This should be my last visit to the sewer permit office. When you visit my restaurant and use the bathroom please remember what I went through for your comfort.

Jasper Latané has flown out from New York to do the art work for the dining room. Jasper is painting putti’s that will be circling the chandelier in the dining room.

We dig putti’s.

Problem with that?

Q: When are you going to open?
A: As soon as I can.

Q: Whats it gonna be called?
Q: Ba

Q: Whats that mean?
A: A lot. Tell you when you come in and get dinner.

Q: No really, whats it mean?
A: Its like a teenage chicken.

Q: When is the opening?
A: After its built.

Q: no Really. When are you going to open?
A: As soon as I finish building it. Not a second later.

Q: When is the grand opening?
A: Sometime after I dig this trench for the drain line. I have an extra shovel if you’d like to help.

Work began today on what will be the new bathrooms. There is no room for a prep kitchen, no room for storage, no employee changing area, no office space, because there will be TWO, gender specific, California ADA compliant, fully accessible bathrooms!!!!

The size of both bathrooms is equivalent to one third of the dining room space. I think I will put a Murphy bed inside this new bathroom so I can at least use it for naps between shifts. These are gonna be some big bathrooms.

I have to dig at least three feet down, by about 26′ across,  and then tunnel into the bakery to connect my new drains with the main sewer line under the floor over there. I was able to dig for about five hours by myself on Monday, four hours on Tuesday, five on Wednesday. Starting to see results. Down two feet by Thursday Just got to be like an ant.
http://belikeanant.squarespace.com/

Happiness is a brand spanking new Hilti gas powered saw with a 14″concrete blade and a matching hard hat!

After getting some comically large bids from contractors on putting in drain lines, Riaz and I once again went and rented the saw and started cutting the floor. This new saw was like butter! Got the whole job done in about 7 hours. The next day I pried up the concrete we cut and stacked the blocks. Monday I started digging.

After Seven months of planning, cajoling, and endless compromising my plan has been approved by the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety and the County Health Department. Almost a full year after my decision to build a restaurant in this space I now have permission to do that. The best part of that is I am now in charge of my project! Not the engineer, not the plan checker, not the draughtsperson. ME.

The first thing I am going to do is dig some trenches in the floor and start putting in my drains! Yes I have permission to dig a hole.

Between the engineer, planner, blueprints,  and all of the city fees I have spent $24,000. Add to that the application for the beer and wine license, and the application to stay open later, and I have spent $54,000!

You see why I am getting a little cranky.

I have been so immersed in building code, and working so hard to create all the documents that must go with applications that I really can’t remember what the goal of all this was.

I am so consumed with trying to get to ADA compliant bathrooms in the space I have sacrificed my prep kitchen, storage space, changing rooms, etc. It has been so long I can’t remember why I need those things.

What does make me very cranky is when planners, or engineers or whoever tell me about restaurant rules as if they were an expert. I have been in and out of kitchens for decades so I don’t like it when some white-collar yutz reads the code book for the first time then acts like an expert.  Grrrrrr

Having said that my kitchen is now even tinier for accommodating all of the other needs. I am only worried about that old health department rule of not having anything bigger thanyour sink. You cannot have a pot that you can’t wash. Good rule, but I need big pots for my veal stock.

I have hired an engineer to draw the blueprints for electrical, mechanical, and plumbing. He is far away and we communicate by email. He must be used to working on bigger budget projects because he drew an $8,000 air conditioner, and a $10,000 kitchen hood on my blue prints. Then told me it was what I needed for my place. Now the city will be expecting to see exactly those models come inspection time. I was planning to buy everything from Craigslist and scrap yards.

I understand why so many restaurants fail, they buy stuff new because some self-appointed expert told them to. I can’t wait until this engineer comes in for dinner. I will make him wait a week for his meal, which wont be what he ordered, then I will charge him $900.

A chef must train for as many years, usually more, than an engineer. Yet a chef gets about 12.00 an hour and an engineer gets 50.00   Whats up with that?

Now on to get clearances from the Air Quality dept, the dept of streets and parking, sanitation dept, sign dept, earthquake prevention, the police department, fire department, City council office, and neighborhood council.

Off we go.

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.