dave21478 Posted November 30, 2010 Share Posted November 30, 2010 Restaurants eh? Not a trade I everthought I would find myself in, but now that the season is over and Ihave some free time, I can write up my experiences from the previoussummer.You may well have read my tales ofrunning a gite on this forum....I earned myself a few enemies overthat one. Perhaps not enemies as such, but moaners who doubted itall. Seriously, I may have some free time every now and then butmaking stuff like this up? Come off it!So earlier this year, a friend calledLuc popped up for a visit from the Herault. Talk got round to mylocal villages lack of eateries. There is a bar/hotel which wasclosed all last year and had recently re-opened under new management,and there is a camp-site with nearby restaurant which is open for thesummer. Rumours in the town said that the chap running the campsiteplace had fallen out with everyone and was not doing it this year. Luc looked thoughtful.A few weeks later he got in touch againand asked me to dig around a little and find out about the campsite,perhaps see if I could get hold of some figures, so that's just whatI did. Turns out it is owned by the marie and they rent it out andgiven the number of people that come to the campsite it has a decentcaptive market for the summer. The number looked good.Luc was hoping to apply to run ithimself, but was hindered by living miles away, difficultiesrelocating for the summer with 3 young kids and a few other reasons.He dropped the issue.Those numbers though.....the placelooked a potential gold-mine.....a decent investment.......hangon...what the hell do I know about restaurants?I submitted my application that week.A relative of mine, A, has somecatering experience to small groups, and she came in as a partner. Wedrew up a plan and were called to the village council where we had togive a presentation in front of the local Mafia Dons. Well, I saymafia, they are the mayor and owners of other businesses in thevillage. I don't think they are into the whole horses head in the bedand unrefusable offers thing, but they call the shots here. Turns outour application was one of 6 that got to this interview stage.And so it came to pass that inFebruary, we were told we had got the gig, and now would be a goodtime to set up the business on paper.Easy.Yeah....French paperwork....reallyeasy.“Hi, I would like to open a businessbank account”“No problem. Whats your SIRETnumber?”“I don't have one yet”“right, well, come back when you haveone. I can't do anything without it”“Hello, so to apply for a SIRETnumber, I need to supply my business bank account details first?”“Yes, that's right”**sigh** Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crossy67 Posted November 30, 2010 Share Posted November 30, 2010 Waiting for the rest then Dave[:)] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted November 30, 2010 Share Posted November 30, 2010 Be patient, it will be worth waiting for [:)]I was hoping that you would entertain us once again with your exploits Dave, in fact I was soon going to send you a PM to ask if ça etait bien passé, you still have your sense of humour so I guess it was. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idun Posted December 1, 2010 Share Posted December 1, 2010 Yup, always dead easy until it is not and then the chasing one's tail ensues for some time until it all gets sorted, nez pas!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
just john Posted December 1, 2010 Share Posted December 1, 2010 I'm laughing already and he hasn't said anything, well much[:D] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cendrillon Posted December 1, 2010 Share Posted December 1, 2010 dave21478 Please let us know more, it's snowing here and we could all do with something to liven up a dull, cold afternoon.[:)] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave21478 Posted December 1, 2010 Author Share Posted December 1, 2010 It was mostly Awho dealt with the paperwork side of things for establishing thebusiness, so my understanding of the details is a bit light, however,I do understand perfectly the reasons why she was close to tears offrustration on a few occasions – Everything seems to be designed tobe infuriating and inflexible. The usual French redtape.....everything in triplicate with 4 forms of I.D. including aletter of attestation from the midwife who delivered you and a sworncharacter reference from the Pope was just the beginning.With our shiny newbusiness plan, we met with an advisor about how best to proceed withregistration. They read it though and advised us to go to the Chambrede Commerce, so a meeting was arranged and off we went. The lady readthrough the plans, listened to our ideas and told us the best wayforward. To do this would require these boxes to be ticked, thoseforms to be filled out and these hoops to be jumped through. To befair to them, they were helpful throughout the procedure. It took usaround two weeks to get the dossier together, with frequent meetingswith them to check on progress. The big day arrived and A foundherself sat before the Big Cheese for a final check of the dossierbefore everything would be validated. “ok....yep...fine.... …. … hmmm..... Hmmmmmm..... I'm afraid you have made amistake.”“oh?”“yes, youmention here about also doing takeaway food”“yes, thats inthe plan too, pizzas mostly.”“You can't”.And that was that.It turned out that whilst everything else was fine, if we wished todo takeaway, the Chambre of Commerce was not the place to be doingthis, we should be using the Chambre des Metiers instead. Obviously,this was our fault, despite being advised otherwise and severaldifferent people reading and approving the dossier as it formed. Wewere faced with the prospect of having to start from scratch withanother administrative group and whilst all this was happening ouropening deadline was fast approaching. A village event in May was tobe our Debut, and without the magic SIRET number, we still had noteven managed to get EDF to connect the electricity, never mind allthe million and on other things that we needed to do as well! You can not even place a wanted add for staff on most online websites without this bloody number, so we were really snookered.“You either stophere, or we go back through the dossier now and remove all referencesto takeaway and I will then validate it.” The Big Cheese stated.“But can we dotakeaways?”“not legally,however what you do after this is finished is up to you.”Should we risk it?I was tempted but the risk of being controlled at some point in thesummer was high. The local village is very divided by politics andthere are plenty of people who take great pleasure in denouncinganyone they can get some dirt on, so we decided against the risk. TheBig Cheese made a few phone calls to see if we could get our dossierfast-tracked through the chambre des metiers. Fortunately most of thehoops you have to jump through for them are the same shape as theones we had previously jumped through, so getting their dossiertogether went quite quickly. A had to attend a “starting andrunning a business” course, which wasted another few days, butfinally after several weeks of faffing, flapping, driving around,rage, calm and finally euphoria, we had the correct SARL and themystical SIRET number.A business bankaccount was in place and with the siret number we could finally getthe utilities sorted out. I had been working in the kitchens on aload of renovation and rearranging and had been doing so using mygenerator chugging away on the terrace, which did not have the puffto run the water heater, so all cleaning had been done up till thenusing cold water, which is not too effective. Plugging in a powertool meant unplugging a lamp, so it was a constant juggle to getanything done. Next up....the telephone. That should be simple, no?Well, no it wasn't. I didn't want anything complicated, just standardcalls and ADSL internet. At home I pay 34€ per month for this andits all I wanted for the resto, but no. These offers are residentialonly and commercial arrangements of this kind were going to costalmost triple this price. To hell with that, we settled for abog-standard phone service with no internet, and even that wassignificantly dearer than a residential line. I think next summer Iwill try to wing it for a residential ADSL setup with anotherprovider. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gardian Posted December 1, 2010 Share Posted December 1, 2010 You couldn't make it up, could you? Your saga gave me a chuckle, but it must have been a nightmare for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave21478 Posted December 1, 2010 Author Share Posted December 1, 2010 While this wasgoing on, I was cleaning the place up, buying equipment and makingshelves. Seriously....either the previous chap took all his shelvingwith him or he just kept everything on the floor, the place hadnowhere to put anything. So my time was spent going back n forth toBricodepot buying brackets and shelving and giving my drill aworkout. Shelves for the plates. Shelves for the glasses. Shelves forthe wine. Shelves for the cutlery. A shelf for the till. A shelf forthe incredibly heavy thing that rolls out the pizza dough. A shelffor the crepe hotplate....the list went on and on. With all theshelves up, I just had to find stuff to put on them now. Man, have you seenthe prices of catering equipment here? Its outrageous. I did a lot ofcomparisons and didnt find one single place that was bestvalue....some things were cheaper from a catering supplier, otherstuff was cheaper from a supermarket and loads of other things werecheaper in UK. I ended up buyingthe wine glasses in Asda in UK. 4 for 89p, I believe they cost, whichis about a quarter of the price here and for a more substantial,robust glass. I filled four big boxes and packed them withbubblewrap, trusting DHL to deliver them to France. Two turned up,one perfect and the second making ominous tinkling noises when moved.The local courier who delivered them was mortified and veryapologetic, but reckoned it was like that when handed to their depot.Inside, it was not the carnage I had expected....4 of the 4-packs ofglasses had broken, the rest were intact. The two other boxeseventually turned up a few weeks later in a similar state. Overall,casualties were acceptable. Pizza plates were found in the cellar, sothat saved a bit of effort, but the general plates and bowls stillneeded to be sourced. Catering suppliers were selling them at pricesthat made my wallet wince, supermarkets had ok stuff but in smallquantities so I looked further afield again. Not as far as UK, justto Toulouse, where everyones favourite (or most despised, dependingon your outlook) blue and yellow housewares and furniture supplierhave their nearest store. Some research on the Ikea website showedthey had live-ish stock tracking so I waited until they had recentlyhad a delivery then pounced. Well, perhaps not a pounce, more of a 2hour slog down the autoroute in a wheezy old van. I was there on aspecific mission, so despite A's pleas, we bypassed the wholeupstairs and went straight to the sales area where we emptied theirstocks of the second cheapest dinner service. 2 Precariously balancedtrolleys and some funny looks from other shoppers and then we werefree of self-assembly hell. I had seriously underestimated the weightof this stuff and the poor old van was not a happy Citroen for thereturn journey. The suspension was not far from the bump-stops andevery bump in the road brought forth a frightening clash of crockeryfrom the back. We got back intact, and were happy with a job with nobreakage until I dropped a full set unloading it and smashed it allto bits. The first of many throughout the season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Âme Posted December 1, 2010 Share Posted December 1, 2010 [quote user="dave21478"]I think next summer Iwill try to wing it for a residential ADSL setup with anotherprovider.[/quote]Lovin' the new saga, Dave21478... looks like this could run and run. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave21478 Posted December 1, 2010 Author Share Posted December 1, 2010 I have a 3 year contract with the marie to run it!This year was setting up and finding my feet, next year will do well and the third year will make me my fortune and I will be able to retire, aged 34.Thats what I tell myself anyway.[;-)] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cendrillon Posted December 1, 2010 Share Posted December 1, 2010 "Cocktails and dreams" Dave!Love the story, do keep us posted and if you have a 3 year contract with marie then I guess you might well achieve your ambition.[;-)] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kitty Posted December 2, 2010 Share Posted December 2, 2010 This is great stuff, Dave. Makes me want to read more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave21478 Posted December 2, 2010 Author Share Posted December 2, 2010 The plan for theresto was simple......basic, good quality food in plentiful portionsat a decent price. No point in going for haute cuisine, afterall theplace is a glorified snack bar. Pizzas, steak n chips,salads....nothing complicated, nothing fancy. This is deepest,darkest redneck, hillbilly farming country here and the people wantvalue rather than gastronomy.Which is just aswell really as I can't cook fancy food – certainly not on a largescale. Steaks and salads would be no problem, but pizzas.....how hardcould it be?The place wasalready kitted out with pizza ovens, fryers,grill plate etc, so whilewe stocked up, we started a few trials with the equipment. Pizzascame out fine, but I lacked the coordination to get them donequickly. A and I discussed staffing options, and we decided that wewould hire a pizza chef – preferably one with experience on thegrill too. A would do salads etc and I would be grill man, bar man, desserts andanything else that needed doing. A couple of waitresses would roundthe team off.The search for acook began.Two local girlsgot the jobs serving, and it wasnt until we were into the high seasonthat we found we needed another staff member....someone to sellsweeties, tins of juice, ice creams and crepes to the tourists duringthe day, leaving the rest of us free to work. This side of the restoproved to be a massive hit, with sales going through the roof as thetemperature rose. I hired the teenage daughter of a neighbour. Shewas interested in a job, but being under 18 could not serve alcohol,even wine on the tables, so this job would fit her fine. Taking heron had another unexpected bonus. She is very, very pretty. Infactthat doesnt do her justice, she is incredibly beautiful and has astunning figure. Not the skinny supermodel type but the naturalcurves type, her own choice of work wear was usually a skimpyvest-style top and short shorts so tight they looks like they mighthave been painted onto her. A gorgeous, tanned 17 year old girl,poured into revealing clothes ensured that a constant stream ofhormonal teenage boys made the trek up from the camp site to buy icecreams and chat to her.!Sales would tail off somewhat when she wasn't on shift, with either myself or A doing the job. I wonder why! [:P] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave21478 Posted December 2, 2010 Author Share Posted December 2, 2010 Racism? In France?Surely not!Sadly, truethough. Im sure there are a few folk on this forum who still havetheir rose-tinted specs on regarding life here, but the simple truthis things can be just the same as UK in many respects.C applied for thejob of pizza chef. A seasonal cook with several years experience,his resume looked good and his references checked out. Olive skinned,with thick black hair and a very Italian sounding name, he was thesteretypical pizza chef. He had a secret though, which he divulgedright from the start. C is an assumed name he uses, his real name isAhmed. He is an arab. He was very pragmatic about it.....Nobody herewants a “dirty arab” to prepare their food, and in all the yearshe had done seasonal work, he found it nigh-on impossible to get ajob if he used his real name. Whilst many employers were not botheredby his race, they were worried about what the customers would thinkwhen they found out, so he goes by the name C, and whilst he neverclaims to be italian, he doesnt make any denials either. He talksenough italian to sound believable and knows just enough about Italyto pull it off. He just wants to work, doing the job he enjoys, butsadly has to resort to this sort of thing to even get his foot in thedoor.I liked him soarranged for him to come and see the place and check out theaccommodation. Since the village is the ass-end of nowhere and wecould not get a local cook, I had secured the use of a house for thesummer to lodge the chef we would hire. He turned up, had a quicklook round the kitchen and declared it acceptable! The house was oflittle interest, he just wanted a bed for the night. He was keen andA and myself liked him. Back at the kitchen he did a little demo andknocked up a handful of delicious pizzas. He was show-boatingsomewhat, spinning the dough in the air as he worked it etc etc,yeah, one went on the floor, but nobody is perfect eh?! We doubted hewould have the time to do this sort of thing during service, but hecould work using the roller machine very quickly indeed and wereckoned his ability to show off a little at quieter moments would godown well.He got the job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted December 2, 2010 Share Posted December 2, 2010 Aaaghh, frustrating!!!!!!!!!This is like having a good book that you cant put down only to turn the page and find it blank!Excellent writings Dave, I am attending with impatience the next instalment [;-)] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loiseau Posted December 3, 2010 Share Posted December 3, 2010 Can't wait to get to May!Angela Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cendrillon Posted December 3, 2010 Share Posted December 3, 2010 DaveIn all seriousness I do hope you are keeping notes for a future book from these postings. Also from your posts about running gites. If you have time I recommend you read "Rosé en Marché" by James Ivey. A really good book about setting up as a market seller, selling rosé wines in France. His account of all the hoops etc. and vagaries of French paperwork gives an interesting insight into life in France. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cooking queen Posted December 3, 2010 Share Posted December 3, 2010 Ok, where are all his posts about running gites? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gardengirl Posted December 3, 2010 Share Posted December 3, 2010 I'm thoroughly enjoying this new serial, having followed the gite serial with great enjoyment too. I also feel there's a book here - it's told really well, keeping us hanging on as all good serials should! Tune in on ................ for the next exciting episode! [:D] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave21478 Posted December 3, 2010 Author Share Posted December 3, 2010 Part of the setupprocess was to work out where our supplies were to come from.Wholesalers were all at least 45 minutes drive away, so shopping hadto be planned carefully. Fortunately, I have a little refrigeratedvan left over from a previous venture, so it was dragged out of the barn, dusted off and returned tofront-line duties for fetching the shopping. Ice creams were to bedelivered, but which company to use? A couple of brands were happy tooutbid each other for us to sell their products, with Nestle as thewinner, purely because they offered us a load of chest freezers if wesold their ice creams. This saved having to buy freezers, as theywere offering us surplus ones that we could use in the basement forstoring foods other than ice cream. It was the same process with thecoffee suppliers. We settled on one local-ish supplier as they wereoffering what appeared to bethe best machines on free loan. These bloody things proved to be thebane of my season. They were fancy automated things.....beans inhoppers on the top, water in another reservoir and a control panelthat looked like it should be operated by Spock on the StarshipEnterprise. Selecting product, cupsize and quantity would send itinto spasms of whirring, clunking and after a few seconds, it woulddistribute the coffee. That was the theory, and they workedabsolutely perfectly. For about 3 days, then it all went to hell. Tooweak, too strong, under-filling or over filling the cups, randomlyvomiting hot water or steam....these were daily occurrences, anddespite re-setting the fill levels, they would often startunder-filling only 2 or 3 cups later. Things came to a head when oneevening the normal grinding noise from one machine was replaced bythe unmistakable sounds of plastic gears stripping. The rep turned upthe next day.....I should mention here that I am fairly short so manypeople are taller than me, but this guy...seriously, he should besome kind of basketball player. Or circus freak. There are a coupleof tall chaps I know who have to stoop a little to avoid skiffing thetop of their heads on the door frame, but this chap had to crouch rightdown to avoid cracking his teeth off the lintel!Sadly,he repaired the machine with ease, and despite our protests assuredus they were the best available on the market. Over the followingthree months, there was rarely more than 2 or 3 days would go bywithout me coming dangerously close to flinging those bloody machinesout of the front door.EarlyMay passed in a buzz of last minute shopping. Pots n pans, kitchenknives, chopping boards, blender, dough mixer, storage boxes,microwave, fridges, tea towels, cleaning products.... the list wasendless and bloody expensive. Costs often took me by surprise. Takechopping boards for example, you probably have one or two at home? Ihad to buy 6 – fancy colour coded plastic ones at €28 each!Paperwork,including drinks licence? - Check.Staff?- Check.Electricity?- CheckTelephone?- CheckShelves?- Check.Plates,pots, pans etc? - Check.Food?- well, kind of.... It was to be a reduced menu at the start of theseason as we were only going to be open at weekends initially untilthe tourists began arriving, so we couldn't feasibly stock everythingwithout loads going to waste.Allset. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave21478 Posted December 3, 2010 Author Share Posted December 3, 2010 Fourdays before our opening event, and we thought we were ready. Ourplanning had anticipated an average of 20 people at lunch times and40 for the evening sittings. Our opening day was to coincide with ayearly village event that sees the main street closed off and thingsto see throughout the day, so we figured on a busier lunchtime. Thenthe previous manager turned up for a visit and a chat. He suggestedthat our estimate was a tad on the low side for numbers on the day ofthe fair, and we should count for 200 – 250 at lunchtime!Wait...what?250?Therewas no way in hell we could cope with that number of customers, noton a first day with staff still getting into the swing of things Wehad all been eating there a most mealtimes over the past few weeks,with friends and family joining us. This gave us a chance to startcooking in larger quantities, but numbers suddenly jumping by afactor of ten left us shaken.Theprevious manager was incredulous that we had planned on offering themenu on this day. Seemingly he had always just done a single dish inlarge enough quantities, so I decided to bin the menu on the openingday and offer paella. C saved our bacon here, as not only was he goodwith the pizzas, he reckoned he did a mean paella too. The majoradvantage here was he had the equipment – two huge proper paellapans and the gas rings for them. He wrote out a list and I traipseddown to the wholesalers for the things he needed. The previous manager seemingly had an arrangement with the marie for loan of trestle tables and benches for this, so off I went. A few trips back and forth from the storage sheds and we had seating for 200.This time we reallywere ready.ThenA decided the kitchen needed a minor layout change. This mean movingthe ice cube machine to a different part of the kitchen. This machineis about 50 cm high, plumbed into a water feed, with a drain formeltwater. A quick look at its proposed new location turned up both adrain and a copper pipe with a tap on the end – Bingo. No harderthan plumbing in a washing machine, I had it shifted in a fewminutes. Nextday was the grand opening. I arrived nice and early to find the icecube machine making funny noises and billowing steam out of thehatch. Steam? Yeah, turned out the pipe I had connected it to wasactually hot water! The poor machine had been gurgling away all nighttrying to make ice cubes with hot water. It was never right afterthat. Back in its old location with cold water as a supply, it workedok but wasted a large amount of water. At one point I had a serviceengineer look at it and he was baffled. I was too embarrassed toadmit my hot-water gaffe, so we just have to live with it as it isnow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted December 3, 2010 Share Posted December 3, 2010 [:D][:D][:D][:D]I have worked untill 21.30, havnt yet cooked or eaten but I had to read this first.Priceless! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
water rat Posted December 4, 2010 Share Posted December 4, 2010 Thanks for coming back Dave. I can now face this long winter with all 86 episodes of "The Sopranos" and your input! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave21478 Posted December 4, 2010 Author Share Posted December 4, 2010 I had always thought that horizontal rain was unique to the northeast of Scotland, but found this was not so when I moved here to theTarn a few years ago.Opening day was cloudy and dull in the morning, and the rain startedaround 10am. By lunchtime, the wind had risen enough to drive itsideways. Our trestle tables were outside, fortunately under a roof andrelatively sheltered by the building from the driving rain, soremained dry. The fete was a washout though. I dont like the village fetes here, they are exactly the sameyear in, year out. Same events, same people, same stalls selling thesame products.....an interesting enough day out for a visitor to theregion, but for the locals, it becomes tedious. Numbers were low dueto the weather but we did ok.C was there fairly early and cracked on with the paella. He had donethis large dish enough times in the past to know it off by heart, andI was envious of his knowledge as he threw handfulls of ingredientsinto the pans. Pretty soon, they were bubbling away and smellingdelicious. He was all smiles as he worked, and progressed from whitewine onto pastis as lunchtime approached. Our spirits were gooddespite the weather though and we were all indulging in a bit of atipple.The restaurant is located slightly away from the main thoroughfares,but I had put a few sandwichboards around the streets advertising ourofferings. A fairly steady stream of people stopped by through themorning to reserve places, and after midday, the seating started fill up. People were appreciative of the hot meal and compliments were thrownto C, who was working the pans outside next to the seating. We sold 114 portions, which we thought was pretty damn good given theconditions. With loads of paella left over, we had plenty to offer tothose who wanted take-away and still had enough for the eveningservice. The weather did not get any better and the temperatureplunged over the afternoon. Many stall holders packed up and leftearly and we sold a modest 30-odd potions that evening.The whole day was a bit of an anti-climax really. I had been soworked up about everything that when the day passed off with positiveresults I was left feeling a bit deflated. I had convinced myselfthat some disaster would strike, with the food being bad, or nothaving enough or not selling any....the previous night had been asleepless period with these negative thoughts whirling through myhead. With neither myself, nor A having much clue about how to cook apaella on such a large scale, we were completely at the mercy of C.He had promised us the world, assured us it would go perfectly andthat we would be happy. I liked the guy, but the simple fact was hewas still a relative stranger. Whilst he certainly talked the talk, Ihad gone through several periods of doubt. Our opening day was vital,not just for sales on the day, but for our reputation. As the newmanager, could I deliver the promises I had made? Would I be able togive a good first impression and set a decent reputation? C did meproud though The food was great, spirits were high and mostimportantly, the public were happy. Since the kitchen had not been used much for the day, there waslittle to do in the way of cleaning, so with the public gone, thedishes done and the place cleaned it was fairly early when I shut thedoors. Myself, A, C, the waitresses and a few of their partners satourselves around a table, turned the music up and got more than alittle drunk. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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