Stan was meeting with the engineer today at 11:00 to see what needed to be done to bring the building up to earthquake code (for 2014). I have not yet heard from him about that, but he is asking his family about delaying when I start paying the lease. I was supposed to start paying it on May 1st.
I got my approval from County Sewer as well today. So I had to pay about $400 to subit for approval, then another $250 for the variance to have a grease trap vs a grease interceptor (which is $40k, so thank god it was only $250!) then another $90.00 for a pro-rated yearly sewer fee. A very nice man (John Ortega) came out and checked it all out in person to see if a grease interceptor was possible (it wasn't). County Sewer are VERY nice, very helpful and easy to work with.
My room mate also took a charcuterie platter to her boss, who is the owner of the Peasant and the Pear restaurants and offshoots and he loved it. It makes me feel really good when a really good chef likes my stuff :) Stein and I spent two solid days in production to make the four varietals of sausage we plan to offer to T-Rex, in addition to the dry cured stuff I already have on hand. The chocolate chili sausage is everyone's favorite... but it doesn't taste like chocolate at all, so I am going to have to call it something else. And NEXT time, I am adding WAY more chocolate.
I also have evrything ready to go for ABC... I've had it for a couple of days. I don't feel like I am in that much of a hurry any more, since lord knows what is happening to my time line any more. But I need to really avoid that kind of thinking. I would rather be over prepared, than anything else.
I am also really excited because, as you guys know, I was worried about finding the right smoker. I really need an alto-shaam smoker because it doesn't go over 220 degrees so it doesn't need to be always under a hood. It can be wheeled over to the hood for smoking etc. But... I'd only seen them new (and $6000 to $11000 in cost). The one at the school is an older model and the handle is broken, but it is perfect for me. So I asked Chef Brion and Chef Paul if I could buy it off the school (they are getting all new equipment shortly as they are buidling a whole new HRM building) and they said yes! I think I will end up paying about $500 for it. That is the final peice of the puzzle I was really worried about and you cannot imagine how relieved I am.
It felt good to be back at school. I really love that place and my instructors. I also felt great teaching the sausage class and I hope they ask me to do it again. It is probably very different going to a public Jr. College for a culinary degree than one of the expensive schools, but I feel like the guys (Chef Brion, Chef Paul, Mr E, Claude and Chef Chris) give you 110% if you are serious about what you are doing... I just love those guys and had such an amazing experience there. Mr E helped me figure out how to deal with my one unit of co-op I need, which is also a huge releif.
Samantha took pictures of us making the sausages at the school, so if she posts them soon I will pull a few here.
So the week was a mixed bag... a total nightmare with the Building Dept, but I am getting some really encouraging interest in my products, I get to spend a snuggly weekend in the wine country with my gorgeous man, and two of my amazing children, plus a bunch of my sausage-geek friends (we are having the first meeting of the Saluminati) and our extended peer group, plus Brion's totally awesome parents. I hope next week will bring some peace and clarity to my path. It will be interesting to cook so much at a camping event. Well, not really cook... more like... plating, cutting etc. It will be a lot of cold foods.
Stein and I also have some meetings next week for business insurance, workers comp insurance, plus a POS system. It should be pretty busy!
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Monday, April 25, 2011
It had to happen some time...
it's just a really bad mix with the person assigned to review my stuff at the building deptartment. I may have to ask for a different reviewer. We met at the site on Friday for the meeting from hell. I have terrible chemistry with Jeff, the guy at the building Dept who is reviewing my stuff. This is typical of my experience with the Martinez Building Dept...
So we meet at the site on Friday to talk about how to make it ADA accessible and the engineer and the Build Dept make suggestions. I incorporate them into my visio and ask Jeff if I can send him a copy. He (with his as usual totally unhelpful attitude) says, "I don't like to get this stuff thru email." I finally talk him into (after much hemming and hawing about it) giving me his email adress (which is on his f*cking regular business card, so it's not a secret) and send him the stuff on Sunday night when I get home and can redo the visio. This is the email response I get back from him:
"Rachael, got your plan and in review the ramp @ front door as drawn doesn’t comply nor does the bathroom. The plan also doesn’t scale. please draw plans with detailed dimensions for these area’s.
Thanks, Jeff "
So not only does he NOT say what specifically needs to be fixed (doesn't scale to what?), it is clear they, once again, cannot agree on what is compliant. What he really wants, and what is not required, are expensive professionaly drawn layouts. I think he is going to be an obstruction until he gets them.
I am not sure if it is better that I had all really nice government employees all along until now, or if it is more annoying that I know how unusual (and hence, uneccessary) it is to be so unfriendly to small business. I've already paid thousands of dollars for address specific permits and licenses and I feel really stuck now. And really it all boils down to one young (and I would guess really new to his job) guy who seems like maybe he is trying to avoid work by throwing up arbitrary road blocks.
I am going to ask David to work with him, because I don't have time to get in a major pissing match and that would really stress me out. He seems to be more comfortable talking to and working with men, so maybe that will make things go smoother. If not, I will ask for a different person to work with. But frankly the first time I went in there the other guy wasn't any more helpful, so I suspect the problem is systemic.
On the positive side, Stein and I will get started on salumi tomorrow and I will get to teach a sausage making class at DVC tomorrow night! Which is also my 41st birthday :) YAY for getting older!
So we meet at the site on Friday to talk about how to make it ADA accessible and the engineer and the Build Dept make suggestions. I incorporate them into my visio and ask Jeff if I can send him a copy. He (with his as usual totally unhelpful attitude) says, "I don't like to get this stuff thru email." I finally talk him into (after much hemming and hawing about it) giving me his email adress (which is on his f*cking regular business card, so it's not a secret) and send him the stuff on Sunday night when I get home and can redo the visio. This is the email response I get back from him:
"Rachael, got your plan and in review the ramp @ front door as drawn doesn’t comply nor does the bathroom. The plan also doesn’t scale. please draw plans with detailed dimensions for these area’s.
Thanks, Jeff "
So not only does he NOT say what specifically needs to be fixed (doesn't scale to what?), it is clear they, once again, cannot agree on what is compliant. What he really wants, and what is not required, are expensive professionaly drawn layouts. I think he is going to be an obstruction until he gets them.
I am not sure if it is better that I had all really nice government employees all along until now, or if it is more annoying that I know how unusual (and hence, uneccessary) it is to be so unfriendly to small business. I've already paid thousands of dollars for address specific permits and licenses and I feel really stuck now. And really it all boils down to one young (and I would guess really new to his job) guy who seems like maybe he is trying to avoid work by throwing up arbitrary road blocks.
I am going to ask David to work with him, because I don't have time to get in a major pissing match and that would really stress me out. He seems to be more comfortable talking to and working with men, so maybe that will make things go smoother. If not, I will ask for a different person to work with. But frankly the first time I went in there the other guy wasn't any more helpful, so I suspect the problem is systemic.
On the positive side, Stein and I will get started on salumi tomorrow and I will get to teach a sausage making class at DVC tomorrow night! Which is also my 41st birthday :) YAY for getting older!
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Friday was probably the worst day of restaurant preparation I've had to deal with so far...
The building dept met myself, my contractor, my landlord and the engineer to discuss the retrofitting fo the building (surpise! All that "Grandfathered in" stuff... isn't). It will be a multi week process just to figure out what needs to be done, then the steel frames needed to brace the front are custom made in Santa Clara, and then shipped to the East Bay. We don't know how much work the side wall needs. If it is thick enough (in relation to the height of the wall) then it might not need a bunch of stuff. If it doesn't need a lot, we can get started on the inside of the kitchen, then at least be working on getting the kitchen permitted and start some prep while they are working on the front of the building. They also let it slip that they are tearing out the patio next week to repave the road... and not putting the patio back in. So I've just lost about 1/4 of my seating area. Also, most disturbingly, the guy who brokered my lease, is a city council member and likely knew they were tearing it out when we signed the lease... which is why he did not mention the unreinforced masonry issues, but he DID make me sign a waiver acknolweding that the patio did not belong to the landlords and could be taken out by the city at any time. He was SO adamant about it... I should have known. The sad part is, I think they were stalling on telling the landlords so they did not have to deal with Stan's mom. At any rate... I am feeling like the broker should have just been honest about what was going on; I certainly would not work with him in the future. So... not only is my restaurant indefinitely delayed... I won't have the patio seating I was planning on. But I suppose on the upside, I don't have to buy outside seating. And the landlord is paying for the fixes to the front and seems determined to get the stuff done quickly. And he's talking to his family about delaying when I have to start paying rent... but still... I am feeling pretty down about the whole thing.
The building dept met myself, my contractor, my landlord and the engineer to discuss the retrofitting fo the building (surpise! All that "Grandfathered in" stuff... isn't). It will be a multi week process just to figure out what needs to be done, then the steel frames needed to brace the front are custom made in Santa Clara, and then shipped to the East Bay. We don't know how much work the side wall needs. If it is thick enough (in relation to the height of the wall) then it might not need a bunch of stuff. If it doesn't need a lot, we can get started on the inside of the kitchen, then at least be working on getting the kitchen permitted and start some prep while they are working on the front of the building. They also let it slip that they are tearing out the patio next week to repave the road... and not putting the patio back in. So I've just lost about 1/4 of my seating area. Also, most disturbingly, the guy who brokered my lease, is a city council member and likely knew they were tearing it out when we signed the lease... which is why he did not mention the unreinforced masonry issues, but he DID make me sign a waiver acknolweding that the patio did not belong to the landlords and could be taken out by the city at any time. He was SO adamant about it... I should have known. The sad part is, I think they were stalling on telling the landlords so they did not have to deal with Stan's mom. At any rate... I am feeling like the broker should have just been honest about what was going on; I certainly would not work with him in the future. So... not only is my restaurant indefinitely delayed... I won't have the patio seating I was planning on. But I suppose on the upside, I don't have to buy outside seating. And the landlord is paying for the fixes to the front and seems determined to get the stuff done quickly. And he's talking to his family about delaying when I have to start paying rent... but still... I am feeling pretty down about the whole thing.
Friday, April 22, 2011
Delays.. and more delays
Not too much time to write today as I am on the way out of town.
But this mornings sojourn to the site with the Building Dept and Engineer was pretty heartbreaking. At first they said I would probably not be able to get started on the kitchen build out until the end of June... Which would have put me open some time in August...
But they kind of came around to doing the seismic retrofitting while David works on the kitchen, so hopefully the 3 week build out on the kitchen, then I get my health permit to start prepping food while they finish the retrofit to the front of the building. But it will be at least a two week delay while they do all of the engineering calculations to figure out what The PlanTM will be.
I should know in 2-3 days if the side wall the bathroom will be on needs work, if it doesn't we can get started on the kitchen part pretty quickly... but either way... I think I might cry if anyone asks me, "When are you opening?" this weekend.
I may try to work on developing the food booth aspect so I can have some income (and possibly train the person I want to do that part of things) in the mean time... but... this so totally sucks.
But this mornings sojourn to the site with the Building Dept and Engineer was pretty heartbreaking. At first they said I would probably not be able to get started on the kitchen build out until the end of June... Which would have put me open some time in August...
But they kind of came around to doing the seismic retrofitting while David works on the kitchen, so hopefully the 3 week build out on the kitchen, then I get my health permit to start prepping food while they finish the retrofit to the front of the building. But it will be at least a two week delay while they do all of the engineering calculations to figure out what The PlanTM will be.
I should know in 2-3 days if the side wall the bathroom will be on needs work, if it doesn't we can get started on the kitchen part pretty quickly... but either way... I think I might cry if anyone asks me, "When are you opening?" this weekend.
I may try to work on developing the food booth aspect so I can have some income (and possibly train the person I want to do that part of things) in the mean time... but... this so totally sucks.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
And the Universe showers her love on me...
Today was one of those days where I am gently reminded that passion is a magical thing... and I am full of magic.
We had FP last night (for those that don't know, I am involved in a Medieval club where we delve as deeply as we can into all things Medieval, including fighting... and sausages! We hold a weekly fighter practice at our home which has turned into a bit of a house party every Wed night) and I still managed to go to bed pretty early. We got up this morning and Stein met us at the house for our foray into the Weaver roasting facility in San Rafael.
We got there a little early and Michael (a business partner) was not quite there yet, so we chatted with John Weaver, who was the Master Roaster for Pete's coffee for many years before leaving to do his own thing at Wild Card. I'd brought in some of my salumi for them to try... it is pretty cool to see someone like John Weaver light up at the prospect of trying someone ELSE's hand crafted stuff.
We got to see how he roasts stuff and some of the antique equipment he has on hand... god the place smalls like heaven (if you like coffee)! Of course we spent a good hour there and talked for maybe 10 minutes about business (I am a sure thing, we want the coffee). The rest of the time we geeked out about food and coffee. They tried my salumi and... there is this thing people do when they are surprised by food. They want to be looking at you when they talk to you, but they can't stop looking at the salumi. When that happens... you have new true believers. For a master at his craft to like my stuff... well that was extremely cool.
Also, they are practically neighbors and really cool people I can totally see BBQing with. The hour went too quickly... I swear we could have stayed all day.
But we needed to go to the city to try and pick up my deep fryer. Brion cannot do the fire supression stuff without the exact specs for the hot equipment. So we headed into the Mission, stopping at at a Chicken and Waffles place near Japan Town that had a cheap and EXCELLENT buffet. They brought Sammy a cup of hot chocolate mounded high with whipped cream that was the size of his head!
I found a very nice deep fryer for $750.00, plus a K-class fire extinguisher. We hit the airport for Stein's very awsome wife on the way home and then grabbed Sparky's Burgers (the only ones I really like) and now I am home and a bit stressing out.
I am meeting Stan (my landlord), Dave (my contractor), the guys from the building Dept plus the engineer at the facility tomorrow to try and get things squared away. The Buidling Dept has been so arbitrary and difficult that I am really nervous about how it will go. I have everything they have requested from me, and I will submit it tomorrow. I also have everything for the Sanitation dept as well. I will pick up my divorce decree while I am down there meeting the guys so I can submit the rest of the stuff to ABC next week. I will drop off the stuff to Sanitation in the morning, them meet with the guys and drop all the stuff off to the Building Dept tomorrow.
Then I am out of town for the weekend! Next week, Stein and I are making sausages and salumi all week to prep for the cafe opening (all of the six week cure stuff), plus making the hot smoked stuff for T-Rex. I am also teaching the sausage class on Tuesday night at DVC (it is a part of the Garde Manger course)... which is also my birthday!!!! I may have a freind who is a chef coming by to help (he wants to learn about the process).
Oh crap, that means I need to put together my product list so I can order the stuff tomorrow. I better get on it!
We had FP last night (for those that don't know, I am involved in a Medieval club where we delve as deeply as we can into all things Medieval, including fighting... and sausages! We hold a weekly fighter practice at our home which has turned into a bit of a house party every Wed night) and I still managed to go to bed pretty early. We got up this morning and Stein met us at the house for our foray into the Weaver roasting facility in San Rafael.
We got there a little early and Michael (a business partner) was not quite there yet, so we chatted with John Weaver, who was the Master Roaster for Pete's coffee for many years before leaving to do his own thing at Wild Card. I'd brought in some of my salumi for them to try... it is pretty cool to see someone like John Weaver light up at the prospect of trying someone ELSE's hand crafted stuff.
We got to see how he roasts stuff and some of the antique equipment he has on hand... god the place smalls like heaven (if you like coffee)! Of course we spent a good hour there and talked for maybe 10 minutes about business (I am a sure thing, we want the coffee). The rest of the time we geeked out about food and coffee. They tried my salumi and... there is this thing people do when they are surprised by food. They want to be looking at you when they talk to you, but they can't stop looking at the salumi. When that happens... you have new true believers. For a master at his craft to like my stuff... well that was extremely cool.
Also, they are practically neighbors and really cool people I can totally see BBQing with. The hour went too quickly... I swear we could have stayed all day.
But we needed to go to the city to try and pick up my deep fryer. Brion cannot do the fire supression stuff without the exact specs for the hot equipment. So we headed into the Mission, stopping at at a Chicken and Waffles place near Japan Town that had a cheap and EXCELLENT buffet. They brought Sammy a cup of hot chocolate mounded high with whipped cream that was the size of his head!
I found a very nice deep fryer for $750.00, plus a K-class fire extinguisher. We hit the airport for Stein's very awsome wife on the way home and then grabbed Sparky's Burgers (the only ones I really like) and now I am home and a bit stressing out.
I am meeting Stan (my landlord), Dave (my contractor), the guys from the building Dept plus the engineer at the facility tomorrow to try and get things squared away. The Buidling Dept has been so arbitrary and difficult that I am really nervous about how it will go. I have everything they have requested from me, and I will submit it tomorrow. I also have everything for the Sanitation dept as well. I will pick up my divorce decree while I am down there meeting the guys so I can submit the rest of the stuff to ABC next week. I will drop off the stuff to Sanitation in the morning, them meet with the guys and drop all the stuff off to the Building Dept tomorrow.
Then I am out of town for the weekend! Next week, Stein and I are making sausages and salumi all week to prep for the cafe opening (all of the six week cure stuff), plus making the hot smoked stuff for T-Rex. I am also teaching the sausage class on Tuesday night at DVC (it is a part of the Garde Manger course)... which is also my birthday!!!! I may have a freind who is a chef coming by to help (he wants to learn about the process).
Oh crap, that means I need to put together my product list so I can order the stuff tomorrow. I better get on it!
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Down-time is a dirty word...
So I am paused until my plumber gets me the new plans. The building dept and county sanitation need them before they can go forward, I had a set but they didn't scan well and so they are not readable, plus we added a floor drain by the range... so the new set is "in the mail" and I hope to get them today so I can go make copies and then walk them over to the various places that need them.
While I am in Martinez I will go get a copy of my divorce decree (don't ask me WHY ABC needs this, but they do). I have a ton of paperwork regarding my divorce at the house, but I have no idea WHICH thing they need, so this is the easy $6 way to find out. 
I have the new plans with the ADA fix for the front entrance and I really like them a lot. I also picked up some disposeable cameras today to take hard copy pictures of some of my equipment so I can bring them with me to Beltane, where I have meetings with two brides (on at the event and one on the way home) so I can show them some of the serving wear and see if they want to use it. I may try to get some of the pictures of my food printed up as well. I am SO bad about taking photos of my food, which is weird because I LOVE pretty food like the fruit skewers at Cyneswith's party last year.
So, once I get the plumbing plan and cash I will drive the stuff over to County Sanitation and also to the Building Dept. After I get the divorce decree I will drive that stuff over to ABC and also give them a check for the additional caterers license. Then it's just... wait for everyone to respond.
But in the meantime, Stein and I will be making some sausages next week for a potential new client (T-Rex in Berkeley). I am really excited about the sausages! I hit World Spice in Seattle last weekend and got some really cool stuff (like cubeb berries and poivre rouge and sichuan peppercorns) that I am going to incorporate into these smoked and emulsified sausages. I am running SO low on my staple items like capicolla and Tuscan salami that I know I need to get on this, but this week is shot. I can at least prep and order product for the items.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Take THAT to-do list from H-E-Double Toothpicks!
Ok so today I called the Buidling Dept for clarification on what is needed and their is some dispute over whether I've turned in the HVAC plans or not. David says I have, Jeff says I haven't. Will need to figure that one out?
But I got three manilla folders to catch all of the paperwork for each government office.
- I filled out the paperwork for the variance from County Sanitation
- Called ABC and clarified which documents I still need to fill out
- ABC (who are so nice and helpful, I KNOW it can be done) also told me to fill out the simple addendum to get a regular caterers beer/wine permit (so I don't have to go get one for every individual event)
- I gathered the documents I need to go copy tomorrow (facility lease)
- Have the address and procedure to go get a copy of my divorce paperwork
- Sent in the electronic copies of the blueprints to Fedex so I can pick up another copy tomorrow
- Talked at length to David today about the new floor plan to make the facility ADA accessible (front in particular)
- Did new visio diagrams with two different ramp options to make the facility ADA accessible and sent them to Stan and Dave
- Wrote my disclosure letter for the Building Dept
- Did a total BTU useage calculation for the Building Dept
- Emailed Stan and reminded him that he needs to write a letter saying I have permission to do the work I am doing
- Did a new Diagram of the restaurant for ABC
- Filled out the Gift/Loan form for ABC
I still have a full day tomorrow of running around, but I do feel like I got a little bit of the chaos under control today (WHEW!)
BTW here is the newest floor diagram (I know Stein will be interested!) of the possible ADA fix
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