"The Walk In Smells Rancid"

Eric and I have been working together the last week or two. We have been to a number of different places including the building site of a new restaurant, the corporate offices of Brio/Bravo!, Bravo! At Eton Collection, and Brio at Legacy Village. We started our project last Monday at a torn up place that used to be a restaurant in La Place. After meeting the contractor, Tim we were put to work. We started the day by cleaning out the back of the kitchen of the existing restaurant and taking all the trash and torn up debris out to a monstrous dumpster in the front outside. The smell in two of the walk in coolers could be described as "rancid" and something must have died in there... The guys working in the demolition and building process are great guys, Ed was the first one we met. Great guy. The first day (and days to follow) we were literally doing manual labor. Doing jobs like this has really made us appreciate the opportunities we are given in life and by Hawken. Another great guy is Matt, some great comments came out of this guy’s mouth. Hilarious. Throughout Monday we did a lot of heavy lifting, taking existing concrete and brick out to the dumpster periodically and empting the smaller trash cans into it. It's hard work. We were both sore the next couple days from lifting so much.

Throughout Monday-Wednesday about we were working in the restaurant doing demolition and organizing things. The work crew has a spot in the parking garage a little ways down the "street" that we are storing all the appliances and chairs/tables and what not in. We actual spent a lot of time moving the existing appliances/chefs tables/everything out of the old kitchen to make room for the new one to this space down in the parking garage. This stuff is heave and expensive so we had to be careful moving it all the way down there. The fridge which was about 8 feet tall was especially hard because it could tip easily, as well as the stoves and other things because they were so heavy. After doing all this we continued cleaning the area up and filling up dumpster after dumpster. You wouldn't believe how many dumpsters you go through gutting out an existing restaurant. In the days we have been there we have gone through at least 2 huge dumpsters a day. And some days the crew would begin work at 4a.m. and be done with one before we even got there at 8:30.

Later in the week we were meeting our sponsor, Rick Doody, the owner/president of Brio/Bravo! Restaurant Group at the new restaurant and talked there for a little with him. Then we would work for a few hours while Rick went into a meeting or interview. For example while we were working, Rick went over to Caribou for a nice coffee and interview with a prospective executive chef for the new restaurant project. The chef was a real nice guy. What we did later in the week also was go back to the corporate office and meet Rick there.

Wednesday we went to the office for the first time and met part of the team that runs BBRG (Brio/Bravo! Restaurant group). On the first day we had a long talk with Rick about the restaurant business in general and how he got his start. It was really interesting. He told us the story of how his mom and dad started a restaurant called Lindy's in Columbus, a very successful restaurant that has now been thriving for 30 years. Anyway, after graduating from OWU he went on to live in Italy for a year. This is where he was inspired to go into the restaurant industry. After being given amazing food and wine every night while being there and realizing that in Italy, it's all about the food. So he brought that idea back and 10 years later after perfecting the business out came BBRG. To Be Continued...