Day 2

Day 1: In Pictures

8AM: Loading In

11AM: Ripping up the carpet

3PM: New Keys!!

4PM: Tape outline of the bar and STILL ripping up carpet

5PM: Locking up for the first time!

Day 1: The Beginning

8AM

14 Months

That's how long it took from the time we met Carl (owner of the pizza place) until the time we got our keys (which isn't technically happening until tomorrow). Carl got my number from Bridget Bayer, a counselor at the Small Business Development Center, last December. Things had just fallen through for us on another location on Belmont and she knew we were looking to stay in the neighborhood. When he called the first time and left a message, I wrote down on a post-it note his name, number and "referred by Bridget Bayer." That post-it note has been on our refrigerator for 14 months. It has served as a constant reminder of what our goal was. Now I think it's going to stay up just for posterity. :)

Blue Doom Crew

In honor of the Superbowl, this post is dedicated to our friends from Indiana who have enveloped us in to their Blue Doom Crew. Justin grew up in Tennessee so he's originally a Titans fan and I'm from DC so I'm a Redskins fan, but every weekend we found ourselves at the Asby's watching the Colts. And every week the fanfare became more and more elabtorate.


Our friend Alli would out do herself every week with more creative ways to celebrate the Colts including:

Cookies:


Pinatas:


Voo Doo Dolls:


And my favorite, the home-made Colts MVP Snuggie:



Go Colts!! Do it for your die hard fans!

Equipment Search

We still have a couple days (maybe even a week) until we can get in the building. There was some kind of a delay in escrow while at the same time Wayne booked a flight to Colorado for this morning. He has a storage shed there filled with equipment and tools. He's going to drive it all back to Portland so we can get do the majority of the remodel ourselves. He'll be back on Wednesday and hopefully the escrow delay will be settled by then.

This down time has been really great for us because we've been able to get a lot of planning done. I went to multiple restaurant equipment stores, including Rose's, Pitman and Gold Star. Rose's by far had the most equipment - both new and used - but they were also the most expensive. I was a little disappointed with the lack of used equipment that Pitman had. Their website makes it look like they have a lot more. But the Pitman's were super nice and if you have to get new equipment, that's the place to go because they have much better prices on new equipment. Gold Star had really amazing prices on used equipment, but not as large of a selection as Rose's.

I still comb Craigslist every day for deals. We found an amazing deal on a hand washing sink and drove up to Ridgefield, Washington just to get it. Only thing with CL is that you have to pay cash - and the name of the game when starting a new business is to preserve as much cash as possible.

Speaking of cash, I wanted to give our banker, Miten, at US Bank a plug. We've been with him for a year and a half and he's wonderful. He's the small business banker at the US Bank on SE 39th & Salmon. If anyone out there is thinking of starting a business in Portland, I highly recommend having a sit down with Miten. He's very smart and helpful.

Changing of the Guard

Last night was the last night of business for It's a Beautiful Pizza on SE Belmont. In a few months we will be opening up the Hall of Records and a restaurant/music venue in its place. Carl, the former owner of the building and pizza place, is taking a few weeks off and going to enjoy life in Bali for a bit. He had been thinking about getting out of business for a while and after over a year of working with him, things have finally come to fruition.

Wayne (the new owner of the building) and I spent the morning with Carl as the vendors came to get their equipment. A mother and son came in for pizza, not knowing that he had already had his last night. Carl re-assured them that it was not a sad closing and that many exciting things were on the horizon, both for himself, the building and Belmont Street.

He is happy for us and for himself. I hope that when others see the paper up in the windows they know that he was not closing under dismal or unhappy terms. When one door closes another one opens - only this time it happens to be ours.

Eugene Record Show Pics

Yesterday morning we got up at 4:30 AM to head down to Eugene for the Eugene Record Convention at the Eugene Hilton. We hitched a ride with our friend Kit who owns Cartola, a coffeehouse in NE. The show didn't start until 10 AM but the key was to get there early to find the good records. So we got there at 7 AM. One of our friends had found all the records he wanted before it even started and headed back to Portland before 10 AM.

We had a table next to some of the other Portland-based diggers and posted up for the rest of the day. It was the biggest show they had ever had. It is a true testament to the growing popularity of vinyl. We met a ton of great people and are looking forward to the next one!

Mayer Hawthorne & Todd Simon on Jimmy Kimmel Tonight!

Our friend Todd has played with some amazing bands including the Breakestra, Macy Gray and the Dap Kings. Tonight he'll be playing with my new favorite crooner, Mayer Hawthorne, on the Jimmy Kimmel Show. Justin's best friend, Mac, books the bands for Kimmel. I have to imagine between the two of them (Mac and Todd) we can somehow get Mayer up to Portland to play at the Hall of Records. :)

Getting Ready

So this is actually happening. We spent most of Friday going over lease terms with Wayne. His ownership exchange with the current owner is likely to happen February 1st (one week from today) unless they decide to push it by a few days. We have two and a half months from that date to get our space completely remodeled and ready to open.

I've been thinking a lot in my sleep lately, which is a totally weird sensation. It means not getting much actual sleep. When I first started business planning I would do math problems in excel in my sleep. Now I dream about dimensions and building out our bar. We really have our work cut out for us.

It's both exciting and scary at the same time. We are literally days away from our life being completely turned upside down. Our friends have been great and a lot of them are volunteering to help in any way possible. We are so thankful that everything is falling in to place and we're hoping for a smooth transition.

Contract in hand

Just about ten minutes ago I replied to my sister in the blog posting below that we were still waiting to hear about the contract. Not two minutes later I checked my phone and got a text from Wayne. He has the contract in hand and is waiting for his lawyer to check it out before signing. We could be in February 1st!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's on the table

After two long years, it seems like things may be going our way. We just heard that all the paperwork for the sale of the building should be done on Tuesday. We could actually have our dream location in a matter of weeks.

I love how small Portland is. I went out on a walk this morning and ended up running in to the current owner of our building (can I call it ours, yet?). He seemed really upbeat and happy and mentioned how it really is going to be a dream come true when we get it. He said we can't jump up and down until all the papers are signed, but it's right around the corner. He's a nice guy. I want it to be a win-win situation for all involved; and I think it actually might be. :)

Crossroads, Beaverton & The 1st Beat Off Battle of the New Year

Well we've already had quite an exciting year! We're waiting on pins and needles to hear if our offer on the location has been accepted. We're fully anticipating a drawn out negotiating process, but at least it's a step in the right direction.

We got an email a few weeks ago from a guy Justin had met at the Beat Off Battles. He was about to become the new owner of Crossroads Used Collectables in Beaverton and asked us if we wanted to set up some crates for sale there. We jumped at the opportunity for cross promotion and of meeting more people.

So we went down to Beaverton on Jan 2nd, the day after Jeremy was to become owner, and dropped off some records. Jeremy was pumped that we included a copy of Mayer Hawthorne, which is my personal favorite, and he quickly took it for himself as well. We met his girlfriend, Keegan, who is also working in the store with him. We're looking forward to hanging out with them at the next Beat Battle, which happens to be January 13th, next Wednesday.



If you are ever out near Beaverton make sure to stop by Crossroads Used Collectibles! They have tons of vinyl, tapes, comic books, etc. It's a super cute store and the people are real nice!

Crossroads Used Collectibles
4680 SW Watson Ave.
Beaverton, OR 97005

(503) 646-1512

Eugene Record Convention - Jan 31st

Sunday, January 31st we'll be heading back down to Eugene for the Eugene Record Convention. We've never been, but we asked around and it's supposed to be a really great show. There are over 100 dealers and it's supposed to be a great place to both dig and sell.



We've been part of the Seattle to Eugene record show circuit for over a year now and it feels good to be a part of it. It's great to see familiar faces and to meet new ones. Justin just got a whole slew of new records in and there are some real gems.

If you know anyone down in Eugene or want to make the trip yourself we'd love to see you there!

And PS. Wayne put an offer in on the building on Monday. The owner said he needs a week to think about it. Fingers crossed... it's been a long time coming!

Back On

So it seems that the Hawthorne Theatre was just a little blip in our journey. Wayne's not feeling it, which is great for us. He's going to set up a meeting with our building owner tomorrow - barring any more unforeseen blips. Happy New Year!!