Its mid 2004. We have just sold Phola Spot for a very healthy profit and there is new opportunity on the horizon. Just out of town a new golf driving range is being developed and there is space for a restaurant, with magnificent views, ample parking, easy access and the other nice things that restaurants should have. And we have a grand total of zero experience in running actual restaurants. We have had businesses with kitchens, we have made more burgers and pub food than anyone should have to but they have never been bespoke restaurants. But we talk well, we can sell ourselves, Jack and I.
The guy who was going to take this site has pulled out (Bruce), so he phones me and tells me that there might be opportunity. Within minutes of having this conversation I can barely contain myself and with Jack we drive over to the site. The site was a long way from being finished but being developed by a consortium of local businessmen and basically it consisted at that stage of a big patch of grass, a temporary office structure and the not nearly finished building that would become the pro shop and restaurant. The gods were smiling because as we arrived in the car park, one of the consortium, Tony, was walking across the car park to his car, having just showed two established restaurant owners the premises or at least the proposed premises. I had never met him before but I introduced myself and to my surprise he knew exactly who I was. He showed us around, took us into the building site and told us what the plan was. Rental rates were very good but as always there was risk, the first bit of it being me having to go home and tell the missus that this would be a good idea. She was 5 months pregnant so a bit emotional and erratic and anything could happen.
They wanted a coffee shop here. That wasn’t going to work for us so we submitted a proposal for an upmarket restaurant, which was accepted. The numbers stacked but the input costs were, for us, extreme. So we did it anyway. I like a challenge! The club was booming, we had a couple hundred thousand in the bank that needed spending and the rest we would roll, some through our suppliers and the rest on credit. Setting up a restaurant for the first time is a challenge. Especially when every cent is your money. We started by makings lists, lists and more lists. Everything from T Spoons to Air- Con plant had to be found and bought. The cash burn rate seemed to be enormous but there was no going back. My missus, now getting a bit closer to due date got stuck in and together we designed a menu, absolutely making it up and where we ran out of ideas Googling it! I have a vague memory of using several dishes from a Disneyland menu that I found on line. There was a lot to do, and lots of admin – admin is not my strength – so I employed a young women called Laura to be my assistant. And let it be said, if it hadn’t been for her, things at that time may have been very different. It turned out that for years while she was studying she had worked as a waitress at an up market restaurant so was very au fait with running waitresses and setting up service levels. She was an absolute life saver!
Being new in restaurants in SA we bought the services of a consultant chef, a Swiss guy who while very competent and very pleasant completely missed the point of service in an ala carte restaurant. He came from hotels and training schools where there is obviously no time pressure to get dishes out (I now know why you wait for ever for room service in a hotel!)
As we got closer and closer to opening day so the pressure increased. Every rep from every industry it seemed bothered me, promises that their product lines were unique, specific, cheap, valuable, service orientated blah blah blah!! Bars had to be stocked, kitchen prep and cook offs had to be done, snagging had to be checked and done, till systems had to be programmed. It was chaos. The budget was far overspent when eventually opening day rolled around. Oh well, so what we said. The missus was now full term in her pregnancy but baby showed no sign of making an appearance so we carried on.
There are a number of memories that stand out from this crazy time. A couple days before we officially opened we did a launch and trial run. We had spent an inordinate amount of cash here and we had produced a restaurant that was as special as it was unique. It was by far the best looking restaurant in ‘texas. We invited certain players in the town to this dry run and you know what they moaned about? The fucking background music that was so low you could hardly hear it. Can people be more miserable?
The other memory once we got to the friends and family pre opening trial run was our expensive consultant chef. Here was a highly qualified chef that couldn’t handle more than one ticket at a time. People, fortunately people that we knew, waited hours for their food on that night. The atmosphere in the kitchen was brittle. The chef’s life would have been in danger had a knife been close to hand!
The missus, now term plus a few days was pulling what was left of her hair out in frustration. It wasn’t safe for her to be in the kitchen but they sure knew her view…..
Until tomorrow…d’Vine opens.
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