This week we’ve been anxiously awaiting for the decision from the county plumbing control office about whether or not they would make an exception to their standard code regarding grease interceptors.
If you’ve been following along (you can find more on this HERE and HERE), you know that the county currently requires all new restaurants to put in a 1000lb grease trap with a manhole outside. That’s all well and good if you are actually opening a restaurant, but our business model isn’t a restaurant. Our focus is on coffee, wine, beer and live music events – the food is ancillary and minimal. We don’t have a kitchen or a way to cook anything, so spending $15,000 on something we can’t recoup would likely leave our project dead in the water.
Unfortunately, we wasted the last 5 weeks trying to work with a plumber who told us that the county had approved a smaller trap (they hadn’t) and the city had to approve the waiver (they don’t – they have no jurisdiction on plumbing issues). Because of the bad information we were given, I was pleading our case to everyone from the mayor on down (sorry, Ben). I’m sure I drove my contacts on the city side of government crazy with weird questions (shout out to Nora and Jake! I owe you cookies) before we got the bottom of it. I finally started working with the head of plumbing control directly. He was terrific and got back to us with an answer in 24 hours – YES!!!
Actual footage of Jimmy and I on Thursday:
Throughout this process, I was (usually) confident that logic and common sense would prevail. Jimmy was making plans to leave town if things went south.
Luckily, it did not come to that.
We are breathing a massive sigh of relief, and back to moving forward with our plans. Whew!
Our next hurdles are the special permit from the city and then the liquor license. I don’t see any reason why we would run into any snags, but who knows? Send positive vibes our way if you are so inclined.
