Location Update

Before I launch into how we spent on Saturday afternoon - I need to get this off my chest. Being Hostess of a cookie swap is The Best Job Ever. In fact I think my next job (years and years from now, of course) will be to somehow turn hosting cookie swaps into a business.
Until then however, we concentrate on the cafe.

We're so close, we can almost taste it. You know what it tastes like? Rich dark hot chocolate, recipe care of our own lovely Sadie. This stuff is going to blow your minds people.

We anticipate seeing alot of these.

Saturday Sadie and I made our way back to Cabbagetown, and met the owner of the restaurant currently occupying the space we're coveting. She's energetic, passionate about organic local food, and loves the hospitality industry. We dug her style, too.


We poked around in the back kitchen, upstairs and basement. We explored the back patio (flashes of flower bakets hanging alongside patio lanterns, swaying gently in summer breezes... ahhhh.) and asked a ton of questions while we were doing it.
The kitchen's largest piece of equipment consists of two pizza ovens, stacked on on top of another. After some research it's been decided we can use them for our baked goods, in fact it might be beneficial what with the stone floor of them, distributing heat evenly.
The main-floor bar was sussed out for ability to hold our gorgeous espresso machine, cake stands and a cash register. We can make it work.

Isn't she a beauty?

So now we're revising our numbers, our start-up requirements, and time-frames. We need less kitchen equipment, less construction, but we will be replacing some parts. The light fixtures jsut won't work with our vision, they'll be sold. The whole place needs to be repainted, to suit our style. We'll be painting + re-upholstering the chairs, and replacing the table tops. The bar upstairs will be converted to a reading spot cum book and magazine shelf. We'll leave the stools there, and the lighting under the bar that will enable you to read, if the rest of the upper room is dimmer. We'll be taking used book + magazine donations in the near future - any suggestions for sourcing?

Once we firm up our financing options, we'll meet with the realtor and start drumming up and offer. If all goes well we could be opening the beginning of March!

So keep your lovely fingers crossed for us everyone - and shout out encouragement / thoughts / love! We love hearing from you!

xo

Elizabeth