Restaurants and Institutions

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A Week in the Life
November 21, 2006

Stu Stein

November 21, 2006
I thought both you and I would be interested in seeing a snapshot of one week in the life of a chef working to open his dream restaurant.

Sunday: In the non-food related category, my apartment building in downtown Portland is turning condo, and we mounted a pre-emptive strike. Yes, for the sixth time in eight years, we moved. The good part was that most of our life is still in storage from our original move from our previous house in southern Oregon. Hopefully—and yes, I have said this before—this is the last move before we purchase another house in Portland. (Helpful hint #42 from Uncle Stu: become friendly with the strapping, young high-school football-player neighbor boy. It makes it so much easier on your back and knees.)

Monday: After teaching all morning, I met with Kelly Edwards and Jess Graden from Scott/Edwards Architecture. We are in the final stages of the interior design. I got to play with color charts, swatches and finished-material samples. More importantly, we worked out what was left for them, the architects, to complete on the job and how much money that entails. Specifically, they will finish the interior design and produce detailed construction drawings. By the end of the month, they will have everything that the general contractor needs to pull permits and then begin the build-out after the first of the year. As I mentioned previously, switching locations in the middle of the design process certainly added to my design costs, but the benefits have more than outweighed the additional costs. I seem to have been smarter than the average chef, because my original location STILL has not broken ground yet.

Tuesday: I went out to the restaurant site for the first time in about 10 days. The contractor constructing the actual building is crankin’. Brick has been applied to the entire façade, the steel supports for the outside awnings are in place and the storefront window glass is almost completely installed. Spoke with the developer and the general contractor and was told that they are still on track to hand me my “vanilla shell/dark shell” (the stage where I begin my build-out) sometime around January 15, 2007.

One reason for visiting the site was to meet with the company that is supplying me with my point-of-sale (POS) system. We needed to walk through the space with design in hand to again go over the flow and figure out exactly where we need to place the POS terminals, remote printers and wiring. I am now able to take this information and have Kelly finish the interior design, which will allow him to lay out the details for the electrical contractor.

Based on the design and the fact that my space is only 2,480 square feet, (1/3 back of the house and 2/3 front of the house), I will have three POS terminals: two accessible by waitstaff at either end of the bar area and one behind the bar for bar staff. There is a back-office component that allows for reporting and high-speed Internet credit-card processing. Additionally, I will be using a national, online reservation- and table-management system that has the ability to tie into the POS.

FYI, when comparing POS systems, make sure you’re really comparing apples and apples, not apples and quinces. They may look similar, but make sure you can break out the amount of initial and ongoing training, service, maintenance and schmoozing time included. One contract may cost you a bit more upfront, but it may include a greater amount of back-end or additional services, support and equipment.

Wednesday: Cole Danehower (my beverage manager/wine geek) and I periodically sit down over coffee or lunch, mainly to update each other on the progress but also because we have a good time. We met with a representative from a fairly new company (only three years in the United States) that manufactures self-contained, high-end, wine-by-the-glass dispensing systems. I have been in discussions with them and other companies for several months, figuring out which will deliver the most bang and quality for the buck.

The rep brought down a working demo unit and walked us through the company history and statistics, as well as the machine’s components, features, service, maintenance and warranty. An impressive showing overall, but almost as important, they are willing to use Terroir as a showplace for their unit with the hope of making additional inroads into the Pacific Northwest market. They are a bit hungry, and this translates into a deal that no other manufacturer has been able to match.

Let me reiterate a theme you’ve heard from me before: If you don’t ask, you will not receive. Negotiate, negotiate, negotiate everything, and believe that nothing is sacred. Thanks to my chutzpah (look it up if you don’t know what it means), I’m able to purchase a 20-bottle, wine-by-the-glass dispensing unit for the price of other manufacturers’ 10- or 12-bottle units.

Thursday: Today’s meeting was with a major contracting firm, the same one that is currently acting as the general contractor for the building in which I’m leasing. Some meetings are necessary, and some you need to just get through, but every now and then it’s fun to a go to a meeting knowing the sole purpose of the people on the other side of the table is to stroke you. I got to sit back and say, “Sell me on you.” I figure that this will probably be one of the last “fun” meetings I’ll have with a general contractor.

We talked over the design, timeline, budget (or lack thereof) and my expectations. They have extensive experience in restaurant construction in the Portland area and seem to be small enough to care about little ol’ me but large enough to have the resources to execute the quality I expect. They took the engineered drawings from the kitchen designer, the interior design sketches and plans completed to date from the architect; they’ll will come back to me within a week or so with the bid.

Friday: Just when you think your week is done, I zipped over to Key Bank to talk with my commercial banker and my loan officer. We finally signed the commitment letter for my SBA-guaranteed loan. Signing basically meant I had to write a check for loan fees.

My small-business accounting software showed up in the mail today. I got a very good deal ordering it online. Save those coupon offers you occasionally get in the mail; they may be to your advantage at some point. I began the set-up process with a restaurant chart-of-accounts I had previously downloaded from a restaurant consulting firm to use in this product. Up until now, I’ve accumulated EVERY expense, check, invoice and cup of coffee related to the Terroir start-up on a spreadsheet. It was very neat, organized and thorough, but it was starting to get out of hand. Now that I’ve actually set-up my business checking account, it was time to bite the bullet and get the proper software for the job.

Saturday: Graduation. Yes, that “other” job sometime intrudes on my grand schemes for Terroir or my sitting-around-and-just-doing-nothing time. The culinary school holds formal graduations twice a year, and lucky me, this weekend was one of those times. I personally have nothing against other people’s graduations, but I didn’t go to my high- school or either of my college graduations. The ceremony was as expected—a little pomp, a little circumstance and a few semi-amusing, semi-boring speeches. The fun actually comes in at the reception back at the culinary school.

Every kitchen and lab is decked out in a different theme with a vast array of hors d’oeuvres, snacks, drinks and goodies. Now, our kitchen didn’t get voted the best (a huge miscarriage of justice and I have asked for a recount), but with the little humility I have left aside, my fellow chefs and I pulled off an amazing, harvest-themed fall bounty. Thank you, Portland Parks Department, for letting us borrow the appropriate autumn “table components”!

Hope your weeks was just as productive, but a bit less intense!

And the journey continues.

Cheers!

Stu

Posted by Stu Stein on November 21, 2006 | Comments (0)