Day Off!

Yup---that's me in my robe, sipping coffee from a mug from my kitchen cabinet & checking my e-mails at 7:45am. Uh-huh, that's where you'll find me all day today. Oh...I may change it up a bit. Perhaps I'll switch to an icy-cool alcoholic beverage. If I'm super ambitious, I may throw on a pair of George Castanza (sp?) type pants (anything with elastic in the waistband). Other than that, however, this is what my day will look like. Perfection.

It's my first day off since mid-June (the 18th of June when my lovely niece, Stephenie graduated, to be exact). Unfortunately, Richard had to go into the bakery for a few hours today to put together the wholesale bread delivery and to get the sign painter all set up for his day of FINALLY painting the name "The Village Bakery and Cafe" on the outside of our building. Now we won't be a secret club that people sort of wander into saying "are you guys open for business??" Hallelujah.

If anyone is still out there and is still wondering: things have been chugging along nicely for us. We hired a great new chef---one who shares our vision for the place and who has been working hard to get things up to speed. We have a small menu, but everything on it (I think) is delicious. Since the signage is going up, we're going to be actively trying to get people in through the doors (as opposed to when we first started----I shuttered a few times when people would look at the old menu that we inherited from the previous owner).

For any of you who are in the L.A. area: please come in and try us out this coming weekend (or tell your friends to stop in). Our address is 3119 Los Feliz Blvd. L.A. 90039. Our phone is 323.662.8600. Website will be going up soon. Really.

I'll post a picture of our new signage as soon as it's finished. For now, though, I have to grab another cup of Joe from my own kitchen! and begin puttering....

If at first you don't succeed...

Try one million more times. That's my motto for this blog and, I guess, for life in general (certainly for all things bakery related!).

I've been having a heck of a time with my computer over the past couple of weeks. It's not just my little blog that's been suffering, it's just about everything that I try to do on the computer (It can't be me, right??? It must be the machinery). I have a bit of time tonight, so I'm going to try (once again) to post a few pictures.

LOTS has been happening since the last time I posted (oh so many weeks ago). First, we've begun a minor face lift of the bakery---painting inside & out, new table tops, etc. For the past two weeks we've closed the retail business down so that we can do the necessary minor surgery. Here's a before and after shot of the outside of the building:

We still haven't painted the name "The Village Bakery and Cafe" on the outside --- hopefully that's going to happen this week. Right now, we're totally flying under the radar. We're still working out the many (many) kinks so not having the new name on the building is a blessing. A couple of other things that we're going to be doing to the outside of the building is replacing all of the potted plants you see in the photos with herbs and getting new umbrellas made (brown fabric with blue polka dots!).

Now, keep in mind that even though we're painting the outside (and inside---I haven't taken those pics yet), overhauling the menu, hiring staff, etc. we're still continuing to pump out our wholesale orders every day. This also includes selling our bread & baked goods at the Silverlake (Saturday) and Hollywood (Sunday) Farmer's Markets. Here's a list of the items that I bake off between the hours of 4am and 6am on Saturday & Sunday mornings for the markets:Yeah, yeah... I know it's impossible to read---I just want you to be in awe of the multitude of tasks I have at hand at a ridiculously early hour in the morning....

Here's a couple of photos of some of the items that are on that list. First is a few different types of scones:The picture below on the right is of a particular favorite of mine, the Lemon-Rosemary-Almond-Olive Oil cakes (please someone come up with a catchier name than that! Anton?? Sue??). I wasn't sure how these were going to go over, but it turns out that people like them as much as I do. They've been flying out the door when I have them in the bakery and people at the Farmer's Markets are snatching them up as soon as our stand is set up.

To the left is the most important item that we bring to the Farmer's Market, the bread. This is just a tiny portion of the different kinds of bread we bake (they're all seriously delicious, by the way. Seriously.)




The last picture is one of me & Richard. I like to call it "The Goose":
Hope you're all well & that I see you all soon! I'll write more soon. Really.

Random Notes

Well, alright then. It has been a while since my last post, hasn't it? Oh, right. The pictures. Turns out that I lie, don't I?

Checking in

Oh, don't worry my faithful two readers---I'm still here. Things are ok. No, better than that---things are swell.
I've hired a few people and fired a few people. Both these actions have put me, if not on track, at least within spitting distance of the track.
I'm heading into my weekend thinking that I'm going to be suffering much less than I have been in the past month. As a matter of fact, I may throw caution to the wind and forgo suffering all together. How 'bout that?
I'll try to check back in this weekend as it's my plan to take some pictures tomorrow morning of everything that has to be baked between the hours of 4am and 6am in order to make my deadlines for the farmer's market. (Hint: it's a boat-load of treats.)

How would you like your eggs?

Hey, Hi, Hello!
Let's be honest, okay? This is hard. All of it. Really. Super. Hard.
Employees. Tough. They're never going to care as much as I am, are they? Do I blame them?

Looking back on it, although I think I was always a good employee, I always relaxed when I went home from work. Never worried too much about the bottom line of the company. I did try my hardest not to be too surly to my bosses, though (Jim, if you're reading this, I'm sure you are laughing). Restaurant work is much different than working in an office, though. It's hard, hot and the hours are long. Tempers are short. Surly behavior abounds.

Bottom line: I'll be cooking breakfast and lunch tomorrow. I've already concocted a menu full of specials that will ensure that I spend a minimum amount of time trying to make a proper omelet (hello!!! I'm a baker, remember??). Salad anyone? Little granola & fruit perhaps? Better yet, let's all have a piece of cake and enjoy the day...

I feel like a hundred bucks...

Actually, I feel more like $79.95, but I thought I'd round up. Given the value of the dollar these days, I don't think that's so bad considering both Richard & I worked 40 hours this weekend. That's each, not a combined total. Uh, huh...70+ bucks isn't too bad at all.

I have a couple of problems that have led to my low valuation. First, my insistence on wanting to serve only fresh baked goods (no day old scones, please!). This is particularly troublesome on Saturday and Sunday mornings, when we have Farmer's Markets (Silverlake and Hollywood, respectively) to provide for. In addition to all of our bread (which, thankfully, my head bread-baker the fabulous Nicolas is in charge of) I have to get out 3 different types of coffee cakes, 4-6 different muffins, several types of scones, brownies, cookies and a variety of miscellaneous pastries (tarts, danish, etc). I'm trying to bake these items all between the hours of 4am and 7am (the time that my market salesman picks up all the goods & brings them to the market). Oooohhhh...here's the second problem: this weekend I baked all that stuff myself.

Yeah, don't worry. I won't be doing that again.

On Friday night I posted a small "help-wanted" ad on Craig's List. I said I was looking for a baker's assistant as well as a counter person/barista. The ad was posted at 10:30pm. By 5am I had received 97 responses. By Saturday afternoon, I had about 200 responses. I now have over 300. At this point I'm going to have to hire someone just to help me go through all of the e-mailed resumes. The reality of the unemployment rate has certainly hit home...

Staying Positive

The hardest part about getting this bakery up & running? It's not the aching feet, the 15 hour days or all of the paperwork, phone calls and details, details, details that we have to deal with. The hardest part is trying to stay positive through the exhaustion. I've found that the day can go from difficult to just plain ugly without at least trying to keep a sense of humor about things. Now...those of you that know me, know that this is not a trait that comes naturally to me. I have to remind myself, not daily, but constantly, that whatever my beef is (sore feet, surly employee, unwavering vendor, muffins that do not rise sufficiently) will eventually get sorted out (except for the feet part---those are pretty hopeless at this point. My fingers are crossed that "foot transplantation" will be perfected in my lifetime).

A couple of things that help to keep the spirits up: First, reminding myself that I get to bake for a living. How cool is that? It's actually the time that I'm not baking that I have to work hard to keep a smile on my face. Second, I get to have some people I really, really love around me---my husband, my cousin, my friend. As an added bonus, the bakery occasionally gets a special guest star. I like to think of it as a cameo appearance in a blockbuster movie (OK, I overestimate the bakery's importance just a tiny bit). This week, for example I had a baker's helper extraordinaire---Nick Padovese:
He's coming back to help out tomorrow before returning home to SF, so we'll see if he can handle macaroons (coconut, not fancy frenchy ones) as adeptly as he handled scones. At the very least, just having him in the bakery will keep a maximum smile on my face with a minimum effort...