It finally looks like a restaurant!

Oh sweet glory! 1030 S. Broadway, Ste. 2, is finally looking like a restaurant. And a beautiful restaurant at that. Today has been the most dramatic change for the place. The kitchen construction is FINALLY wrapping up and the dining room is almost set to seat 70 customers. The carpet is laid and the wall decorations are up. The lighting looks gorgeous, especially at night.

I think the Thai Orchid Cafe is really going to be a hot spot for many people. It's warm, inviting, cozy, and modern. Did I mention the food is going to be delicious?!

I cannot wait to get cooking. We are close...so very very close. Tying up loose ends is more nerve-wracking then the whole process itself I think. There are still a load of inspections to pass, but we've done our homework and we will be ready.

The parents are doing so well. It's been a great experience working with them through this process. They have taught me so much about the business and I'm grateful to have them with me on this insane journey. Many other 24 year olds are not as lucky as I to have this opportunity to open their own business.

I have never worked this hard in my life...and I haven't wanted anything more either. Somehow, when you are passionate about what you're doing..it makes the work, the sweat (lots of sweat), tears, frustrations, and pains all worth it. Today, was one of those days that we've worked so hard for.

A wonderful group of friends (Fe, Mike, Megan, Kyle, Steve, Pat, Tommy, Thank you!) helped put together all our tables and chairs---we hung decorations and installed the base board. So it really looks like a restaurant. A real restaurant :)

Soon, the real fun will begin...food prep. It is all coming together. In a beautiful way. I'm exhausted, but tonite, I will sleep in peace. Weeks of nightmares and worries, have dissipated to sweet dreams of booming business, new friends, and wonderful food.

Opening in 2-3 weeks. An opening date will be set soon. Stay tuned!

Signing off, happy and relieved.

The weekend, finally!

Wow, what an insane week. I'm not a morning person at all. I don't like to talk or work in the mornings. So coming to the restaurant every day at 7 am, was not my first choice of things I'd like to be doing at that hour.

Contractors have been in and out all week. The equipment is hooked up (woo hoo!) and the place is painted. (See photos) We have a purple orchid theme going on . It's really pretty..thanks to my mom and sister for designing it.

After painting for 4 days straight just to get two coats, I was really over painting. Luckily our drywallers' scaffold was still around, so it helped trmendously.

There are many things I underappreciated when undertaking this project. Mostly that many people I have worked with do not share the same values as me...timelieness, honesty...well mostly timeliness. Things have taken so so much longer than I would have imagined.

We are yet to set an open date because there still some big hurdles to overcome. Mostly just everything to fall into place. There are so many little details that we are yet to tackle, but I'm really happy to finally be getting out of the construction phase and really getting into what I love...making the food.

People are really excited about us opening. Our location is great and there is a lot of traffic to Jalapeno's next door.

Today I got to sleep in a little, so I was much happier. It was an easier day. Although a lot of time was spent on the phone. It's been a sauna every day in the restaurant..no A/C right now and a massive heat wave hitting our area. Ugh. Just sweaty, sticky, ugh-ness.

So we keep pushing forward. Plowing through our frustrations and seeing the ultimate goal in the end. Which will be the beginning of something truly magnificent.

Beaten down, but not out

Hi all,

It has been an exhausting couple of weeks. I'm sitting here at the computer trying my best not to collapse onto the floor. If I did, I think I could sleep until morning.

I put in a 14-hour day today...and trend that's been developing over the last few weeks. Contactors have been coming around 7 am each morning. Sometimes showing up, sometimes not.

Today was our close to final painting day. All our equipment has arrived (minus 20 chairs)...the kitchen is ready to go as soon as the hood gets hooked up. We're shooting to open in about 2-3 weeks. Depending on when everything can finally come together.

It has been one headache after another. If it's someone not showing up, it's bills that have been missing, or unexpected permits...

But all in all, I see the ultimate goal..and really, this is what I signed up for. To challenge myself and to work through difficult situations. I feel so lucky to get this chance to really excel and to see what I'm made of. After spending the last few days 12 feet in the air on a ladder set on a rolling scaffold...I feel like I can conquer anything.

I'm excited to get cooking and really set things in motion. The dining room is painted three shades of lavender..it's beautiful..designed by my sister, Tahn and my mom.

So that's the latest and greatest. Thanks for reading about my adventures. It surely been that...an adventure beyond my wildest dreams. I knew I would work hard, but I didn't know I would work this hard. Signing off as I'm about to fall to the ground. :)

A TILE-ing we will go!

Last Friday, I got to experience my first 18-hour day...from 7 am to 1 am the next day. I wasn't used to working like that and I wonder how my sister, who's a medical resident in Cincinnati works for 24 or 36 hours straight. Her work ethic and stamina have always blown me away.

It was a really trying day, with equipment woes increasing and red tape swirling all around me, I was losing grasps of the relaxation and inner peace I found when I was in India. Life seemed so much simpler as a nomad volunteer. Wake up, work at the site, go back to the hotel, sleep. But something was still missing. This dream of mine. And that's why I'm here now I guess.

Under the leadership of Mike Green and Fe Myers, our wonderful tile project ensued last Friday. After taking away some walls and having some plumbing projects, we had to repair about 50 sq ft of floor tile. We spent about 20+ hours on the project over the weekend...hunched over, covered in mortar and grout and praying that they weren't all suddenly going to pop loose.

I got a phone call from Pat Smith around 10 pm on Sunday and I told him what we were up to. He responded, "You're having dinner at 10 o'clock...and tiling....welcome to the world of small business!"

He was right, I was here and there was no turning back...I had signed my life away to long hours, no vacations and endless headaches. But the flipside of that is that I'm building a career that I love, working with the people I love, and proving to myself that a little person can do big things in this world.

Close, but not quite to a breaking point...

One thing I've found about this project--and something I'm grateful for, is that it is never, ever boring. Each day there's something new and unexpected. So far, unfortunately, a lot of the unexpected has been in the form of bad news. We're stuck in a rut with construction because we can't move forward until our equipment comes in.

And where is our equipment, you ask? That's the million dollar question. No one really knows.

Amazon.com can tell you exactly where your $5 book is, but for some reason our distributors can't tell us where thousands of dollars worth of equipment is.

When I was in India with a Habitat for Humanity build project, they would tell us every day, that materials were coming 'tomorrow, tomorrow'. But 'tomorrow' actually means in a couple of weeks, or sometimes never. I'm getting a little deja vu with our own endeavor.

I had a snapping point today, where I felt everything change. The sweet little Toa you all know, morphed into this irate, agitated lifeform that had little control over her forceful words to the equipment distributor. Maybe I'm just learning that you can't always get things done by playing nice with everyone. Maybe, I'm turning into my Dad :)

My parents are the most caring, wonderful people ---but you do not, I repeat, DO NOT, want to get on their bad side.

Everyone do your equipment arrival dance and pray to the equipment gods to bless us with our stuff.

Permits, Permits, Permits, OH MY!

I wish there was a booth somewhere where I could walk up to and say, "Hi, I'm opening a restaurant, what do I need to do." Someone kindly gives me a list, I complete the list, I open a restaurant.

Instead, it seems like we've bounced from one department to the next figuring out all the different permits we must have to open.

Permits for electrical, walls, plumbing, grease traps, dumpsters, outdoor seating, selling alcohol, food manager certification---eek!
I spent two weeks working on our beer and wine license application. In full, it was at least 25 pages thick. I happily walked in thinking I was turning in a complete application, only to find out I had only finished step 1 of 10. Sigh.

The journey continues. One month left. Each and every day over the last month, I've devoted an average of 10-13 hours a day working on something for this place. And yet my parents are still working even harder than that. They amaze me and I learn so much from them, even still today.