Our first time firing up the equipment last week resulted in a huge grease deposit under the flat top catching fire. We thought that it was just a little old grease and that it would burn off. As we waited the kitchen filled with smoke. We finally realized that we had to put it out so we grabbed an old fire extinguisher and Kyle went in to put it out. When the smoke cleared there was burnt grease oozing from every orifice of the just cleaned oven/flat top. Once we cleared out the grease it was good to go! Sorry there are no good flame shots the fire was on the inside.
It’s 8:00am and the refrigerator repair man just woke me up to tell me that the electrician didn’t wire the compressor for the bar fridge using the right wire. So after finally getting the electrician in after a week of calling, the process will have to start again. I call, he says maybe this afternoon, he doesn’t show up, I call the next day, he takes me semi seriously and says he’ll be there tomorrow. It has been like this for the last 2 months, with all the trades people. Our dishwasher still isn’t working right it’s not hot enough and there is water leaking everywhere. Many people have come in to try and fix it and hobart cannot be reached, it just goes on to an automated system that puts you on hold forever. I got so sick of trying to order parts that I took the broken parts to a welder and begged them to try and fix them, they did and now they still leak. These are only a little bit of our problems, we have a lot more problems.
Making the restaurant nice is fun. We are having a good time doing it, we work everyday until we get tired and then we go eat and then work for another few hours. Kyle sanded down all the butcher blocks today and we patched the holes in the kitchen floor and in the wall. We just work with what we have so as not to spend money that we don’t have. It will be ready when it is ready. We are going to buy a vacuum from a pawn shop tomorrow morning.
So many pumpkins at the hort club this year. Still trying to find balance throughout the opening process by making it out the the horticulture fields once a week. I am making sure to push myself to the point of collapse but also enjoy the planning of the restaurant because otherwise what is the point of life. I love seeing it come together, today I moved some herbs and plants into the chaos of the front rooms and it was really nice. I also love that I can practice doing things that I would normally be to scared to fuck up because it is a leased super old, shitty building and if I don’t lay the floor patch cement even it doesn’t matter. Kyle and I had fun sanding the tables with a power sander and then varnishing them today.
I’ve been having meetings with suppliers/farmers from here and the other day an amazing girl who is an incredible forager stopped by and delivered me a huge variation of crab apples as well as juniper berries, rose hips, acorns and russian almonds. I haven’t had time to process them all yet because the kitchen isn’t ready but I did brandy some of the tiny apples to use as cocktail garnishes. I’ve got big plans for the rest as soon as the kitchen is food safe.
Finally something to talk about. We have a restaurant and we are making it home. It is called The Hollows and it is in an old abandoned chinese restaurant in Riversdale, that was called The Golden Dragon. We had so many amazing friends come by and help us scrub it down today. There was a bunch of 7 year old beer that we had to dump down the sink. It was the job of one of the young cooks who was helping us to crack open each beer and test if it was bad or not, it was pretty funny. It turns out it was all bad. There is a bandsaw for butchery and lots of butcher blocks and meat hooks. Although we are a vegetable forward restaurant we will do lots of house made charcuterie and condiments.
Picked some strawberries at the strawberry ranch before the first frost. Made strawberry shortcake and jam.
