Hi everyone! It’s insane how busy these past couple of weeks have been. I’ve barely had time to think, let alone type a blog. So much as happened. I barely know where to begin with all of the updates.
Our past few weeks have been primarily focused on the final stages of the restaurant’s construction. We made our final decisions on the floors, the wall colors, etc., and we’ve purchased our equipment and 80% of our furniture. We decided to forgo vinyl booths for the outside and instead have beautiful couch-style banquettes surrounding the back patio. We have a meeting next week for the shade sails that will be installed above the front and back patios…and then we have to find misters. We’re still searching for our tables and chairs for the outdoors, which is why we’re holding off on announcing our official opening day. We have an idea in our minds, but we don’t want to make it official until we know our customers can actually sit and eat!
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| The completed walls and ceiling! |
Aesthetically, the walls and ceilings are now complete…and our 10 foot long water feature has been delivered. Yes. I know I kept saying it was 8 ft but apparently a mix up made it 10 ft. Luckily, it fits. It did take six guys though to move it, and it was not easy! Gwith was actually too scared to watch.
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| The 10 ft long water feature being delivered. |
The kitchen’s tile floors are also done and the speaker system has been installed as well. We spent about an hour this week just searching for and downloading over 24 hours of Kiwi music. Our most exciting news however, is that we now have two completed rooms! The bathrooms! They are fully tiled and painted, and they look awesome.
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| Interior of the women’s restroom. |
This week, we also picked out our plates, silverware, and glasses. Gwith entering that shop was like a kid entering Disneyland. There were so many types and shapes to choose from. I have also ordered all of our menu covers, which will be a nice black leathery material, with our logo in silver. In bigger news, we purchased our POS system, which will be complete with a Guest Services System where we can take down our customer’s allergies, preferences, birthdays and anniversaries, etc. With this system, we are excited to be able to implement a high level of customer service at our restaurant. Our system will also feature a large number of dish modifications so we can easily let the kitchen know about allergies.
This past month, we also brought on board our awesome wine director and sommelier, Jordan Grieg. He is searching far and wide to ensure that we have an amazing wine collection, with 50-70% of our list being from New Zealand. It’s not easy to find in the USA and he is working his hardest to make this happen.
Throughout all of the craziness, something had to fall through. As I mentioned in the previous Aroha blog, we were hiring a muralist to paint the Auckland skyline. Unfortunately, a situation arose and this hasn’t been able to happen. We are still hopeful to get a mural or large canvas painting done for the restaurant before opening, however, getting everything else done is our first priority!
We’re getting down to the wire here and will be placing ads for our employees very soon. In between all of our meetings and decision making, I’ve been writing the employee handbook and training manual. It has been time consuming but I think it will pay off to have those available.
I officially feel confident now in announcing that Aroha will be opening in September! We have a majority of the furniture and equipment arriving by mid-August, and once we have the rest of our furniture ordered and begin hiring employees, we will officially announce our grand opening date.
That’s it for our latest Aroha updates! We are so glad we got to get away to Catalina Island earlier this month. The vacation time was much needed and refreshed us for at least the following 24 hours! I would love to say that I’m only kidding, but it’s actually kind of true! Hopefully within the upcoming days, I’ll be able to blog about our Catalina trip, as well as continue my European Adventure blogs!!
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| Catalina Island July 2014! |
