Blast Off

Hold on to your hats!  Pizzalina is open!  OMG..... what a week this has been!  I don't even know where to begin and its so late I really should be asleep (something I'm not getting much of these days).
Tuesday we had our Friends & Family (and those who worked tireless on the project) Party and then turned around and opened Wednesday for lunch.  I don't think I've ever been so stressed out in my life.  So many little things to coordinate and then my chef who had announced to me of his health problems the week before called me at noon the day of and informed me he wouldn't be able to make it to the party, or the opening!  PANIC ATTACK!  Luckily I had been putting out my feelers and called two chefs who I had been talking to to see if they could fill in.  Chefs to the rescue, literally!  I felt like the Calvary rode in when they got here at two pm.  I had deliveries stacked in the back door, cooks waiting for direction, looking at me like, what do we do?!  Oh, and that morning when I walked in the place wreaked of gas, I had to call my contractor in a panic.  Luckily they sent someone right over.  Seems the cleaners had turned off the pilots to clean but forgot to turn them back on.  Then the wine taps started acting up again.  Another call to the installer,  bad regulator.  Fixed in the nick of time.  Restaurant opening drama, its all part of the story you'll tell your grand kids, or any, hopefully kindhearted, sympathetic soul, you can weep on their shoulder over! 
So.... the party went off smashingly.  I actually really enjoyed myself, I started drinking champagne early which is the key to enjoying anything!  It was fun and casual and the staff did a fantastic job both the "front of the house" and the kitchen.  Everyone loved the food, the pizzas were awesome, and picture perfect, they all said the dough was a dream and we had a fantastic photographer who documented the entire night.  So I'll get those up as soon as I get them.  One chef did shine and he is my new chef for Pizzalina.  His name is Robbie Starr and he comes from Pizzeria Boca.  He is young, enthusiastic, creative, hard working, calm, and considerate.  Everyone on the staff has fallen in love with him so I'm grateful.  I kept praying, "Lord, send me the right person".  I guess it was destined.  Oh, there's more plenty more drama....... "the book".

Wednesday we opened with a bang and its been busy ever since.  Not too crazy busy, but just enough to give us all a little work out, test the systems, test us, test the food.  We've got a lot of kinks to work out, but I'm so happy, for the most part its going really well.  I actually got to cook on the line last night and tonight and I felt better than I've felt in days.  All the business part was driving me crazy!  The cooking was fun.

I thank you to all who've followed along on this journey.  There's still more to tell on the birthing of a restaurant.  There's the first year growing pains, post par tum depression, terrible twos...... Everyone said its like childbirth, you'll forget all about the pain when its over.  Not sure yet. 

I'll let you know.......