Color me gray... and gold and green

The painters are ahead of schedule. Hooray. They have painted the inside ceilings, exposed air ducts and now that things have dried up outside are tackling the roof and areas of the building that aren't waiting to be reconstructed. Commonweath Electric company sent a crew in today to rough out the locations of lights and switches in the new walls that we built inside. First you frame the walls, then run electric and low voltage data wiring, then get an inspection for framing and electric, then drywall, then wainscot, then paint high walls, then stain and varnish wainscot, then faux paint walls. The electrician decision was holding us up but this crew is on it and we should be ready for inspection by Thursday. We're also pouring concrete in the back of the building tomorrow morning for a utility room. Another rain delayed project to get us back on track. The pictures show one perspective of the roof being painted and my daughter Jenny helping me with a roof inspection. Extra credit if you can find and ID the hidden three people
in the first photo.

Soggy in Tempe

I haven't opened a restaurant in nine years. As you get closer to the opening it gets unbelievably hectic and tense. Problem after problem crops up that you never anticipated or budgeted for. Contractors don’t show up, or they do the wrong thing. The dozen or so permits and licenses become more and more difficult to come by, and you encounter more red tape in a month than you would in a decade. You go to sleep with budget numbers floating in your head and wake up thinking about the width of an aisle or an electricians bid. Did you sleep at all? And in the end… I have to admit that I love it. I am a pressure junkie and the rush of trying to solve all the problems, keeping people together and motivated, and most importantly - and the most difficult under the circumstances - keeping your creative juices flowing to build the best facility that you possibly can. It is invigorating to me like it must be to a bungee jumper or an actor on opening night. So when it sounds like I'm whining about this problem or that - I'm not. I've found that a little whining is good therapy for me.

I will catch you up on some details this week but last week was pretty much a disaster. We've only 9 weeks or so until opening and the rain was not kind to us. It cancelled concrete pours, it caused about 10 major leaks with consequent damage in the building, and the worst storm night caused Arizona to declare a state of emergency which caused Tempe to cancel their City Council meeting which had my pending liquor license listed as item #3 on the agenda. Nice. My architect still has not secured a permit to begin construction on the outside of the building (therefore the leaks) and my electrical bid came in almost exactly twice what we budgeted.

There were good things though. I got to focus on the interior. Chrissy and I made a swing through some antique stores and bought about a dozen vintage light fixtures. My sister sent me some wooden pews from the drugstore soda fountain in Syracuse that we used to go to as kids (perfect for the lobby waiting area!) We finished deciding on and ordering the remaining pieces of kitchen equipment. We passed inspection on the kitchen plumbing and filled in the trench. I awarded bids to a paint company and a technical wiring company. We scored two awesome stained glass windows thanks to Chrissy's mom Barbara. Kim - our designer developed an awesome new tile design for the lobby and bar area which we've been really having trouble deciding on until now. But as far as where we are right now…. I think I'll give you another quickie video tour this week. You won't believe your eyes because it looks way worse than the one I took a few months ago, but I still believe we'll get this done by the end of March.

I am friends with Geoff Stanisic who owns the Mongolian Grill Restaurants and he dropped in the other day so I showed him around. After a ten minute tour of the carnage I told him the opening date and watched for his reaction. He nodded thoughtfully and said "No problem" and I breathed what was probably a visible sigh of relief. That bit of positive reinforcement was better than my daily whine.

Attention to Detail

When you heard that your RigaTony’s – along with your baked RigaTony – was going to move, what was your reaction? Yes, exactly and that’s why I’m here.

This is an amazing process. Not just opening a new restaurant but moving a beloved “place” full of memories, laughs, and good meals. Mike, Chrissy and their team are paying attention to an incredible number of details – it is overwhelming and exciting!

But I’m curious, from your perspective – what makes RigaTony’s – RigaTony’s? What do you want to “see” when you walk into the Warner/McClintock location? Let me know what 2 things must make the move and what 2 new things you’d like to see.

Let me hear from you at chris_stage@cox.net

Tearing it up

Huge pieces of lumber falling randomly and dangerously from the sky. Finally some fun!
Lots of activity today as we tore away the front of the building, our plumber readied our kitchen ditch for inspection, our contractor readied the framing crew for work next week, the water treatment company came in for testing, our upholstery company (Cannon's Upholstery) reviewed our entire project and hauled away about 20 booths to their shop, two exhaust hood and duct companies surveyed the job for last minute measurements for their bids, and our designer spent hours going over details with Chrissy, Chris and me to get us to where we need to be right now. As a review… because now it will get complicated, Chrissy is my wife and partner (sounds redundant but you get the idea) and Chris is Chris Stage who is a newcomer to this project.

About Chris: I met Chris doing volunteer work for a political election campaign. Since then she and her husband Roger have become friends with Chrissy and me. They are both industrious, bright, creative and have a dangerous streak of adventure to them. She has worked in radio and TV, been a government research analyst, a Peace Corps volunteer, a Rodeo Queen, a beach bum, pursued a doctorate in Communication, taught college classes, and directed a local non-profit organization.

Seems to me that would be enough for a lifetime of experiences but she and Roger have always had this irrational urge to do something creative on their own in the hospitality business. Chris came up with the idea of spending time with me on the project as a sort of "intern" and I jumped on the idea. It’s a win win fo both of us - or at least for me. I love the idea of having someone with her creative and organizational skills on the team and its always good to have someone from the "outside" to give us a fresh perspective on our efforts.

As a matter of fact, speaking of perspective, I have asked her to contribute to this blog and hopefully you will soon be hearing from Chris directly.

Darkest before the dawn

Chrissy and I couldn't get to our daily south mountain hike until evening yesterday so we strapped on our headlamps and started up the slopes in chilly darkness. While we climbed I summed up the current status of our project. We are in the middle of the plumbing project from hell, illustrated with a 30 foot trench in our kitchen, the air conditioners we contracted for are out of stock, we are furiously juggling the demands of the fire department, health department, liquor board, environmental services, and the City of Tempe, I keep changing my mind and tweaking our kitchen layout and therefore delaying our equipment orders almost to the point of impossibility, and every project - our design team and contractor are well behind schedule and frustrated. We are supposed to open in 11 weeks. We plodded silently for a few moments in our tunnels of light when Chrissy asked me "How does anyone open a restaurant anymore?" I knew what she meant. I have been associated with about 20 openings in my career, four of them my own. With my experience this should be smooth sailing but it was anything but. The good news is that we FINALLY got a permit today. The interior permit at least, so we can proceed to actually build something. Hopefully we'll get the exterior permit next week so we can start work on the new look of the building and the patio. Today we also had a marketing meeting with our management staff, Ruthan our graphic artist and Chris Stage. We are still making the assumption that we are still opening in mid-late March and our big challenge is to communicate our move to thousands of customers before we leave. We put together a great campaign which kicks off this Friday. In the meantime back to the trenches.