Come To The Light...
I'm not a horror movie person at all...I actually still can't watch "Poltergeist" and if you want to see me scream like a 5 year old girl, just whisper "Carol Ann" to me in a spooky voice (even in a fully lit room in daylight).
All that said, I am smart enough to know that the general downfall for all main characters in a horror movie is that they always mistakenly trust someone as safe and that trusted person turns out to be a deranged lunatic murderer.
What does this have to do with Peggy Jean's Pies? Hold on...I'm going to tie it all up. Remember the whole 3 ton versus 5 ton HVAC unit issue? Just when I thought the issue was put to bed and I would lovingly bask in the cool air of the 3 ton unit, I get a call from the mechanical engineering company. Like a monster that I just can't slay, I had to have ANOTHER conversation about HVAC and return air. OHHHEMMMGEEEE. Really? HVAC Part 4: It Just Won't Die.
The conversation started off nicely enough and then "Bob" from the engineering company says something that sounds like "and you will need a hood that should run about $7,000" Hold on - what?????
We had been told from City of Columbia via Contractor Steve that we did not need a hood system because we will not have a range cook top. We want a one unit double-stacked convection oven.
We have 1,050 square feet of space and 20 foot ceilings. This oven supposedly creates enough heat that we need a commercial hood system installed? Poor Bob...I might have gotten a little shouty (I think he said at one point that he was "trying to communicate with me"). Ugh.
In short, I told Bob to go back to the drawing board. Somewhere along the way, someone got the impression that we were planning for ideal spaces. I had to clear up that we are planning for the space we can afford - and also, for a place we don't own and never will. I want, at the very minimum, whatever it takes to make us legally eligible to open as a retail food establishment under City of Columbia regulations. I'm not interested in if anyone thinks we might be a little warm when the oven doors open or we might wish in a few years that we upgraded to that hood system. I may or may not have said that we would be willing to install a residential oven from Lowe's if that is what it took at this point to make this project happen without paying for hood systems.
What really worked me up even more is after our conversation, I called Jeanne and she immediately confirmed that she didn't have a hood system in her previous three locations, despite having triple the oven capacity at the Chapel Hill location (and 10 foot ceilings). I just don't get how one set of double ovens in that space equates a need for a commercial hood system. In Bob's defense, he is just doing his job...and he is probably not used to clients being all shouty about residential ovens and threatening to just cut a hole in the wall to vent the place. He is supposed to call me back after he does some thinking and double checking, but $10 says he doesn't want to. At all.
And in case you are curious, here is what City of Columbia code says about ventilation:
6-304.11 Mechanical. If necessary to keep rooms free of excessive heat, steam, condensation, vapors, obnoxious odors, smoke, and fumes, mechanical ventilation of sufficient capacity shall be provided.
Seems rather subjective, no? "If necessary..." means a lot of different things, but I'm pretty sure one set of double ovens can't make 1,050 square feet with 20 feet ceilings so unbearable that it becomes necessary we add additional ventilation. And if so, when you stop by the future PJP 2.0, you will seriously be looking at this:
