The little Banzinis start today at 1 pm with staff orientation and paper work. We move into staff training at full speed tomorrow (and cleaning, always more cleaning). We serve invitation only lunch on Wed, Thu, Fri and we serve invitation supper on Thu and Fri.

Then, we open to the public on Saturday, Aug 31 at 11:30 AM.

There is one possible bottleneck – Fire and Health inspections. Both need to be done this week. The City has been fantastic throughout and I am confident that this will happen. Truthfully, I debated at some length whether to wait until ALL the ducks were in a row but decided to gamble on getting it done before Aug 31 (I really need it done by Wednesday to make all the pieces click) for a couple of reasons. First is that I have lots of students on staff and, for their sake, I could not afford to wait another week and go past Labour Day. Second, after eight months of construction I can’t wait. Emotionally, I need to move to the next phase of the operation and start serving people the Flying Banzini experience.

What if they are not done on time? I will open Saturday and continue to be free and by invitation only.

Other small obstacles – ice machine is not working. Electrical for roast holding cabinet and ice machine needs to be changed. And, I think that’s it. At least that’s it for big items.

It’s not likely that the six seat sidewalk patio will be installed by Saturday as the City did receive three “letters of concern” from the community. I feel confident that I can put those concerns to rest as it really is a tiny patio in front of a restaurant (not a bar) that is only open until 10 PM. Yesterday we had the front windows open for much of the day with the sound system marching through its paces and even when quite loud in the restaurant, you can barely hear it on the street. I can say with confidence that my patio is for a lovely cheesecake break on a cool evening. My liquor license will not extend to the patio until next spring. And, even then, I am a beer and wine only restaruant, not a bar. Well, that’s the way I see it and I hope the neighbours do as well.

There seem to be a million small details that still need work but for those I have until Saturday (I am hoping that free diners will be forgiving). And, I am willing to open without everything being absolutely perfect as long as the big items are correct – particularly the food.

Thanks for all of the kind words. The Flying Banzini is finally set to arrive.
Dave