The city of Los Angeles has agreed to consider my space an existing food business and not a “change of use”. This may save me tens of thousands of dollars and countless hassles.  I have my planner guy and my draughtswoman drawing blueprints for exactly what I will build/renovate. This means that Julia and I must now commit to some decisions we have only tossed around.

The original layout had the bathrooms in between the kitchen and the dining room. Some people pointed out how awkward that could become, and I think it removes the cooks further from the customer.

In the old days the cooks were invisible and customers never saw the dining room. They saw a white male in a tuxedo and a busboy in a monkey suit. Those days are over. Cooks are tired of being treated like dirty, illegal, untouchables. We make your food and we are proud of it. True, we only get paid 11 dollars an hour at best and have no health benefits, no union in the world will touch us, labor laws  don’t seem to apply to commercial kitchens and OSHA just couldn’t give a toot. We are proud none the less, and will no longer be kept hidden in the back.

Deal with it.