park at circle

Official ad

We finally got an ad up...

Nonaim pictures

Here a couple pics of the shop.

The mugs...

The inside...

No time

Wow.  I've had practically no free time since the shop opened.  It bears reapeating:  Wow.

The opening event was okay.  We gave coupons for a free sandwich on opening day (last Thursday) to 400  university students... only 40 redeemed them. 

Friday was our official opening and we had offered free drinks and cheese and veggie sticks for the party.  We had a good turn out.  Hopefully, word will get out that we are open.

I'm still confident that we will be successful, even though we haven't had time to go over finances in a week (and A LOT has happened).  We have to do that tonight before we lose track of things.

Some pictures of the finished coffee shop will be posted tomorrow... I just realized that I left the camera at the shop.

Must sleep....

I've slept a total of 7 hours in the last 3 days... not enough.  I'm barely functional.

The soft opening of nonaim cafe went well.  There were fewer customers than we expected but we did give away quite a few sandwiches.

The shop shares a gated alley with 2 other homes and we use it to take the trash out to the stree, a task which I will never do again.

My hands were a little wet when I grabbed the handle on the gate and I got an electrical shock that knocked me to my knees and brought tears to my eyes.  I was not feeling too great for an hour or two after that.

An hour later, one of the neighbors came through the gate and we asked her if she'd ever gotten a shock from the gate.  She looked at me like I was crazy.

Well, whatever, I'm not touching it again.

Twas the night before opening...

The shop is ready.  JH has been here since 8AM-  I had to teach 7 (seven!) classes today so I've only been here since 5PM. 

I normally teach 4 classes a day and believe me, that's plenty.  I taught 3 extra classes today (and scheduled an extra class on Friday) because I wanted tomorrow off for the BIG OPENING.  However, at around noon, my boss called to tell me about a mantatory meeting tomorrow to prepare for conversation tests begining next week (more on this later).  So much for getting the afternoon off!

What makes it worse is this:  If I had not rescheduled my classes before my boss called, then I would not have had to teach OR make up the classes.  As it stands now, I taught the classes AND will attend the meeting.  That's why I get paid the big bucks, I guess.

Well, back to the shop...

It looks great!  We'll probably do a few a things differently when we start franchising as there were a couple minor disasters and miscommunications.

One huge problem is the tables.  The idiot furniture maker made them for midgets and insisted for the longest time that they were standard height.  Finally, he relented and will replace the mini-tables with real ones.

The menu board guy is an illiterate dyslexic-  the whole board has to be redone.

The interior designer is a genius.  I can't believe what he did with this space!  He may be my new hero.  Also, the coffee guy went way above the call of duty.  They might have earned free coffee for life.

Well, it's after midnight and JH is telling me break time is over.  It's time to hit the 24-hour grocery store and get the food ready for tomorrow's event.

looking good...

The shop is coming along nicely.  It's been painted and tiled and floored and the exterior is finished too. 

Tomorrow everything will be delivered-  refrigerators, furniture, coffee machines, air con, dishes and other stuff.

JH and her sister-in-law, Sook hee, will try to get things organized- I will join them after work.

Looks like we're on schedule to open on Thursday (soft opening).

The Bribe That Isn't A Bribe

We can definitely keep the shop but we don't know yet if we can sell wine or beer.  It turns out that a bribe is not neccessary or wanted.  That's a relief.

I was completely against the idea of selling alcohol and I am still not thrilled with it but JH made a very strong case:

1.  It is not a bar.  We will close at 10PM.

2.  People will come for the sandwiches and coffee.  They can get the same beer and wine anywhere else and our advertising will focus on sandwiches and coffee.

3.  We will be more competetive.

So, pending a permit, we will serve alcohol.

I must add one more important detail that will set us apart:  No smoking!

So far, the only coffee shop that has banned smoking is... evil Starbuck's.  We will be the second and will hopefully start a trend that will affect all coffee shops and restaurants in Korea.

coffee shop

Big shocking news!  Bad, bad, bad development!

It turns out that this building has NEVER been registered as a business.  Additionally, the numerous remodelings and add-ons were never registered.  Basically, the whole place is out of code.

There is a chance that we will lose most of our investment so tomorrow we are meeting with the local restaurant association president to find out what to do.  From what he's said on the phone so far, it appears that a bribe will settle everthing. 

I am optimistic that things will work out without a bribe but JH is even more stressed.

We will see...

Coffee shop

The shop is looking good so far and we've gotten good news regarding the furniture... We'd budgeted 2.5 million for it but it's only going to cost 1.3 mill! 

coffee shop

Things are progressing with the new coffeeshop.  The place was gutted this week and a new ceiling, floor and walls will be done tomorrow, with the entrance and other doors to follow soon thereafter.

We've gotten most of the planning done and bought most of the dishes and supplies.  Tomorrow, we will take the final official measurements and order the big equipment, like the HUGE coffee/espresso/cappucino machines and the nice table refrigerator, upon which we can make the sandwiches.

Budget-wise, we are doing ok.  We ended up spending only about 50% of what we'd planned on dishes, so that was good.  Also, we found an airconditioner for 60% of our plan.  BUT, (there's always a but) we got slammed with the news that we need to redo the electricity in the place... that's gonna eat up the savings and then some! 

We also don't have a good idea of how much the furniture will cost.  We've budgeted 2.5 million won but hopefully, it will cost much less.

This is the tenative floor plan and there is a photo gallery on the left.