It’s 3pm. I’m sitting in the dining room talking to Kathy, a reporter from the Desert Sun. She’s asking me why I decided to open a restaurant in Palm Desert in the summer. I’m trying to come up with a clever answer to her question when my chef, Matt Smith, walks up and says “we have a problem”. I look at Kathy and apologize for the interruption. I know in my heart that “we have a problem” is not good. Matt is a calm person and if he needs to come out to the dining room to tell me “we have a problem” it’s because something bad just happened. I’m reminded of the movie “Apollo 13” when Tom Hanks says “Houston we have a problem”.

Matt has not disappointed me with his calm interruption. He tells me that fire suppression system (Known as Ansul system) over the pizza oven has gone off.

My cell phone rings, it’s my landlord telling me that the alarm company has just called him and the fire department has been dispatched. He sounds anxious. My day is melting in front of me.

I look at the pizza oven and see no signs of any fire. In fact it’s hard to see that anything has actually happened. There’s a small amount of the liquid discharged by the system on the floor in front of the pizza oven. If it wasn’t for that liquid on the floor I would be hard pressed to tell that anything has happened. I can hear sirens in the distance. Oh boy! For reasons that I don’t understand, my Ansul system has gone off, the fire department is on it’s way and my first invited customers, including city officials, the press and other prominent people from the Cochella valley will soon be arriving to see and taste our newest restaurant. Oh boy! Matt is explaining to me that a loud bang was heard in the kitchen, followed by a spraying sound and he isn’t certain why any of it has happened. I’m thinking in the back of my head that I’m lucky that this wasn’t an issue on the main kitchen line. If your Ansul system goes off on the main line, the cleanup is immense and you are guaranteed being closed for at least a couple of days. Oh boy, I’m lucky.

The sirens are at my front door and it’s time to meet my local fire department. It’s 106 outside and these guys are wearing very heavy fire protection along with oxygen tanks and carrying picks and other fire smashing equipment. It looks like a scene from a movie. It has to be very hot under all that equipment. I’m thinking that this is serious overkill as I explain to the chief fire guy that there is no fire. He smiles and walks right past me with 4 other fire guys in tow. I watch as they navigate their way back to the kitchen. They are so packed with equipment that I’m hoping that they don’t knock over any of the wine stacked neatly on display.

It’s 3:30 pm and I remember that Kathy, the reporter is watching and waiting for me to return so that she can finish the interview. I excuse myself from the fire guys and walk over to tell her that everything is OK. I give her a brief explanation and ask her if we can reschedule. She smiles and says “how about tomorrow”. I think her story has become more interesting…

As I return to the scene of the non fire, 5 fire guys are crowded into a small area talking and trying to figure out what has happened. They look at me and ask “new system?”

“Yep” I reply.

They look at each other and do more fire guy things. The chief looks at me and says with satisfaction “it looks OK to me. Better call the Ansul company and find out what happened.”

He turns to say something to the other fire guys but then turns back to me and says

“and you need to call health and get a clearance from them to re-open.”

It’s 4pm and my day has officially turned to Shit.

“Really” I ask, “I need to call health to get re-opened?”

“Yep” he responds “We have to report all Ansul discharges to the health department and you’ll need to get them out here and get clearance before you can re-open.” Oh boy…..

I remember that Brian, the chief health inspector for the valley has a cell phone and I have his number somewhere in my office. I find it and dial his number. I hope he hasn’t gone home for the day and turned his cell phone off. The Riverside County Health Department is a state government agency. One of many whose budgets have been cut the past few years. They work shorter work weeks due to the governors cutbacks and my chances of getting anyone out after 4pm is slim and none.

Brian answers on the fourth ring. There is a god. I quickly explain the situation to him and after a brief pause he says

“Give me about an hour to get there.”

I want to kiss him, thank him, hug him. I need a drink.

My next call is to the Ansul company. I think I’m yelling at them because everyone is looking at me kind of funny like. I turn and calm myself and explain the situation in a more calming tone. They assure me that someone will be out there within the hour to look things over. I remind myself that yelling at people is a bad way to deal with things. I must be a leader….Screw that, I’m yelling again. The Ansul guy is patient and re-assures me that someone will be there within the hour.

I stow the phone back in my pocket, turn to thank the fire department as they file out. I notice that they are being more careful around the wine stacks and no bottles are broken. I’m feeling better about my chances of opening in time. I tell my chef to clean anything within 20 feet of the pizza oven and turn to walk away. Marc my general manager walks up to me and says

“We have a problem.”

“yeah it’s taken care of.” I respond feeling somewhat smug.

“No we have another problem” he says not smiling.

“it really stinks in the bar” he says, “in fact it smells like shit.”

Oh boy.

I walk over to the bar and it does smell like shit. It’s a very strong smell of sewer gas. It’s so strong that I decide to open some doors and let in 106 degree air into the restaurant to ventilate the bar. I’m wondering how the press and the mayor will feel about a new shitty smelling restaurant when they show up for dinner. I really need that drink now.

There’s about 4 of us in the bar and we look like a pack of hound dogs in search of the prey. We are sniffing every corner of the bar trying to find the source of the smell. It looks funny but I’m not laughing. I’m actually wondering why I am opening a restaurant in the desert in the summer. I must be a sniffing fool.

It’s 4:30 pm when I call a company that deals with my 4500 gallon, smell infested interceptor. Stan answers the phone. I met Stan 4 month ago when I first was dealing with my interceptors (see blog 10 for that story). Stan is old. Stan looks like he’s at least 90 years old. Stan talks like one of those TV western sidewinder guys. He looks you dead in the eye when he speaks. Stan is about 5’5” and I want him on my side in a bar fight. Stan is skinny and looks like he’s been in the sun way to long. This guy has dealt with a lot of smelly issues in his life.

“They’ve had problems before in that building” he tells me. “I told them they needed to quit screwin around and fix the problem”.

“Stan can you help me?” I ask pleading.

“Be there in a few” he responds. I can feel his eyes over my cell phone starring right into me.

By now, my chef Matt has cleaned up the pizza area and is letting his nose survey the bar.

I’ll make something to help this smell” he tells me.

I can’t imagine anything really helping with this smell. It’s like putting lipstick on a pig.

“Let’s give it a try” I respond. “Anything should help cause I know I can’t keep the door open much longer. It’s starting to get warm in here” I tell Matt.

The smell has gotten better when Stan ambles in.

“I told that landlord of yours we had a problem with this building years ago” he tells me.

Funny they never disclosed that to me when we signed the lease I’m thinking to myself.

“Hell this has been going on for years” he explains. “All you need is a smoke test and we can fix this thing” he says.

Perfect I’m thinking, let’s smoke the place out 1 hour before our first customers show up. Hell, maybe we can get the fire guys back out her when they see the smoke rising from the building. What is a smoke test anyway I wonder?

“Stan” I interrupt, “I need a quick fix for right now” I explain. “What can you do now?” I ask

“Oh we got plenty a smelly stuff to fix you up for tonight” he drawls on. “Only temporary you understand. We need to do a smoke test on this place to find the real culprit.”

“Smoke test ain’t cheap” he stares at me and says. “But it’ll find us the problem quick”

I realize where I’ve met Stan before, he’s the main character of most Steven King novels. Not the dangerous guy but the mysterious one. I really need a drink right now.

Two new guys show up. These are the smell guys who someday will look like Stan. They begin to do there smell intervention. My chef shows up with a pan of smoking herbs and spices. It smell real good.

In a matter of minutes the bar smells like Bed, Bath and Beyond. More girly than manly but the problem seems to be resolved for right now.

I thank Stan and his smell guys and make a appointment for my smoke test first thing in the morning.

I turn around and see Brian, the health inspector walking thru my front door. He smiles at me and says “so I hear you had a little excitement in here today.”

Epilogue

Brian inspected the kitchen and had us open 5 minutes later. I love that man!

It seems the culprit responsible for the Anzul system going off was your’s truly. In my effort to reduce electrical consumption in my restaurant, I shut off the hood for the pizza oven earlier that morning. Never, ever turn off the hood to your pizza oven. I apologized profusely to my Anzul company and hope they will forgive me for going crazy on them.

The smoke test the next morning revealed two hidden floor sinks under the bar. They had not been properly sealed and the bar was built right over one of the sinks. They are now sealed and the landlord has gotten the bill.

We opened well, a few mistakes here and there but not to bad all things considered.

We are now into our second week of business and the future looks bright and smells clean. Each day seems stronger than the previous. We’ve seen many faces several times over already.

Thanks to all of you who have supported us over the years. We couldn’t do it without you. And finally thanks to all of you who have come up to me and told me you enjoyed my blog. I honestly didn’t think anyone read this thing except for my wife. Have a great summer and we’ll see you soon.

Throw out the list, discard the budget and don your fireman’s hat. It’s last call to opening night and sanity has been thrown out the door. We are now on the final countdown to June 25th. My days are now spent putting out fires (or floods), solving bad decisions (yes I have made a few), fixing leaky faucets, interviewing prospective employees, checking and double checking our order lists, making sure that I have enough trainers to train the new staff, finding a place for my trainers to sleep and living on a diet of cold coffee and stale cigarettes. Sounds like and old Tom Waits song. It is chaos any way you call it and at times I want to cry, I want to laugh, I want to scream or worse I want to run away. All of this becomes food for laughter around the pool at night when I sip my 3^rd Margarita and wade in the pool all in an effort to calm down the brain cells and try to not think about tomorrow. Sometimes it takes a 4^th margarita which cause some grief the next morning as my thinking becomes impaired.

My worse fear (besides no customers) is that I haven’t done a good enough job of taking a beast of a space and taming it. Seeing as how our largest location (Encinitas) is 4000 square feet and Palm Desert is 9000 square feet, you can get a sense of the challenge of making such a large space feel intimate and cozy. Once the wine arrives and we have it stocked I hope that my fears subside. Given the budget constraints I placed on myself, the challenge was in how to spend $$ wisely and get the most décor for my buck. This place could have easily gobbled up a million dollars and it looks like I will do it for under 400K. Remember, the idea is to make it look like I spent a million. Don’t tell anyone….

My last major hurdle comes on Monday when I have my final health inspection. Many an opening date has been destroyed by the health inspector. I feel confident that we will pass, however I’m keeping my fingers crossed. Once the health inspection is behind us, we hope to start receiving food into the restaurant on Tuesday. The best part of this is the fact that I won’t have to depend on Carl’s Jr. for my mid day energy. Did I mention that eating while opening a new restaurant can be hazardous to one’s health?

The final week is spent planning, strategizing and putting yourself in the middle of the restaurant and trying to envision the flow of what I hope is a busy restaurant. It’s a very interesting mental exercise trying to be childlike and play pretend games. It is the only good way of seeing the potential blunders that lurk just around the corner. I have, on many occasions, done this with new restaurants and amazed myself at how “Carnac like” I can be. I go from table to table and sit at each one trying to get a sense of what the customer experience will be. With respect to this restaurant it looks good. I haven’t found any “dog” tables or black holes in this restaurant. My biggest concern is the long walk from the dining room to the kitchen. Plates will have to be very hot so the food doesn’t get cold on it’s way to the table.

Blogging at this point becomes difficult. My mind wanders on the myriad of things I need to do and all the tasks that lay ahead. I probably will sit down again to write after we open. I hope you have enjoyed my ramblings. For those of you who enjoy warm weather, see you soon. For those of you who like cooler times, see you in the season.

Ed

FYI, we did pass our health inspection!

I picked the right spring to open a restaurant in Palm Desert. The weather has been incredible. Temperatures are ranging from the mid 80′s to the mid 90′s. I feel like I’m being cheated because so far I’ve only seen 100 degrees once. I bet I won’t be cheated much longer.

So far so good. I’ve only had to fight one major battle, I’m 0-1. The wastewater people (CVWD Coachella Valley Water District) are living in Dick Van Dyke time (no translation). My attempts to enlarge my patio have resulted in the wastewater people demanding that I enlarge my interceptor from 4500 gallons to 6000 gallons. For those of you who don’t know anything about grease traps and interceptors, consider yourself lucky. Without going into boring details, let’s just say that 6000 gallons is the size interceptor used by Disneyland and the like. Lets also say the folks at the CVWD live in their own little castle on top of a hill and seem to have absolute power over the valley below. They use 20 year old formulas to calculate things, read little of the science in their field and are not fond of people from San Diego telling them how to do their jobs. Go figure! And here is the kicker. If you don’t do what they say, they will shut off your water. Try and run a restaurant without water… good luck!

Other than CVWD, everything else has been going quite well. I seem to be on time and I think I’m on budget. In other words this is going way to easy. As long as I stay ahead of my time lines I should be OK.

Ahead of me is the finish work. The restaurant will be ready sometime around June 4-6. This means I will have a fully functional restaurant by that date. All of the paint, carpet, lighting, tile, booths, bar, dining room and kitchen work will be done. At that point it will be time to hire and train the staff, make sure I have enough silverware, plates and sweet & sour mix and tell the world I’m open. Easy……..This is where the nerves start kicking into overdrive. Remember I’m the guy who forgot to order and prep vegetables on opening night a few years back. My “to-do” list is about to have babies. I’m currently working 8-9 hour days and will soon be looking at 16 hour days. Believe it or not, I actually look forward to the 16 hour days. It’s the excitement of the stretch run, the sprint to the finish line. And in this instance, seeing just how much business will come through the front door when it’s 115 degrees outside. It could be a lonely summer.

Opening day is set for June 25. Mark your calendars. I hear the desert is …..hot in June??? Opening in the summer in the desert is not considered the smartest move by the experts as well as the novice or anyone else that has an opinion. Everyone looks at me like my brain has been sitting in the sun a little too long for choosing this date. The date chose me. And anyway, this will work to my advantage for several reasons. First there is an abundance of labor to choose from by this date. A lot of restaurants pare back their labor force for the summer which allows a larger pool to choose from. Second, it’s the slow time of the year. We can afford a few mistakes before it gets crazy in the fall and winter. It seems no matter what you do it takes about 3 months to fully train a front of the house staff so this should give us just enough time before all hell is supposed to break loose. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

I’ve included a few photos of the before and soon to be after to offer proof that my days are not spent on the golf course. I am a working contractor and I sometime surprise sales people with my wardrobe. I have four pairs of jeans for construction along with a half dozen t-shirts that have seen at least 4 restaurants built. The accumulation of paint, caulk, glue and general construction stains makes me look more like a tramp more than an owner. This sometimes works to my favor as I can blend in with the plumbers when I don’t want to talk to the guy who is selling yellow page ads. I’m fond of this wardrobe and it suits my current needs. Any attempt to dress up during the pre opening phase of construction has always been fatal to better attire. I always seem to crawl under something, forgetting that my shirt is new and unblemished.

That’s about all to report at this time. I will try to do a better job of keeping up with blogging affairs as the opening draws close.

Ed

This is an at home weekend. I hop into my car on Friday afternoon and drive home for the weekend, and then I will go back to the desert on Sunday evening. I was doing this every weekend but lately it’s been every two weeks. I suspect that within the next month I will be extending my stay in the desert through the opening of the new restaurant and my weekends at home will be on hold for a while. My wife will be doing the weekend drive to Palm Desert to see me.

My weekends at home are a time of catching up. On Friday night I visited both restaurants. While I am in the desert, I’m able to log into my work computers and see raw numbers that tell me how business is doing but nothing replaces actually visiting each location. I get a chance to talk to my managers face to face, talk about upcoming events, try as best to fix isolated problems and say hi to my employees. As I get closer to opening Palm Desert, many of my employees will be actively involved in the training of the new Palm Desert employees. Some of my staff will train from each location while others will make the trek to the desert to work through the opening of the new restaurant. As each new restaurant opens, it becomes easier to train new employees because of the number of current staff I can utilize in training. Virtually all of my employees will participate in the training process.

Saturday-

My mind is a blur of all the things I will need to do in the next 4 to 6 weeks. Since I have decided to use hand held Point of Sale devices in our new location, I want to visit a restaurant that uses the same system to see what problems I can short cut. I decide that Saturday is a good time for such a visit so I’m off to the new Wine Steals in downtown San Diego next to the ball park. Wine Steals opened it’s first location in Hillcrest a few months before we opened our first location in Ocean Beach. Ken Mills, owner of Wine Steals is a very sharp guy. I first met him a few weeks before we opened Ocean Beach and I’ve been very impressed with his concept and growth ever since. Ken’s ball park location was a huge step (and a big gamble) in the growth of his company. It’s about 1pm on Saturday when I arrive at the front door of his new store. Look who’s in the front of the restaurant but Ken himself. I’m not sure I recognize him (I didn’t expect him to be there) but after a few minutes of conversation I realize it’s him. The restaurant is buzzing with business. It was almost 5 years ago when I last saw him and he has since opened three new locations. He looks like what I hope to look like in a few months, a little tired from 16 hour days but with a smile on his face that translates into “I did it and we’re going to be success”. We walk around his new restaurant while he shows me his new child. He is very proud of his new child and he has every reason to be. The restaurant is beautiful and he has done a great job of spending his money wisely. Ken’s business model both developmental and growth is a text book example of everything you should do in this business. His business has taken of like a rocket and a huge weight has been taken off his shoulders. Like I said, Ken is one very sharp guy. After an hour of talking to Ken and finding out about what has or hasn’t worked with his POS hand held’s it’s off to visit another friend who is opening a new restaurant.

Carl Schroeder, owner of Market in Del Mar is opening a second restaurant in Bankers Hill. I have a $1 bet with him regarding who will be open first. He says he will win but I’m not so sure. He originally thought he would be open in February.

Carl is arguably one of the best chefs in the country. I first met him when he worked at Arterra but it wasn’t until I visited Market that I got to know him better. After a long day of work while opening Encinitas I would visit his Del Mar Restaurant and I was always blown away by how good Carl’s food was. This guy can cook and he is serious about his food. Carl’s transition from chef to owner has been a challenge. He is a self made guy who is learning the ropes of ownership the same way I did, one expensive lesson at a time. He is determined and I admire his passion. Few chefs will achieve success as restaurant owners as the skill sets to cook are quite different than that of running the entire restaurant. Based on what I’ve seen so far, success will always be Carl’s friend. After trading construction stories and getting the 5 cent tour I say my goodbye and wish him well in his opening. He says he will be opened May 5. After what I saw yesterday, he may need more than passion and determination to make the May 5 date.

Tonight is date night with Mrs. Moore. When I drove into town Friday night, Marla was in San Francisco with my son visiting colleges. By the time she returned home I was already in bed and asleep. So tonight is the only night we will spend together catching up on old news as well as planning out the next few weeks. My youngest son is graduating from high school this June and I need to make sure I have all my bases covered so that I can return home for the ceremonies. The opening of the restaurant will be delayed until after graduation.

We spend a very enjoyable evening together. It seems like we pack a few weeks into a few hours.

Sunday

Sunday morning is my last chance to visit at home. I’m up at 4:30 in the morning, and I can’t get back to sleep. My mind has already kicked into gear and that’s the end of sleep. Funny, in a few weeks I will be going to bed at 4:30 am instead of getting up at that hour. After an hour on my lap top I read the local newspaper to catch up on the local news. The Padres are in first place? Who would have thought? By 8am, I decide to head down to the OB 3^rd Corner and spend a few hours doing odds and ends. Marla meets me there for brunch at 11am. After brunch I load up my car with wine and supplies for the new restaurant and start my drive back to the desert. I could leave on Monday morning but I need to be at the restaurant by 7am for the start of another construction day and that would mean leaving home at 4:30am. It’s bad enough to get up at that hour voluntarily but to set the alarm for that time is crazy. Besides, on Sunday afternoon there is virtually no traffic heading to the desert. All of the traffic is heading back home.

Monday morning and its back to work…

Then there is the tale of the trash compactor. When I first saw this piece of equipment, I wondered just why a restaurant, no matter how busy, would need a trash compactor. I found out why a few months later. It seems that the city of Palm Desert does not believe in the idea of economic competition. We have one trash company in this city and they pick up all the trash, both residential as well as commercial. Now think back to that economics class you once took many moons ago and remember the part about supply, demand and monopolies? I somewhat understand the need for a monopoly on the residential side but for businesses? This translates into a license to steal and the Palm Desert trash company is a thief, charging 2-3 times more to pick up my trash that my competitive friends back in San Diego. So now I know why I have a trash compactor. Problem is it doesn’t work. The only company that has shown any inclination to come out and take a look at why this little guy doesn’t work wants a minimum of 4 hours paid in advance before they will come out to look at it. I wonder if they are related to the guys that haul the trash? To top it off, the health inspector has given me a fix or haul it away notice on my compactor. I bet this unit weighs 3-4 tons so hauling it away could be a little pricey; then again fixing it will be a little pricey. Arg……

Yesterday I had the health inspector come by to give us what’s called a pre-inspection. That went better than expected. He only had one page of “fix-its”. The inspector was pleasantly surprised with the condition and work that was already done. His normal report for a restaurant this size would have been 5 pages long.

The most important thing for me right now, is to stay in front of the time sensitive issues. Things such as chairs, tables, anything custom made will take 6-8 weeks to make and deliver. I make checklists but it’s difficult to stay on top of everything as things are happening fast and last minute changes can screw things up in a hurry. It seems like lately my checklists have been upstairs in my head. A very dangerous thing for someone who is convinced he has begun to lose his memory.

Lighting has been the area that has been the most frustrating as well as the most satisfying. The most daunting task on my upstairs checklist is choosing my chandeliers. I need six of them. Have you ever sat down in front of your computer and scrolled through pages and pages of chandeliers? IT SUCKS! First of all I don’t get chandeliers. There are thousands and thousands of chandeliers out there. And then they can cost thousands and thousands of dollars. All of which is definitely not in the budget. The rest of my lighting was relatively easy. My pendants over the bar will be champagne bottles and my 32 sconces will be back-lit wine barrel ends. Both of these items are being custom made by me at a cost that is both reasonable and in the budget. But as to those chandeliers I have decided after almost 12 weeks of searching to dump the whole chandelier idea and go with ceiling fans. There are also thousands and thousands of ceiling fans to choose from but the list is easier to thin out with my more commercial requirements.

And so the stretch run goes. Day by day, week by week I now find myself with the end line just a few weeks away. And then the fun begins…..

Spring is truly beautiful in the desert. There is still snow on the surrounding mountain peaks. The air is crisp and clean with cool mornings and warm afternoons. Storms that come through Southern California arrive in the desert as gusty winds and puffy clouds. There is seldom any precipitation unless the storm is very large. This is what is called “the season” in the desert. Everyone from New York to Calgary and all points north, east or west come to the desert to sit in sidewalk cafes or outdoor patios and talk via cellphones to their frozen friends back home. So much for desert climatology…..

For the sake of convenience and sanity, I have rented a house about a mile from the restaurant. This takes the sting out of the two hour drive from my house in San Diego. This is my first experience at opening a restaurant this far away from home. Having been married for almost 30 years there are a few challenges to this distance.

First off, I am lucky that Mrs. Moore loves the desert and is willing to visit at the drop of a hat. My youngest son, Lucas, is graduating from high school this year so the need of a father on the home front is less today than in previous years. My wife and I will soon be empty nesters and I must admit that this situation did have some bearing on my ability to even consider a remote location such as Palm Desert.

Second, my semi bachelor existence is taking a little adjustment. Events such as shopping for groceries, doing the laundry and cooking my own meals are no longer taken for granted. Either I do them or they don’t get done. I have grown use to the idea that my recycling bin fills faster than my trash can. I suspect this has something to do with my beverage consumption. The local watering hole is Cactus Jack’s. This is a friendly bar and restaurant with great employees who remember your name after your first visit. The food is good (especially the prime rib sliders), the drinks are strong and all the customers seem eager to engage in a conversation. The best part is it’s only about a block from my house.

Lastly, the most difficult part about opening a restaurant this far from home is finding the right people to help in the remodel. After 30 years in the business in San Diego, I have established trusting relationships with contractors, suppliers and different trade people. These relationships have been established through much trial and error but unfortunately they are 120 miles away. Though I am for the most part my own contractor, I still needed the services of an experienced restaurant contractor to help guide my way. It was a stroke of good luck that such a person was introduced to me in the beginning of this project. It has been through this person that I was introduced to my other trades people such as electricians, plumbers, flooring and the like. It seemed important as a foreigner in Palm Desert to not bring in outside people for my remodel but instead use local help. Palm Desert is a relatively small area and the word about town spreads fast. It seemed prudent to befriend the local community instead of being an outsider who is too good for the locals to hire them. The only exception to this was my refrigeration contractor. A good refrigeration contractor is an endangered species. Once you find one you trust, you guard him with your life. A good “refergod” is part mechanic, part chemist, part physics professor and needs to be well versed in electricity, plumbing, air balance and math. This location has 2 walk-in refrigerators, 1 large walk-in freezer, 2 line refrigerators with multiple compressors and 9 reach-in refrigerators, one large ice machine, 9 air conditioning units and a new temperature controlled wine vault. Did I mention that all of this equipment has been turned off the past 3 years? I have known Mark, my “refergod”, for 20 years and he knows refrigeration. Mark also likes to explain everything in detail which drives me up a wall because all I want him to do is fix the damn thing but such is the ways of a “refergod”. To date he has spent 6 days in the desert working on all of my refrigeration and will probably spend 6 more before his work is done. He has his own key to the bachelor pad and is on a first name basis at Cactus Jacks. You will understand the importance of this person when your refrigeration quits on a warm (110 degrees) summer Saturday night. It is his job to make sure that this does not happen.

For the most part I am acting as my own contractor on this job. As a normal rule I would never recommend being your own contractor unless you really know what you are doing. Of course I could tell you that I really know what I’m doing but that would be a little white lie. I know just enough to be dangerous. And I have a contractor in Palm Desert that does know what he is doing and he has helped me on countless occasions to insure the flow of work.

Since I was a rookie to Palm Desert I decided to use local help to accomplish my project. My thinking was that since Palm Desert is a small community there was no need to piss off the locals by bringing in hired help from San Diego. That was a risky idea since I didn’t really know any good trades people in the Cochella Valley. Fortunately I meet my contractor through the landlords agent. Since he was experienced with the building and I did not need a permit for my remodel, he was able to steer me into different trades people to do the needed work on our project. I have always found that if you ask enough questions from enough different people you eventually find adequate solutions to most problems or at the very least you can make a better educated guess. The same is true in being your own contractor and designer. Now, before you run out and ask forty questions and decide to open your own place, be aware that I do have a pretty good knowledge of building codes, health codes and ADA codes.

Like I said, I know just enough to be very dangerous. You should see me with power tools in my hands.

To permit or not to permit, that is the question. When at all possible, stay as far away from a permit as you possibly can. Now before I decide to blast into the politics of your local building inspector I should point out that the permit process and building inspectors as a whole do serve a much needed function in assuring us that buildings are built the right way and that construction people do their job the right way. It’s just that some of the rules they enforce are arbitrary and depending on who your inspector is, can be interpreted differently on any given day. I can tell you some amazing stories of inspections and inspectors I have had on my restaurant remodels that would make a grown man cry. There was the time several years ago when I had to rip out new “waterless” urinals because my inspector didn’t like them and said that they where illegal for new construction. The fact that we live in a desert and are running out of water didn’t seem like a good argument to this person. When I reminded him that the building department had them in their very own building he almost came unglued and told me point blank that he would shut my restaurant down if I didn’t remove my “waterless” urinals. Such a picky guy….

And then there was the inspector who after being called the day before to delay his drywall inspection decides to show up anyway and decides to go through our entire project with a fine tooth comb and subsequently concludes that we don’t have the proper “van accessible” handicapped parking in our parking garage. After it is explained to him that we cannot raise a three story building two feet nor can we dig down the two feet because of the water table and the slope of the ramp to accommodate a oversized handicapped van, he tells us that we need to prove all of these things with proper engineering, in writing and that we will not pass final inspection until we find a solution to this problem. The fix for this uncorrectable problem will cost thousands of dollars and in the end we will all agree that there is no fix to this problem. It will delay the project almost a month and after repeated calls to our local councilman and a meeting with the big cheese “Head” of all inspectors it is deemed that raising the building 2′ at a cost of four millions dollars or lowering the parking 2′ which will actually cost more, it is decided that the city will grant us a hardship consideration and place a van accessible space in front of the restaurant on the street. The total cost of this little inspection was about 50K in lost time and work for something that was obvious and simple to resolve.

Simplicity and ease of solution is not always the mainstay of any building department. Our Palm Desert projects is being done with no permits because I have taken the simple road and done no work that could trigger the permit process. Part of my decision to choose this site was a by-product of the fact that I needed no permits to accomplish my remodel. My kitchen is whole and intact and my front of the house area is only needing a cosmetic facelift. Or so I tell myself….

Years ago when I opened my first restaurant, I was both construction guy, dishwasher as well as chef de cuisine. The remodel has been smooth and by the time opening night came I felt pretty good about my impending success. I had spent two days making my food preparations for that first night. My stocks and sauces had been simmering for hours, my meat and fish where cut, my appetizers where prepped and all of my prep lists had been checked and double checked. I was ready! Or so I thought. The first customer walked in and sat down. Several minutes later my first ticket came back to the kitchen. And then it dawned on me that I had forgotten to prep any vegetables for the coming night. Hell I hadn’t even ordered any vegetables for opening night. How could I have made such an obvious blunder like this?  Hell, I was a Cordon Blue trained chef….my only vegetables in the restaurant consisted of carrots, celery, onions and garlic which I had used to make my stocks for my sauces. My partner at the time was not aware of my ‘faux-pas’, he only new that my mood had gone from anxious to pissy in a matter of seconds. I raced around the kitchen trying how best to cover my error knowing full well that time was no longer my ally. I fessed up to my partner about my lack of vegetables and he looked at me like I was a moron, which I was. And so I hurried up some slightly raw sautéed carrots and my first customer waited the better part of 40 minutes for their meal. By the end of the night I had done 12 customers and it had seemed like 120. As work came to a close that first night, my partner and I where finishing up the last of the dishes (we couldn’t afford a dishwasher back then) and he looked at me and asked, “It get easier than this, doesn’t it?”

That was 30 years ago and I guess that explains why I wake up in the middle of the night thinking about what I need to do the next day. It also explains why I now hire people to do the cooking.

So what’s got me nervous today? Right now it’s just getting everything in order, getting bids and not changing my mind too often. I change my mind a lot. Most of the time it’s because I know I have a limited amount of money and I’m trying to get the biggest bang for my buck. Some examples… I know that it is very important in the desert to have a patio. To me this is irrational thinking on the behalf of the locals. Why, because during the summer it’s 98 degrees at night so this means you have to mist your patio and during the winter it’s 48 degrees at night and that means heating. You would think that people dining under these conditions would prefer to sit inside where the weather is perfect, but these are desert dwellers and you have to think like desert dwellers and they want to sit outside no matter what it is you need to do to make them comfortable. Hell at home if it’s one or two degrees too hot or too cold you can’t even suggest that people sit on a patio. Why do you think I’ve gotten so good at enclosing patios! My motto in San Diego is I’ve never met a patio I couldn’t enclose. But like I said, this is the desert and I have to be aware of the differences in the clientele. So I have a small patio that looks like junk and if I spend about 20K to 30K on this patio, I can enlarge, cover and climatize this area and it will be a primary focal point for the new 3^rd Corner. Problem is I only have 10K for the patio in my budget. Hummmmmm…….Were do I cut???? It would be so easy to just spend the money and worry about it later but that is exactly how you begin the process of financial instability.

Well that’s enough ranting for one day. See you in a couple.