We are set to open

It's been an incredible week that seems like we've compressed about two months of work into a few days. 

Hard to believe Andy and his crew only arrived on Sunday evening. 

On Monday construction workers and visitors alike were scoffing at our prediction to be open by Friday. "You gotta have goals," I would tell them. The typical response was still one of disbelief. 

Everyday this week the restaurant has transformed by leaps and bounds. On Monday we still only had one live outlet in the whole place. Tuesday morning we only had one working sink in the kitchen. Tuesday at noon an army of people rolled in and moved all extraneous stuff out to make way for the cleaning crew. By 4pm the place was spic'n'span and we passed a stressful health inspection to everyone's surprise only because no one thought we would be ready for it. Wednesday late morning our final building inspection was cleared and I hopped in the car to the city to get our letter of completion, present it to the liquor license clerk and get cleared to order beer and tequila. On Thursday we took delivery of a truckload of smallwares, placed a huge food order, and started assembling tons of shelving. Late on Thursday our POS rep arrived via car from Logan, Utah and got right to it, setting up our terminals, printers, computer etc. as volunteers put table bases on our unique table tops and Shwanito nearly had a breakdown trying to assemble the church pews for our bench seating. By mid-morning today Shwanito was still stumped about the church pews and things were looking grim when he headed off to his shop to brainstorm. The food arrived in large quantities and the crew broke it down and began immediately prepping and cooking. By mid-afternoon Shwanito was back full of hope with a beautiful solution to the church pew problem and all seemed right again. Wonder volunteer Pete Doyle showed up and got to work wiring our stereo system and running speaker cable. At four o'clock our front of house hires showed up for "training". At eight we all sat down for a family style meal and distanced ourselves from the monumental task of getting a restaurant open with a discussion of favorite tv shows (the Wire, Arrested Development, Weeds, Deadwood) and crass movies (Superbad, Supertroopers, Knocked Up). Then it was back to work putting the pews into place and painting them, positioning tables and chairs, stocking coolers with drinks, still assembling kitchen equipment, trouble shooting the stereo system, breaking down an endless stream of cardboard boxes, making final to do lists all to the delightful sounds of Calexico.

There is still a ton of work to do and everyone is exhausted and a little frayed but I think extremely excited as well.  

The outpouring of support from friends has been incredible. People who stop by to say hi are quickly put to work and I'm continuously humbled by how much everyone has chipped in to turn this space from a greasy, stale, depressing Chinese restaurant into a vibrant community effort. There are too many people who have helped to even begin naming them all here, just know it's greatly appreciated and we couldn't do it without you.

Things may not be 100% when we open the doors but we'll work through the kinks quickly. 

On Sunday we'll rest, but only briefly.