Restaurants and Institutions

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earth2table: Permit Me
March 2, 2007

Yes, the build-out just began, but that doesn’t make me immune to the new-entrepreneur gremlins.

The plumbing subcontractor has done his initial job. He had the concrete contractor dig trenches in the concrete slab, and then he connected the rough plumbing. Now we’re ready to re-pour the slab so walls can be erected, electrical rough-ins can be completed and we can start turning this shell into a real restaurant. Schedule that to happen any minute now ....

Glitch #1: The permitting has been held up. That means we can’t get the plumbing inspection signed off yet, thus we had to cancel the concrete pour, thus we can’t start framing yet. When we called the building department, they said it could be tomorrow, could be two weeks.

Fast forward one day, and the good news is that the permit came through, so we are basically not behind schedule. The bad news is, my local pharmacy is running low on Tums.

Glitch #2: I’ll take a bit of responsibility for this one, but my equipment-and-design company knows I’m a bit, shall we say, peeved. My general contractor was asking me about the specifications and delivery date of my wood/gas burning oven. The goal is to set the oven in place—it weighs about a ton, by the way—and build the walls for the open kitchen around it. I checked with my guy, and the oven hasn’t been ordered yet. Seems he was still waiting for the P.O. (purchase order) from the leasing company ( I have a contact to lease about $50,000 worth of my front- and back-of-the-house equipment, including the gas/wood burning oven, with a regional leasing company).

That’s not necessarily a bad thing on its own, but take into account the fact that it will take six to eight weeks at a minimum to ship my oven from Australia, and the fact that I’ve known the exact oven I needed to order for at least six months now, and you can see why I’m a bit peeved and slightly worried. I’m not sure what Fed Ex charges to ship a package weighing a ton by next-day air, but I can guess it is slightly more than $39.95.

So now we’ve resolved the P.O. and ordering problem, but the oven will still take a good four to six weeks to get here. Looks like we will build walls, run the ducting and then slip in the oven before opening. It’s not the most economic or efficient way to do the build-out, but at least it will be completed on time and cost only slightly more than budget. What’s a few grand between friends, right?

On another non-cooking note, we (the architect/interior designer and I) have decided on the material for the padded bench seating, the draperies near the front door and the cushions for the chairs, as well as colors for the walls, accents and base molding (see attached color board). I’ve had a local chair company hot on the trail of bargains for the bar stools, chairs and outdoor furniture, and we should have a decision within the week.

Now, the world would be right if I only had to worry about actually cooking instead of equipment deliveries, permitting or fabric swatches. The again, we’re supposedly open in 90 days, so why worry?

Cheers!

Stu

Posted by Stu Stein on March 2, 2007 | Comments (0)