Breaking eggs...

There is an old saying that to make a good omelet, you need to break a few eggs. That saying comes to mind when I walk into the restaurant.

With the carpet removed and the ceiling tiles pulled out behind the bar, it looks like a disaster. I'm calling this the "broken egg" period.

But the replacement ceiling tiles are on schedule for delivery on Thursday.

And the cork flooring will be here next week.

Then we can begin the omelet stage. It should be a perfectly cooked and well seasoned dish when complete.

Today's tip of "things to remember" when starting a business...

Don't forget that in addition to the federal tax ID number, you also need a state sellers permit. I didn't even think of that stage until Monday. But with the modern marvel of today's internet, it only took a few hours to get our assigned numbers from the state. Doing it the old fashion (aka paper) route takes about 15 days.

Building the tiled tabletops will take up a good portion of the rest of the week.

I can't wait to see this omelet completed :-)

Hi-ho, hi-ho....

its off to work we go!

This weekend was another "manual labor" marathon.

Saturday was an endurance test for both of us. I had already hauled about 30 cubic yards of wood chips from the town yard waste site. Well, we knew that wouldn't be enough to cover the ground behind the restaurant. So we started our day getting another 10 cubic yards. After spreading that, we were still short. So off to get yet another trailer load of chips.

While I was busy getting the second load of chips for the day, Lisa buckled down and pulled out the paint brushes yet again. It was more touch-up work in the dining room and restrooms. Plus a second coat in the service area. In total, we used just about 8 gallons of paint!!! That's a lot of brush/roller strokes :-)

And if that wasn't enough for one day....we trimmed the bushes in front of the restaurant. And pulled the overgrown weeds from around the parking lot.

Sunday was a little more relaxed. While the mutt wouldn't let us catch a few extra hours of sleep, it did get a little rest in the morning. And my famous buttermilk biscuits with spicy sausage gravy made a nice start to the day.

We spent most of the day on the search for decor. A few nice pieces were found for the restrooms and entrance area. But we're still looking for a bench to fit the foyer.

The herbs got planted and place behind the restaurant. We'll have tons of fresh herbs to use in the kitchen. The list contains: basil, oregano, thyme, marjoram, rosemary, sage, lavender and chives.

And last, but not least, Lisa was able to get our Quickbooks set up and rolling. Now it will be easier to see how much money we don't have in our account ;-)

Time to relax with a glass of Chardonnay for Lisa and a Bitter Woman IPA for me....

It's been a few days since I've blogged. Sorry about delay. But not to fret....we have been busy!

With more rain on Thursday, the day was spent finding even more 3+ year old grease on kitchen equipment. I can't believe that somebody could let things get that back. There was grease in places that I didn't even knew existing. Especially under shelves and equipment. But it's finally looking like a proper kitchen.

Did I mention how much I dislike AT&T? They finally came out to hook up the phone on Friday. It only took two weeks to get service. Seriously! How can it take that long?!?!? I guess it can take longer. It will be 3 weeks before we get internet service.

My sister and nephew stopped by the restaurant. Kathy is going to make some curtains and valances to separate the "bar area" from the kitchen. Thanks for stepping up to help!!!

Lisa was done with work around 3pm on Friday. We did some touch-up on the paint and sanded down the main drips from the original painting. Now we'll need to touch-up the sanded spots on Saturday. Grrrr.....more painting!

After a quick dinner, it was back up the restaurant to meet with Todd. We discussed some equipment needs. Also talked further about the menu philosophy. It's starting to come together with some great food!!!

I'll get to Saturday's events tomorrow. We're tired and the dog is driving us nuts!!!

Baby steps....

No...we're not expecting a baby ;-)

The process of opening a restaurant is a series of little steps. One at a time. And you need to take these steps before you can learn to run.

The progress this week has been slow and steady. And we're looking at 5 weeks before we'd like to open the doors. Yikes!!!

So far this week, we've managed to make some important decisions and get the ball rolling on a number of areas. And that means out comes the pocketbook!

Flooring ordered (check). We decided to go with cork for a number of reasons. 1) Fits the theme; 2) Enviromentally friendly; 3) Absorbs sound; 4) Looks cool

Additional equipment ordered (check). Getting a charbroiler and 6 burner range. Still looking for a used convection oven.

Ceiling tiles ordered (check). Bye, bye to the nasty "foam" tiles over the bar area.

Approved the estimate for the pillon and building signage (check).

We also made the decision to do tiled table tops. The contrasting color should look great with the flooring and paint colors.

Now is the time to kick things into high gear. I'm sure we'll stumble a few times as we learn to run. But as long has we only scrab a knee instead of break a leg, we should be great.

Just another manic Monday....

Yep...it's Monday!

The day started with a plan to finish painting the restrooms. And any good manager knows that you plan your work and work your plan. That's great advice for any supervisor, manager or business owner.

Well, so much for plans....

Because I had an able body (thanks Roger) and a trailer (thanks Dave), I decided to bring our broken sofa in for repairs. It's a 23 minute drive each direction to the furniture store. Plus I needed to spot at the bank to make a deposit. So that eats a good 1.5 hours from my morning.

I get to the restaurant and start painting with mom and Roger. After about 30 minutes, we realize that we're out of paint. That brings the painting to a grinding halt.

Mom and Roger need to get back to Beloit, so they pack up the mutts and hit the road. I decide to grab some lunch before picking up more paint.

After a 20 minute (each direction) drive to Home Depot for more paint and a few other supplies, I'm back at the restaurant. But more delays....

The weather forecast is calling for heavy rains the next few days. When we were painting on Sunday, there was some good rain coming down. I noticed that the downspounts weren't putting out much water. Okay....they weren't putting out ANY water. The gutters must be clogged. Out comes the ladder. And up I go. The gutters actually had weeds and whatnot growing in them!!! That took about an hour out of my day.

While I was on the ladder, I recieved a phone call from somebody interested in purchasing our old china. She stops by the restaurant and inspects the product. While that should probably be a quick transaction, it's not. We "talked shop" while she looked around the restaurant. But she was cool and recently started a family diner in Chilton. It was nice to get another prospective on the state of the business.

During the time that Cindy was there, my friend Tim popped in because he saw my truck outside. We chatted about Land Rovers and whatnot for awhile. Tim had his tractor and mower on the trailer. Off comes the mower and down goes the overgrown weeds.

And then....while Tim was there, a wine rep dropped by while on his way home. They are a new player to the market and have some good products. We talked about some potential and exciting vinos.

It was almost 6:00pm by the time all that was done.

Remember those restrooms that were supposed to get painted today....they are still less than half done.

So much for working my plan :-)

A picture is worth a thousand words....

I'll let the pictures tell the story for today:

Notice all the little white spots....spackle from all the nail holes.

The wall with the view and over the bar get a nice warm shade of tan.

The side walls required two coats of the green (Lisa's choice!)

And the finished product....

We also painted the front foyer and prepped the restrooms. They'll get painted tomorrow.

Then I get to rip out the carpeting. That should be fun!!

Family Day at Syrah

If anybody that has never started a business, you wouldn't know about the stupid charges that get sent your way. This morning was one of those moments.

We didn't have time yesterday to get through the mail. One of the envelopes was from WPS (the local gas and electric company). Guess what they wanted.....money. And lots of it!!! They are requiring a $4200 security deposit (that they will hold for 24 months). Luckily, I was able to get some additional information on ways to eleviate the financial impact. You can get a surety bond from your insurance company. It will cost you around $200 per year. But that's better than forking out $4200 of much needed start-up capital.

Now that we've done our "lesson plan" for the day, we can move forward.

Scaffold rented....check
Interview with potential server....check (and Jill, I hope your cough is better. sorry for laughing)
Familiy arrives to help paint....check
Remove cabinets from wall....check
Clean walls....check
Mask for painting....check
Weed wack....check
Drink beer/wine....check
Make Mexican food for dinner....check
Blog....check

Done for today. Off to get some sleep.....check

Thursday updates....sorry for the delay

Spent the morning cleaning again. Except this time it was the house. Yes....I can scrub toilets, vacuum and dust with the best of them :-)

After heading out of the house around 10:30am, it was off to go shopping for restaurant flooring. I think I spent about an hour at the tile store thinking about all the possible options. Also visited hardwood floor store and a local "big player" flooring store. I can home with about 8 samples.

Lisa and I had a meeting last night at Fetaz that went very well. Some exciting news to come out of that meeting in the next few days.

I'd give you a sneek peak of Friday but that blog is right behind.

Ho-hum day at in the restaurant world

I may have spoken too soon when I poked fun of the Carpenters song "Rainy Days and Mondays". Today was a rainy day and Wednesday. And for some reason, I had a hard time with the motivation today. But things needed to be done....

First task of the day was to pick up a borrowed trailer from our neighbor. Sounds easy, right? It would be if you knew where to look on his farm. After a call to his son, the trailer was located. And I was off to my next task.....

Wood chips! Lots and lots and lots of wood chips for behind the restaurant. The first load wasn't too bad. Because the guy with the front-end loader was there to dump a bucket full into the trailer. Unloading was more time consuming but not too difficult. But I counted my blessings too soon :-( On the second trip, the same guy drove right past me (in the same front-end loader) and waved as he went past. Out with the pitch fork to fill up the trailer. Did I mention that is was a nice steady drizzle at this time?!?!?!

The rain also put a damper on our plans to visit the farmers' market today. Lisa put on a brave face as we trudged down to Broadway. But alas, it was a washout. By the time we arrived, all the vendors were packing it in for the day. We'll see about trying to catch some of them on Saturday morning (if we don't sleep too long). I really want to experiment with the goat cheese curds :-)

And the debate continues about the right flooring for the restaurant. Cork or porcelain? Cork or porcelain?

Well that was easy....

Spent some time meeting with vendors today. Excited about the way the wine and beer list will be coming together. I've already selected some great and adventurous "liquids" for the restaurant.

And did you know there was such a creature as a Master Cicerone?  Me neither. That's basically a beer sommelier (or expert on all aspects of beer). Very cool!!!

But don't expect me to spend another day without mentioning cleaning. Still working on getting the kitchen up to speed. I'm guessing that we're at about 80%. Just a few more pieces of equipment to scrub and then rearrange to make the  layout work.

If you're still wondering about the title for today's blog.....we got our liquor license approved!!! And no kidding, it was silly easy. A quick vote and we were done. But we didn't get out without at least one question about breakfast. That seems to be everybody's hot button. Gotta love it :)

My mom and Roger are coming to help this weekend. Painting and landscaping are on the agenda.

Tune in to the same wine channel and the same wine time for the next exciting installment of "Birth of a Restaurant".

I don't like Mondays...Tell me why....I don't like, I don't like, I don't like Mondays

Okay....just a little homage to my 80's roots with some Boomtown Rats (at least I don't start with "Rainy days and Mondays always get me down").

In typical Monday fashion, it wasn't the most exciting of days at Syrah. I spent the better part of the day scrubbing 3+ year old mold from a cooler. There aren't too many things in this world that make me gag, but I found out today that very old mold will. Even the surprise under the broster wasn't as gross as the mold. Did I mention that the mold was nasty, freaky and just plain disgusting?!?!?! But fret not my culinary friends, the kitchen is starting to sparkle and shine just as it should.

Because it was such a beautiful day, I decided to squeeze in a little gardening (okay, weeding) in also. What a difference removing the overgrown weeds has done to the appearance of the building.

My last task of the day was another interview for the chef position. It was a good interview and we can now start narrowing the search to the final candidates. We should be able to make an offer to somebody by the end of the week.

Tomorrow is filled with server interviews and vendor meetings. My sore arms and back will welcome the break from scrubbing, bending, lifting, climbing, pulling, etc, etc, etc.

And let the fun begin....

It was great being able to get into the restuarant and do some real work! The plethera of flags came off the walls. But that was just the start of a long weekend.

Remember those flags I mentioned....well they were put up on the walls with HUNDREDS of tiny nails. Seriously!! All those nail holes needed to be filled and then sanded. No need for a stairmaster workout when you can climb a ladder all day long.

Lisa spent her time priming the walls, the cabinet and running away from spiders :) That can be expected for a business that's been vacant for a few years. I hit the interior and exterior with some Home Defense. That stuff will scary away any unwanted bugs.

And speaking of killing things....we sprayed all the overgrown weeds with heafty dose of Round Up. We're still trying to figure out how to add a nice touch to the landscaping.

Lastly....I'm almost done with cleaning and polishing the kitchen. It will finally start to look like a real kitchen in another day!!

Tomorrow brings more cleaning and another interview for a chef.

See ya tomorrow!!!

Wooohoooo!!!! Closing day.

Sorry for a short blog.

Today was closing day! I think Lisa was going to puke :) It wasn't too bad. Except that our lawyer made a mistake on the LLC paperwork. Lisa wasn't named as a member of the organization. And I've talked to them at least 3x to make sure we were both on the articles of incorporation.

Except for that small snafu, all went well.

Tomorrow we'll start cleaning and priming the walls for fresh paint. I'd love to have at least one wall done before the end of the weekend.

Days 15 & 16

Sorry about not keeping up on a daily basis. It's not as easy as I thought it keep a diary. At least Lisa "nags" reminds me to keep the blog up to date.

Tuesday was a another "open interview" day. I think I found another good server. But there is still a long way to go before I feel comfortable and fully staffed in the front of house area.

Also had another chef interview. He has the qualifications to bring some good food to the table. There is one more person that I'm waiting to see next week. Then I'll narrow the field down to two candidates. Their final interview will be to prepare an original meal. Maybe I'll make it a "mystery box". What do you think??

Wednesday morning was spent "in the office". I paid some bills and started some new spreadsheets. While we're going to be over expectations on opening expenses,  it will be key to keep a close eye on the small stuff. It can nickel and dime you to death!!!

I also finished contacting all my potential beverage vendors. We should have a wine and beer menu completed within the next few weeks. The goal on opening day is to have 15-20 wines available by the glass and another 20-30 by the bottle. And no wines on the list over $60. There are TONS of great wines on the market to fit that range.

And as usual, the rest of the was spent cleaning. I hope to have the kitchen sparkling by the end of the weekend!

Look for more pictures of the progress starting on Monday. We can finally start to "renovate" on Saturday!!! Then it will start to feel like some progress in being made toward opening.

Day ??? - I'm starting to lose track of the days.

Today started in typical Syrah style....my first interview called at 7:45am to reschedule for later in the week. But yeah, at least he called! My second interview (this time for a chef) was another no-show!!! It's really starting to get old!

I spend the rest of the morning on the phone. More potential servers, the health department, the bank, the sign guy and a vendor. It feels like I spend more time talking on the phone and getting very little progress. But I'm sure it will start to fall into place sooner or later.

After doing some household chores (grocery shopping and bill paying), it was back to the restaurant for some cleaning.

Yeah...I'm still trying to get through the grease in the fryers. What a serious mess!!! Its starting to become a routine....degresser, scrape, scrup, degress, scrape, scrup, repeat, repeat, repeat.

I was hesitant to post pictures of how the dirty the fryers actually were. But then I thought it would be good to see what can (and should) be done in a kitchen.

Before:

After:



That was the finale to the day. As I posting this today, Lisa and I are enjoying a bottle of Bogle Phantom on the deck. And the neighbors are sending up cool paper lanterns.

Good night!!

Days 11-13 Last days of relaxation?

Let me start by saying this entry has nothing to do with opening a restaurant. So please excuse me while I tell you about the past few days....

It's been an annual rite of summer for the past 12 years. We hop on the motorcycles and spend a few days exploring the backroads of America. This year was a few days getting to know more about the western region of Wisconsin.

After a brief mechanical issue (bad clutch cable), I finally left Green Bay around noon a Friday. My first stop was a rondezous with Mark in Madison. From there, we worked our way west by zig zagging north and south. The twisting county roads through the gently rolling hills were the perfect setting for a great start to the weekend.

We made our way to the cabin and relaxed with an ice cool beer. Then hopped back on the bikes for a ride into Potosi. Dinner was at the Potosi Brewery. And let me say, the Double IPA was killer good. As was the Oatmeal Stout and ESP. I had to stop at that point for fear of being too buzzed to ride back to the cabin.

The next day started with some nasty weather just south of our cabin. We waited out the storm front and then headed north along the Great River Road. The roads along the Iowa side of the Might Miss were clean and free of traffic. It was a nice way to clear the head(ache). We crossed over in Lancaster and decided to work our way south. This time is was zig zagging east and west via the backroads again.

A not-so-tasty dinner at a local bar was our food for the evening. Then back to the cabin to "talk shop" and drink some beers.

Sunday was a beautiful day to hit the "super slab" and get back home to Green Bay (and to get ready for the push to opening!!!)

Day 10 - More no shows, a good one and menu planning

Please help me to understand this....the unemployment rate is over 9%. There are people out there in need of jobs. So why, why WHY can't they show up for their scheduled interviews?!?!? I've started keeping a tally of the number of "no shows" for servers. I'm up to five in the first 3 days of interviews.

On a positive note, the candidates that have actually shown up for their interviews have been decent. I've found two that are on my positive list. Another would be a decent lunch servers. A few more duds but that's to be expected.

I rounded out the day with meetings with beverage vendors. Putting together a good wine and beer selection is part of the fun with running a restaurant. It should be even more exciting as we get closer and start pairing the beverages with the foods.

I'm going to try to "unplug" and get away on the motorcycle for a long weekend. More updates on Monday.

Is it really Day 9?

Not too much excitement today. The guy came out to test the well at the restaurant. Then it was off to see yet another insurance agent. This time regarding the business and worker's comp insurance. Fun stuff there (not really).

Lisa & I had lunch at one of the downtown restaurants. Note to self....make sure to get food out in less than 25 minutes during lunch. Especially when there were only about 15 people in the restaurant.

Then it was off to interview another chef candidate. Finding the right guy will be the key to my success! I'm hoping to narrow the search to about 3 people by the end of next week. The next step after that will be to have them create a original dinner.

I spent the rest of the day researching equipment and tweeking my budgets.

More interviews and vendor meetings tomorrow. Then a relaxing weekend with the boys before getting buried in the restaurant.