breaking ground

Our restaurant blueprints have been approved! Initially, we were informed it could take up to 9 weeks for the city's approval and 9 weeks for the fire department. Thankfully, both of them have been approved in 6 weeks! So we've begun construction in the back of the kitchen and broken ground for the grease trap.

The grease trap, is a device that traps all the oil/ grease that would exit through the drains. It catches it and prevents build-up, blockage and back-up in the water pipes. It's mandatory in this city for all new restaurants. Eventually, the trap will be installed the the floor replaced and it will be underground... and out of sight.

This hole will be a new pipe for our prep sink. The previous restaurants in this spot were fast food so they have their prep sink in the front of the store where customers could see them. Since it's a small store, there wasn't any room for a prep sink in the back so we decided to forgo an office area for a prep sink to make food preparation go more quickly. The front prep sink will actually turn into a handwash sink for the cooking staff and waitresses.

Construction should be finished the end of May or early June. We're still opening as soon as possible but it looks like we are not able to open any sooner.

In the meantime, I've found a new job. Last Fall, I felt like I was getting burned out alittle on the food world. I wanted to try a different field. After a bunch of testing, they were suppose to hire the end of Decemeber/ beginning of January and when I didn't hear from them, I had thought I didn't make their cut. That's when some friends and I decided to open a restaurant versus being employees in a restaurant. We signed the lease and began making restaurant plans. Then out of nowhere, I receive a phone call asking if I am interested in the job position. Whew! What a choice... so my business partners and I spoke and I decided it would be better to work part time at the restaurant and full time at this new company.

It's quite a handful so far. I'm currently in training - they even have their own school, which is 8 weeks long. Even with schooling, we have to maintain an 80% or get kicked out. It's amazing to hear the instructors speak about us. There were 2,000 applicants and after the first test, there were alittle over 500 people that still qualified, after the second test there were 297 people. The instructors informed us that usually in the past this last test would disqualify almost everyone with only 60 remaining.

But I guess with the tough economy more qualified people are applying. They interviewed all 297 people. No wonder why it took so long! Then more testing... and more testing... and more testing... and more testing. With the final 18 people they chose for this class. And there are really only 15 slots open so they know 3 people will be either drop out, kicked out or the individual will change his/her mind about working for this company. Again, the instructors have said this is the most women that have applied too! There are 8 females in the class... they said there are usually two classes of 25 students with only 1 or 2 being women.

This is only week 2 of training and to be honest, I'm still unsure of what I'll be doing. I know the it's shift work. I'll be working as a refinery operator in an oil refinery... maybe I'll have to turn a few valves and conduct equipment checks but everyone says its a really easy job. The only difficulty is of course it being shift work. And everyone I speak with is a 25-30 year veteran and preparing to retire within the next few years. So it really must be a good job... everyone is old - the only young people are the new hires!