Monday was an extremely busy day. A food order arrived at 10am, which I had placed under the assumption that we might be able to open this week. I didn't order much produce, just in case, but I ordered all of the dry goods and non-perishables that we would need. Tiffany came in and started prepping some of the less expensive foods that we would need if we got permission to open within the next few days.
After lunch, the Fire Marshall inspector showed up. He was pretty careful when looking at everything - not surprising, considering that half of the block burned down just over a year ago, on a property beside us, owned by the same landlords (click here to see footage that I filmed from that fire). Anyway, after a lengthy inspection, he declared that we were permitted to open to the public, as soon as I fixed a number of small problems (such a moving fire extinguishers to better locations, and preparing a Fire Safety Plan). As soon as the Inspector left, I sent the staff an email to say that we were in business, and I immediately started working on the deficiencies that the Inspector had pointed out.
After supper, we had a staff meeting to go over planning for the rest of the week. We need to do some practice runs with the kitchen before we open to the public. With any luck, we should be open to the public by this weekend. There still isn't any indication of when we might get approved for our liquor license, but now that the Fire Marshall inspection is complete, I hope the liquor license will be approved fairly quickly.
