Culinary Quest

The restaurant opened on December 27th. Lots of customers during the first week. Then we were no longer new. The standard restaurant trend of low customer turnout in January and February was a reality check. Snow days resulted in low or no business.
Then Saint Patrick's Day arrived in March. We served over 200 people. We were packed from 1pm to 10pm. The following week was a little slow but things picked up this past weekend. Hopefully we are on a good trend.
A few high points and low points...
Last Friday my new Coldtech refrigerator died, along with $200 worth of food. Hopefully the repair person will be here today.
Saint Patrick's Day brought a lot of new customers here. Many have already been repeat customers this week.
I've got a new "girl friend". She has become a regular at the restaurant, coming in once or twice a week and every time that I go out to the dining room, when she is here, she takes my hand and won't release it for about 5 minutes. Yes, she is older than my mother. Yes, she loves our food.
Here are a couple of links to articles in the local paper about the place:
http://www.nvdaily.com/Food/2006/100406_irishPub/irish.html



I'll post more later.

Good News!
Things are moving along. I've hired a chef to help me out in the kitchen. He starts next week.
I've received my ABC license so I can now purchase alcohol for the restaurant.
Bad News!
The exhaust hood service people came out yesterday to adjust the rate of flow. Somehow the fire suppression system went off and a thick green salt solution sprayed all over the griddle, the range and my griddle. Fortunately my fryers were moved out from under the hood before the system went off. This is going to set us back a couple of days.
Also, my walk in refrigerator is still not working. One of the parts is bad and has to be ordered. It should be fixed by Wednesday next week.
Other News!
The service people fixed the ovens in the Vulcan range. There was a bad thermostat and a bad gas regulator. Now I won't have a repeat of the Thanksgiving turkey disaster. (Does anyone like charred turkey?)
The siding/gutter contractor will be out next Wednesday to begin work on the exterior of the building.
Things are moving along... not as fast as I want but moving along.

I'm in NYC for a couple of days. I've been trying to do a bit of restaurant shopping while I'm here. So far I've purchased square bowls for the short ribs, mussels, riesling chicken dishes. I've also purchase dishes for the shepherd's pie. Bought a bar blender, bar condiment tray, whisks, wooden spoons, etc.
I've also set up my secondary site www.mcdyerspub.com to be redirected to my primary site www.mcdyerspublickhouse.com. It should be a little easier for people for get to the site with the shorter url.
More later...

We've finally gotten the electricity connected. The electricians/HVAC people turned on the heaters today and they actually work!!!
I've hired a company to install and finish my sheetrock. They are doing a pretty good job, but they don't show up every day. That is putting us behind schedule.
Our ABC licence application has been approved! It will be issued effective December 1st.
More later...

The hardwood floors are in and look great. Red oak, 2", 3" & 5" planks.




New chairs and tables. We still need to install the baseboards around the walls. We also need to repaint the front window.

The electrician is supposed to come out today to finish up the wiring in the bar area and in the dining area.



The plumber finished the gas line yesterday but when he performed a pressure test we found that the line was leaking. They sealed the leak around 2:00 in the afternoon and ran the test again. Another leak. At 6:00 in the evening they came back out and finally found the last leak. The pressure stayed in the line last night.

We've started to lay the tiles for the kitchen floor. I purchased the quarry tiles at Home Depot for a very good price. Unfortunately, I think that the price is low because the tiles are not uniform. Some edges are concave, some are straight and some are crooked. Some tiles are about 1/18" larger than most. I'm doing a pretty good job in laying the tiles, but some gaps are uneven due to the variations in the tiles.

Dominion Power told me that they should be out the week of November 10th to provide us with the power that we need. That will push back our opening date until December 1st.

I've placed ads in the Washington Post and in the Northern Virginia Daily News for all positions. The response has been limited but I can live with that. Most applicants want to be a bartender or chef.





The plumber has started on installing the gas lines. Most of the basic plumbing work is complete until we install the toilets, sinks and such.


The flooring is being installed in the dining room. It looks like it will come out really well. Originally I wanted the flooring stained a dark color, such as mahogany. After the installation began I decided that I liked the character of the wood and wanted the worm holds, knots and such to be visible. We're just going to polyurethane the flooring after it is sanded.

Decided to hire drywall contractors to finish up the sheetrock work. Also need to hire contractors for siding and gutters.
No news from Dominion Power yet. I need to call them tomorrow.


Restrooms - ladies to the left, gents to the right.


View of dining area from the front door.


Today's view of the front. The papers in the windows are permits.