Hello Lilith, come here often? Blog #21

Hello everyone. So Thursday was fun. The contractor took the day off and I was there alone. But I finished up all the painting in the front of the house.  Dan showed up and started the bar. My Banker showed up on Thursday as well and told me we were good to go with my money and that I would get it Fri. whew!! After work, I went shopping for the ingredients for my Absinthe cookies and hot chocolate to be served during the downtown Christmas walk. Got home and started baking and I only finished up at 2 in the morning. Grabbed a quick sleep and then back up in the morning to make menus and attach them to business cards and make the hot chocolate. Loaded up the car and off I went to LBM. It was a miserable day. Cold, snowy and very, very windy. At 16:30 Nancy showed up to hang the art work. Last week when she came in, it was just to get a feel. She took them back and touched them up and finished them off. There are 3 paintings in total with 4 fairies. I love them all but there is one that stands out to me and I’ve named her already.   Lilith!!  I’ve yet to name the other three. I will name them as they come to me.  By 18:00, the walk was under way and the wind had calmed down a bit but it was still freezing. But the wonderful ppl of North Bay embraced the cold and came out anyway and after the lighting of the tree they came in and, boy did they come in. 18ltrs of hot chocolate gone in 55min., 300 cookies gone in 90 mins., 100 menus with cards gone in 120 min. We had to get more copies printed! So needless to say, I was very happy. Ppl seem to be excited about LBM and they can’t wait till it opens. That makes two of us ha ha ha.

Saturday I had a private catering. Dan was supposed to finish the Bar on Sat and Louise was to let him in as I was working on my function. Today (Sunday) I took the day off. I needed a break. Tomorrow I’m meeting with my alcohol rep to decide on wines and booze for the Resto. They don’t do absinthe so I’m on my own there. Jacques (the contractor) will finish up on Tuesday as planned. I’ll be on my own for the rest. I’m still waiting on the hood to come. I’ll do the floor myself and Don told me he’d come to help me paint the kitchen this week. I put the word out for staff as well. Just on facebook and word of month. Not working as well as I hoped. So I’ll have to try other avenues this week. Tues night off to a meeting in T.O. and back Wed. Woo Hoo another road trip.

Have a good week everyone and we’ll blog at you soon.

Le Commis, Glenn

Money only means something, when you don’t have it. Blog #20

Wow what a week. I last left you with the hope I’d get my money in a couple of days. Nothing could have been further from the truth. Dan called me up Tuesday and said we have big problems. Apparently the BDC wanted me to buy all my equipment first. Then the second wave of cash would be the lease hold improvements. Of course I did this backwards. They weren’t exactly pleased. I asked how things could be done that way. I mean buy your stoves then grind the floor so there is 10cm of dust everywhere. But Dan was great! He did some work and made an amendment and we were good to go. Almost. I had to collect all the cheques I had written and send them to the BDC so they could match them up with the invoices.  On top of that, a few of the invoices had no HST numbers. So that was crazy and, as it stands now, I’m still waiting the get the remainder of the money. Last week was painting the base boards. Wow what a tough job. Plus doing touch ups. Jake and Richard did the bathrooms as they were a mess. But they looked great after they were done. I spent last weekend painting the bathrooms. Kate popped in for a few hours on Sat. but other than that, it was me and the radio.

Also during this time I was having quite the time with AGCO. They were asking for papers that I had completed months ago. And when they realized this, they said ok you just need to send us a cheque to put the ad in the paper. Good thing I had a copy of the cheque due to the BDC thing. I emailed them back saying here’s the cheque you want which was sent over a month ago and cashed a month ago. The problem with these emails is they were two and three days apart.   So it wasn’t all finalized till Today.

My bar was supposed to come Tues but that has been pushed off till tomorrow (I think).  I hope so though, because Fri is the Christmas walk. And although I’m not open, I’m going to serve hot chocolate and hand out menus and business cards. Speaking of which My Web site and business cards came in on Sunday. And I have to say the Site is phenomenal and the business cards are very nice. You can check out the web site if you wish at www.lebonmarche.ca 

I almost forgot. My art work came in on Fri and, oh my, it is WICKED!!! 4 fairies. 3 girls and one male! So that’s where we are this week at LBM. Sorry it’s been so long. Working like crazy and too tired at night to write.  I hope to write this weekend and tell you all about the Christmas walk.

Cheers Le Commis Glenn

Excuse me sir but may I borrow some Grey Poupon or $50,000. Blog #19

So when I last left you, I was off to do the Liona Boyd function in Orillia. That was a blast.  Monday I got to go pick up the engineering plans for the exhaust fan and hood. I took them straight away to City hall for a look over and then hopefully a building permit. Tuesday I started at the Resto with sanding the walls. Jacques’ partner Richard was mudding and Jacques said I wasn’t allowed. So I sanded and they mudded and I sanded and they mudded and I sanded again. Jacques was in the back making holes for the exhaust fan and return air. Friday I took the day off of the Resto and took a trip to Sudbury to go to Costco. Jacques cleaned up the Resto and got it ready for painting. Bell popped in to install the phone lines.  I picked up a cash register and a kitchen aid. I also saw some sensor light switches so I picked those up to put into the bathrooms.  That way the lights never stay on as ppl exit.  My Dad and other Bro. came up from down south to see me and that was awesome. They looked at the Resto and were impressed (I Think ha ha ha ).

Saturday was the painting party. Remember I couldn’t afford the painter to do everything? So Shawn finished up the ceiling and did a wonderful job. I have recently befriended a guy called Don, whom is a professional painter. On Saturday, my buddy Jake, Steve, Don, Derick, Katie and myself,  them with there Coffees and me with my Tea, set about painting the inside of Le Bon Marché. Ferret brown, light green, dark green, grey and tan!!!!   We cracked it off in one day.  By the end of the day, I was pretty tired and I needed to go back Sunday and fix up my mistakes. A heart felt thank-you goes out the ppl mentioned above.

So today I walked in to see the restaurant starting to take shape. Louise popped in with the lights and sconces which will be installed tomorrow or Wed. Also my mural is almost complete. The artist wants to come in and hang it to see it with the lighting so she can go back and make the appropriate changes before the big reveal.

After all that, it was off to see my good friend Dan at the BDC. Remember him? The BDC only gave me part of the money I needed up front. I had to spend it all before I got the remainder. I had to keep all the bills and bank statements to show the BDC to make sure I didn’t spend the money on a trip to the islands or something.  Of course I thought I’d just hand in the bills and get my money and be on my way. Ha ha ha ya right! Had to sit down and go through each purchase one by one and match the receipts to the cheques. It was a gruelling 2.5 hrs meeting. Now Dan has to do his bit and hopefully get the rest of my money by weeks end.

I’m now in panic mode. The next chunk of money is it. What I’ve got is what I’ve got. The front of the house is not completely paid for and I still got to buy stoves, ovens, prep tables, sandwich units and a dishwasher plus dishes and inventory.  I’m still waiting to hear about the liquor licence.  I’m not sure what’s going on there. Web site and business cards are also in limbo. I need to put an add in the paper to hire staff. I’m starting get really nervous now; I mean were just a few weeks away from opening! I’ll be in charge of all staff, food.  liquor, bills and dealing with the whole rigmarole of what is the hospitality industry.  On the plus side my clothes are fitting better and my face is looking thinner. Who needs diets? Just open a restaurant!!! 

Cheers,

Le Commis Glenn

Let’s paint the town……………… Ferret Brown!! Blog # 18

 What’s been going on in your world? It sure is chaotic in mine.

Thursday’s road trip was just what the doctor ordered. I headed down to Newmarket and had a great meeting with Gary. Then he whipped up a fantastic lunch which Marni, Gary and I enjoyed and got caught up on things. The last time I saw them, they were my entertainment duo for Sheridan Catering’s Robbie Burns night. My Brother Ken was in Markham attending a course and so I was able to meet up with him as well, for dinner. As said before, he is a Fire Prevention Officer. So we got to talking about restaurant exhaust systems and fire in the Resto in general.  What I can and can’t do. Then back home.

Friday I went into the Resto to see my ceiling painted only to find it wasn’t done. And my shoulders sunk about 2”.  Then I was told it would be done over the weekend. Sat I popped in to the Resto to find Shawn mudding the walls AWWWWW what the heck is going on? I wanted him to do just the ceiling. I was going to do the walls to save $$$. There was a miscommunication between Louise, Shawn and myself.

Monday I met up with Dan. Dan is building my Bar, back bar and table tops. We were measuring and finding where everything is to go, again what a great meeting. As it turns out, the bar as it was, was not very functional. So after a bit of chopping, changing and massaging we got it to where I think it will both look good and be functional. Plus I have an old style awesome looking fridge that holds two Kegs and has two taps on the front. We wiggled that into the mix as well. I ask Jacques when I could paint the walls and he told me not till the 13^th. I guess I was a little too aggressive with the painting. You have to learn to walk before you can run I guess. So I told Jacques “I have nothing to do all week so put me to work.” Which he did, starting Tuesday.  Monday afternoon I went back home and poured over my finances. Man this money goes quick!!!. 

So Tuesday comes and Jacques gives me the glorious job of lying down on the concrete and taking a screwdriver and scraping out all the concrete dust between the walls and floor that was left over from the grinding. Louise popped in on Tuesday and I decided to throw in a quick staff meeting. Monday night I told my friend Jake what I did with the bar. To which he replied “what’s the point of having a designer if you’re not going to listen to her”. So another intense conversation issued. (Don’t you just love passionate ppl?) Jake and I hashed out a few things. Some things he said were valid and some were not. But let me tell you it is so nice to have a friend that cares. Rather then the ones who don’t say anything and then after you’re done the Resto, they have the balls to say why didn’t you do this or that? Or my personal favourite “I would have done it differently.” So I held the meeting with my Designer and Contractor. Basically just to say “we’re starting to get off track here let’s get back on the straight and narrow. I took this opportunity to apologise to Louise for changing her design. I mean it wasn’t drastic but Jake’s words haunted me. She said no problem you’re the boss. I said no, I hired you to do a job and I should have consulted you before I made the changes. I told Louise she’s “the boss” that’s what I hired her to do. I’m just Jacques’ minion at the moment. At Around 16:00 Shawn came in and started to paint the ceiling. I was so happy. The ceiling is being sprayed so that was it for my work for the day.

I came in Wed Morning and looked at the ceiling and was overcome with the presence of L.B.M. It was just half of the ceiling that was done and as I stood there alone, gazing up, I could hear the patrons of the restaurant with that hum of 40-50 ppl talking over dinner, soft music playing in the background, the occasional scream from the kitchen because the chef is mad at someone or something, clinking of glasses and just the whole restaurant buzz. Ok maybe I’m a little Coucou but the feeling was so intense. Like seeing a band for the first time where you’re standing there in awe. This was just from looking at the ceiling. What am I going to do when the Resto is complete?  But Jacques quickly brought me back to earth when he told me to wash the walls. I felt like Cinderella and NOT at the end of the book ha ha ha.

Now the walls are ready for painting and so are the washrooms. Tomorrow I’m in meetings all day and night.  Friday I’ll paint the Staff washroom and the storeroom/office. Saturday I have a break from the Resto and do a catering for a Liona Boyd concert in Orillia.

 Have a great rest of the week and weekend.  Happy Guy Fox day to all my British friends.   Blog at you soon,

Le Commis Glenn