Big things dont come easy

We knew it is not going to be easy opening up in a month with everything, but everyday, we achieve something and we are happy about, and then just something happens that makes it difficult again. It has been intense today, we sorted out Scotts license for djing on Saturday, basically we got help from Zaj DJ so we did it in a short notice, we got a permit for 24 hours. After we got this done, we had the Dreher representative coming over to sign all the papers. Actually we are very happy to go with this company and Norbi is very nice and helpful with everything. He has been here for about an hour, we even talked about the future of the business and what they can offer. 

All went relatively well today, there is still so much for tomorrow, but we are getting there and we would be able to open right now as we have everything. I dont think my mind is able to understand that this place is going to be open in about 36 hours haha. 

The missing fridge

So, as I said, we had some complications today. All the equipment we get from the drink supplier companies come quite last minute, but today we found out, that although we started straight away with Coca Cola, they still not going to be able to deliver our fridges for the opening. Well, it is a very big disappointment for us, as we were expecting it tomorrow and now we dont have a drink fridge apart from our own one, since we have the Dreher fridges coming in next week. So, Scott wasnt happy about the situation, we looked up other options for us, and we finally found an advertisement with a very nice small fridge, it is only that this was again not in our budget before and now we have new expenses again just before the opening. Somehow we will try to have Coca Cola compensate us for this, as this is a very big let down towards our business, and letting us know just 36 hours before the opening is even worse.

So this is where we stand now, tomorrow is the busiest day ever, we have to get everything sorted what is left, small things like fire signs and drink measurer to getting the beer taps in. It should be the most interesting day so far, and I can say that I am quite excited and nervous about Saturday. But it should be all fine, we came so far!!! 

Quick Chat Part 9 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfLEFUj1L0I

News Just In

News Just In we have passed our Bar Sound Check With The best results ever and received our official papers today!!!!!!!

Where to start?

It is overwhelming how much happens everyday, and as are getting closer to the big day, it is just getting more and more intense. To be honest it is really hard even to think back what happened the previous day, and I mix the events up as well sometimes. Anyway, yesterday we came to the bar early, we expected our first drink delivery from Raiker, which is one of the biggest drinks supplier in Hungary. First in the morning we had to sort out our finances to know how much we have exactly and how much we can still spend, as you know, the first drink order is quite a big amount, so we had to spend a lot on it. It wasnt easy in the morning, to be honest almost everyday I have to deal with the pressure of spending so much money on opening up the bar. But once it is open I will see the results and I can finally work...

So, for the first time we got the drinks, and we even had a problem with one of the wines, we didnt get the one we ordered, but got a probably 10 times more expensive one, and although it was beautiful, I had to send it back to the drink supplier. But it was such a nice feeling to have all the drinks coming in, we have the vodkas, wines, all the main liqueurs that are not coming from Coca Cola. Scott still cant give up his everyday painting routine, so yesterday he finished the very last bit of the bar, so now even the office door has a new look. I really wish I could put pictures on of it, because it looks amazing, but we still dont have our camera working, and we can only get it fixed later. In a way it is good, because everyone is going to see the final results on the opening. It seems unreal that two days from now we are opening, but it is so exciting, seriously I cant wait for it!! To see all the people we know here, after you guys following our journey from the beginning till here. To be honest, I think I can say this for the both of us, when we left Vienna, we said, we give ourselves this summer to set up the business and start working, maybe we relax a little bit, go for some summer festivals, and yet here we are on the 1st of June, done with everything and we have a bar that can be open 2 days from now. It is unbelievable what we achieved...

Best with Baileys:)!

So, there were still some things we had to take care of, I went to get our till and yesterday we already put it on the bar, it is so funny that it is ours. These are the very final things we are doing. We had to talk to a lot of people yesterday, make sure that we have all the drinks, all the order correct and we get the needed promotional stuff in time. This is a bit last minute, but we are getting everything tomorrow. So it is going to be a very busy day. We had the Artisjus guy coming over yesterday and he said they checked our videos in the office and they all really liked it, he loves the idea of the bar. We even got the discount of them, as we reported them, that we are opening. It is not cheap to have the TV and radio on everyday, but this is also a cost you have to calculate with. This way at least we were able to reduce the price a bit. After he left, we had the soda company coming here, and I think they come today to put up their system for the soda. That is going to be the first not bottle drink in the bar so far:). Everything else is left for tomorrow. We finally had our visit from the insurance company, so now we are totally secured, maybe Scott can relax a bit as well:)! 

Scotts dream soda gun:)

We got almost everything done during the day, and we were expecting one of our first customers in the bar, my 2 friends, Dori and Viki came for a visit. It is very cool to have people around and see their reaction to what we have done and it looks like it is going to be a perfect place for people to hang out and have fun. After Viki left, two of Scotts friends came around as well, they are both Swedish and Scott knows them from Vienna. They are coming for the opening, but now they went home, they just had a night in Budapest yesterday as well. So already the bar is very international:)! Scott said, that he had to tell a lot of people on the street last night that we are not open yet, because they wanted to come in...

I guess it is a good sign:)!

Today, basically we have to wit, which is not very nice, but we can still do some stuff, like getting the menus printed and get all of the paperwork in order for the accountant and for us too. In just 2 months we were able to build up so many contracts, we got thousands of receipts, so we have to be very careful and dont loose track of the administration. Tomorrow is the big day drink wise and we have another visit from Vienna, our ex co worker, Jakob is coming here, so it should be a lot of fun tomorrow night!

Now we only have to sleep two more nights before we open up to the big public:)!!!

Every box ticked, we are ready to go!

Its a weird feeling now, that all the stress of opening a new business has been lifted up off our shoulders (I have no doubts for more to come, but for now...). Last night we got a nice guest, Ancsa came around to 

check the bar, which is almost done, still apart from the drinks. It is always so nice to have someone round  it actually feels like a proper place. Otherwise, it was our home for the last couple of weeks, we lived it and breathed it as Scott would say. He passed out, than we came home, but we still had no time to make this place comfortable, basically we have nothing here apart from our clothes. Hopefully next month we will have some time for that as well. 

This morning we went back to the bar early, since we were expecting Zsuzsi, who did our HACCP report. Scott was worried, as he wanted the bar to be up to the highest standard. Yeah, we could have cut corners, and delay a couple of things for after the opening, but we wanted to be all legit before start working, and it was very important for us to feel that we dont have to worry, whoever comes around to check on any of our papers. Its true, that the first reactions we got from the neighbours encouraged us to do everything on a professional level. It was unfortunate that they judged us before they get to know us, but now it became more quiet, we dont have that many people from the building checking on us, and once we open, they can come in and see what the place is about. 

We made all the changes in the bar to get the hygiene check done, and I think we did well, because almost everything was perfect apart from a few signs we have to put up concerning the fire safety law. One more thing we needed was a new fire extinguisher, so we had someone coming out to check it, changed the old one to a new one, and we was told where to put the  emergency exit signs, so no need to worry, from now on everyone is going to be safe in our bar:)!

Before this, we made a trip to the store that sells these sign, but unfortunately one of them was closed, and had to travel all the way to the other side of the city to get them ordered. On the way we walked by the Artisjus, which is basically the place that is reliable for copyright music and for public places to pay for showing TV and listening to music. Someone told us before it is best just to let them come out when they come out, but then we realised, if you dont report yourself, you have to pay for the previous time as well and we are too much in the centre, we cant really hide for long. Anyway, they appreciated this, and they come out tomorrow to check the place. 

The last thing for today was to get the drinks ordered. It was the first time for me to do this, and I went through it a couple of times, calculated the prices and so on before we placed the order. But I think I can get used to it, although probably the first order is the biggest one. Tomorrow we have all the spirits coming in, and Thursday morning we have all the Coca Cola products delivered. It is a very weird feeling that we are done now, and we only have to wait till Saturday, for everyone to come in and have all those people from everywhere around the world and a lot of Hungarians in the same place, at our bar opening:)! Feels very nice:)!! After I was done, Scott was still busy with making some changes to the entrance. As you know, we dont want to put any more pictures on, we want to keep it a secret till we open, but I can say, it looks different than just a week ago, and cant wait for everyone to see it. One word: intense:)!!

Tomorrow we have many people coming around again, Dreher, getting the one year

Beer contract official, Artisjus, insurance, we have to go to the bank, to T-Mobile, getting the last bits in order for the weekend. Tonight is quite relaxing, I am happy, because we slowed down a bit, I had time for a nice run, and even Scott left the bar before 8pm. Of course we get up early tomorrow again, but at least we know we can leave the bar sometimes:)!! Only 3 more days, and we see all of you on the opening!!!  

Excited!!!

Thats how many days we have left till opening

Dont even know where to start this week, there is still so much left to do, but slowly it comes together. The decoration and furniture is fully done now, nothing else to do with it, but setting up the bar is all happening this week. It is going to very busy, I hope we still have some energy for Saturday:)! And, we cant forget, that Saturday is only the first day of so many ahead, no more free days for a while, thats for sure, but it a very nice feeling to come here in the morning, so we dont mind. Yesterday afternoon was our last relaxing afternoon, from now it is going to be non stop. 

The doctor is coming today to check us, so we can have a health permit, and the electrician is on his way here, to put the last bit of the bar in. We have the drink supplier coming in at 2pm, so we can finalise the drink order with everybody, and we can start printing them off. We will keep you guys updated, have a nice day for everyone:)!!

First night away

Small hint of the new entrance design 

I owe you guys an apology for not writing the blog every night, but it is so busy at the moment, that I had no time. It is all okay, I will keep everyone updated as soon as I can, and only 6 days away from now we will see (almost) everyone in person:)! So, yesterday in the morning, Scott was up at his usual hour and he packed all our stuff ready to go, and we were a lot more relaxed knowing that the dogs are going to be out of here. At 10 am, we met the couple in the flat and signed all the papers, so we officially rent the property for a year now:). Every time I go this flat I feel like I am going home, and we have nothing there yet, just all the clothes packed up. It hasnt been easy moving this much, and opening up a business, but it seems like it is still possible. After getting the paperwork done, we came back to the bar, grabbed the dogs and some bags and went back to settle them finally. I think this chaos lifestyle we have been living effected the dogs too, they acted very strange sometimes and we couldnt calm them down. Anyway, now they have a big area in the kitchen and in the front room, and they look like they love it:). After all this time, it is weird not having them around all the time, but it is for the best. 

After this, my brother came to pick us up and he took us to our last IKEA and DIY trip, where we got all the stuff we needed, we bought the last bits of the furniture, glasses, knives etc, so the bar in this case is ready! We had to get fake tiles for the toilets, so all the walls have washable surface. There are so many things that we havnt even thought about before, this way we just realised, that we wouldnt have been able to open any bigger venue. All the way we have been very lucky and everything turned out the way it should be in such a short period of time. We got new tables and seats, so at the moment we are able to seat more than 20 people, and we still have place in the bar for others to hang around:). Scott did the entrance such a cool and unique way, it looks beautiful, and in a way, it is bad, that our camera is not working, but on the other hand this way we can keep it a secret:). Otherwise we are too excited, and just want to show it to everyone now! I had fun at the same time, putting all the chairs and tables together from IKEA haha. But after we were finished, it looked like a bar. Although we are still lack of drinks, but we know that we are ready with everything else, so we can go into next week just finalising the rest of the stuff we need to do. 

Special thanks for Howie
from Black Flamingo Marketing

At about midnight I wanted to go back to the flat, because I wanted to take the dogs for a walk and I knew that there is no bed, so we have to come up with something where we can sleep on. We decided that we are not going bring back the dogs till the opening, since they cant behave and ruined already a lot of our new stuff, so it is just best to have them in the flat, where they cant do anything and just sleep when we are not there. This was probably the biggest challenge Scott had to face since we are here, leave the bar for a night, knowing that everything is here, literally all whole life and work is in here at the moment. Although we have an alarm system and insurance, it was still not easy for him, but a shower sounded too good not to go back to the flat. After basically living here for over 3 weeks, it was weird going somewhere else, but sometimes we have to get away from here and maybe eventually there is going to be a time when Scott can leave the bar without freaking out:).

We thought about having a security guard here for the opening, just in case, and then when we have to shut the doors at 10pm, we can have all our friends in for a private party and go on till we can. I went to the security guards in Alterego, but it is not as easy as I thought it would be, so we would have to go through an agency, and probably it would cost a lot of money (he didnt want to tell me how much they earn), so we said, we dont really need it, I think it would look a bit weird having a guard in front of a nice and friendly bar. 

First sample!!

Scotts friend Howie from England, who did our logo and all of our posters sent over the first version of our drink menus, and we love it. It represents the bar so well, he did such a professional work through the whole project, so special thanks to Howie:)!!

The next thing was, that we really didnt have a bed and all our stuff was in the washing, so I am not proud to say, but we slept on the floor with our clothes under us and not only it was very uncomfortable but it was really cold as well, so I kept waking up every half an hour, till about 6am, when Scott came back to the bar and then finally I slept a bit more with the dogs, took them out for a walk, did some washing and come back to Lost. But as I entered, it felt different, now I see it how it is going to look like and I love it. I can really imagine us coming to work here everyday, only with a big difference, that this place is ours. Such a nice feeling... In the morning as I said, Scott finished the entrance wall, it is probably his best work so far, just gives the final touch to the place, without his ideas, speed and creativity, this place wouldnt be the same. For today, we have some things to do, hopefully my mom is going to come around, as they visit my sister in London tomorrow, so they are not going to be here for the opening, but they have really been part of this project. This is one of the goals of Lost, to work together with other people and we cant say enough how thankful we are for everyone for their support, and in return we can offer you one of the most unique bar in the city! We are more than happy to see everyone as much as possible. In the past few weeks, although we had no time to meet anyone outside of here, but it felt very nice to have so many people coming around and be interested in what we are doing. With tomorrow we start the last week of the project, it is not going to be an easy week for us, but at least we know, that we can open on Saturday! Not long now and the next level of the journey begins....

Last 7 days

It is all happening now, after all the hard work on the bar in the past 25 days, we are opening in just a week. Every day is so eventful, and goes by very quick, we meet a lot of people and we try to get as much done as possible, but it feels like there is not enough time in a day. This morning we were waiting for our new beer supplier, the representative from Dreher. Who we already met before when we got here, but after that we thought Heineken would be a better brand for our bar, only because of the foreigner customers. Unfortunately as we said before, that didnt go very well, so were stuck here 8 days before we want to open, with no beer in the bar. This is when we decided to meet him again, and we can say that we are very lucky that it turned out this way. He came around this morning and we went through everything, our ideas, what they can offer and a lot more. This contract is going to be for a year and after that we can see how the bar was doing, how much beer we can sell on average, so it will be easier to plan with the following year. Anyway, he was really nice and helpful, and he has to do his best, but we have the beer coming in on Friday. Very last minute of us:)...

Template for our Friday nights!

As you know as well, the Coca Cola fridges are going to be here the day before, so the schedule is a bit tight but it should be all right. We had an unfortunate accident with Scotts bank card, because about a week ago Ruby got his wallet, and she damaged it with a couple of notes too, so we cant use his card at the moment, and mine went missing for two days, so we have to go every time to the bank and take money out in person. We really need to sort ourselves out after we open, because our stuff is all over the place, and sometimes we really feel very unorganised. It is

hard to keep up with the speed we are opening. 

The electrician is coming on Monday, to set the rest of the lamps in the bar and he is going to do the bar as well, so on Monday everything should be ready for the drinks. We need a few stuff tomorrow from IKEA and the DIY store, but this should be our last trip till next week. Every day new things come across, things we havnt thought of, so we need to finish with everything before we open. But no worries, we are doing very well:).

One of my friends was here today to help me with the wine selection, because although I really like wine, I am not at all an expert and dont really know what to get, but we know that we only want quality drinks in our bar. So, we got some good tips, and he also going to help me with the order as he knows a lot of people in the wine industry. 

Scott had his dream come true today, as he bought the old Super Nintendo from 1992 with two games that he loved: Super Mario Cart and Royal Rumble. I almost forgot how annoying their background music is, but apart from that I am sure a lot of people is going to love it!!

Our days already packed for next week, I never thought this is going to happen with me, but I bought a calendar and it is full till the opening. We still have a health check, the fire safety, all the drinks, getting the toilets done, moving tomorrow to the new flat and the list is almost never ending. At least tomorrow morning we can have the new flat, so the dogs dont have to be in the bar anymore, which is going to be a lot easier. We thought that it is going to be easier with them and we can get them involved once we are open, but having them around here for the past time just proved that we are wrong about it. We have to come up with a system how we are going to do the next week, but I really want to pay enough attention to the dogs, because this past couple of months wasnt easy for them either. 

Fingers crossed everything is going to go well, but soon we can meet you all and celebrate:)!! Enjoy the weekend!!

Quick Chat Part 8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHSYUYw_am4&feature=share