Word on the street is L.B.M. is going to open. Blog #29

Hello everyone. Hope this weekend finds you all well. I’m sure everyone is delighted at the fact that we’ll have an early spring.

As far as me goes, I’ve had a very interesting week. I spent Monday and Tuesday running around getting my signatures. And then went to City Hall to get my business licence. For everything I’ve ever heard about City Hall in every town I have to say that everyone I’ve dealt with at City Hall has been extremely co-operative and very helpful. Getting the business licence was relatively painless.

With a smile beaming ear to ear and a huge weight off my shoulders, I rushed back to the Resto to fax the signatures to the A.G.C.O.  in order to get the liquor licence moving.  As everything I’ve said about City Hall and their employees above; the exact opposite is for the A.G.C.O. These people are not helpful in the least. It’s almost like they’re out to make everything impossible. Maybe they’re trying to weed out the not so serious ppl. The woman I’m dealing with refuses to talk on the phone and only does email. And the problem with that is she gets back to me at her leisure. Anyway the signatures weren’t good enough! I had to get letters from the Fire, Health and Building inspectors.  So back to these inspectors I go. They were all very helpful and got me the letters very promptly. However, the Fire department charged me $70. I also had to get a municipal Clerk to sign off.  Another $30.  Then they (A.G.C.O.) told me I needed an occupancy load test. A.G.C.O. told me the Fire or Building inspector does this. Well guess what. They don’t. So she said that an Engineer or an architect does it. I called my engineer and they don’t do that. So that left me with no choice but to go to an architect.  I really don’t understand this. It was a Resto before with alcohol and we haven’t changed anything. I never had an architect and I haven’t changed anything. I have less seats then the previous restaurateur. I mentioned this to the AGCO and they didn’t care.

These ppl have power and aren’t afraid to exercise it.  So architect it is, and did I mention that for them to come into the Resto, measure up the Resto and fill out a document and  stamp it, will be anywhere from $800-$1500. Grrrrrrrrrr. Once I get this completed then I have to fax it in and then that only gets me to the next step.  So in lieu of all of this and quickly running out of money I made a decision to open with or without beverages. I believe in the statement “you can’t wait for your ship to come in. You got to jump in the water and swim out to get it”.

This is not how I wanted to open. I’ll be honest here, I’m not very happy about it and down right embarrassed! A fine dinning Resto with no wine, what a joke!  But I’m pushed into a corner and I have to act. I’ve had control of the Resto since Oct 18^th 2010.  That’s way too long to be building a Resto. Opening Day will be Tuesday March 1, 2011. It is still three weeks away so maybe I’ll get the licence before then and we’ll be ok, but I’m not holding my breath.

On to another issue. $$$; as in I have none. This will be a delicate paragraph so I’ll tread lightly. Bottom line is my hood cost 3.5 times what I thought and my kitchen equipment was really expensive too.  The hood is law so there’s no way around that. The equipment is my fault although I think things could have, and should be different. That’s all I’ll say about that. As a result, I’m short of money. I spent last week trying to get more money and things aren’t looking good for me in that department. I have no idea what I’m going to do.

I had a long chat with my good friend Amy and she said I was being negative. I strongly disagree. You can’t be a negative person to take on a project as big as this.  The simple fact of the matter is I’m a realist and at this point I’m very scared. Scratch that, I’m bloody terrified. I mean even if I had tons of money this would still be a scary undertaking. I still have to buy plates and kitchen cooking stuff. I have the money to do that. But just that. I was hoping to make enough of a profit in the first two weeks of opening to start paying the bills and income. But without my liquor license I can’t see how this can possibly happen. But in the style of my good friend Evel, “We’re going for it. And we’ll just see if we can do it”.

I’ve hired a front of house manager named Grace. She is great. She has called the front of house staff that we have selected and we’ll be doing a working interview tomorrow.  I’ve started to hire cooks as well, but I still need to get a few more.

So this is where I stand as of Feb 5^th, 2011. Scared out of my wits and not sure if I can make it. But I will put it into first gear and let go of the clutch. Now I just need to get it up to 120km per hour, hit the ramp and fly over the cars!  

Comments are highly sought after and will be thankfully received. If you wish comment privately email me at glenn@lebonmarche.ca. Thank you all faithful reader and I truly look forward to seeing you on the 1^st.

Lucky landings

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