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Spaulding Smails

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Everything posted by Spaulding Smails

  1. Both prime location and big space. 6,800 SF including FOH and BOH. Plus a ton of parking which is a huge draw given their location. They already did a ton of take-out, so while this will sting, it won't put them under. They're already front-of-mind for a big customer base.
  2. I'm a (very small) investor in a restaurant. They can be cash cows when run properly, but rent can be a big nut every month, especially if they have big front-end tenant improvement investments. The restaurant I'm an investor in has rent of about $13K/mo. Equipment lease is another $5K/mo. $25K/mo in debt service. Over $50K/mo in non-controllable expenses. $100K/mo in break-even revenue is light for a larger restaurant. Needless to say, I'm not expecting a distribution next January for 2020 profits.
  3. That is solid all the way around. Good moral decision. Good business decision. Well done.
  4. You are spot on. I've tried to be decisive and proactive without conveying fear or anxiety. Easier said than done, but I think we'll be a better company WHEN (not if) we weather this storm. I keep telling myself that I have 65 families counting on sound business decisions. I'm taking every business decision incredibly seriously right now.
  5. We arrived in Telluride Saturday afternoon. Shortly after checking into the hotel, we found out the mountain was closing. We were supposed to be in our hotel for a night, then switch to a VRBO. We were able to reschedule the VRBO to next year. Spent one more night in Telluride. Driving back to Texas now. Telluride was a ghost town last night.
  6. I'm a small business owner in Austin. We're in construction and facility maintenance. Luckily, we have a strong balance sheet, and we're diverse enough in what we do to be able to move the chess pieces around to keep our current workforce busy and productive. We have a strong backlog, but I'm definitely worried. I think the next few weeks are going to be crucial, but I'm now shifting our forecast to show a big dip in revenue in Q2 as we see some of our short-term projects put on hold or cancel completely. I put a hiring freeze in place Thursday and we're suspending pay raises for the next 30 days as things shake out. We also put strict guidelines in place to limit overtime. Our banker reached out to me this morning offering to up our line of credit. I'm actively shifting some of our strategies to boost cash flow. We've always paid vendors early, but we're going to push that envelope as far as possible to build up a bigger cash reserve. All that being said, I'm scared to death.
  7. Thanks @hrmaddie and @0xdeadbeef. I found this online. https://www.runnersworld.com/uk/a775979/4-week-training-plans-for-running-a-fast-mile/ And, yes. Those 400s and 800s seem to be key. I ran three miles at 8:00 pace Monday. Rested for five minutes, then ran a "fast" mile. Came in at 6:20. Wasn't dying, but that was close to max effort. My 1/4 mile splits were roughly 1:40/1:40/1:40/1:20. So, I think I can break 6:00 by the end of the month if I focus on intervals and have a good strategy on race day. Hitting 1200s and 400s today as per the "hard" training plan. Appreciate the insight!
  8. @Brisketexan recipe is perfect and my go to. We occasionally do a slight variation that's the derivative of one of my best fishing trips ever: About 15 years ago, I was down the Lower Laguna Madre at a friend's cabin. Amazing weekend. Perfect weather. Hammered the redfish and trout. Fishing was so good, we decided to stay Sunday night to fish and fish some more Monday morning and roll in to work late that day. We had already eaten most of the groceries we bought, but we had a cooler full of fish, so we weren't going hungry. We didn't have any butter, so we slathered the redfish on the half shell with mayonnaise and covered it with Uncle Chris's steak seasoning, and threw it on the grill. It was finominole. To this day, that's the way my kids prefer their redfish. The mayo pretty much reduces, gives the seasoning something to adhere to, and keeps the fish from drying out. Great happy accident. Blackened redfish is also outstanding. Blackening seasoning (plenty of recipes out there, or buy off the shelf), lots of butter and a super hot cast iron skillet. Serve over dirty rice with a side of fresh green beans. Also, redifsh belly meat is amazing. My favorite part. Just gotta watch out for the bones. I guess all this talk of redfish means I need to get a few filets out of the freezer this weekend!
  9. So, I just bet an employee that I could beat him in a mile.... and I'm giving him a 90 second head start. We've agreed to run March 31. So, essentially a month to prepare. He said he's running 9 min miles right now and running 2-3 miles 3 to 4 times per week. I'm running about 30 miles/week right now, but not really training for anything, just trying to drop a few pounds and get healthier. I'm averaging 7:30/mi on my short runs (< 4 mi) and 8:15/mi on my longer runs (5 - 10 miles). I think I have this in the bag barring a meltdown or some serious improvement by him, but I want to make sure of it. I've trained for marathons and half-marathons in the past, but I don't have any strategy to train for a mile run. Any suggestions on a 30-day training program?
  10. Let me preface this with the fact that I've been married 16 years and I have three kids, so sex can be anything from wild monkey sex to a 5 min quickie. Depends on the situation and available time. My wife does a good job of keeping things fresh, but sometimes it's more of a pressure relief than a drawn-out event. Last week, Aunt Flo was in town, so my wife offered up a BJ. I gladly accepted. Just before beginning, she said, "do you think your mom still gives your dad head?" I'm usually not one to let things distract me, but I gotta admit, this got into my head. I powered through, though. Just took some serious mind shifting.
  11. Our breeder (Classic Labs near Brenham) felt that, in order to get silver, they had (to that point) been too closely bred and that her experience with them was that they were too much of a crap-shoot due to borderline in-breeding. She's a very old-school breeder and was very, very careful with lineages. That was just one breeder, and my wife really wanted a yellow, so it sealed the deal with Murphy. Sounds like you got a great dog! Here's Murphy this last dove season. Dogs make hunting so much more fun.
  12. How old? What's your experience been? I had a chocolate right out of college that lived to 14. Took a few years off from having a dog and thought about getting a silver. The breeder where I got my chocolate lab talked me out of it. I ended up going with a yellow lab, and he's been great. But, damn, those silver labs are good looking dogs.
  13. I'm digging the pedestrian bridge. Looks like they're trying to emulate Pennybacker.
  14. Same spot. Was an Extended Stay Hotel prior to recent demolition.
  15. This. It's so good. And, I actually prefer the taste of Mantuano over the Reserva. Easier to find, and about $5 cheaper, too.
  16. Oreo and Reese's PBC are 50/50 for me. I've tried the Cookie Jar, the Royal flavors, etc. Too much. Oreo and Reese's are just the right blend of mixins and ice cream. I think the flavor of the month in March is the Mint Oreo. Also finominole.
  17. These murders occurred several years before I arrived on the 40 acres, and I vaguely remember it being in the news when Springsteen was arrested, but I never really paid much attention to it. That being said, I picked up "Who Killed These Girls?" by Beverly Lowry last summer. Great read. The book does a solid job of conveying the thought processes and influences of all involved parties including the suspects, the family members, the police, the DA. So many different factors that went into the decisions, but the takeaways I got were how shoddy the police work was, how much forensics and crime scene investigations are now compared to then, and how influential the media and the desire to find ANYONE guilty was on the investigation and subsequent trial.
  18. This is so true. There are a number of legitimate restaurants that cringe playing the delivery game because of the hit on quality that they see when food sits. It affects their reviews and customer satisfaction, and they don't have any way to impact it or improve it. When a customer picks up food from the restaurant, they see that it's hot and fresh. So, if it gets cold or soggy on their 30 min drive home, they seem to understand that's on them. But, when they're paying UberEats to make that 30 min drive, they somehow expect the food to be perfectly fresh and piping hot and take it out on the restaurant when it doesn't hit those marks.
  19. It's hard to give it an exact number since we rolled it in to the initial build. I own a construction company, so I did it myself (no GC fee), and a lot of the work was done by my employees (masonry, countertops). All the stone work went into the masonry budget. Same with electrical and plumbing. I spent $8K on appliances (refrigerator, griddle, burner, charcoal grill) plus stainless cabinet fronts. I'd say the outdoor kitchen was $20-25K give or take, excluding patio cover but including associated masonry work, fire pit, etc. Like I said, you can get a pretty nice setup, including foundation and cover for $35-40K. They do tend to collect dirt and insects. But, I still think it's worth it. I keep knives, platters, etc out there and I like not having to go back inside to wash them.
  20. It's just regular 2-1/4" patio stone (limestone). I had my mason cut it to random sizes. We used a colored mortar (Eldridge Buff from AHI) on both the patio stone and the stone veneer.
  21. Good point on the dishwasher. Same as the garbage disposal. If you're tied in to your sewer line, do it. It's a pain the in ass hand-washing and/or dragging everything inside to clean.
  22. From the perspective of what to get, go with what you know / use from a cooking standpoint. For me, I bypassed the gas grill and went with a built-in charcoal grill. Get an outdoor rated fridge. They're expensive, but if you go with a cheap one that's not rated for outdoors, you may be replacing it every few years. A sink is a must. Small electric on-demand water heater as well. If you have the flexibility to tie in to the house's sewer line, consider adding a garbage disposal. Run plenty of power, too. I added a griddle and a big power burner. Get plenty of under-cabinet storage if you have the room. TV / surround sound goes without saying. That's a healthy budget, and you should be able to get something pretty kick ass. From a brand perspective, there's lots to choose from. Lynx is popular, but expensive. We went with Bull and have been very happy. Bought everything from Four Seasons Outdoors in Driftwood. The owner Will is a good dude and can really help with product selection. I think they do design and even turnkey construction as well now. We had a warranty issue on one of the burners of the griddle, and they took care of it including pro-actively replacing the other two burners that would have eventually failed. Regarding construction, make sure it's either CMU or metal studs. DON'T let anyone use framing (even pressure treated). Consider finishing out the interior of the cabinets if they're not self-contained units. I regret not doing that. The inside of my cabinets are just raw masonry. Not visible to others, but stuff gets dusty when stored in there. I went with galvanized countertops to save money and to match our aesthetics. It goes without saying, but make sure your countertops are durable and won't get too hot (avoid dark colors) in the sun.
  23. Rocha's El Catan Bar & Grill in Laredo serves it. Pretty damn good. Only restaurant I've every seen serve it on the menu.
  24. Also, when we kayak the Devils River, we bring space bags. Wine-in-a-box without the box. Tie a length of paracord to it when we stop for the night and drop it in the river to cool off. Cab in a bag tastes amazing out of a coffee cup.
  25. Captain Morgan and Sprite. Tastes just like cream soda.
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