Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Rain delays

Hello there,

Well, the much needed rain has delayed us for a day or two. The good news is the roof didn't cave in. (-:

Yesterday was supposed to be our screw inspection (who knew?) and our mid-health inspection. Neither inspector showed up. Wimps! I drove to Escondido in the pouring rain yesterday.

So my plans to file for me permit and schedule the final health are put off until tomorrow. Our final health hopefully can be scheduled for the 21st instead of the 18th. whish means I'll be able to cook in the kitchen on the 21st.

The floor is being prepped and poured tomorrow through Sunday which means no one in the kitchen until Monday so it can dry. Hopefully, with the wet weather the floor will dry on schedule.
That's all for now.
Talk soon,
julie

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Progress

Hi there,
I can't believe how time is flying by! The walls are almost all up. We've passed plumbing, electrical and building inspection. Wednesday the floor gets poured. I'm using Marble Shooters out of Irvine. It's a poured epoxy like Life Deck.
Monday the walkin and other equipment is delivered & installed. Thursday the 17th final health on the building then Monday the 21st is my final inspection for my license. Good news is my catering license expires Dec 31st anyway, so it's perfect timing.

Tuesday the 22nd all the food comes in and we break the kitchen in with prep and feeding 500 homeless for Christmas.
Then the 28th the reach-ins from my current kitchen will be moved up there and I'm out of the skanky place I've been using and into my sparkling new, clean and secure kitchen.
Without even advertising, I have 3 tenants lined up.
One guys works 6 days 5 pm to 2 am.
Another from 6 to 10 am. The 3rd is Mon, Tues, Wed 10 am til 5 ish. Can't be more perfect.
There's also the one-sey, two-seys that are inquiring just from word of mouth.
Life is good!
We are still under budget & 2 days ahead of schedule.
I LOVE DAN LEVY CONSTRUCTION & John Nichols their superintendant. I highly recommend them.

Pretty soon, I'll have to figure out what else to blog about!
Talk soon,
Julie

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Permits!

Hi all,
So finally we are all permitted. $3100.00 later.... that's for building permits alone!
AND that goon inspector that wanted mechanical drawings for my walk-in was vetoed by his boss. I GET my walk in! Julie 1 government worker 0.
My hood is installed, the IT guy was out today. So I'll be wired in no time and the floor will be ready to be poured the 1st week of December. We are on schedule & under budget. Pretty cool!!!!

If you ask, I'll give you the name of the building plan check guy to avoid. I hear he's wreaking havoc everywhere AND being vetoed each time. All he does is cause delays.
That's all for now,
We'll talk again soon,
Julie

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Construction

Hi there,
It's so exciting! The contractors have taken over. Every day new things appear in my space. It's so fun to watch the progress. My office is all framed and I'm using it as storage for some of my catering items.

Some incredibly great news is we are on budget and maybe even under budget. You read it right UNDER budget! I LOVE DAN LEVY CONSTRUCTION.

I really want an epoxy life deck style flooring which from Dan Levy's sub was going to cost $12,000.00. My folks have that kind of floor in their garage so I checked with their contractor, making sure they understood skid resistance and commercial/health building dept requirements and it looks like I'll save $6000 using them! I bet Levy construction has a new flooring guy to refer.

The walk-in still isn't resolved. I thought we were all good with my walk-in choice and I find out there's a crazy guy (imagine that crazy & city employee in the same breath) signing off on my building plans. He wants mechanical drawings for my walk-in. Now, no one & I mean no one from the contractor, superintendent, designer, installer even a friend who works in the county's planning dept. has ever heard of this request. So our plan runner, Terri (who is a wizard) is going over this clown's head to get an answer as to really? and why?

More good news is I thought I was required by the fire marshal to have in addition to my ansul system a remote monitoring system. Looks like I don't!

Here's how the crazy code reads.... if you have a building that has fire sprinklers, you also need a monitoring system (if the ansul system can't handle the fire, the sprinklers deploy and in addition, an alarm is sounded at the alarm company)
BUT if you don't have sprinklers, you don't need the monitoring system (if I have a fire & the ansul can't handle it, the whole place burns ... no fire sprinklers and no alarm company monitoring)

Good news, it saves me $2000.00.

I sure am glad I forwarded that good luck Buddha email! I attribute all my good fortune to that email.

(ooh, is she kidding or not?)
we'll talk again soon,
Julie

website is up!!!!
www.justcalluskitchenrental.com

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Moving Forward

Hello, it’s been so long since I’ve written.
Several things have happened. I took the last vacation of my life. I went to Puerto Vallarta from 5 days.
I finally got the keys and I had a small “groundbreaking” party at the kitchen.

While I was gone, the demo was completed.
Monday was the open house and Tuesday at 8:30am, I met the auctioneer at the kitchen & he took all the tables, booths and unwanted equipment. He estimates that the junk will bring about $2000.00. Now I’m not sure how much of that I’ll get. Maybe $500.

Aaah, city, county, planning, waste water, mechanical, building… you’re asking about the status of permits.
There is fairly positive news there.
I expedited the county health dept permitting which means the price doubles AND I get the preliminary plans back in 4 or 5 days rather than 21 to 28 days.

Simultaneously, plans went to waste water, mechanical and city building for their plan check assessments.

County health had 3 minor corrections, which will cost me $283.00 (finding errors or the need for corrections is their way to make money)

Waste water is fine and no charge there.

City planning… I’m not sure what they charged for the 1st submittal and all corrections are free. The gal there “found” 35 “corrections” which had she bothered to open the plans and actually LOOK at them, she would have seen the information was already there in plain sight.

Mechanical went nuts and poor Sam has tons of work from them. He has changes to plumbing, electrical all that stuff.
I should have the contractor’s proposal by Friday and all the corrected plans will be resubmitted to everyone simultaneously for final approval. If all goes well (no reason to believe it won’t), we will begin construction middle of next week.
Stay tuned for the anguished scream of terror when I receive the contractor’s proposal.
We’ll talk again soon,
Julie

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Progress

Hello,
New Day new stuff on my mind. No ranting today. Great news is I have copies of the plans ready for submittal to the health dept and waste water. You can download them if you want...it's a big file and 12 pages worth of stuff... but it's pretty cool!

https://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=batch_download&send_id=758542319&email=0b127ea347a56f570e93df13bc950589

"On the lease front, here are the only 2 issues we are negotiating... This is my agents em to the landlord's.

Item #17 pertains to the last two paragraph of paragraph #26. It is unreasonable that the landlord can terminate the lease within the final 24 months of the term even if the damage is covered by insurance. The landlord already has the right to terminate if the damage is outside the bounds of the coverage – that is more reasonable. The final paragraph seems to be in conflict with other provisions of the lease. We either need to exclude landlord’s negligence, or limit t the coverages provided within landlord’s insurance policy. We will each carry our own insurance, but if the landlord is found responsible, his insurance should be primarily liable. The tenant’s insurance carrier is taking another look at this language as well.

Item #25 pertains to the renewal option. The rent for the term is to be adjusted to fair market rent with a minimum of 103% of the previous year’s rent. That is fine. What is not acceptable is the next to last sentence of the paragraph which nullifies the option if the landlord and tenant can not agree on the fair market rent. There has to be a definitive way to set the market rent if landlord and tenant can’t agree. The most common way is to use an MAI appraisal, or brokerage opinions of value. Ultimately, we should have a binding arbitration clause, or similar provision, that will determine the rent. This is a deal breaker."
Keep your fingers crossed.
Talk again soon,
Julie

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

They're killing me here!

I soooo need to vent....but I shall refrain, a little or not.
Still no signed lease. Are you kidding me? Every day they sit on this thing is another day they don't make any money.
What I resent the most is the B.S. The excuses from their agent. Does he think I'm that gullible or stupid?
The latest two excuses are:
1. They missed their flight and won't be home tonight......uuhh so? what about the last five days?
2. Don't think this means they are not eager to do this deal. You just happened to catch them at a really busy travel time. OH really? and what accounted for the 3 week delay in responding 3 months ago when we 1st put an offer in?

I'm leaving for a week. I won't be able to sign any papers, write any checks. GRRRRR
The auction is Saturday & John wanted the fixtures for the auction. I'd like a signed lease before I spend 5K on equipment at the auction and I'd like to use the credit for the stuff being sold against my purchases. But thanx to these passive aggressive slackers (I'm so thinking a much stronger word here) none of that is likely to happen.
Everyone keeps saying that this doesn't mean they won't be good landlords. I'm really having my doubts about their response time if something goes wrong at the center.

That's it,
I'm going to beat a bag or my bed with a baseball bat.
Talk again soon when I've calmed down.
Julie

Friday, October 16, 2009

The final (I hope) word on hoods

Hello,
Ok, so here's what we talked about today.

Choice, a used 16' hood with an ansul that has to be adjusted OR a new 12' hood without an ansul system at all.

Either way I have to spend money on an ansul system.
The 12' hood won't fit all my equipment so I'd have to buy & install another smaller hood to fit the convection ovens I want while the 16' hood will fit all the equipment I need now.
So I went with the 16' hood.

The ansul will be on the up end of $3000.00 but that's true on either ansul.

We chose the walk-in combo...
18X10 with a 6' freezer installed and ready to go (except for any electrical work that needs to be done)

16' hood with ansul $5750
walk-in set up $4500 installed ready to go $8000
American 6 burner stove/oven (new) $1100.00 each
Legion tilt skillet $1500
Montague double convection oven $1600
Those are the costs I know right now....
Still need a 2 compartment sink, 3 compartment sink, faucets, stainless work tables, metro racks and various other items for the kitchen.

I think I'm doing fairly well on the pricing. If anyone knows something different be sure to let me know.
We'll talk soon,
Julie

Thursday, October 15, 2009

disenting opinions

Hello,

So Bruce, the auctioneer's partner and installer says if we rearrange the line, put a 12' hood in and then a vapor in for the convection oven and tilt skillet all will be fine.

Sam the designer says that isn't right.
So tomorrow I'll be back to the auction house and talking to Sam, John and Bruce all at once.

I'm at their mercy as I have no idea about ANY of this stuff.

I sure would like to have the flooring be life deck epoxy...it is a really clean application, not slippery when wet or greasy.... we'll check on the cost...

That's all for today,
We'll talk soon,
Julie

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

picking out equipment

Hello,
It's been a busy day already. Spent the morning with John at the auction house. I've picked out a 2 compartment sink, a 3 compartment sink and a cool 9' stainless work top with 2 1/2 racks that it stands on...very cool set up.

I left a set of my plans with John (who sells stuff) and his partner (who installs and knows applications)...well that cool 16' hood I like won't work...the ansul (fire retardant system) is all wrong and the fire marshal will not pass it....back to the drawing board on the hood action.

John talked me into buying 2 new range/ovens so the line looks nice, clean and cohesive and everything is the same size...heck, why not, it's only a $1000 difference (grrr) everything is just a couple a hundred dollars more....it all adds up!

Well I just got my first call from a baker looking to rent space & I haven't even advertised yet....whoo hoo! She won't be ready til January so it's perfect.

It's so amazing when you're doing what you're supposed to be doing/meant to do, how everything lines up and falls into place. It all feels so very right. All the kinks and set backs are going to work themselves out and it's all going to be/is ok.....Please remind me I said this when I have my 1st 2nd and 3rd melt down.
We'll talk soon,
Julie

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Next on the To Do list

Hello,
We are making our changes to the lease language. Small things like taking out paragraphs that require me to join a marketing association. Asking that the handicapped spots not be RIGHT in front of the only door we use to load supplies in and out from.

Yesterday my chef friend Joe came to the kitchen. He was horrified at the awful condition it's in. (It is a mess & dirty) He offered some design changes. John the auctioneer showed up to claim all the unwanted fixtures. And Dan Levy (contractor) showed up with Jack (VP) to look things over again.

Dan suggested saving money by not using tile on the floor but to grind the concrete fill the holes and epoxy the whole thing. Joe agreed. Great news for me as quarry tile is expensive.

Other great news is my 16' hood won't need a 2nd vent. They can pipe to the existing exhaust eliminating the need to cut the ceiling/roof for a 2nd exhaust. ALSO my convection oven fits under the hood. No need for a 2nd hood.

Bad news is there's no room for a 2nd convection oven (to be added at a later date)

Good news is there is room for the tilt skillet I want.

I was on the computer today with Sam the designer. We played with the interactive CAD program. He's urging me to put this design to bed so we can get it to the city...There's that 30 day wait before they even come back with corrections...delay delay.

So Sam and I have it pretty much nailed down. Tomorrow morning, I'll visit the auction house and get dimensions and model numbers on the equipment I'll need and we'll finalize the preliminary plans... yea!!! Next step... the construction bid...(holding my breath)

I'd like to figure out a way to post the plans here so you can see the kitchen's layout. I'll work on that & we'll talk again soon,

Julie

P.S. As if I don't have enough on my plate, I spoke today with a caterer who's looking to sell her business...heck... what's another chunk of change in my debt pile.
It's all good and all exciting!!!
stay tuned

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Vote for your favorite kitchen name

Hi there,
Ok, please help me make up my mind!!!!
Which of these is your favorite name for my shared use commercial kitchen. I just can't decide. I keep coming back to Sharing Chefs but the other 2 names are good too.

I want it to sound professional. One friend suggested I keep it along the same lines as my catering "Just Call Us Catering"
Here are the top 3

Sharing Chefs
San Diego Kitchen Space
Just Call Us Commercial Kitchen Rental
Thanx for your help!
BTW, progress report....the landlord is checking my credit then we sign the lease.

talk soon,
Julie

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

stay focused

Good Morning,

OMG, I was looking through my inbox for an email and ran across 2 emails from 2 potential clients looking for proposals from me. E-gads, I've been so distracted by the kitchen these 2 folks slipped through the cracks.

Note to self:
Keep 1 pad of paper by the phone and computer and WRITE things down!
I think I've been forgiven by both and still may get the jobs.
That was a wake up call tho for sure!

I'm still waiting to hear back on signing the lease and in the meantime, I'm playing with design stuff. Other than that nothing new to report.

Talk soon,
Julie

Monday, October 5, 2009

To Do List

Things that need to be decided...

The name:
Just Call Us Commercial Kitchen Rental
Just Call Us Catering Kitchen
Sharing Chefs
Commercial Kitchen Co-Op

S Corp or C Corp or LLC

Tilt Skillet or not?
Got to get that web site going.

I've been dreaming about this kitchen/biz for about 5 years now. So if you're dreaming of something my advice is keep dreaming and always be taking baby steps towards the goal. Baby steps can be doing research, thinking of names, talking about it to others making drawings of it... Just keep it alive and never give up.
Be patient (which I'm not) and remember everything in it's own time. And that rarely means in YOUR own time. That's where the never give up and patience things comes into play.
Good night.
Julie

Whoo hoo!!!!

So funny, my cell was in the car when I wrote my last post. As I was writing, my agent was leaving a message saying that the landlords have agreed to the terms and are drawing up the lease.

Yikes, so what's next?

I'm meeting with 2 chef friends and an architect friend this week. I'm getting input from all of them for the layout and then Sam the designer and I do the remote interactive CAD editing and submit it to the contractor.
My contractor, Dan Levy Construction then gives me the bad news and tells me I have champagne tastes and a beer budget.
Then back to the CAD drawing board and finally I pay my $890.00 to the health dept so they can sit on my blueprints for up to 30 days.

During the down period, I'll be selling all the fixtures I don't want to my auctioneer John. I mght even be able to sell the old galvanized hood for scrap.

Then we'll get started on the demo.
Stay tuned!
Hi again,
Well it's Monday morning and still no response from the landlords. We are really close to an agreement. we countered that we'd like the lease agreement to start (rent abatement) after health dept sign off or Jan 15 whichever comes first and I have access the demo & build out starting at lease signing.

I think writing them a letter explaining that once we submit our plans to environmental health, they sit on them for 30 days then the fire marshal sits on them before we can even start the build out and then mechanical gets to weigh in.

Then if all goes according to schedule (in construction???... not) then we call the health dept again for a final inspection BUT that takes at least 2 weeks to get them out. AND if you try to guesstimate and miss your deadline it's best case another 2 weeks waiting worst case $283.00 and another 2 weeks wait.

So our timeline for completion isn't a random fabricated date. It's because so much of it is dead time out of our hands.

I'm close to tears. Have you noticed that buying/leasing is really tough and emotionally charged while the selling end of it is relatively painless. I guess by the time you sell, a certain detachment has happened.

Well that's it for now. Keep your fingers crossed.

Friday, October 2, 2009

Name That Space

Oh boy,
This is a really important decision, almost as important as the kitchen design itself.
So here are a few of my friend's suggestions.
Please comment & add your thoughts ... Ms Flamingo, my only reader (-:

Julie's Joint Kitchen
Julie's Kitchen Co-op
Darling Kitchen
Kitchen Space
Great Kitchen Space
Mi Casa Su Casa Kitchen
The Kitchen
Chef's Kitchen Co-op
Pro Kitchen Co-op
Chef's Kitchen
Sharing Chef’s Rental Kitchen
Timeless Cooking
Cooks Space Co-op
Cooks Kitchen Co-op
Corner Kitchen Co-op
Pro Kitchen rental
Sd Kitchen co-op
Sd Kitchen rental

Commercial Kitchen Corner
Commercial Kitchen Co-op
Sharing Chef’s Pro Kitchen/ sharingchefs.com
Executive Kitchen Rental
Sharing Chefs Kitchen
Chefs Kitchen Quarters

I think I like:

Sharing Chef's Pro Kitchen Rental www.sharingchefs.com
a shared use commercial kitchen

I wonder if I need a logo....

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Name it

HMMM, I need to come up with a name for this 24/7 shared use catering rental kitchen.
Any ideas anyone?

To Do Items:

Get started on the web site.
Finish the User Handbook

I have the pricing structure in order and I have the tenant handbook mostly complete. It was easy. My business model came from Kitchen Chicago and she sent me all her paperwork which is extensive. All I need to do is change names here and there and have it printed up.
The contracts will be month to month and tenants can reserve 2 months out unless certain advance reservations are made. One of my current tenants cooks from 5 pm until 3 am 6 days a week. So I'll block that time off for him.

Mostly, our schedules vary with catering so rather than pay for time you don't use, just book it 2 months out and use the time you need. If things come up last minute, we'll work to accommodate.

Of course there are other requirements for the tenants. I'll need a copy of their 40 hr serve safe class and liability insurance with me as additionally insured, stuff like that.

I'm just plugging along, trusting that it will all fall into place.

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Negotiations

We received a counter offer around 5 pm today. We are inches away from an agreement. I hope it doesn't take them another 15 days to respond.

No News

Is no news really good news? It sure doesn't feel like it.

I don't think it's any sort of power play. This property is probably paid off and these guys just don't care that much.

My issue is time. I need to be in a new place by the end of December.
So once we get a letter of intent, then we can start getting solid bids. I'm already part way through the design process.
Then the contractors put their bill onto executing the plans.
We finalize the plans pay $890.00 so the health department can sit on them for a month
Then pay more fees for each set of changes the health dept requires. Keep in mind our city is broke and changes are just money in their pockets.
Then we go to the fire marshal and get his buy in did I mention more fees?
That puts us at Mid November and leaves 6 weeks to complete the build out.
We get to wait another 2 weeks for the health dept to come out and find fault or give us an A.

It's gonna be tight AND I have the utmost confidence in my contractors.

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

HOODS EXHAUST & CONVECTION OVENS

Here’s what Sam taught me about hoods:

1. More than a 12’ hood and 2 exhaust holes are needed.
2 .My convection oven needs a larger hood, as in wider so the hood can capture the heat since they are deeper than ranges & put out so much heat…
3. The used 16’4” hood I found has 2 exhaust holes but the roof currently has one which means I’d have to punch another hole in the roof for the 16 ft hood PLUS a hole for the exhaust of the hood for the convection oven.…BIG BUCKS

Sam’s got me thinking instead of a 16’ hood which requires 2 exhaust holes in the ceiling + the exhaust needed for the convection oven’s hood…making 3 holes where only 1 exists now. That I should look for a 12’ hood (1 exhaust hole) and a 5’ deep hood for the oven. That way I only punch 1 hole in the roof. Saving bucks.

So glad I have a contractor and a draftsman that have been designing/drawing restaurants for 30 plus years. They know all the rules and codes.
Wonder what I'll learn tomorrow?

Oooh, oooh , maybe we'll actually get a counter offer. Dare I dream?


CAD Drawings

Well even though the landlords are slow to action, the draftsman/kitchen architect, Sam is on top of things.
I spent a session with him today. He has an interactive program (I think it’s a CAD program) and he popped things here and there. (He’s in Oregon and I’m at home, very cool to play together on the computer)

We took all the walls out made 1 big rectangle and started there.
We moved the bathroom door made myself a nice size office with storage.

We played with combo walk-ins(cooler and freezer in 1) shapes sizes and placement.

He had the dish sink and prep sink side by side and I asked if we could move it. He created a wall and put the prep sink there, separating it from the food and dish area…only problem is I’ll have to run another plumbing line …$$$ so that’s what I’m doing now, playing with configurations, getting used to 2 dimensional plans. He showed me the elevation view as well….pretty exciting.

Oh, ….it’s really important to tell the designer ALL the equipment you intend on having in the kitchen. I slipped in at the end of this session that I have an icemaker and he about blew a gasket. I guess ya need water, drains and stuff like that with an icemaker.

FULL DISCLOSURE is important. Got it, learned that lesson.

a snail's pace

Ok well the retrograde is over and as predicted, movement. Slow but at least it’s a communication.
I received this, this morning….

Another day goes by….

I just spoke with Joel and he confirmed that he prepared the counter proposal this morning. The owners have it and told him that they would make any comments or give him approval tomorrow.

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Let The Bidding begin

The bidding starts at $1000.00, I raise my hand & immediately the price jumps to $1500…( I think that was a fake bidder). Then the auctioneer tries to get me to bid $1700. I shake my head no 3 times. This is our exchange going forward

Auctioneer: if I came into your restaurant and offered you $2000 you’d laugh me out Me: absolutely I would.
Auctioneer: It’s well worth it
Me: I know but I can’t buy it. I have storage issues.
Auctioneer: I have all kinds of issues (everyone laughs)
Me: Well there’s that
John (auction boss): How long do you need storage
Me: 2 months
Auctioneer: $1700
Me: $1500
Auctioneer: $1700
Me: nope
Auctioneer: $1600
Me: Ok
Auctioneer: Sold $1600

By that time it’s almost 2 pm. I race to pay and we’re outta there by 2:10.
My hands are totally sweating. I can’t believe I just spent $1600.00 (plus sales tax and the auctioneer’s fee)
What if the restaurant deal falls through? Where will I put this monster?

AUCTION DAY

Ok so here we are at this big warehouse filled with used restaurant equipment. I’m kinda giddy. I love this stuff. My girly girlfriends get this way about a good sale or Nordstrom or makeup…. For me it’s restaurant equipment
John, who runs the auction and who showed me around about a week ago, urges me to pay my $200 deposit and get a bidding number anyway. I get my money back if I don’t buy anything. So I do.
My plan is to sit back and watch. I’m watching to see who’s bidding who’s a fake bidder or shill and just to see how it all works.

There were about 50 buyers and 400+ lots to sell. The only thing I thought I might really buy if it was cheap was the Montague gas fired double convection oven. Everything else I was interested in I’d just log in the sales price for future reference.
And trust me there was LOTS of stuff I’d have bought if I had a place to put it. There were some great bargains to be had.

It was pretty funny. Throughout the auction, the auctioneer had been talking to all the buyers. There was a guy who looked like he was from India and another guy whose name and his accent sounded middle eastern who were bidding against each other. The auctioneer taunted them, promising the rest of us a fist fight and keeping score on their purchasing record.


My oven was lot 210.
11 am the auction starts. It starts with all sorts of junk. Yellowed used Cambro containers, huge used pickle buckets, old menu covers from a restaurant called Islands in some Hawaiian hotel, bus tubs, which Kim and I both bought for $4.50 each… too late when I/we realized 2 things. Restaurant Depot sells them for $3.99 AND these ones are half the depth of the bus tubs I like to use. So note to self, always have a plan. Always preview and mark down the lot numbers you like and always note the “don’t cross this line” price. No impulse purchases. I don’t think fast under that kind of pressure.

Anyway, finally about 12:45 they were finished with the small wares and moving on to the good stuff like tilt skillets and ranges and stainless prep tables. But we were still only on about lot 150…Did I mention I have a catering drop off for 20 , which requires some prep and heating up at 4 pm?
So at 1:45 finally, we get to lot 210.

Onto the bidding…

Friday, September 25, 2009

AUCTION TOMORROW

Tomorrow is my first auction. (not ever in my life but my first restaurant equipment auction)
I had originally planned on going to the auction with Amy & George from Roseville but since the counter offer hasn’t shown up yet, I decided to go alone to the auction to check it all out but not buy anything and let my expert pals off the hook.

That was the plan anyway…
So my friend Kim calls and asks if I want to go to Chino’s with her first thing Sat morning. Of course I do, does she want to join me at the auction? Of course she does. Then Pam who’s visiting from Australia says she wants to go as well.

I’m not sure I’d spend the last day of my holiday half way around the world at an auction. No matter how much I wanted to see my friend, silly Pam.

So here we are, the motley crew of auction newbies ready to rock and roll tomorrow.

Still Waiting

Still waiting. So now the landlords have had my proposal for 15 or 16 days now.

I’ve known but at the same time forgot that mercury is retrograde and doesn’t go direct until Sept 29. Click here for more on the retrograde. But the long and short of it is during a mercury retrograde things stop, stall and break. Electronics, cars, appliances, phones, cameras won’t download for no explicable reason. There’s much more to this but what I’m seeing is the total, utter standstill. No progress, not even a phone call or email.

So I’ve resigned myself that nothing will happen until the 29th at the earliest.
In the meantime I’m on to other things.

Like an equipment auction tomorrow!!!!

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

FRUSTRATION IS SETTING IN

I’m feeling really frustrated. The seller’s agent said we’d hear from him this morning. It’s now 2:45 and nothing.
They’ve had our proposal for 8 or 9 days now.

Yesterday we met with the draftsman, and contractor.
They’ve got pictures and measurements and will have rough draft for me to play with online. That will be fun.
I’m doing all this and we don’t even know if we’ll be able to make a deal.

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

We're back...

So we're back to the abandoned Mexican restaurant.

After the Thai turn down it occurred to me that I'm not that far off on the price to get the Mexican place to code. All the bids I'd gotten were for brand spanking new stuff. So what if I found used hoods and walkins and stoves??? And what if I could get the contractors to work with me a bit. I means times are tough and isn't less profit better than no profit? I've been working that way all year in my catering business.
So to recap 1300 sq ft. hood goes, walkin goes, floor's wrong...needs some plumbing and kitchen is pretty much gutted.
Only has 1 2 compartment sink...we need a 3 compart. too.

There is a 6 burner hot plate and a 24” broiler that look good. The grill (griddle) is all rusty.
Ok so round 2. Good news is there is no purchase price only a lease agreement.
we'll ask for demo and some tenant improvements and maybe some rent credit . we'll see.
Stay tuned. I would love it if this worked out!!!!

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Trying to move on.

I keep going back to the place we saw in Clairemont. The trashed mexican place. Everyone tells me to let it go. I can't seem to get it out of my mind.
But we're on to the Thai place. The location is ok. It's near Montgomery Field. It's VERY clean. A bit small.
The benefit is it is an operating restaurant so I'd be grandfathered in as far as health codes go. I still would want to make some upgrades probably about 20K worth of improvements and equipment. There's a walkin here but no freezer.
The sale price is $50 K. we offer $42K they counter with we want more money. We come back at 43K and they keep all their equipment...what am I going to do with a wok stove anyway.
They say no we decided not to sell. hmmmm

So my dad says, hey it's only $8,000. Offer them what they want and be done with it. So I do.
AND drum roll please.... they say..... no deal..... seriously?

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Not as easy as I thought

Ugghh,
That fabulous place in Clairemont is going to be really pricey. And the landlords are really slow to respond.
The 12' hood and backsplash are both galvanzied and need to be replace with gold I mean stainless steel (same cost differential)
The walkin is wood and NO we can't just retro fit with foam walls health dept say scrap it and get one to code.
The floor needs to be resurfaced. But first the concrete needs to be jack hammered and drains done properly.
The AC compressor does look ok tho for now. Some walls will probably come down.
All in all without permits, equipment, drawings or plan checks we're talking $100K.
That's a huge nut to crack.
There's got to be something less expensive out there.
But I love the location and the space.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

NEXT PLEASE

So the next ad we're checking out from Craig's list is a Mexican restaurant in the Clairemont area. I LOVE the location and size of the place. The interior is about 1300 sq ft. it is really trashed tho.
12ft hood. 10x10 walkin no freezer tho. A place for me to build out an office. It's been vacant for over a year so hopefully the landlord is ready for tenants!
Stay Tuned!

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

THE HUNT BEGINS

Welcome to the beginning of my commercial kitchen hunt. A long strange trip it will be I assure you.
So we start with a mixed use property in the beach area. 2 commercial kitchens and 4 apts. I thought I was in heaven, right? the luck to find 2 kitchens on 1 property. But then we went inside. OMG 1 was a total filthy mess. Did have a hood but the guy was cooking on a hot plate. The 2nd kitchen was a vegan/raw food kitchen so no stove oven or hood...worthless really except for the grease trap.Neither had walkins.
The owner is delusional about the value of his property so I've quickly moved on to the next prospect.