Gift With Purchase...

We are slated to open two weeks from tomorrow (insert terror sweat here) and our to-be decorated wall and our to-be painted food prep area walls are still mocking us.  If you recall, the front entry wall needs 100 yards of burlap to be latticed and adhesived (if that is a word) and furniture nailed to the wall.  The area that we've lovingly come to call the "Back 80" needs to be primed and painted.  (This is the 80x20 on both sides of the food prep area that can only have white paint because the health department likes paint in "white" - not "eggshell", not "cream puff', not "ecru"...just white).  We don't know if we are overwhelmed by burlap or underwhelmed by white paint but we keep forgetting that we are only 1/4 finished with the walls and you know what is welcoming in a new business?  Some finished walls. We threw a desperation plea out on Facebook and think we might have some options, but if you are a painter or know a painter that likes to work cheap, fast, and on weekends, we need to talk.

All the more important for finishing the walls asap is that our Directors of Procurement came through for us in a big way today.  After a day of negotiating, we now own a convection oven, a reach-in commercial freezer, a reach-in commercial refrigerator, a 32 quart mixer, and three stainless steel work tables.  And a partridge in a pear tree.  (Only kidding, but for what those items cost, they should really give you a gift with purchase...like an iPod or a trip to Cancun).

I found the whole process stressful and I wasn't anywhere near the haggling and negotiation process.  My in-laws spent the day in Camdenton at the restaurant supply store and worked out a deal to get the new equipment we needed and to have it delivered to PJP Buttonwood on April 4th.  They did an amazing job, had 100 times the patience either of Jeanne or I, and took us from a maybe-sorta operation to a full-on legitimate "yeah, we have a 32 quart mixer" establishment.  Or we will on April 4th, anyway.  So, to our Directors of Procurement...

It occurred to me after hearing the news of our impending April 4th delivery...what if all that stuff is too big to fit through the front door?  The shop only has a single entry door that is 48 inches wide.  I don't know anything about commercial refrigeration but that it is expensive.  I have visions of a semi-truck pulling up with all the goods and when it doesn't fit in the front door, they leave it on the front sidewalk and take their 18 wheeler into the sunset.  I'm pretty sure the health department isn't down with baking on the sidewalk.  And I'm pretty sure Silent Stan isn't down with removing plate glass windows to shove equipment through.  And I bet that somewhere right now, someone is crying with laughter because I'm missing some obvious solution to this possible issue, BUT I DON'T KNOW WHAT THAT COULD BE.

There has to be a way, right?  As long as our one-wall burlap lattice work isn't injured in the process...