Seems like more than 20 days since I last had a chance to sit down and put some perspective to my ramblings. It has been a full, anxious, and sometime bizarre 20 days. Take for example the day before the soft grand opening…Oh Boy

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.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 9th, 2010 at 8:41 pm.
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