Closed! but are we gone forever??

I firstly have to say, thank you for all the support and emails and messages I received after our decision to fold the store. It was not something we really wanted to do, but felt that it was the smart thing to do. Many are asking what happened. So, I am going to clear this up in this post and share what my next step is, in our journey. My apologies it has taken me this long, to write this, but it wasn’t until this morning I felt strong enough to get this down into words.

We sought out to open this space in January, and started looking for location come February 2019. We thought we had found a location, but we declined because it was clear the landlord was super crooked. So with the help of our realtors, we found 1066 somerset street west. Without reluctance, I fell in love with the space, and saw it for it’s potential which many had the chance to experience. We attained the lease for May 1rst, but for some strange reason, it took 3 months to receive a builders permit (the first hit). So The Witches Thicket sat idle for three months, while time was wasting away. I had learned during this time about a dozen things. And I feel the public who came in here and there, was trying to tell me in a few words. The owner of the previous business also reached out to talk to me, but never ended up talking to me in the end. The first sign something was not right as well as the held up builders permit.

According to our project manager, it was just us that was waiting so long to receive our permit, and only to put in a few feet of additional plumbing. We learned later, that they also needed to pull up the history of the location, finding out that other business did not apply for permits to do any work in the past. So, we were put under the gun for this. MORE WAITING. There was an intense history of the location that involved a escort/ gang bar and a shooting. Which then turned our cute little location into an ignored eye sore, although all our renovations we put into it. There was a closed off haunted ghost room! We opened it up and renovated it, and it took a lot of power and love to turn it around. Folks…it was indeed haunted! I lost many machinery being fried because of it! And also, learned recently that the landlord didn’t want it changed. Weird considering it would be dead space we would be paying for. And recently gave us crap for changing it! Demolition lead to a flood. I mean the pipe broke cause they are sooo old, and it was like old faithful. It took hours and one ruined brand new shop vacuum to fix. And this was not the only flood we encountered. Pipes kept clogging up causing water to back up into the pipes of our espresso machine making huge puddles almost daily. We learned that in one our final complaints to our contractors, that it was essential to removed the pipes in the basement and empty all the straws, napkins, and other really weird un-mentionables from the pipes to get them to work properly. This increased our contracting bill considerably. I’m sure this was one of the reasons why our landlord didn’t want us touching that room, which we didn’t learn until the end. I will never open another location without an inspection evaluation ever again! This one is on me! My challenge is that I believe too much in the betterment of people right from the beginning until proven otherwise. Apparently in business, you should do the opposite! Live wires and bad electrical! Just a sarcastic note, if you remove lights, make sure you do not leave them live and uncovered! Not only did they replace all the existing plugs, but they had to tie up all the live wires! And… note to the next owner, they are not all done. Open then ceiling and take a look! (I’m grateful to the owner of the electrical team we had, for having the honor and mercy to do this for us. I’m sure my teary eyes had something to do with it.) By the time this rolled around, our cushion was getting eaten up. Contractors!!! did you know there is a shortage of contractor “professionals” in the ottawa area? and it seems they all subcontract work for this company we hired. We got a labor quote for 65 000$, plus supplies, which according to all my price shopping, did not cost a lot (supplies that is). It was not 65 000$ like the signed quote. The labor doubled, plus an additional 20 000$ more according to our books. Then all the extra electrical fixing, plumbing fixing. And if you saw the little plumbing they did, aside from the disasters they had to fix after the job was done, there is no way in this world it would have costed so much. Demolition was only a tiny amount, and I know the drywall was only about 2000$, cause I asked. Are we counting the math here. And because of the availability of contractors, it was ok to jack up the prices so high, and add additional costs, cause we were backed into a position where there was no turning back now!! So we continued to pay. The delays continued…. mistakes and unforeseen from inspectors, contractors finding extra additional costs, we were two months delayed from opening, eating up all our free rent period. And if the landlord hadn’t agreed to put in the back flow valve, we would NOT HAVE BEEN ALLOWED TO OPEN UNLESS WE PAID FOR THAT TOO!!! So, our lovely dooms day cushions got eaten until we started screaming at them there was no more. And only then, they started to back off. A inspector took mercy on us, and removed that we almost had to replace a 25 000 cooking hood at the end. This would have ruined us. I bought some used equipment, that didn’t works. Which I never received compensation for. Including two dishwashers that never worked and was sworn to work! Grab n go fridge, pan racks that didn’t fit any pan for that matter..flat top grill that wasn’t working. Thank goodness we found a good handyman eventually to fix it, or we would have been screwed! Do not buy used equipment! I will never do that again. Our planning was shot! We opened will only 10 000$ left relying on faith to get across the finishing line. There is more, but I’m tired of ranting.

We opened during vacation season. By this time, I didn’t care, we needed to move this ship forward.

What was the light here, is that our numbers of what we were making were excellent, and above the average of a new business. I had a kickass staff that helped immensely in building much of the flow of the business, and our customers were and are still very supportive. The dark is that, we started to late, and although we have no dept, (thank you universe) we ran out of cash to make sure we got the ship out of the water. I would have needed two more months and we would have been in the clear. FOR REALS! But it would have meant, due to overhead, cutting staff hours and staff, cutting the menu to control our stock, and working most of the hours myself. I was already pulling an 85hr work week. My feet hated me, but I didn’t care, I wanted to make it sooooo bad!

We sought out investors and tons and tons of advice what to do. They all said the same thing. Let go of the metaphysical portion and the dinning room, put up a wall, and just sell the food take out, working only yourself for a year, then go from there! They just wanted my food and my recipies. Unless we did this, we were not worth investing in, cause the rent for the location was too high. The unit needed at leased another 60 to 100 thousand to fix what was left to fix, which would have ran up issues in the near future. They said it was strange that when walking in the direction of the store, although it was a corner unit, you could NOT SEE US! Like there was some kind of veil hiding it . Now talking to a person like myself, I know what this means! I believe it, Ive seen it!

Haters! We had haters! Christians preaching from the parking lot, and finding crosses in red on more than a few occasions at our front door. Folks coming in and telling us we are going to fry in Hell. Sounds awesome right?!! Telling us we will be closed in three weeks time. Well I they got their wish! All cause we had the word “WITCHES” on our sign. Maybe our tofu benedict was evil , who know! lol Maybe it was cause, we used real sugar in our dessert….. taking the world over by storm. At least it isn’t ethical these days to burn people alive, and we got away this time with only a loss of a business. Online staged reviews… they did their best to slander us! The thing about people like me, my dear haters… I never go away! I will be back! More experienced, smarter, stronger, and more determined!

So what now??!! Read on to next post.

For those of you who have stood and continue to stand by our side, I would like you all to know, your support means more than the world to me. I am honored to have been here for the short time that we had at 1066 Somerset street west. I am already planning my next move.

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