Part 57 The Final Countdown

Pan lids, a rota and a quiet Christmas

Did you know, if you put a Like at the end of this, your hair will become rather glossy.

Welcome back, all you very special people.

That’s the intro sorted. Let’s go!

Right then, we were going through the legal process of selling a restaurant lease to a chap called Amal. It was going well, we even recommended a builder to Amal, this helped him and also helped us.

We did a number of other things to help Amal, gave him numbers of suppliers, pushed our solicitors to respond quickly, and made sure we were available every time he came to visit us, which was often.

And was that because we’re nice and helpful? Well, partly, but also, and this comes from our property selling experiences, the deal isn’t done until the cash is in the bank. So we made sure that everything was going according to plan, no way were we going to go through all this just to be disappointed again.

And then the day came, after a quick chat with our solicitor, John, he let us know that everything was in order and all we had to do was set a date for completion.

So we did just that.

Now, you have to remember that we were knackered. We’d worked seventeen hour days for three years, we’d modernised a house and we’d been travelling back and forth to London looking for a restaurant.

So as far as we were concerned, the sooner we dropped the restaurant keys into the chubby little hand of Amal, the better.

So we asked John, the solicitor, if we could do the deal the first week in December. This was about three weeks away, we were bursting to stop.

John was a very logical chap, “Well, if the other side are in agreement, then it’s fine with me.”

So, as we had a good rapport with Amal, due to him visiting us once or twice a week to prattle on for half an hour about, well, no idea really, we gave him a call.

“Ahhh, Andrew my friend, how are you?”

He always said we were his friend.

“Yes good thanks Amal, listen, we’re looking at a date for completion.”

It was best to get straight to the point with Amal, one word too many and we could be on the phone for an hour talking about pan lids.

“Well I can come round and discuss it with you if you want.”

“NO NO, it’s ok, we can just agree now.”

“OK my friend, when is good for you?”

“How is Monday the tenth of December, just a few weeks away.”

“Oh that soon? I mean, are you sure?”

We were confused at his hesitation. Surely he wanted to get started on the place. There was a TV to hang and that mirrored bar to build. Was he getting cold feet, had he found another site. Oh no, here we go again.

“What’s wrong Amal, my friend, doesn’t that date work for you?”

“No it’s not that, I don’t mind really, I just thought that you would want to carry on trading over December to get the Christmas cash, and then complete in January.”

“Oh we don’t mind Amal, the tenth is good for us.”

We were desperate to make sure he didn’t change his mind.

“Righto my friend. I’ll confirm with my solicitor and we can organise for me to collect the keys.”

And when I came off the phone, Donna asked me what Amal was going on about, again.

“It’s OK, he hasn’t been peckin’ me head.”

I explained that he assumed that we would want to carry on over Christmas so that we could rake in the Crimbo dosh.

Donna looked confused, “I never even thought of that, never entered my mind.”

And that was a snapshot of how we saw the business back then. Obviously we had to make money, if a business isn’t making money then it’s an expensive hobby. But for us, we were obsessed with shaking off the hemp cobwebs which sat over the vegetarian restaurant world.

So when Amal put the thought of Christmas takings into our minds, it threw us a bit. We hadn’t considered it. The financial element was important, but it took second place to our mission.

However, Amal saw the financial side immediately, he saw business first.

So anyway, we were shattered, so we kept to the tenth of December.

And after solicitors did their expensive agreement, we told each of the team that the tenth was the final day. Well, that was a Monday, so the Saturday before was the last day. Funny thing is, they were chuffed because it meant they would be off work over Christmas. Strange how things work out.

And we carried on for the next few weeks, working at getting better, explaining to customers that we couldn’t take bookings because we wouldn’t be there and preparing for the big shut down.

We planned what would happen with the food, cancelled agreements with supplier contracts and spoke to anyone who sold us anything, what was happening. Some thought we were bonkers for giving up a good business, some were shocked, but they were all a little sad.

And when Donna did the rota, Tricky Vicki and Blackhead asked if they could work the final shift.

And, Cakboy was promised the biggest Cakboy sandwich ever.

Right, that’ll do, can’t be bothered to tell you anymore.

Catch us next week and we tell you what was in that sandwich.

Thanks for reading, Donna and Andrew.