!"

I got to hang out with Craig as well, who I adore and he got to try my stuff as well. I am catering his wife's birthday party in July. I can't wait to really pull out the stops for a guy who has bent over backwards to help me.

Then we hit the city to check out a vacuum sealer (that was not really a vacuum sealer, it was a shrink wrapper). Then back home and my final tasting of the day...

For a bridal couple getting married in September. I made them several items off their menu and we got to hang out an chat, which was also super awesome. When you can show a hostess/bride that you are excited to collaborate and make sure her guests are well fed, it can have a very relaxing effect.

ALSO today: found a kitchen! It is in Hayward but I can store stuff and it has a buffalo chopper so I don't have to drag mine around, which is super heavy. YAY! Also I think David has decided to just build out the kitchen so we can get started and let Stan work around us while he gets the ADA and earthquake retrofitting done. Thank God for that as well.

I wish I wasn't PMSing... I still feel a bit anxious instead of euphoric. GAH! Hormones! But even in spite of that; today was just flat out awesome. I feel like such a kid when people like my product. And I love LOVE talking to chefs/brewers who are as passionate as I am about what they do... there is nothing quite like it. We are the dreamers of dreams. We are the alchemists making magic. As scary as my life is right now, I can DO this. It's worth it.

Some days you are the windshield....

2011-05-09T17:42:00.001-07:00

other days you are the bug... Today I was the bug...

So I went to go check out the rental kitchen this morning with Stein. It was ok, not great, but it was licensed and that is really all that matters for our purposes. So we go check it out and the guy says it is $20 an hour... BUT... we have to get a million dollar rider on our insurance AND give a $1000 deposit. And he seems pretty shady. I can easily visualize my deposit not coming back to me. Crap...

So we talk to Mr. E and see if we can use the school kitchen, but it's graduation and the final for Garde Manger, so it is just not a good time for that. We call my old standby the Pleasant Hill community center and they are under construction. I am 0 for 3.

We also finally get a hold of Semi-freddi bread, whose Martinez route is booked. Acme doesn't deliver to Martinez at all.

Then a craigslist ad comes thru on a vacuum sealer for $900, I talk the guy down to $800 but only for4 today.. and it's 3:30, he closes at 4:30 and I am in the East Bay and he is in the heart of San Francisco. Not going to happen.

I also meet with Main St Martinez, the property management group, who are totally awesome and totally rock and make the mistake of bitching about how business UNfriendly the Martinez Business Department is... just as the Mayor walks in the door. So the ladies (who are trying to help me) ask me to recount the travails to the Mayor. I do it in the most diplomatic way I can, but now it is not a private venting... I am basically telling on them to their boss, which was not my initial intent at all. I have to still try to WORK with these people. I got an email (out of the blue) from my Building dept contact tonight that is I am sure a result of this conversation. I am usually pretty ok with my big mouth, but today I wasn't. Plus at the end of the day, I know they don't understand why they are the problem.

They just truly don't understand the connection between telling me my ADA plans for my bathroom are not right with out any guidance about what they thought was wrong with it, or making my landlord bring the building up to 2014 code before we can do anything, or not accepting anything I was told was "grandfathered in" (prior to signing the lease), or asking arbitrarily for things not required as being business-unfriendly. They truly feel they are doing their job to the best of their ability.

One of the Main St Martinez women made an interesting correlation, that when she worked for a major newspaper as a graphic artist, until she worked directly with the salespeople, she really didn't understand the financial constraints involved. I know these guys don't understand that in a few months my alimony ends and I will no longer be able to afford my house. Maybe the Cheesecake Factory can afford to wait a year to open a restaurant, but I can't. I literally cannot afford to pay my house payment after August and they have zero sense of urgency about me being able to operate my business. Why CAN'T I just go look thru the 700 pages of ADA code on bathrooms and figure out what he didn't like? Why can't we spend a year fixing every flaw up to the highest (and not even in effect yet) code?

It's not like I knew these would be issues going in to the lease. In all fairness, we did not decide to fix the bathroom and add a hood til after we leased the property, but the ADA issues have been around in the historic area of Martinez for some time. Bleh. I hope tomorrow is better.

2011-05-06T17:53:00.000-07:00

Made two new Salumi today! A gorgeous fish (it's like a fish mousse inside with herb and shrimp garnish) one and a really yummy orange fennel pork fresh sausage. We also made the mortadella with no garnish inside a regular hog casing and more Andouille (I think it is our best yet).

We also found a kitchen to rent for about $20 an hour ($500 for the month) so we can participate in the Main St Martinez Peddler's Faire on May 21st. Stein and I decided to do cold foods and we have some cool ideas for presentation and marketing. I need to go to Kinko's next week and get a sign made. I already have the food booth/canopy/tent. After I am done with the private party for tomorrow in the City, I will be able to focus fully on the food booth idea.

We went and checked out the Todos Santos farmers Market to see how other people set up their booths on Thursday night and got some great ideas. I will try to take pictures next week as we get stuff online. I go down on Monday morning at 9:00 am to fill out the paperwork. We also still have to go to ABC and I still have not heard anything about the unreinforced masonry, or what they are doing to fix the ADA stuff. It just seems like they have no sense of urgency... which is a little depressing.

But looking on the bright side, we will be able to explore the food booth thing without also having to run a restaurant and I did find a nice commercial kitchen for rent pretty cheaply where I can store items. It was fun to go to the farmer's market. I talked to local food artisans and got business cards... and had a great chat with this little bee keeper who will hopefully be able to get me some fresh local honeycombs (I should also ask Mark about that).

I know this all seems very disjointed, but things are as busy as I organize them to be and I am tired of sitting on my butt waiting.

So next week so far...

Monday

Go fill out paperwork to be a food vendor at the Martinez Peddler's Faire

Go to ABC and turn in paperwork

Go to Semifreddi's breads and set up vendor account

Prep food for Molpus Wedding bridal couple tasting

Tuesday

Go to T-rex with the four sausage varietals for them to sample

Meet with Molpus Wedding bridal couple for a tasting

Wednesday

Get Compass Star food vendor signage ordered and designed

Start prepping items needed for May 21st Peddler's Faire

Then we will need to put a bunch of pastrami in brine so it is all ready to go on May 21st... LET'S COOK!

Staying busy!

2011-05-04T16:26:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we met with T-rex about our salumi, only we didn't realize they were looking for like SAUSAGE. You know, the kind you put in a bun, with condiments and stuff. LOL So we will do a couple of those this week and go back next Tuesday for more sampling.

The T-shirts came yesterday as well and they are SO cool! We met with Aloha POS today which was interesting but it was like a $3000 set up fee to RENT the equipment for another $350 a month (deepest sighs). This is WAY out of our budget. Then we met with Farmer's Insurance to see about catering and/or business insurance. It will be about $700 for the catering insurance and about $1500 a year for the restaurant insurance. We also got additional info on the worker's comp stuff.

THEN we met with this guy who was looking to sell his canopy for food booth activities. It is a really nice commercial canopy, which usually start around $800. He used this one (it's all black) a couple of times and it is really good condition. We got it for $350.

Stein and I decided we would prep this whole "Food booth" thing for the May 28th Peddler's Faire in Downtown Martinez and try to get everything together in time for that. We will just be doing cold foods (which we need to decide upon that selection), but it is a relief to have made the deiscion finally to do it. I was vacillating.

So now I need to get a nice banner and figure out how to best market my product in that venue. I will talk to Trisha of Main Street Martinez next week and see what she recommends. If you pay the $100 fee to join Main St Martinez they do all your permitting etc for you, so it is a pretty low cost event to start with and supposedly the Peddler's Faire is very well attended.

I am thinking for menu

Grilled Tri-tip Salad with Romesco

Smoked Turkey and Bacon Cobb Salad

Pastrami Sandwich

Tarragon Chicken and Apple Salad Sandwich

Side Ceasar

Side Pasta Salad

Charcuterie platter with pickle and bread