Culinary Quest

The oval sign above is approximately 3 feet high by 4 feet wide. This is for the front. The rectangular sign is approximately 1 foot high by 2 feet wide. There is one of these for each end of the balcony.

Good news. The electrician told me that the service panel wouldn't arrive for another week. It arrived today so it is now being installed!



Installation of the service panels.


Since we've completed the installation of the subflooring, the frames for the kitchen and bar walls have been constructed. The inspector will look at them on Monday.

View from the kitchen towards the bar.

The ceiling is done for now. We'll have to touch it up once the duct work and electrical wires have been run across it.

Black ceiling and sample of wall paint on column to the left.


Target opening date is now November 10th.

Things are moving along:
1. The plumber finished the plumbing work under the kitchen and bar floors. The building inspector approved the work so we are now in the process of putting the floors back in place. This involves a lot of measuring, remeasuring and careful cutting to get around the pipes sticking out of the floor.
2. We've posted the ABC license application notice on the front door. I also went across the street to the office of the local paper to place my newspaper posting, as required by the VA ABC. I've got to run a legal notice in the paper informing the public that we have applied for an ABC license. The posting will run this Thursday and next.
3. As a result of the newspaper posting, the local paper is going to interview me tomorrow for an upcoming article.
4. My "sandwich prep" station arrived today.
5. We've sanded the ceiling in the dining area and are in the process of painting it black.
6. The roof of the kitchen and bar areas has been painted. We are now in the process of painting the roof of the apartment.
7. The building inspector approved our balcony rails.
8. Last but not least, I met with Nancy last week to get our pictures of Ireland framed for the restaurant. I think that we're framing about 20 pictures, most of which are about 16 X 20 inches.

This is one of the pictures that we had framed for the restaurant. The printed version looks better than the picture above. I took this picture as we walked from Dalkey to Dun Laoghaire.

That is enough for one day. I'll post pictures later this week.

We've seen a lot of progress in the past week.
First of all, the electrician and the plumber both showed up with their crews yesterday! The plumber installed the drain lines under the floor in the kitchen and bar areas. He has also started to lay the hot and cold water lines. The inspector should be out tomorrow to check the plumbing. Then we can reinstall the flooring that we pulled up, add another layer of flooring and begin construction of the walls.



The electrician/HVAC contractor came yesterday and began in the installation of the HVAC equipment. Hopefully, the wiring will commence next week.


The health department came by yesterday (at my request) to see what we're doing and to let us know if any modifications to the plumbing/HVAC will be necessary. No changes were requested!

My new signs arrived on Monday. They look great. I'll wait a couple more weeks before putting them up outside.

My friend and construction expert, Rusty Ellis, came by to help install my new front doors and a new fire rated door. Two days worth of work (since we had to the jambs from scratch). The doors look great. They'll look better after we paint them "Cinnamon Cherry".


One set back was our exterior painting. During my absence my crew painted the exterior without first sanding and applying a primer. We notice on Saturday that the paint was already peeling so I had the crew strip all of the new paint, resand, and reapply primer. Now they are busy repainting the exterior.

The plumber said that he won't be able to start work until Tuesday next week. In the mean time we've dug the trench for the 4" drainage pipe that will run under the kitchen and bar areas. We still need to pull up a couple more pieces of flooring for the dishwashing station, prep sink and bar area drains.
The electrician was supposed to have submitted the plans to the county building office 2 days ago. Let's see if he really did it.
My keg cooler has arrived. A brand new piece of equipment. Never used! I need to call the beer distributor so he can fit it with the appropriate taps. I'm planning on carrying six different beers on tap. Guinness, of course, Bass Ale, Miller Lite, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and two other locals... probably Yuengling and another "guest" beer.
I've started working on the restaurant's web site. Very basic so far, but at least I've got a web presence now. Check it out... http://mcdyerspublickhouse.com
Rusty is going to come by this weekend and help with the installation of the new front doors.

Ireland was great. The people that went with us were (and are) great. I got a few more ideas about what is being served in Ireland's pubs today and decided on a color scheme for the dining room walls.














I'll probably use a similar color scheme for my walls. This was in a pub located in the Wicklow mountain area.

During the past two weeks, we've started to put up the 2nd layer of our 2 hour fire rated ceiling,
(second layer of ceiling being installed for a 2 hour fire rating)


received more equipment,

(my ice machine - 450 pounds of ice per day!)

had the first section of the hood section installed

(19 ft kitchen exhaust hood/fire supporession system in place and view of the new roof line)

and have not seen any action from the plumber or electrician. I finally met with the electrician and the plumber today. The plumber has submitted the drawings for the building permit, the electrician is supposed to submit his drawings today.