While I was waiting, Jamie Weeks and Terry Geddes arrived to do some plumbing. They were doing some work in the restaurant which the landlord was covering, but I also had several projects that needed to be done (and which were my own responsibility), so I hired them for the day. They pulled out the old two-compartment sink that had been left behind by the previous owner (which had a hole in the bottom) and installed my newer three-compartment sink, which the Board of Health requires. I'll have to find a place to store the old two-compartment sink - maybe down in the basement. Jamie & Terry also hooked up a hand sink by the pizza-making station, and hooked up my ice machine. Finally, they got the dishwasher working, although it wasn't draining very well.
Those projects pretty much took them all day, but I stayed busy in the meantime. Around 11am, I started to get worried because the propane guys hadn't arrived yet, and I had a bad feeling about the whole situation. I called Irving, and they said that yes, their computer showed that the tanks would be installed before lunch. I said that I hoped the contractor worked quickly, since they hadn't arrived yet. The lady at Irving suddenly didn't seem so optimistic. She made a few phone calls, and found out that the contractor had decided that he didn't have time to hook us up until after the New Year's. Not good, since the Health Inspector was planning to come in on December 27th, and the stoves had to be working for him in order to give us a license.
After much debating and consultation on Irving's part, they found another contractor who would come take a look at the project. He showed up late in the afternoon, and looked at the tanks and the lines. He told me that he'd have to rip everything out and start fresh, and gave me an estimate of just under $4400. And then added that he couldn't do it for a while. After some arguing and making a decision to leave one of the two stoves off the lines, he agreed to do it for "approximately $2200, if the existing lines are in good shape" and said that he could start the project on the 27th. I agreed, and contacted the Health Inspector to let him know that we had problems, and he'd have to delay his inspection.
Other than the propane incident, everything else seemed to start coming together nicely, although I was working by myself all day. Some of the more important accomplishments that I got done were:
- Set up an appointment with BDC (the Business Development Corporation) for Monday.
- Courier'd off the final official copy of the liquor license application, along with all of the required paperwork and forms and reports.
- Got some promotional certificates designed, and then had them printed at the university.
- Talked to Molson about their draught products, and made a decision to start carrying a second kind of draught (Rickard's White) to complement our current Rickard's Red.
- Rearranged some furniture within the restaurant, and rehung the door to the staff washroom.
- Built a number of super-heavy-duty shelves for the kitchen, which should be strong enough for people to dance on. Not that there will be people dancing on them, of course, but it would be unfortunate if a shelf came crashing down and smashed hundreds and hundreds of dollars worth of plates.
All in all, although the restaurant didn't look the slightest bit cleaner at the end of the day, I felt like I had accomplished a lot.
