It’s hard to believe we’ve only been back from our incredible European tour for two weeks! So much has been going on, I don’t even know where to begin.
We arrived back on May 28th and went straight to the restaurant. While we were away, there was a lot of progression. The construction crew has finished up the gas lines, some of the plasterboard is already on the wall frames, and as of yesterday, they have completed the plumbing system.
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| The construction team working on the plumbing lines. |
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| Plasterboard on the Walls! |
Amongst all of the progress, we were also happy to take our Beer & Wine notice down. We are now in the final stages of getting our license! In the upcoming weeks, we will begin refining our wine list and testing other wine suppliers in California. We are excited to bring a range of organic and biodynamic wines from New Zealand, California, Italy, and France. After our wine tour in Italy, we can not wait to add a few delicious Chianti wines from the small wineries! We also were able to tell a noticeable difference between natural sulfite and artificial sulfites in wine. The most noticeable observation we had were the lack of headaches! While most imported wines have artificial sulfites added for preservation, we are making it our mission to only provide wines with natural, organic sulfites from the grape skin.
In other beverage news, we’re going to be importing sodas that are exclusively available in New Zealand called Aroha Specialty Sodas! Not only is the name obviously perfect, the flavors are unique and delicious as well. Some of the flavors include rhubarb, feijoa, elderflower, and green current.
This week, we’ve had some amazing opportunities arise thanks to our lovely friends at the Conejo Valley Chamber of Commerce, which I can’t wait to announce in the upcoming weeks! Due to all of the excitement, I did a full update on our website with all new information about the restaurant and New Zealand cuisine. The logo got an update as well: I changed the heart to red to match our future building sign! We are also getting closer to pinning down our opening week. Currently, we’re eyeballing the first week of September but depending on our progression, it may be as early as mid-August.
Yesterday, thanks to Westlake Magazine, we attended our very first polo match in Santa Barbara! I wish I could say I watched the game, but Gwith and I ended up having such a good time chatting with the other guests that we probably only watched the match for a couple of minutes. I did go out on the field during halftime though and stomp on the grass. I had to. I grew up on “Pretty Woman” and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t always watch that scene thinking it looked like fun! The strangest part of the day was when we met a man named Howard, and we were told his family invented the earplug. I almost fell over because my grandfather had told me for years that our cousins invented the earplugs! My grandfather was first cousins with his grandmother, apparently. It was such a surprise to end up meeting a distant family member who I had only heard about! It’s such a small world. The real irony is on the drive up to Santa Barbara, Gwith turned to me in the car and said, “I wonder if there will be anyone we know there?” I told him how unlikely that was… I’ll never doubt the possibility again.
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| Gwith and I at the Santa Barbara Polo & Racquet Club |
As I was dawdling on the internet before, searching our restaurant on Google, I came across an article written three days ago by Conejo Valley Guide talking exclusively about Aroha! We are over the moon about all of the publicity the restaurant is already getting!
Thats all of my updates for today but I do promise to sit down in the upcoming days and talk all about our trip, because there is so much to talk about!!
