CRAZY few days... lots of movement

SOoooooo... what happened is...

Let me give some background... my Ex is a very good business man. I trust his instincts and he is super smart so anyway, when he told me to ask for this crazy good deal for my lease, I did! So the broker called me yesterday while I was picking up a brisket for the next round of pastrami and said... well he said basically the little old Russian lady who owned the place swore at him when he asked her about it. I asked if she countered with anything and he said no... Which I was not expecting. GOD IT'S AMATEUR HOUR! (ok glad I got that out of my system)

SOooooo, today I talked to Dave and got a much better idea of timing etc. Tomorrow I will go to the planning Dept and see what permits, if any, I need to paint and put in sinks. Then I will call the guy back and try to hammer down the lease stuff.

I also met with US Foods today to set up my account. They were totally adorable! Bought my coffee like I was important and everything. They were really awesome. They were facinated by me, like in this non-creepy foodie way. They got more and more excited the whole time I was talking and have like ten meetings they want me to have with their specialists (esp the pork guy) Plus they kind of gave me a good idea how to solve my coffee equipment costs thingie. They also said I was the most prepared client they'd seen in many months... I was the first person of the last 10 who already had a resellers permit! Can you imagine?

The process to get a business license in Martinez is much more involved. They want everyone to sign off on my project first, health dept, fire etc. This means I have to DO the work, then hope everyone goes well to get the license at the end of the day. I already have alot of the stuff I need... the 347 permits and licenses... it's SO insane.

It is getting to the point where I kind of suspect the competitive demon in me is determined to get to the finish line. IT IS THAT F*CKING COMPLICATED.

I grabbed a bunch of pork shoulder the other day which needs to be converted to capicolla and another brisket. I am experimenting with texture, but I really wish I had a better smoker for this part of the process. I really want the Alto-Shaam one.

ALSO, I aneed one more unit of Co-op so I sent out a note to all of my professors to see who wanted me (for a teacher's aid) this semester and Chef Paul nabbed me first, so YAY!!! I will get to be TA for Advanced Cuisine! I cannot tell you how excited I am to get back in the kitchen. I miss it so awfully awfully much.

So my time frame is looking like... tomorrow I go check out the permit process, make my lease offer, get that info to David so he can get started on the remodel and then 8-10 weeks later my place should be ready to get started... Stein and I can get to work on prepping for possibly an Early May opening.

I know I still have a bunch of hiccups that could happen int he plan... but I just FEEL so much closer. So many weird little details to keep my up at night.

Stein and I like the jerseys for our "uniform". As much as I would love to wear all my fancy chef stuff, this food and my place NEEDS to translate to my sudience. I want to get cute Compass Star jersy's with funny sayings on them like "Lips and Asses, the OTHER other Wite Meat" and stuff like that.

I had such a nice day today... I can feel my dream that much closer, taking shape and form.