It's Official We Are Up and Running

We have hung out our shingle and are open for business. It is actually a metal sign that will last us for many years to come. We decided to just open for lunch and dinner so from 11 to 8 Monday through Saturday. Unless something changes dramatically we will be closed on Sundays.
This morning the kids got into the act by making these signs. There is this paint called chalkboard paint. Robert painted the boards yesterday and they were able to write on them today. Later in the afternoon Thomas hindged them together to make an A frame so we could put it out on the side walk. Later we are going to use it to list our specials of the day.

We did not realize going in just how much prep work and everything went into getting ready each day. espically this first day. We were there early and still were preparing when the first customer arrived. Here I am ready at the register.

Our fabulous friends from Monticello, Scott and Teresa St Clair, took time from their resturant, Monticello Pizza Kitchen, to come help us on our first day. scott has been in the resturant business for a very long time and was just a wealth of information. The day was so much fun and a lot less stressful having them there with us. They arrived early and stay with us until closing.

We had to quality control the food ( taste test) through the day. We passed out samples of items to several of our customers and asked them to give us there honest opinion of what they thought. On the whole the comments were all positive. There was one negative comment on the mac and cheese so we went back to the drawing board and before that customers left we had her try the new batch and she said it was much better and creamier, yeah us.

This is Amanda. By opening this resturant we are fulfilling her dream. For her and for us I hope it is a continued success.
Our first customers of the day were Bill and Barbara Dennington. They gave us our ceremonial first dollar. They even signed it.

Here is Bill picking up their order. After they ate Bill and Barbara took all the children Kathryn(mine) Sam ( Robert and Amanda's), Haddy and Hannah ( Scott and Teresa's ) and Grace ( theirs) to the movies and then to their house to play. That was such a blessing to us because the girls would have been so bored up there today. I know there will be times in the future that they will have to be there, but with the 4 of us trading off times to work hopefully one of us at a time will be off so they are not up there all the time. They did enjoy earning money by keeping the tables wiped off while they were up there though.

One of Robert's friends from Albertson's came to wish him well today.

I had several families from TCHF come out to support us. Thank you all. Cudos to Tammy who came all the way from Monticello to support us. It was also because she said she had a craving for Fried Chicken. Nice to know we are serving all the needs we can.

Some our Church family came out today too. Thank you to you all.

One more time I would like to say thank you to everyone who came out friends, family, and all the new friends we made today. Thank you and hope to see you all soon in Havana.