Sign On The Dotted Line

The signing of a lease only signifies the beginning of a journey laden with phone calls, messages, and more signatures. We signed a lease, signed a contract with our builder, signed documents for a bank loan, signed more papers for the city, signed waivers, signed agreements; Tucker even signed up for a cell phone. One of the last few remaining in the 21st century without a cell phone, she succumbed to the benefits of mobile communications. We mostly communicate via text messages, or "tex mexes" as she calls them.

Communication will be our biggest challenge with the new location. Communication amongst staff, owners, managers, customers, friends, and family. How do we maintain positive and meaningful communication when it feels as though we don't even have time to go to the bathroom some days? Anyhow, back to Bow Street.

Demolition has always been my favorite part. It's like opening a giant Christmas present. You sign a lease, only looking at the wrapping paper. Once you start the demo, though, you begin to peel away the layers of wrapping, hoping that you got what you asked for. This time, though, the beautiful wrapping paper had hidden an even more lovely gift. As the walls came down and the drop ceiling was torn out, and the fluorescent lighting laid aside, we had uncovered a real gem. Not the polished kind you might give to a lover, but the kind that you find as a kid and pretend is the most precious stone known to mankind. You may even give it a name and ascribe fictional history to it, but I wouldn't know. We could never have guessed or hoped for what lay before our eyes. Underneath the thin layer of white powder that coated everything, we had the most gorgeous space I had ever seen, and it was ours. But still, was it enough to make people come to Union Square, to come to Pallet?

This picture I posted reminds me that to make things happen, we must look up and forward, not necessarily at the perspective that seems most obvious or easy. It is easy for me to get stuck in cyclical obsessions of permitting, bills, rents, staffing, permitting, bills, rent, staffing. I try to remind myself that the challenge is to stay focused on what is going on right now and what we are hoping to achieve. These things will fall into place.