Thursday, August 28, 2008

Gadzooks!!!


The corner of my building juts past its property line onto city property. SHIT!! OK, OK, STAY CALM! The planning department says it's easily remedied by...you know...cutting the corner of the building off. I SAID STAY CALM!!!!!!

This is an interesting new wrinkle to be sure. The landlords (aka my dad & uncle) take few things lying down, and are already on the horn with the city working some angles.

It's funny all the way around, really. I'll keep you posted.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Architects

In my experience - now working with my second for this project - they don't know how to read emails before replying. And they sure as hell don't proactively use email (or phone for that matter) to update you on the progress of their work. Any architects reading this out there are welcome to fire back and represent for your fellow tradesmen.

SOOOOO frustrating.

I digress...

Ah, graphic designer had a sick son (the kissing disease) so she won't have logo revisions until next week. I'm very excited to see the latest!

Thursday, August 14, 2008

The Facts of Life


You take the good, you take the bad. You take both kinds of vendors, and there you have...Lunch with Tony. I gripe about most of my vendors (usually for good reason), but I have to say probably my favorite is graphic designer to the stars Linda D. During the day, she's a prestigious Creative Services Director of a prestigious institution. By night (I'm assuming she does this during the off hours), she's designing the logo, menu & related materials that will become the look and feel of Lunch with Tony. It's hugely important to me, and I can't think of anyone else I'd trust with this task. She's shared a number of directions on the logo so far, and we're close to having something that is clever, fun, clean, welcoming & all the other things we want to communicate with this this restaurant. It's really exciting. Stay tuned. I'll very gladly post our logo as soon as we finalize things. Oh yeah, and Linda's great at keeping my ego in check. It's necessary and there are few people I welcome to do it. Wait, was that big headed of me to say? Linda?

Thursday, August 7, 2008

At the 11th hour...

...he emailed me the first set of drawings. They're good. Hooray!

"no, it's cool.....


...I didn't want to review your work this week anyway, architect!" That's what I told myself when I learned they wouldn't have anything for me to review yet. Bastards! I like them, I'm happy to be working with them (sure as hell happier than with the last fellow), but papa needs some forward momentum on this project in a bad way. So hopefully, I'll see something first of next week, and HOPEFULLY we can submit a package to the city (for our building permit) by the end of next week.

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Setbacks

Opening season of construction bids came and went with a thud. I'd been working with an architect-type (recommended by another vendor) who put the "SUCKS" in "sucks to be in July". I wouldn't say I "fired" him, because while I told him to pack his knives and go, he still got all his money. Good news is 1) it wasn't much $$$ (we hired him because he was cheap) and 2) the new & legit architect will incorporate some of the original guy's work, which should save some billable hours. The new architect is an in-house guy at the construction company I'm likely going to work with for the build-out. I really like the idea of having the same vendors under one roof. Though on the flip side, I worry that they'll take advantage when they put together the construction bid because they're sure they're going to get the job.

On other fronts. 1) Prototyping continues with success and lots of calorie consumption. 2) "GDTTS" (Graphic Designer To The Stars) Linda D. shared a first pass at logo creation, and she rocked it! We agree on a "favorite", and she's going to keep fleshing out that design. Can't wait to get biz cards, and other elements printed. 3) We brought in some guys to clean up the interior/exterior of the building pre-inspections & construction. It was really nice to see a lot of the garbage the last guy left behind get cleared out. 4) I think I'm done meeting with payroll processing companies & merchant services vendors (aka credit card processing). So many choices & so much information. Now to review it all and make a decision.

I  need to be better about posting more frequently so each one isn't so epic. Apologies to anyone reading this....though for now I have a confirmed audience of 1, and it's just Wally so he can deal.

Friday, July 4, 2008

Let the bidding begin

First bids for construction start Monday and Tuesday of this week. Exciting! Finally getting our act together for submittal to the city for building permits. Hey wait a minute, we may just have a restaurant here soon!

Recipe testing continues through the weekend with tuna melts yesterday (success!) and retooling of an already yummy veggie burger recipe on Sunday with Eric.

Safe and happy 4th to anyone reading.