What's the hold up?

July is upon us and Saus is still not open. No one is more aware of this or frustrated by the fact than the four of us. We made it worse for ourselves when we tried to predict our opening date. Since part of what we are trying to do with the blog is educate, please take note: predicting an opening date for your restaurant is like predicting the weather in Boston, the forecast always changes and it rains on you, just as you've laid your towel down on the beach and after you've applied a responsible layer of sunscreen.

The delays started over a month ago when the subcontractor who was slated to install our ventilation system backed down. Fine. We'll just have to find another. Sadly our contractor did not have a camp of ventilation engineers ready to show up and get their hands dirty at moment's notice...for the price we were willing to pay, anyway. Finally though, after gathering three quotes from three different subcontractors, we found one. The only problem was that the company had their own set of delays and had to order the proper equipment for our project, thus could not start right away. Okay, not the only problem...

Another problem was (and it still is) that we had to obtain a permit in order to start construction on the system. The engineers used a "short form" application (for small projects) for the permit, assuming ours was indeed a small project (tiny cafe, tiny problems riiiight?). Short form permits take much less time to get approval than long form. Unfortunately, our exhaust (fryer grease) is considered "hazardous" sooooooooooooooo ............. we are currently in line with the other shamed, hazardous exhaust folks (the few, the proud who still believe in deep frying), the long form group - which probably means our application is sitting amidst a stack of other applications waiting to be looked at.

Needless to say, we are upset by the unfortunate turn of events. But there's not much more we can do than wait....well wait, and run an endless list of errands.

Working hard in smallware land

A trip to E.F. Smith and Son in Quincy.

Tanya assessing the merchandise.

You'll never shop for pots and pans at bed bath n beyond again once you find out about stores like this is Quincy.

Stockpot or cauldron?

No time to sleep

The closer we get to opening, the more frantic we get. We still don't have an exact date (we are new at this, so cut us a little slack- we want to be open as much as people seem to want us to open)... and yet it's drawing closer. And we feel the pressure. Somehow instead of steadily crossing things off our to-do list, we keep adding items! And the end result- we run around like chickens without heads.

Today Chin and I spent the entire day in the car running errands over what seemed like all of Massachusetts. We got back to the home-front (aka 33 Union Street) and tried to organize all of our purchases. As we unpacked, we thought of more we needed to buy. Too tired and weary of traffic, we called it a day and the Saus team spent the evening putting sticky felt pads of the bottoms of chairs and tables to protect our coveted floors. Then we rearranged our tables to see how we could fit more seating into our small space without our patrons sitting on top of each other. We want to space our tables far enough apart so that you don't have to become bbfs with the people at the next table. Then, as we pushed some tables together to create four-tops, we noticed they weren't all the same height. (The table bottoms can be adjusted to be taller or shorter and we hadn't set them up all exactly the same.) So of course this is a problem that we decide to tackle immediately.

I know this post is rambling, however, it mimics our days. All over the place, nonstop, trying to get tiny tasks done that are so easy to overlook until they are glaring you in the face and you realize all of a sudden- oh god, we're not ready to open. There is so much more to be done than just ventilation! So while we impatiently wait to see how long permits and ventilation will take, we also breath a little knowing we have a tiny bit more time to get our act together. Thank god we have such good friends who help us run our errands when we've reached the end of our rope!

PS. I know this sounds complaining, but we really do love every minute. I think it's sounding like it is because it's after midnight and I can't sleep. Instead I'm making to-do lists for tomorrow. :)

PPS. In my last post, I mentioned getting shelving and how I would leave it to Chin and Greg. Well, Chin and I got shelving together from Home Depot and I put it together (with a little help from friends, of course)... but I felt very accomplished and dexterous. Which is why I mention it (read: brag about it) here.

PPPS. We still need shelving for inside the walk-in. Chin, when are you doing that? Have we measured for it yet?

PPPPS. Greg, we need to call that door place tomorrow. (This post has turned into a to-do list, whoops).

Opening Checklist

1. Finalize our menu (just last night we were debating adding skewered deep-fried hot dogs. A note to the public: Chin wants to call them wieners. Renee and I stand against it.)

2. Write descriptions for our sauces on the menu (so that when you order Vampire Slayer or Green Monster, you know what you're getting.)

3. Attach table legs to our table tops (easier said than done for some strange reason.)

4. Clean the saw dust off our entire restaurant (everything is covered!)

5. Decorate! (hang pictures, etc)

6. Get shelving for the kitchen and inside the walk-in (it's not that exciting, so I'll leave it to Chin and Greg.)

7. Obtain permit to hand out samples of our waffles (they are so tasty and people have to know!)

8. Obtain remaining permits (certificate of occupancy, health, milk - yes, milk...weird, huh?, etc.)

9. Learn our POS! (we need to connect our POS system and learn how to use it before we can train our staff)

10. Obtain a trash receptacle (apparently good ones are hard to find, unless customized, and cost a small fortune)

11. Hire a staff!!!! (and train them, too)

12. This is a partial list... we are so close to opening but there is still so much to do. We are getting excited!