My Biggest Mistake

I violated the cardinal rule of business, never start a business in an area you have no experience. If I had worked in the restaurant business previously, I might have recognized Todd was blowing smoke a lot sooner, maybe even before we signed the contract.

Every time we talked to Todd, he mentioned he would set us up with all the adult teams so we could offer locker room setups of pizza and beer when they played. Robbie was young so he probably didn’t know that was BS, but Pierre had been involved with the local rinks for years and should have known this wasn’t possible without planning ahead.

Here’s how it works in Texas. When you apply for your liquor license you have to supply a diagram of the space governed by the liquor license. Todd gave me a diagram of the snack bar and bar, which included a partial diagram of the lobby. To license the entire building, including the locker rooms, we would have had to provide a diagram of the entire building. Pierre could have gotten a diagram of the building when he worked for corporate. I’m sure he knew we needed it because he drinks and you have to stay in certain areas of the building when you drink alcohol. It is against the law to serve alcohol outside of the licensed area. At the very least Pierre should have said something when Todd was telling us we could provide liquor in the locker rooms. I had no idea you couldn’t walk around the rink with your beer.

You can’t see the rinks very well from the bar in the McKinney arena. That’s why we wanted to put a camera in each rink and hook up to TVs in the bar. Parents like to watch their kids practice and play and we like to sell alcohol. If I had known Todd wasn’t going to allow us to put in cameras, I would have at least licensed the tables next to the snack bar in the lobby. That way parents could sit at the tables and watch one of the rinks.

This whole thing was one giant mistake. I broke the cardinal rule, I believed Todd when he said he was going to help us, and I trusted Pierre to lend his knowledge and expertise to guide our business to success. Pierre was the skating expert and he said nothing to let us know Todd was leading us astray.

An Ice Rink is a Handicap

Operating a business in an ice rink is a bigger handicap than you would expect. Before we opened, I was sure we could win over skaters and their families by offering healthy food at reasonable prices, despite the rink’s refusal to support us with a “no outside food or drink” policy. Pierre assured us he had spoken to many skaters to find out their needs in a cafe so we could fulfill them.

The rink was situated in a relatively undeveloped area. There were empty fields, baseball diamonds, soccer fields, a few businesses, and some apartments. The only other eating places nearby consisted of 1 restaurant and a gas station – and the sports venues had snack bars that were open during tournaments. Once again, I thought we could win over the neighborhood and become their favorite bar, especially since we were close enough for them to walk home if need be.

When we opened the bar, it doubled our cash flow almost immediately. So I thought I was seeing the turn around I had assumed would happen and success was just around the corner. But we were still floundering. And it became quite clear Pierre’s marketing plan was non-existent. So Kyle and I started exploring the world of marketing. It’s hard to do everything, but it was make or break time so we had to try. Kyle worked with local breweries to have Pint Nights in the bar. We did coupons, flyers, and cold contacts. We searched for websites to list our business, whatever we could think of. Still Pierre did nothing.

We got some new, outside business but it didn’t last long. People just don’t think of going to an ice rink for dinner and a beer. And part of the problem was the kids. We didn’t allow kids in the bar without their parents, but not all parents watch their kids or respect the adult environment of a bar. Plus the kids were running wild just outside the door. Siblings of skaters have nothing to do during practice or competition so they use the entire lobby as a screaming playground. I once suggested that the rink put in a playground for the kids, but that went nowhere. I thought it was a great idea, since it would cut down on the chaos and destruction in the lobby.

I truly believed the numbers were turning in our favor when we opened the bar. I knew the last ditch effort to market the bar would tell me everything. And it did. Business did not increase enough for our cafe to become a viable entity. My biggest mistake here was not realizing the extreme handicap of being in an ice arena and insisting on a “no outside food or drink” policy to even sign the contract for the space. I listened to Pierre and Todd as they painted the the glistening future of this business opportunity. I believed Pierre and Todd as they promised their support in this joint venture. After all, they were the resident experts. I was Taken, and Liam Neeson wasn’t around to save me.

World’s Greatest Dad

As we discussed earlier in this blog, with the exception of Brian (I love Brian for being such a good and honest man in such a dishonest environment), most of the men working for the rink stole from us. Some of them stole everyday. These people were our landlords and had access to a key to our restaurant. Theft escalated when we got our liquor license and had alcohol onsite. We locked as many cabinets as we could, but in my heart I just couldn’t believe we had to protect ourselves against so many people. Doesn’t anyone have morals anymore? We put in one camera and caught someone right away, but the picture was below the neck. So Todd, the perpetrator’s boss, said there was no way to identify the person and consequently did nothing. That’s when we found out the security cameras in the rink were not working and there were no plans to fix them. However, I feel they could have identified the guy if they wanted. I was there until 11:45pm. When I left, the rink was empty except for employees and all the doors entering the rink were locked. The timestamp on the picture was around 12:15am. There were few rink employees on the clock, 1 or 2 that I saw, and only one was wearing coveralls. The picture obviously showed someone in coveralls. Even if that’s not enough to write him up, it’s surely enough to let him know this is a zero tolerance offense and must stop immediately – scare him straight. Todd did nothing. Pierre did nothing.

We put in another camera. Again, we caught someone immediately. I recognized him but didn’t know his name. He had his hand on the beer tap so Todd couldn’t say he was just in the restaurant to get ice. Todd said he wasn’t sure who it was. Really? Todd doesn’t recognize his own employees??? We called the police and filed a report. Todd tried to talk us out of it, saying he would like to take care of it himself. I guess he thought I was stupid enough to believe he would take action after doing nothing in the past. One thing I do know, Todd identified the picture for the police. The kid, Will, was 18 or 19 and steeling beer. He worked in ops, which means he most likely had a master key to all the rinks in the DFW area. Since we filed a police report, Todd had to fire Will. I don’t know if Will got to keep his key. Pierre still had his master key after quitting his job with the local hockey team that owned all the rinks.

Will contacted me several times. He was crying and asking me not to press charges. Then he proceeded to lie to me and say he only took 1 beer. In one weekend, we had multiple pictures of him taking beer and Snapple. So I pressed charges. I was tired of all the lying and stealing. Of course it just made the other employees hate me more and work harder to see us fail – but that’s another story.

A week or so later, a man came to the counter and said he was Will’s dad. I braced myself. I thought he was there to chew me out for pressing charges against his son. I was so wrong. He had to pay Will’s fine so he didn’t feel Will was punished and wanted to know if I would let Will come work for me for 20 hours to make up for stealing. And I should give Will the worst jobs possible. I was shocked. I didn’t really want Will around, but I loved his dad for caring and agreed. What a wonderful dad! And I gave Will the grossest, ickiest jobs possible. After 10 hours he lied and said he couldn’t come back because of school so I called his dad. Will finished out his 20 hours.

Todd chewed me out for making him fire Will for stealing and then hiring Will to work in the restaurant. You can see our landlords lived in rumorville. They were always reacting without checking the facts. Just like we did not sell liquor without a license, we did not hire Will to work for us. Since Todd stole from us too, it probably never occurred to him the kid’s dad would want Will punished for stealing. I was so glad when Will’s 20 hours were up and he was gone. Sadly, this didn’t stop the stealing.

Cease and Desist

Fall is the busy season for hockey. We were anxiously awaiting our liquor license. The paperwork was done and turned in. Waiting for approval is hard, especially when the rink is busy. So we decided to give away beer. Two beer limit, but most people just asked for one. Some of the regular customers were really good about tipping well, even when they didn’t have a beer. But I got the impression they were tipping more than usual – maybe I was imagining it, but that’s how it felt. There were many families who really appreciated our effort in trying to take care of them and they rewarded us for it.

The next thing I knew, I got a Cease and Desist letter from our landlord. The letter stated that they heard we were selling beer without a license which is illegal. They never asked us if the rumors were true or if we had received our license, they just had their lawyers send us a letter. I couldn’t see where any good would come from fighting it, so I immediately packed up all the beer and took it home. Then I sent them an email saying I had complied but that I wished they had talked to us before believing some rumor and taking such drastic action. Later, we found out we had a liquor license during that time. We never received our approval letter; a wine salesman showed us our license on the website. Either way, we weren’t breaking the law and some very lucky customers got free beer.

The question here is, what happened to our liquor license letter? Did it get lost in the mail? Was it sent to our rink address and the rink employees thought it was junk mail? I don’t know. I do know we had to pay a penalty for not reporting liquor sales during the time we didn’t know we had a license. You have to file a report even if your sales are zero. This incident, along with previous encounters with our landlord, made me feel like our landlord would do anything possible to hinder our success.

Liquor License

Getting a liquor license is very precise and time consuming. TABC is great about guiding you through the process. You have to get just the right signatures in just the right order and everything has to be notarized. I took far too long to complete this process. I’m not making any excuses. Yes, it’s hard to run a business, work the counter, do your partner’s job, and work on a liquor license, but I should have made it a higher priority. Oh, and I sold my house, bought a new house, and moved all during the same period.

You may wonder why I was still building the business after all the crap I’ve told you about so far. Well, the liquor license was that one ray of hope that the business would make a complete turn around for the better and all the torture I had endured so far would just melt away. Pierre, Todd, and Kyle all said it would make a difference and I believed them. During this process, I learned that Todd had lied about helping us set up pizza and beer in the locker rooms for the adult league. Once we got the liquor license it became a violation to have liquor on the premises outside of our space. We would have to change the liquor license to cover the entire building and Todd said he would never agree to that.

The liquor license did double our business almost immediately, but it didn’t turn the world around. Sadly, things continued to get worse. Don’t worry, I’ll tell you all about it as the saga continues. One thing I want to say here, I couldn’t have done any of this without Kyle. He is a hard worker and honest person. Even though Kyle no longer speaks to me, I will always be grateful to have worked with him.

Cannonball!

Open a restaurant in 2 weeks? We decided to cannonball right into the deep end. I started googling pizza. Hunt Brothers came up in every search. Even though I had never heard of them, I finally decided I should try them. Then I noticed they were only available in convenience stores near me. That couldn’t be good. I never think of getting good food at a convenience store. So one day I headed to the store nearest me that had Hunt Brothers. I looked in the frozen foods and refrigerators and didn’t see anything labelled Hunt Brothers. I had no idea it was something the store cooked and sold fresh and hot. I finally asked the attendant and he said they have it but their pizza oven was broken. I asked him if they were planning to fix the oven or if they didn’t sell much pizza and didn’t care that it was broken. See, I had no idea Hunt Brothers pizza was a thing. He said they planned on fixing the oven because the pizza was actually good and sold well. I couldn’t wait so I looked up the next closest store and headed there. The girl at this store said it would take about 45 minutes because the oven wasn’t on and would have to warm up. I ordered my favorite pizza and sat down to wait. I was shocked at how good the pizza tasted. Robbie and I scheduled a demo at the rink.

Robbie liked the pizza, too. While we were watching the demo, one of the hockey dads came over to the cage and asked when we would be opening. He said they couldn’t wait for some decent food in the rink. And beer, of course. I had never met Brent before, but he became a great customer and I appreciate his support during the time I had the cafe. We decided to be a Hunt Brothers pizza store. Rocky put up banners before he left and we scheduled training and opening with him. Rocky and John came to the rink on another day to test the ovens in the cafe. They were old and had not been cleaned and serviced regularly, so we would have to buy a new oven to cook the pizzas. I signed the contract and paid for the oven and supplies out of my own pocket.

Choosing a food supplier turned out to be easy. Sysco was the only one to call me back. And how fortuitous that turned out to be. Our rep, Mike, was a terrific mentor and got us all set up. He gave me good advice the whole time I ran the restaurant. Dr Pepper had their name on the building, so we had to carry Dr Pepper. Another easy decision and setup. Robbie had a friend draw our logo and make t-shirts for us. I had to call quite a few insurance agents before I found one who does restaurant liability. Got that done.

Robbie and I went to the bank and opened a checking account. Pierre was too busy to join us that day, so Robbie took Pierre another day so Pierre could sign a signature card and get a credit card. Robbie had a friend who needed a job, so we had one employee already. Everything was falling into place.

The rink did nothing to service the restaurant equipment or clean the space. There was grease from the fryers on the walls and especially on the big vent. Pierre had a friend come in with a power washer and clean the restaurant. It looked so much better.

Should you really open a restaurant in 2 weeks? Probably not, but we did it. One thing I want to point out here is, of the 3 equal partners who is doing most of the work? Me.