The Plot Thickens!
Cast of characters:
Owners of the Restaurant: A beautiful young Korean couple. The 19 year old who opened the place up for me the other night IS the owner. I am sure he is older than 19... but he doesn't look it. They have a daughter who is maybe 6. They want to sell the place for 40k. They bought it for her parents so they could stay in the united states. The parents don't want to work and have some alcohol issues (this is the story I was given). The place (myseriously... but there's more!) is open from 6:00 pm to 2:00am.
The Landlord: Elderly parapalegic who owns the buiding. Pretty sure has no idea what is going on in the place.
My children's father: Very experienced commerical contractor who is basically doing the work for me to pay off old divorce debt, also a great guy and very knowledgable.
So Dave and I show up... I speak for a short period of time with the landlord. He is appalled there was a futon on the floor when I showed up. Landlord says they let their daughter sleep on it when they are working. I tell the landlord that the hood is not up to code and will need about 15K to bring it up to code. The landlord argues with me...
I say that I doubt the Health Department has been there in years. He argues with me again and says they would not have been issued a business license if they had not been inspected. So I ask the Owners when they were last inspected... they say two weeks ago. I ask about the hood etc and he goes into the back room and pulls out the drawings they have had done of what needs to be done to make it legal.... Not only does the hood need ot be replaced, but the vent is not done properly either AND they have no grease trap. All in all about $25k worth of work. Ugh
(Hmmmm... so they are open from 6:00 pm to 2:00am only? when the Health Department is closed and not doing inspections... does this mean they were shut down? The blueprints were done in 2009. Have they been red tagged and operating illegally for the past two years!?)
I ask the Owner if he has his Servesafe certification... he has no idea what I am talking about. I strongly suspect they've been operating illegally since the day they opened. Neither of them had ever owned a restaurant previously, or worked in one.
Dave and I drive over to Kinko's to make some copies of the Owner's blueprints for fixing the space and making it up to code and we chat... he says, if you are going to do all of the work and money to add a hood and stove... why not check to see what would be involved with getting that stuff for the Martinez space?
This means go to the planning department with some simple drawings and asking what is involved in getting the hood added to this historical building. So today I will go get the drawings made and go check in on the planning department on Monday to see if I can just pull a simple permit, or do I need to go thru a full review.
So now I will be juggling two projects...
1. Try to hammer out the best lease in both places. I think I've got a decent set going into the Martinez place and they will be thrilled that I am making the improvements before I open, IF it turns out it is not too much trouble to do so. OR see what kind of deal I get on the Concord space. They both have their plus and minuses
Martinez
Pros: Really pretty historical downtown, great lunch crowd and potential for weekend festival business. Quaint older buidling.
Cons: Really uncomfortable with the landlady. SUPER small space. Not ADA accessible.
Concord
Pros: WAY more traffic! Larger space. ADA accessible. Already has a four keg tap and walk in cooler.
Cons: Super weird current situation and not sure how that will pan out? Not nearly as pretty of an area.
Why can't anything just be EASY? My brain is kind of going... why not do the Concord thing full bore and then if the Martinez space is still available in six months, open a store front deli for my products?
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