"Adventures in Permitting" or "When Will You be Open?"

Me when people ask me when we will be open....

So, this is the big question. Everyday I have friends, family, neighbors and strangers asking me "How's the bakery coming?" and "When will it be open?" Sadly, I still don't have a concrete answer. I really truly wish I did.  If you've ever seen the movie The money pit then you'll recognize the refrain "two weeks." That's how I feel right now (only for me its 2 months). It sounds naive to say that this project is taking me longer than I expected, but it is. It turns out that when you decide to open your own business (and particularly when you want to make sure all the proper paper work/permits/licenses are accounted for) it takes a long time!

  We've encountered a few things that have slowed us down, I'm sure there will be more, but this is what's happened so far.  The first thing we needed to do was to gain a zoning variance. Now, in Philadelphia, what this means is that our shop wasn't originally zoned for food production, just for general retail. We needed to get a variance that would allow us to set up what is technically something of a take out restaurant to allow for food production and sales. In order to get that variance, the most important step is getting support from the community, then you take that letter of support to a zoning hearing and you plead your case.
   Sounds pretty easy, right? Not quite, you can get turned down for the variance if the neighborhood doesn't support you or if you aren't prepared to plead your case.  I had it from some good sources that we would probably get the variance, but it wasn't a guarantee. Still, we loved the little store front we found so much that we were willing to take a gamble on getting the variance. You also need a lawyer to represent you and you need to file a bunch of stuff in order to get a rejection from the zoning board before you can appeal and try to get your variance. Unfortunately, all of this takes time and all of that time is measured in the dreaded "business days" as in, "we will get back to in 30 business days." So, this was several months of anxiously awaiting what the community and the zoning board would say.
  The great news is that it all went really well! We gained community support and were successfully granted our zoning variance. Thankfully we have a great design team that put together a beautiful set of plans and a great lawyer who was super thorough and organized! As of early April, we had officially completed the first step of opening our shop. The next step was getting health department plan approved by the city's health department.

I always picture the health inspector from Ratatouille!

  More paperwork. For this part, we supplied the health department with all of our plans for our buildout. This included every last detail down to the type of paint we intend to us. We also supplied them with the spec. sheets for our equipment, our menu list, our ingredients and recipes and our sanitation plan. Luckily, Sean is an expert on sanitation and we both recently brushed up on our food safety certification with straight A's! Now, it may sound like I am complaining about this process, but it's really important, the last thing you want to do is start construction only to find out that your plans aren't up to the health code and you need to re-arrange all your plumbing or something like that! It's much better to be able to make changes on paper than to have to rip-out equipment and start over! Also, great news, we were approved without having to make any major changes! Thanks City of Philadelphia Department of Health!
  Once that step was complete, we could move on to the next stage of paperwork and permits. This is where we are now. We have our awesome contractor selected and he's working hard to get all the building/plumbing/electrical permits in to the city so that we can make sure all our construction is safe and sound! Hopefully, those will arrive in the next few days and we can start working on the space itself! When that day comes, I will probably run around my house screaming with joy and then eat about 10 celebratory chocolate chip cookies!

Me celebrating work starting on the space!

  From there, it will hopefully just be a few short weeks before work is done, equipment is in, the place is sparkling clean and we can do our final health inspection with the city.  As important as all the proper permitting and licensing is, I really just want to get into my kitchen and bake! In the mean time, we are testing recipes at home, making cakes for friends and family, and working on the back-office type stuff. Employee handbooks, uniforms, photo albums, websites and anything else a business owner has to do in order to allow them operate a successful business.
  So, if you're thinking of opening a bakery business, be prepared for a lot to time and energy spent outside of the kitchen before you can even get into your kitchen! Also, never give anyone an estimate of when you will be open, because you may have to eat your words over again.