A somewhat forced day off for me so here's a good opportunity to share a bit more of what's happening and where things stand.
The building is well underway with its construction. The landlord's internal contractor should be done any day now with the "white box" work (utility rough in, dry wall, patch the floor and some walls, HVAC complete). My contractors will go in as early as next week. They're just waiting on the final permit sign-offs. Unlike a traditional project, our white box and build out blurr both in labor and cost. A good example is the bathroom. White box normally gives you a finished bath with fixtures, but we knew we were going to upgrade the toilet and sink so the contractor stopped at rough in, and gave us a credit to be spent on the build out. My contractor and I have selected mid-tier fixtures which cost a bit more, but will definitely offer a stronger message to the guest about our quality.
I've also been spending inordinate amounts of time on flatware, glasses and a few more dishes. The flatware was decided and will be purchased next week (unless my vendor has a Black Friday deal I can't refuse). I haven't settled on my glasses yet but gave my vendors the glasses i want, but aren't available for them to find something that I'll like just as much. At home we love our Denby Oyster tumblers. Unfortunately they are no longer available. I like them for three reasons. First, they drink really well, meaning the way liquid pours over the lip into your mouth. Second, they have a heavy bottom making them very upright steady. And lastly, they feel great in your hand between the weight and the shape. You may recall that I have custom dishes being made from artist Alice Ballard and her meditation bowls, and those were chosen because I want people to feel the dish in their hand and have that be a part of the experience. Same goes with glassware.
I've also been shopping insurance...boy howdy its a lot more expensive than it was for my operation in New Mexico...like $8k v. $2.5k per year! Yikes! A lot of the budget variance I just ignore or absorb into my projections, but that one I had to update in my cash flow statement.
I've picked Resy.com as my reservation system, and Square as my POS. Square is an iffy choice. I could probably get slightly better prices elsewhere, and possibly more robust OS elsewhere, but they are based in St. Louis and just rolled out a new restaurant POS system, so they gave me a decent deal, and they are only month-to-month, with no contract, so if I don't like it I can move on to someone else. These are not the sexy decisions, but necessary.
In an economy with 3% unemployment, even with our high profile, it has not been easy finding my Beverage Manager (the only position I am currently recruiting for). There are just very few people out there with the skill set I'm looking for. If they're good, they're in a good job. But we've had some strong leads and the opportunity to mentor a less experienced person into the role. What I need is a big personality, a huge curiosity and desire to create everything from scratch, and they need a great palate for cocktails. I can handle the beer and wine if needed, but cocktails are not my strength.
We've spent a lot of time on furniture as well. This is an area where I've had to tone down my dreams. Commercial furniture is expensive and we have a reasonable but reserved budget on all of our furniture. We've also added an area to the floor plan that required un-budgeted furniture...more on that in a moment. For dining room chairs we selected the Article Chanel armchair. Our bar stool is the Industry West Circuit barstool. Our tables and bars are being custom made.
We ended up with this awkward space in the bar that we were going to put some two-top tables, but I told the designer that I wanted a place for post-dinner optional experiences. My thought is that most guests will be coming for an anniversary or birthday celebration, so if I could create a romantic little nook where a couple could relax after dinner with a few treats and a bottle of champagne, that would be a great use of space. I then looked for high back love seats and fell in love with this one:
But at around $5k a piece and design considerations we stepped into Knoll Rockwell high back love seat.
This is more appropriate for our overall feel and at half the price of the Boss.
No need to tell me if you hate any of this stuff because the ship has left the dock. I am very happy with all the design choices (note that all of these are stock photos and don't have our fabric selections), and we're even a touch below budget!
So that's where things stand. There's a whole bunch of financial stories to share but I'll save those for another day.
ETA: Current construction timeline has us opening the end of January.
