June 27, 2008

We had some more progress today. The first major shipment of cheese, cured meats and crackers and stuff came in. Chris from Balthazar Bakery came by today with some bread samples and some that we will dry out and use as display. A good day.

Antiques

I'm not really an antique guy per se, but some things were appropriate for the shop. The first image is of antique milk bottle caps from Pine Tree Dairy which is long gone. Now in its place, since the 50s/60s, is Northern Highlands Regional High School - where both my wife Danna and I graduated from. Also in the shop are some antique cheese graters, cow bells and milk bottles from the 20s, 30s, and other decades and some other things
from here and there.

June 26

Here are some pics of the progress on June 26.

Important Papers

There are certain things you need to operate a foodservice business. And any business for that matter. Here are four of the six remaining items. The two I have yet to get are the Final Inspection notice and the Certificate of Occupation or "CO". I hope to get both of those by Wednesday of next week so that I can be open in time for the 4th of July.

Clockwise starting with the blue one: Milk/Dairy license, which is technically only needed if you are selling milk, which I plan to do to some degree, and I figure, better safe than sorry.

Next is my Authorization by the State to collect/charge tax. The bottom right one is my Certification of Satisfaction from the State Health Department. And lastly, my Allendale Business License.

Getting Closer

A lot is going on these days. For starters, I got the marble counter top installed yesterday. I also unloaded most of the boxes from my basement and started stocking the shelves and moving the extra materials (shopping bags, plastic cups, etc.) to the store's basement. And some of the decor is going up and the AC and refrigerators have been turned on. Here are some of the latest photos...

Sunday Blessing

My dad is a religious sort...Catholic at that. And so it was his request that we have his priest from Presentation Church in Upper Saddle River, perform a blessing of the shop.

So Father Bob Stagg came over today and read a blessing in addition to expressing excitement about the shop. I appreciated him coming over and my dad for suggesting it. I was surprised that this was the first retail shop he'd ever blessed in his decades of being a priest. He said he blesses houses once in a while and that he blessed an insurance agency about a year and a half ago, but that was about it.

Anyway, above is a photo of my dad and Father Stagg in the shop.

Light Fixtures

Most of the light fixtures went up today. Mark and Christian from J.C. Electric worked a long day getting most of these up and running as well as installing the smoke detectors and fixing some outlets, drilling and installing an outlet in the floor for the large cheese case and putting the covers on the other outlets. They'll finish up the recessed lighting on Monday.

These photos show them in the middle of the install. It all looks much better now. More photos to come.

Refrigeration

Wow. Today was a really crazy day. I'll get into more tomorrow, but here are some photos.

Plumbing - Sinks and Toilet

Plumbing has been wrapped up. I've got a working toilet, working bathroom sink, working 3-compartment sink and hand wash sink. Again, props go to Brian Drewe's and his crew for getting the job done on time and with the great personalities and professionalism.

Field Trip!

I took my shop's assistant manager Megan and two assistants Brenda and Sam on a field trip today. Scheduled stops included Bobolink Dairy in Vernon, NJ and The Cheese Works, one of my distributors of cheese, crackers, honey, chocolates and other items, in Ringwood, NJ.

First up was Bobolink where we got to meet Nina and several girls who work on the farm as well as learn some things about their cheese making process, the farm itself and of course sampling some of the goods including their cheddar (which is remarkable) and a cheese they call Frolic, which is subtle and refined. Both great cheeses. We also bought a loaf of their duck fat and garlic ciabatta which was beyond phenomenal. Truly excellent.

Afterwards we stopped at a little Italian Ice shop on the side of the road and then afterwards to the Pennings farm to pick up some fresh strawberries. Yum!

After that, we headed over to The Cheese Works where we got to meet the terrific Joyce Kahn, my sales rep, who had a table/room full of items to try. She went through the process of cutting up some cheeses and really trying to get a gauge on what my tastes were and how best to accomodate the needs of the shop. She was great and we all came away with a real love for both Joyce and the products the company has to offer.

Here are some photos of our day...

Cabinets

Pete Hatchey installed my cabinets today. I think it looks great and will really look good once the major equipment is in.

In case you haven't noticed, there is a color scheme at play. The color of the cabinets match the red in the logo, the green table in the front is also similar to the green in the logo and the wall color (Benjamin Moore's "Sparkling Wine/Spumante #949) is similar to that of the logo. The flooring matches the brown to a degree, as does the mirror.

Anyway, here are some pics...

Flooring is Finished

Flooring has been installed and it looks great. Here are some more pics...