Pennyard Bistro & Winery
The Place to Wine & Dine
April has now come and gone, and I was truly hoping the month of May would bring us closer to our June opening. The plumbers were finally done with the first successful inspection, after failing two previous inspections. The pipes had been laid for the plumbing in the kitchen, all that was left was to close and cement the floor, installation of the sinks, and install the hot water heater and some little miscellaneous items to complete. In the meantime the electrician could start his portion of the job, installing electrical boxes, wire outlets, and install lights.
At this point I was very anxious to get everything in order; the furniture had been ordered and we due to be delivered the first week in June, and I was very excited. We had all been working so hard sanding and refinishing furniture, cleaning up dust and dirt from the kitchen. I could not wait until Jimmy laid down the wood floor, he was already working on the bar and it looked amazing. Everything seemed to be going well. In the back of my mind I was still optimistically caution, because I had been disappointed before.
Even with the brown paper all over the windows, we had people coming by asking when we would be opening, I could feel the excitement, and of course Saturday June 21st was my date and I was sticking to it. The plan was to have coffee and free pastries opening morning and a wine and cheese tasting in the evening. I wanted to save the big grand opening until the following Saturday, we were working very hard trying to get things together.
It was getting harder and harder to keep up with my job responsibilities and make certain everything at the bistro was going as planned. I could not wait until five o’clock came so I could go and see the progress at the bistro. It was getting very chaotic at the bank; things were changing and everyone was getting anxious to know what was going on, there were frequent meetings and the rumors of upcoming changes and layoffs. It did not concern me; the only thing I was concerned with was opening my bistro and becoming a success. Who would have known, my success would be at risk and the Banks including Bank of America would be in the thick of it all.
The electrician Mr. Korma was a very nice African dude, he was slow as hell but very efficient, every extra thing we needed done, he wanted to charge us extra, somehow knowing he was doing a good job and would be finished on time, we did not mind paying the extra. We decided to leave the lights and ceiling intact. We loved the wide open space feel, and the decision to keep the lights intact was purely financial, it would cost way too much money to change all the lights, so we decided to keep the lights and have the electrician alter the look.
In the meantime we were pushing the plumbers to complete the job and get out; I was really loosing my patience with them. The plumbing team consisted of the father and his two sons, I had not seen the father since the project began, the sons had taken over, problem was is the sons goofed off more than they worked, and to make matters worst, the sons bought along their sons, which would not have been a problem, however their kids were just that, twelve year old kids.
I tried being nice, and looking the other way, but honestly I had a problem with kids operating a jack saw, though we were fully insured, and they claimed they were fully insured, I still did not like it, but I would tolerant anything as long as the job was finished, since we did not have the time or the money to fire them and hire someone else, I had to be tolerant. Furthermore the
Jimmy was almost finished with the bar and the kitchen was still not even close to being finish, the most recent problem now was the cement truck. The truck was supposed to show up and pour the cement for the floor, but we waited and waited for a whole week and still no cement truck.
Come to find out the plumbers had no money to pay the cement truck so the cement company would not come and pour the cement unless it was cash on delivery.
By now I know everyone reading this is wondering, where in the heck did I get these contractors, well you remember that nice southern gentleman, Fleming that I mentioned? Well he recommended the architect, the plumber and the electrician. But to be fair, Fleming said that he only used the plumber once and he did not hear anything negative, and the architect, he told us from the beginning that he was in training. I really wished I had taken the time to check references, but that’s another lesson learned.
Finally the cement truck came to pour the cement and the floor was complete. We didn’t see the plumbers for two weeks, whenever we called they were always waiting for some parts to come in to finish the job, in the meantime Goran and I removed all the debris and dirt that was left and Goran installed the linoleum in the kitchen, it took him about a week, because he had to work in the evening after he came home from his day job.
I was still trying to make the June grand opening, but I had come to realize that it would not happen, we were already into the second week of June, the plumbers had not completed the kitchen, the sinks were not installed, the hot water heater was not installed, we could not get the walls built until the kitchen was not complete.
I was beside myself, every evening I went to the bistro and work late into the night, I was exhausted but determined. The worst part of all was we had to pay our first rent payment, June 1st and we were not even close to being open. Goran was getting angrier at the situation, and not only did I have to make sure everything was getting done, I had to make sure my Goran did not go ballistic on the plumbers.
The new grand opening date was now July 4th; I was hoping and praying that we would be ready to open by then.