Sun & Wind

I'd love to have some solar panels....
Or a wind turbine.....
But until then, I suppose I should at least harvest a little wind & sun and save on some energy bills.

I think the only reason we hadn't done this sooner was that with the pig farm next door, we weren't sure about the odors. And also, this is right next to one of Zeppo's runs, and I just haven't figured out a better place to move him to. But for now, we'll just go with it. If he causes trouble, we can always use the far half. Or hang things out while we're gone for the day and Zeppo is in the kitchen.

Unfortunately, I spent so much time working out the correct knot for the clotheslines (taut line, btw), that I got the sheets out too late. I wasn't thinking about the fact that the sun sets in front of the house, and this spot gets shady by 6:oo. Well, sheets dry fast. And the rest can go in the dryer for 10 minutes.

And just so you know, Dan's restaurant is doing great. They were serving 60-80 on weekdays, and up to a hundred on Fri & Sat. And that was before getting the liquor license. Last night was the first Sat with the license, and Dan thinks they may have done 200.

The only downside that I know of, is that they had wanted to be open for lunch, but they were having trouble getting staff. And this is impacting Dan because he has to go in earlier to do prep for dinner. If they had lunch cooks, a lot of the dinner prep would be done and Dan could go in at 1 or 2, instead of 10 or 11. So hopefully that will get settled soon. I know that he's managing the extra hours, but it'd be nice if he had some time to himself each morning instead of having to go to work as soon as he's dropped the kids off.

Slight break from typing as I went into the kitchen to get dinner and there was A SNAKE OH MY GOD WHY IS THERE A SNAKE IN THE KITCHEN BROOM BROOM WHERE'S THE BROOM GET OUT GET OUT GET OUT AHHHHHHHHH

I don't like snakes. I reaaaaallllly need to convince myself that it came in while the back door was open for awhile, and that it is not actually from a nest of snakes in the basement or in the walls of the kitchen. Please, please tell me that that is the case, and that it won't find it's way in again. Please.

Donovan's Steak and Ale

The restaurant opens tonight. They had a practice run last night.

My dish
NYS
Grilled Dry Aged New York Strip
Bacon, Cheddar and Scallion Baked Potato Pie,
Brandy~Mushroom Sauce, Haystack Onions


Janet's
Pan~Roasted Atlantic Salmon
Vegetable Couscous, Cucumber Salad
Roasted Pepper & Tomato Sauce


George's
Grilled Sirloin Steak
Steak Fries, House Steak Sauce


I didn't take a picture of the kid's hot dog and chicken fingers, although the steak fries were artfully arranged. Everything was wonderful. I barely recognized the place from our last visit when chairs were piled everywhere and the floors were covered with drop-cloths. Last night was all white tablecloths and attentive waitstaff. And food that fires off all your taste-buds.

A near miss

Given how much time and effort we put into our restaurant plan, it's not surprising that we continue to keep up with news and rumors surrounding the building. This week Dan heard something that makes us happy that we didn't continue our plans.

It seems that there may be an illegal/dangerous oil tank on the property. Which will be costing the college $100,000-200,000 to remove. Yikes. Can you imagine if we'd been up and running for a year and then found out about this while trying to buy the building? It certainly would have kept us from buying, and probably would have led to the restaurant having to be shut-down for clean-up. Luckily, it's not our problem.

I think this might mean that they had a buyer lined up, but then found out about the hazard while doing disclosures. They may also be doing some more renovations before trying to sell again. We'll keep an eye on it, and hope that it takes so long that we'll be able to try our concept again.

Yummy food

My Aunt and Uncle from Maryland came to visit this weekend, which was a great excuse to get a chance to eat dinner at Dan's restaurant. I don't think I've done that once since we moved, I've had a few lunches, but not on days that Dan was cooking. We all had the special salad, which was dried cherries, pistachios and Stilton cheese over a mesclun mix. Yum. It was also perfect weather for eating out on the deck overlooking the river, so I think I showed the town in it's best light.

I had Maple Brined Seared Atlantic Salmon with a Warm Bacon Vinaigrette, Rosti Potatoes (a crunchy hash) and Malone Salad(cuke and fennel). Aunt Erin had Grilled Mahi Mahi with a Relish of Green Beans, Fennel, Tomatoes, Olives and County Meadows Feta. Uncle Richard had a San Francisco Style Cioppino which was Shrimp, Scallops, Salmon, Mahi Mahi & Crab stewed in a Vodka-Tomato Broth with Roasted Pepper Croustades.

Given these culinary gems, I'm not at all surprised or disappointed that Dan turned down a job offer this week. The local organic grocery approached him because they'll be expanding their prepared food section and wanted to see if he was interested. The pay wouldn't have been too different, and there were actual benefits provided, as well as an almost 9-5 schedule. But Dan loves restaurant work, and didn't want to deal with making pounds of granola each day. I'm sure it's for the best.

What's Plan B?

So, the restaurant isn't going to happen. The discussion at the meeting basically came down to "We think that your idea won't sell here, and we won't lease to you unless you change the menu to something more casual. Or you can come up with $300,000 to buy the building and you can do whatever you want." Drat. We're actually feeling pretty good about decision to walk away. Here's how we rationalize "feeling good"....

1. We never meant to do this so soon. When we moved from D.C., our five-year plan was to get decent jobs, buy a house, build equity and savings, and then try for a restaurant when the kids were older and both in school. We're going to go back to that plan, although we're a year behind now after the fire and after all the futzing around we've been doing working on Palmetto for the last four months.

2. When we got caught up in doing this, we thought that Ryan would be able to bring in a significant amount of cash. That never materialized. And as we began to look at how much debt we'd have to take on, it seemed less likely that the profits could handle the extra interest expense. And personally, I was NEVER happy that Dan decided to bring in someone else. Yes, we needed front of house experience, but I want the restaurant to be "our" restaurant, and having a partner was always going to rub me the wrong way.

3. A lot of people were doubting that our menu and prices would work in Canton. In contrast, we don't think that the alternative ideas will work in that building. It could be good to see what someone else does there. I don't really want the next occupant to fail, because I'd like a decent place to eat in town. But maybe in a few years they'll want to sell, and the town could be ready for our plans then.

We'll keep our eyes open for other opportunities. If we start with something smaller, it will be much easier to get it off the ground. This was an ambitious plan, and could have quite easily swamped us. It was a good experience, we learned a lot, we'll know where to start next time blah, blah, blah. I'm just kicking myself for quitting all my online classes. Whoops.

Now that I'm not spending hours each week fiddling with Business plans, I'm looking for a new job instead. My part-time gig is boring, boring, boring, boring. And pays crap. Hopefully something better will come along.

Frak

We're not really smiling anymore. I don't think this guy would be a good fit for us, which in itself isn't too bad. But, he's also been talking to SLU on his own, and could end up being involved whether we like it or not. He's considering buying the building. I think he'd only do that if he then wanted to work with us to run it, but I don't think he likes our restaurant style. The local Lobster House came up in conversation a lot. And the scarier part is that he was indicating that his opinion on our menu and restaurant concept might also be shared by the people making the final call at SLU. It's entirely plausible that they'll hook him up with another interested party and we'll be out for good. If we can only get in by agreeing to be a Ruby Tuesdays clone, then we'd rather be out.

Dan looked pretty grim before going to work. I hope he doesn't drive himself crazy over the next day.

La la la everything's going great la la di-da

Okay, where were we? T-bone's steakhouse was trying to steal our restaurant and we had no money to counter them with. And meanwhile, complete silence from SLU even though we knew they were having a trustee's meeting and we expected to hear from them within a few days of that.

Developments since then......
1. Various family members have confidence in us to the tune of $50,000. Yeehaw!!!

2. SLU called and wants to meet with us Thursday. No more details on why or what may happen at that date.

3. A local man, who made a bundle working private security in Iraq, has returned home. His family owned a popular restaurant that had been closed for years, and was in fact just torn down. He's friends with the County Chamber of Commerce Pres, she's friends with Ryan. We're having lunch with him tomorrow to see if he wants to be involved somehow.

4. As a bonus, the bank manager did not laugh me out of his office when I approached him with our business plan and total lack of collateral. I'm sure that the $50,000 (plus?) will help grease the wheels there if I go back later this week.

Dan is smiling. I would be smiling, if I didn't have a persistent cough, runny nose, headache and ear infection. C'est la vie.

Crap

Things with the restaurant have been at a standstill this week. We were hoping to hear from SLU after last weekend's trustee meeting, but no word yet on if they will give us the lease. I called an insurance broker about some questions, and he let me know that there was an article in the paper about the building today. Some choice excerpts.

"There are two proposals that are being evaluated," said Kathryn L. Mullaney, SLU vice president for business and finance. "No decisions have been made."

Mrs. Mullaney wouldn't identify the potential tenants, but one is Thomas M. and Tracy Williams, the owners of Amigo's, a Tex/Mex restaurant in Massena's Harte Haven Plaza

"We have given St. Lawrence all the numbers and menus and are waiting for them," he said. "We've come up with a name, T-Bone Steakhouse and Sports Pub."

Should I laugh or cry? Looks like it's money vs. style, we'll see who wins.

This and That

We were very tempted to send Claire back last night. She started having a dry cough around 11 pm and it didn't let up until 4:30 am. It wasn't painful, she wasn't crying, but every few minutes it would come through the monitor and keep Dan and I from falling asleep. Multiple infusions of water and milk did nothing to stop it, and just led to a very wet bed this morning.

So, I played hooky today. I couldn't face work on that little sleep, and I wanted Claire to have a good nap at home instead of going to daycare. We still sent Nathan over, and I managed to get a lot done today for the restaurant.

1. www.palmettorestaurant.com is registered, and I'm already sending email from it. I was worried that once we filed LLC papers, some cyber-squatter would scoop it up, so I'm glad to get that out of the way. And I like amy@palmettorestaurant much better than myname1@twcny.rr.com which I can never even remember.

2. Sent out some emails to those of you who have generously suggested they could help. We'll see how Roxy does on a Logo, try to get some Joy Bristol painted pies on the wall, and we can already thank Christy for the handholding while getting the domain name.

3. Claire and I met with the Director of Economic Development for the town. Claire spent the whole time tearing everything out of my purse, but other than that it went well. She's going to help us apply for loans from a local Development Initiative. And, she's lived and worked there a long time, and knows a lot about what will work in the area. She loved the business plan, and will really advocate for us.

4. Spent some time fiddling with a POS system demo. The POS market leader charges about $15,000 to set-up and maintain a system, so I'm hoping that this less expensive option from Dell will meet with Dan and Ryan's approval.

Dan just came home, so I have to fill him in on the day's progress.

Palmetto

Back of the House

This is the room I fell in love with. The billiard room, used for mid-size parties. See the dark lines on the ceiling, those are circles strung on string that were used for keeping score. One wall has a cue rack with about a half dozen cues still on it.


Dan in his new home.

Aaaagh, Nooooooooooooooooooo, hideous.

Land of mis-matched furniture. Formerly a bowling alley in the basement. That's a scary place BTW, but with tons of storage and a wine cellar.

Front of the House

I need better photos. Ryan was using our camera and it wasn't on the right setting for indoor. Here's the grand entry, and we're off.........

This room is off the main hall. It WILL NOT stay this color. This room leads into the bar and we'll use it for casual dining and small meetings.

Where everybody knows your name. Twelve tap lines for beers. Hello, microbrews.

Aaaaaaaaaaagh, Noooooooooooooooo, Why are those murals there?!?!?!? Otherwise, we like the paint color well enough.

Finally, the main dining room. From this angle, it looks kind of small. It's not. It's HUGE. I don't know why it is full of the crappy tables and chairs when there are hundreds of the leather chairs floating around.

Still fussing about the name

We're still going back and forth about the name. Claire's got tarnished a bit because Ryan tends to think of ladies names being more closely related to diners and family style restaurants. There's a Caroline's diner in Potsdam, and a place called Phoebe's (Steaks and Italian) in Canton. We want to stand out from those

Although I'm glad we kept the name Claire's on the Business plan, because the guy running the meeting has a grand-daughter named Claire Grace, so that started things off well. This is at least the second Claire Grace I've heard of, and that was nearly the middle name we chose as well, since Grace is Dan's Grandmother's name. I really hope that Claire isn't a fad name the way Amy was in the early 70's.

Dan likes Benne right now, which is a type of bean used in southern coastal cooking. But I think that people will think it's meant to be the Italian and that we don't know how to spell. I was thinking of something with three or trio in it, since there are three of us running the restaurant. Tupelo came to me during the night a few days ago, I've had "Tupelo Honey" in my head ever since. The former owners have a Beatles fixation, and named it Glass Onion, with a music shop they own in the next town called Stawberry Fields. Maybe we should do a Van Morrison theme and open a bar named "Moondance" and a "Brown Eyed Girl" coffee shop.

I'm trying to pull myself away from the computer and do something non-restaurant related for awhile. I've spent hours and hours over the last two days bookmarking sites on POS systems, furniture, banks, uniforms and on and on and on. Must stop before brain explodes.

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG

I think I've come down finally. Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. We're (almost definitely) going to get the restaurant. I think if we'd gone in last year it would be a shoe-in, but they're feeling burned after renting to a guy who was only in business for 10 days before skipping town with bad checks and arrest warrants in his wake. It's people like that who make it hard for real restaurateurs to get funding. Anyway.....

The rent is going to be on very easy terms, and we basically get to keep (or not keep) every bit of furniture, plateware and cooking equipment that is already there. Huuuuuuge savings for our start-up costs if we don't have to replace things. I'll have to take the camera next time, but I'll walk you through.

To the right of the main door are two small dining areas that will be our lounge. They're separated from the bar by pocket sliding doors and one of them has a fireplace. Lots of windows everywhere, wood floors, gorgeous tin ceilings. The bar is a beautiful long mahogany piece with an honest to god copper top. Never seen such a thing before. Most of the tables are heavy with dark wood, the chairs have black leather cushions, with brass tacks.

To the left is a large dining room that has been used for functions. Occupancy Max is 300. Right now there is a raised stage that's carpeted, I'd like to pull that up, but I may change my mind. More gigantic windows, 6 feet maybe? This will usually be the main dining room, but can be used for functions with the restaurant shifted to the lounge for the night.

The kitchen is not too big, but Dan says it's enough. And there's a gigantic server station that could be used as a prep area too. Okay, that's the ground floor.

The tour continues upstairs with the billiard room. I swear, I just about fainted when I saw it. Floor to ceiling wood paneling, wood floors, tin ceiling and a little area in the back that will have a wet bar (currently MIA). There are another three rooms in various stages of repair. One will be an office for me and Ryan(have I told you about Ryan yet?) I'm not sure about the other two, one may be set up as a sitting room for people who want a break from events in the billiard room.
There's a third floor too, and attic, which are not fit for public consumption.

The basement has the remains of a 4 lane bowling alley, which is now just a land of broken furniture and banquet tables. One of the previous owners wanted to set up a second kitchen for baking down there, and that may be do-able sometime.

Bathrooms are an issue though. I, like DG, am a stickler for a well-maintained restaurant bathroom. The main floor has a women's room and a co-ed/handicapped room. But wherefore is the men's room? Our tourguide said it was the one in the basement, but we'd prefer that for employees only. It's also hell and gone from people at the bar. There's one on the second floor, but it's outfitted as a residential bath, with a shower, clawfoot tub and bidet. Let me repeat that, a bidet. WTF?

We have to do a bit of painting. They have some gawd-awful fake windows looking onto a seascape in the bar. Blech. And there are bits of chili peppers here and there. But other than that, we can really open very quickly. I think we'll push to be open in time for May graduations, then take care of other issues (like the bathrooms) in the summer when it's slower. And try to get the catering business ramped up in time to do Christmas parties.

Brain exploding. Bye-Bye

Getting closer

Finally heard back from the college about our restaurant proposal today. They left a message that they want to set up a meeting. We heard through the grapevine two weeks ago that they liked us. The delay may be due to the fact that they're worried about our finances and were contacting an alumni who may be interested in investing (at least that's what the grapevine says).

Meanwhile, one of Dan's co-workers is planning to partner up with us and take care of the front of house duties and marketing. His mother is the person we originally hoped to get an investment from. Now we've found that her current boyfriend is also a major local philanthropist, the kind of guy who gets campus buildings named after him. Hmmmmmm.

So, next couple of steps:

1. Wow the committee with our experience.
2. Actually see the inside of the building and find out what needs to be re-done and purchased to get to opening day.
3. Call around for estimates on everything from insurance to computer systems.
4. Finalize the business plan and financials.
5. Meet with all the various people who are chomping at the bit to give us money.

At this rate, we should open sometime in 2010.

Where would you rather eat?

Claire's
Claire
Natch's (Nathan Alexander + Claire Hayden) pronounced Natchez
Natch


from our draft proposal

The theme for our restaurant will be American food with a Southern flavor. This will give us a great deal of flexibility in our menu choices. For lunch, we will be able to offer quick buffet style meals, focusing on comfort foods in the price range of $4-8 for soups, sandwiches and salads and $8-13 for other entrees. Dinner will be more upscale, with a menu that changes seasonally and prices in the $5-25 range. We plan to have a full liquor license, primarily to serve our diners, but with some solo bar business as well. On Sundays, we will be open for Brunch only. As much as possible, we would like to include local growers and businesses such as County Meadows Cheese, Sundance Knoll Ranch Beef and 8 o’clock Ranch Lamb in our menu choices. The attached sample menu will show you our current plans. Within a few months of starting the restaurant, we expect to be able to expand to in-house catering. Depending on customer needs, we will add outside catering by our second year. We will aggressively market the catering business for the summer months to capture wedding and reunion business.

We have several ideas that we plan to implement to become involved with the community. We want to mix education with enjoyment by hosting beer and wine tasting dinners. These have been very successful at other restaurants where I’ve worked, and it will be a great opportunity to introduce our neighbors to great brewers and wineries. There is also a rising movement in this country called Slow Food, which encourages the use of local products at the dinner table. I’m sure our community would enjoy having a North Country meal in the company of some local growers and cheese makers. We’d also like to offer short one-day classes in cooking. All of these events will be ideal during the months when we have forecast lower customer levels. In addition, we will be contacting Paul Smith’s College, the C.I.A. and N.E.C.I to offer externships to culinary students. This regular infusion of students from around the country will help introduce us to current culinary trends, and also inject some new viewpoints to our menu.

Got any Money?

We need to submit a preliminary proposal to the college to be considered to take over the restaurant that failed. There are about a dozen people who've expressed interest in it in the last year. I think we'll have a strong proposal, we know the town, and know what people want. But we ain't got no moolah!

Dan says he's working on that. I started a business plan and tried to work on the financials today. But it's all estimates until I talk to Dan about customers and get more details on insurance, licenses and equipment leases. The numbers I have now shows us making a whopping 10,000 the first year. Seems about right. Later years are 100,000. We might be able to open with 80,000 cash, but I'd feel much better with 125,000. And that's with leasing the building, not buying new fixtures, and living upstairs the first year.

We're completely insane.