Who: Michael Simpson, an amateur chef who's going from building websites for small businesses to running one himself
What: Leslieville Cheese Market and Fine Foods
Where: Toronto's east end
When: Opening June 17, 2006
Why: Read how Michael got started
Photo gallery: A cheese shop is born (updated on June 16)
Monday, July 31
Epilogue
I'm having a hard time writing this epilogue. Staring at the screen a lot. Maybe I just have nothing to say.
Renee is Michael's No. 1 employee
98% of the people who I talk to about the market tell me that they love cheese. I do too. Getting to know cheese is easy, because it's all about what you like or don't like.
What is more important to my development of the market than my love of cheese is my knowledge and love of food in general. There are thousands of dry-goods food items that people would like to sell me. A sales rep yesterday was pushing me hard to include Fanta in my beverage selection. He seems to really believe that Fanta is an upscale soft drink. I need to be able to keep telling myself that I believe he is wrong. I have to try to establish a direction, a focus, for the entire food experience. The selection becomes "things I like," which is great. But if what I like doesn't appeal to the masses, I won't be in business long. For example, while placing my initial orders, a supplier suggested that I order a case of canned Roma tomatoes from Italy with D.O.P. (government controlled) designation. They would retail for $4.75. I refused unless they had a cheaper option to give my customers. They had a can of tomatoes from Italy that would retail for $1.67. I now have both sitting side by side on the shelf. They have sold equally well.
The Leslieville Cheese Market experience requires that I forgo many of my whims and desires, in the name of affordable choices and efficient business operation. It's not always possible to ignore these things; I have a few items on my shelves that have price tags higher than what I would like, because I love the products. I'm sure I'll get over that if it takes far too long before it comes time to reorder those products.
One thing I have to keep in mind is that despite the fact that I've spent a great deal of my life at the shop over the past four months, the shop is not my life. I have other things to do. I have my life to organize. I left Jeremy at the shop alone yesterday, while I drove around the city and did personal things at home. I felt bad for leaving him to fend for himself. But I'm not sure why. I wasn't home watching TV. Everything I do contributes to me or my business. Working for myself has always caused me to have trouble balancing work and home; more work, less home. Even if I'm at home.
I am learning how lucky I am to have smart people working for me. No doubt everyone who works at the market is smarter than I am. This is the kind of environment that I need to work in, and the fact that it has evolved this way is no coincidence. Decisions around the shop about general shop merchandising and stocking are made by the three of us. Quite often I will call them together to look at one item on a shelf and tell me their thoughts on its possibilities.
Reneé is like one of the pillars of the business. One that I had no idea I would need before I started. I really never know what she's doing, she's just busy getting things done.
Jeremy is the newest full-time staff, hired a few weeks after opening our doors. I didn't mention him at all in the blog because I wasn't really writing the blog at that point. He mentioned that we need to sell potato chips. I don't like them and don't think of them as fine food. But he has a different view and knows higher-end brands that would fit in with the Market. We'll be stocking them soon.
Jeremy has taken over grilled cheese sandwich duties, as the sandwich lady is again no longer with us. He's definitely good at it and makes a sandwich that he would himself enjoy to eat. I commented on the number of roasted red peppers he was using. Instead of having to check up on him and his work, I simply refer him to a sandwich costing sheet taped to the wall in front of the work station. I ask him to bear costs in mind while making sandwiches and periodically check his ingredients on the scale to ensure that we maintain our margin. This is a miniscule example of how I understand Japanese auto factories work. Everyone thinks. Everyone's thoughts matter.
Not caring is the main thing that anyone could do to get fired. If you care and you make a mistake, next time you'll do better.
The Cheese Market is happening. I have to thank so many people for their generous contributions. My dad. My mum. My sister brought me a piece of her favorite cheese and crackers from Vancouver to make sure I stocked them. My friends who promised they would come buy cheese all the time. Thankfully my business plan took no account of my friends' promises. I knew they wouldn't come by quite as often as they said!
Just as important are contributions of creativity. I can make just about anything happen. I need the ideas to make them work. Lori, my girlfriend, I can't thank enough for the simple and brilliant idea that our neighborhood needs a cheese shop. That was the spark. Camille, thanks for blurting out "Grilled Cheese!" a half a second after hearing about the market. I needed someone to blurt it out like that. It's so simple, nobody thought of it. Our grilled cheese are full steam ahead now, and the talk of the town.
A long time ago, when I first met Cole, distributor for my beautiful display case full of artisanal Quebec and Ontario cheeses, he looked at the empty case and said, "You should take out these wire shelves and have wood shelves instead." Recently, Cole dropped by and said, "Those are great wood shelves." He was paying me a compliment for my creativity, forgetting that it was his own. That is a great example of so many things in the store.
I have huge shortcomings, and at the very least I recognize them to myself, if not to everyone else around me. Admitting that my memory is nonexistent, and that I lack creativity, was the impetus for the cheese-marketing ideas website. The site showed an amazing amount of support for the market, first from my friends, then from Globe readers. I'm still getting comments and feedback on that site.
So basically, I take full credit for nothing … and for everything.
Is that what it all boils down to? The ending should be more humble than that. I feel more humble than that. Hell, I'm getting all weepy here as I try to end this blog.
I could trivialize all this by saying that one of the reasons I wanted to have a cheese shop is to be able to indulge myself of my fetish for wood cutting boards. Suddenly it's OK to collect every hunk of wood that I find not nailed down.
But that's too trite an ending.
I do feel humble, and I am really proud of myself. Here it is: I'm really glad that the neighborhood I live in has a really great cheese shop. I'm also really glad that it's mine.
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Updated Monday, July 31 at 10:00 a.m.
A loyal reader of the Cheese Shop Diaries pleads with Michael not to wrap up his blog:
Don't let it end...
As a small business owner, I have thoroughly enjoyed the cheese market blog: the excitement, the exhaustion, the enthusiasm, etc. I would really like to see the blog continue.
Congratulations on a successful business launch!
Take care,
Patti Durand
Mr. Sub
Humboldt, SK
July 11th, 2006
This is my first entry that I have written myself since opening the store. I have been feeling guilty about not getting back to it. But being constantly exhausted makes me feel like I couldn't possibly write a single word. I have been working day and night, quite often all night, to get this market up and running at a level that I am satisfied with. There is more to be done, but the list is becoming less and less urgent.
The first Saturday we were open, we had a crowd spilling out onto the sidewalk. The store was packed all day. A bunch of really great people from the neighbourhood, all curious and excited about the Cheese Market, was there to make sure it was really true. Sunday was the day that all the frustrated people from Saturday came back to try again. Thanks for coming back!
Our revenue on Saturday was a huge $2200. Sunday was $1500. Our revenues have been steadily declining each day! The novelty has worn off. Now we enter the realistic phase, where steady customers from the neighbourhood come and fulfill their cheese requirements on a regular basis. We have stabilized at just under a thousand a day, most days. My business plan financials forecast revenues per day of $200. I was way off. My conservative business plan shows that there was just no way of knowing what would happen. I'm paying for most of my stock C.O.D. This was imposed on me by my suppliers, but I've been enjoying the fact that when everything is paid for in cash, my bank balance becomes my cash flow bottom line. Makes it easy to see if I'm staying afloat.
Leslieville Cheese Market has been open for business for 3 and a half weeks. I thought that I would be less busy after I opened. I have never been so busy in my life. My list of tasks is long. My ability to do them is interrupted by a stream of people who want to give their money to me for my cheese.
After opening for the first Saturday and Sunday, I had to close for Monday and Tuesday to get things together. It was also great to give Renée two days off after working for a week straight. Renée has been amazing. She just happens to be smart, something that's hard to figure out during the hiring process. She has taken ownership of many important tasks, most notably orders. I made my best guess when making the initial orders. It's easy for us to know which cheeses to reorder and how many. But it's tough to keep it all organized, on the computer and on paper, with the wholesale and retail prices. Our filing system is evolving to fit our needs.
Order day for us is Wednesday, where I sell all day and Renée has the day to make all of the phone calls for orders.
We also depended on the advice of my sales reps. Some of them give bad advice thoughtlessly, to increase their sale. Some give good advice on great cheeses and suggest merchandising techniques that are helpful. Nobody could have predicted the extent to which my clientele are demanding high end cheeses. I am literally stuck with two long logs of smoked gruyere and smoked gouda. Both are processed cheese, as are many less expensive smoked cheeses. They are standard sandwich cheeses, but that's not what people are coming in for. When they ask for smoked cheeses they aren't making sandwiches. I have Thunder Oak smoked gouda from a Dutch family in Thunder Bay Ontario. It's three times the price of the smoked gouda log from the factory in Mississauga. I also have Maple smoked cheddar from Manitoba. There are smoke marks on the cheese from sitting on the rack in the smokehouse.
There's a funny thing happening with cheddar. For the first few weeks the oldest white cheddar we had was 3 year. We have a Mapledale 5 year but it is orange. Mapledale makes some of the best cheddar in Ontario. Do you think I can sell that cheese? People ask for 5 year. I tell them I have 5 year. They see the colour, and say they don't want it. I explain that the only difference is the natural food colour annatto, which comes from a seed pod in South America. I tell them that the orange was added to cheddar to indicate export, and since we were getting our cheddar from Quebec way back when, ours was orange while theirs was white. I have just recently received six year old white cheddar with raw milk, which takes care of just about everyone's need for old cheddar. Now there's not a hope in hell of selling that 5 year. It'll have to be the cheddar in the grilled cheese sandwiches.
Epi Breads, on Bayview, has been a hit. I knew they would be. I knew I had found a great baguette ever since I drove up there, went straight for the baguette, and ripped it open. Their Pecan fruit bread sells out the instant we cut up some samples. People are already making their own cheese sandwiches for lunch with the demi baguette. And we have regular customers for the olive loaf. People know that the bread comes in around 11. They swoop down from out of nowhere to get their Epi Bread fix.
Selling cheese is great fun. People come in with open minds. I suggest a cheese and they try it. Then, chances are, they buy it. There aren't many times that someone doesn't like a cheese that I suggest. Two reasons, because I wouldn't suggest a cheese that I don't like, and because cheese is great.
There are cheeses I just need to have people try; the cheese sells itself.
For example:
Italian Asiago. In fact having Italian Asiago makes it difficult to sell the American. I must remember to put American Asiago on sale. We won't be reordering.
Gruyere. I was on a bit of a Gruyere kick for a first few weeks. After about a week I decided that Gruyere is my favorite cheese. It was a tough decision. We sold a quarter wheel in the first week, so I ordered an entire wheel. 70 lbs. The main reason to have a whole wheel is because it looks great having huge wheels of cheese all over the place. We've almost run out of Gruyere again.
Piave. It's a hard Italian cheese, and stravecchio, which means extra old. I took a week to cut in to my wheel of piave, because these hard old cheeses can take 10 minutes to cut in to some times. But I can't sell a cheese if it's not cut. So I finally cut it Sunday late in the afternoon and sold a quarter wheel on the spot, a little bit to all of my customers who were lucky enough to be in the store at the time.
Beemster. Everyone loves Beemster. Even if they've never tried it. I want every customer to try Beemster even if they don't buy any. I want them to associate their first memory of Beemster with the Leslieville Cheese Market.
Crotonese. Italian Sheep's milk. Can't be explained with words.
Last week I forced myself to get to Canadian Tire to buy a cooler for yogurt making. I had always intended to do so, since I've been doing it at home for years. I felt like it was the last thing I had time for. The reason it's important is because the markup is higher, since I'm making it myself from raw materials. It's already paying off, selling twenty tubs of yogurt in the last week.
Selling yogurt is also important because selling more items means having more options. Someone comes in for a half pound of cheese, they leave with a half pound of cheese. Whether they leave with anything else depends on whether I have provided anything else for them to buy. I have found a great supplier of 70 per cent dark chocolate bars. I left 12 by the cash register and sold them all in a few days. They're from Poland, have a beautiful gold foil wrapper, and retail for $2.55. I have amazing Westphalian ham and summer sausage that are great prices and allow me to carry cured meat without dealing with fresh meat. Hot and mild beef pepperettes are a hit, though I'm not making much on them because they have expensive ingredients and my butcher is inflexible with the price. I just saw a billboard for Stella beer that says "We use expensive ingredients and pass the cost on to you." I laughed out loud. Sadly I'm not passing the cost on to anyone. I just ordered 400 more pepperettes.
There are a few companies left in my folder marked "potential distributors." I've mentioned this issue in previous blog entries. One company: Glen Echo Fine Foods. I went to see their warehouse, spent an hour looking at what they have. Told the sales rep/co-owner exactly what I wanted to buy. All I need to know are the prices. She mailed me their entire product list with prices written in beside. I still have that product list. I'm sure their prices are fine. Their price list was the most onerous task in my 'potential' folder. They're violating many conventional sales practices by not following up. It's been so long, I'm actually quite annoyed at them now. Not annoyed enough to not buy anything from them. They must know that I'm open by now. I still want what they have to sell. I just want it three weeks ago. Still not sure when I'll get a chance to call them. I wish they would call me.
There are so many little merchandising details that I know need to be done. I need to write "Artisanal Cheeses from Quebec and Ontario" on my small display case at the front door. I have to get some signs in the window that tell people that I actually sell produce. I've taken on extra retail help to get some of these things done.
My Toronto public health inspector, Mahmud, prescribed one of my large and unexpected tasks. During our first week of operation he came by. He told me that I needed a handwashing sink, separate from the dish sink. It must be bar sink sized to ensure that food items are not being washed in it. Not 8 weeks ago I just pulled out the bar sink in what used to be the doctor's office to install the double sink. Now I have to install a sink beside the sink. He asked me how long I needed to comply, and I foolishly said two weeks. I could have asked for longer. He left us with a conditional pass on the inspection, with a yellow sign in the window.
I decided to install a new counter in the office/prep room and put the sink in that. But before I installed a new counter, there would be no sense not ripping out the grungy old carpet and installing a new laminate floor. It just happened to be on sale at home depot for 99 cents a foot. Two weeks flew by and I hadn't even started the plumbing for the sink. I asked Mahmud for more time and he told me that he wasn't able to change the date that was set, even though I was the one who set it. The inspection day rolled around and I only had the tap holes drilled and the sink lying upside down on the uncut counter. We got a call from Mahmud saying that he wouldn't come until Tuesday. This was perfect because it gave me another Monday, the day we're closed, to finish.
That was yesterday. Sasha came by once again to speed things up. Ironically, I taught Sasha how to do plumbing last year, but he loves it and I hate it. So we did it together and made good time.
While I was at home depot I saw a dishwasher for $218, regular price. I bought it. We installed it last night. Today Mahmud came by to inspect. He was very happy with what had happened since he was last there. We had followed all of his instructions. We earned the green pass. There was one problem, though. The dishwasher. Home models don't have thermometers to ensure that they are achieving the proper temperature for sterilization. I couldn't use it. Since they wouldn't be able to ensure that I wouldn't use it, it must be removed from the premises. I just took it back at 9:45 tonight, it's easier to return things to Home Depot when it's quiet. There was no box, no manual, and I had had it installed. They took it back without a question. Whew!
Now I'm thinking that it's not the dishwasher, but the thermometer that counts. Why buy a two thousand dollar dishwasher when all I need to do is install a meat thermometer in the front door of a home dishwasher? Sounds just crazy enough to work. I'll call him tomorrow.
Today was my big day to start sandwiches. We're combining grilled cheese and cold sandwiches in one effort, by having preset cold sandwiches that can be grilled. The menu is simple. Rosemary and olive oil bread from epi bakery. Westphalian ham and Swiss. Beef summer sausage, tomatoes, and Gruyere. Vegetarian roasted red peppers with fabulous 5 year old Mapledale cheddar. Sides available are an amazing polish pickle, homemade balsamic ketchup, or a mango chutney.
I had found a sandwich maker to come in for a few hours every day before lunch. This morning she was early, I was late. She left a note but was unreachable until she called after lunch. $18 of bread down the toilet. I wasn't mad, but I was pretty sure that she would never work for me. When she called I told her that I didn't think it was going to work out. I had a customer so I told her I would call her back. She didn't expect me to ever call again. I thought about it and decided that she isn't a very good decision maker, and didn't handle the situation very well this morning. That means I shouldn't give her anything to decide. But that doesn't mean she wont be a valuable employee. A few minutes later I called back to ask her if we could start fresh tomorrow.
Well, it's tomorrow now. I'm not a fast writer and that was a lot of writing. It's 4:15 am on Wednesday morning. I've been at it for 10 hours including a nap, shutting the Market down at 7pm, a quick trip to Home Depot at 9:45, and dinner.
I promise that I will write a short epilogue in the next few days. I can promise that because I've just written most of it. But I want to let it mellow before I post it. And maybe I just don't want to stop posting to this blog. This Cheese Market is quite obviously a milestone in my life. What might not be obvious is that this Blog will also go down in my history as a milestone. I will miss it. And I'll miss the feedback and support I receive from Globe readers every day at the Cheese Market.
I'm afraid to send this off to Dawn at the Globe now because I haven't checked my email for 2 weeks. There'll be a a hundred and fifty emails that I'll have to try to ignore tonight.
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Updated Wednesday, July 12 at 4:25 a.m.
Wednesday, June 28
Check out Michael's website, where you'll find information about upcoming cheese classes being offered at the shop.
A reader sends in her own grilled cheese sandwich recipe:
Ooooh, grilled cheese sandwiches in a cheese shop! I have to say that, hands down, the most fantastic grilled cheese sandwich I ever had was from a bakery in Dubai. I believe they used halloumi cheese, slowly broiled on a large fresh pita. They would brush one side of the pita round with olive oil—maybe spiced oil—and lay the cheese slices on top for it to broil in a brick oven. Once the cheese was browned and melt-y they would fold over the sides of the pita and wrap it in paper for you to take and eat—pure heaven. I miss that sandwich to this day. I had my last in April '96. Maybe you could replicate it with your grill? Regardless, you should try it at home. It's wonderful.
Gillian
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Updated Thursday, June 22 at 5:30 p.m.
Thursday, June 22, 12:32 p.m.
Another phone update from Michael at the shop:
We're so busy serving people that we haven't had a chance to do anything. We've got three people working at the shop right now. Renee is amazing. I totally trust her. She brought in a friend, and I hired her, just because Renee knows her. And I put an ad on craigslist.org for help and got five phone calls right away. I said in the ad that I wanted someone who's smart, and a college or university student. The first guy who called is here now—he's a student at the Ontario College of Art and Design.
Opening day was amazing. We did $2,200 in sales, and a lot of people walked away because it was so busy—but they came back on Sunday. There was line-up outside the door at noon on Saturday, when we opened. Customers were flooding onto the sidewalk, the whole store was packed solid all day. Sunday was very busy—we did $1,500.
We closed Monday and Tuesday because I had some refrigeration troubles, with both of the open-front coolers. They were both used, and we didn't have them going for that long, so we didn't know how they'd perform. They were both weak for different reasons. My refrigeration guy replaced the compressor on one for $1,300. But that's still only $2,800 total for that coller, which is way cheaper than buying new. The pre-pack cooler (for pre-packaged cheese and drinks) isn't cold enough. My refrigeration guy said it's low on gas—which means there's a leak, because gas doesn't just disappear. I didn't buy this at auction, so I have a three-month warranty. I told the guy I bought it from that there's a leak. He filled it with gas, he left, it was working great. Twenty-four hours later, it was back to being weak. So obviously it's a leak. Either I can pursue the warranty or have my refrigeration guy look at it. But that costs money.
Renee took the day off on Monday because she was mentally fatigued. Tuesday she was back in, getting everything priced, because we didn't even have everything on the shelves. Now it's all priced, so it's all out on display. Today they're working on getting the olive bar set up better. And I'm going to buy some chilli flakes at the Bulk Barn and make some spiced olives. And I need to hang up my gay pride flag, too. It's Pride this weekend, so I'm guessing it'll be busy.
Note from the editor: I checked out the grand-opening party at the Leslieville Cheese Market on Friday night, and it was packed. You could barely elbow your way to the cheese plates laid out on the counter. Michael, meanwhile, was busy being congratulated by his many guests and trying to get DJ Big League Chu set up at K&S next door. The store looked great, and everyone could barely wait to get their hands on the merchandise.
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Updated Thursday, June 22 at 12:40 p.m.
Thursday, June 22
A brief dispatch from Michael, via telephone:
Things are crazy at the shop. I'm trying to get the shop organized, but we have a constant stream of customers. But I'm not complaining. Yesterday we did really good business—on a Wednesday.
Stay tuned for more about Michael's opening day...
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Updated Thursday, June 22 at 10:07 a.m.
Our desperate cheese lover attempts to describe that perfect Costa Rican cheese she's been searching for:
Ohhhhh, thank you! I hope you can help. Here is my best effort at a description of the Costa Rican cheese: It was very pale yellow. It was a served in a big stainless-steel bowl. The cheese was cut into two-centimetre cubes. The cheese had small holes in it (not small like pin pricks, more like pea-sized holes). It had a very mild taste. It was mildly salty. Its consistency reminded me of cheddar when it is served at room temperature (a little rubbery, a little firm, not creamy, not squeaky or crumbly or soft). Any thoughts? Any questions that might help me describe it better? THANK YOU! Oh to have some more of that cheese!
Deanna
If anyone can help her out, please get in touch!
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Updated Tuesday, June 20 at 12:07 p.m.
Friday, June 16, 4:00 p.m.—last post before the big day
We're preparing like crazy for a big night with wine and cheese at the shop, and next door at K&S restaurant. DJ Big League Chu is slated for 9:00pm till 11:30.
All are welcome to come help us celebrate tonight, at 891 Queen Street East!
Michael
Friday, June 16, 3:45 p.m.
Friday morning there's a river through the middle of the shop. One of the open front coolers is dripping. The condensation pan at the bottom seems to have a leak. I check the temperature and it's low. That's two problems. The produce cooler is cooling down after I plug it in again. It doesn't seem to be getting cold enough either. I ask Tom my dependable refrigeration guy to give me a service call. He says he's in Keswick and might not be able to make it until Monday. He shows up at 11 a.m.
The compressor on the produce cooler is weak. It will have to have a new one. The open-front cheese cooler is low on gas. He says that means there's probably a leak somewhere, since gas doesn't just disappear on its own. It's illegal to add more gas without fixing the leak. I don't have time for this today.
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Updated Friday, June 16 at 3:45 p.m.
Friday, June 16, 3:30 p.m.
Window cleaners come by just in the nick of time. They do a great job, inside and out, for $20. It's a good opportunity to take the paper down and leave it down.
Josh has been promising me a cheese mobile for two months. In the last week he comes through for me, with six hand-carved and painted pieces of cheese. He mounted it in my doorway last night.
My mum helped out a lot yesterday, she and Renée (my new employee) stocked the shelves, pricing everything as they went. Amazing progress was made.
All of my to-do lists and notes are on 8 1/2-by-11 sheets of white laser paper. For the last four weeks I have had five to 10 floating around at any one time. One of those sheets was a list of voice-mail messages, including one, from a woman asking if I could have a cheese plate ready for Saturday. I almost called her about 10 times, then lost the paper. I think I left it in my mum's car, and she drove off to Port Hope for the weekend.
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Updated Friday, June 16 at 3:33 p.m.
Friday, June 16, 3:06 p.m.
Cleared out the extra crap from the front and back rooms. I haven't thrown out anything that might be useful. There's heaps of stuff. Nick took it all to the basement. Technically It's not my basement. Of course, the landlord goes down there once a year, and I suppose he was due to go down there yesterday. He saw the pile of crap and flipped out. He's a nice guy, he flips out in a good way. But I don't blame him for worrying that I'm going to leave him with a basement full of garbage.
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Updated Friday, June 16 at 3:06 p.m.
Friday, June 16, 3:03 p.m.
Michael responds to the desperate cheese lover in search of the perfect South American fromage:
Deanna,
Quit holding out on us—describe your elusive cheese!
People tend to come back from Central America asking for their fresh cheeses. Fresh cheese is unripened soft white cheese. The one that we are most familiar with is ricotta.
Mexicans make a fresh stringy cheese that is fun to play with and eat. Italians make fresh cheeses from which they drain the whey by placing them in wicker baskets. The cheese has a basket weave pattern when they turn it out onto a plate. International Cheese on Mulock in Toronto makes their own fresh Italian-style cheese. You should go out of your way to try it at least once: a slice of fresh cheese with olive oil and salt.
Importing fresh cheese is difficult, since it must be flown here. Also, there isn't much demand for it. Most cheese shops downtown don't stock fresh cheese regularly. Mozzarella di buffala is buffalo milk mozzarella flown directly from Italy. It is an unripened ball and sits in a cup of whey. Bocconcini the way it was meant to be (Bocconcini is unripened mozz). I have two cups of mozzarela di buffala. It will be interesting to see how much demend there will be for them. I haven't priced them yet, but it won't be cheap.
Hope this helps.
Michael
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Updated Friday, June 16 at 3:03 p.m.
Friday, June 16, 2:35 p.m.
Called Kevin the mover. He's a little quiet about the problem with my freezer-not-a-freezer. He has a vested interest in this one, he found it for me and bid on it for me. He came right away to take it back to the auction house.
Friday, June 16
A desperate cheese lover writes:
Hi,
I live North of Toronto in Muskoka. I did, at one time, live in Toronto. While I was living in Toronto I took a trip to Costa Rica, where I had one of those "oh my goodness" moments. I loved the cheese they were serving. They had it every night on their buffet—and I ate huge quantities of it every night (and generally I don't enjoy cheese very much).
Once I got back to Toronto I realized that I hadn't asked for the name of the cheese. Then my quest began....I wrote the resort we stayed at (they wouldn't respond), and I asked friends if they could recognize the cheese by my description. I searched the internet. I haven't had any luck. Then we moved north. There are no cheese shops here. Could you help? If I wrote a description of the cheese, do you think you might be able to help? PLEASE? I loved that cheese, and I think of it waaaay too often.
Thanks,
Deanna
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Updated Friday, June 16 at 11:22 a.m.
Thursday, June 15
An invitation from Michael:
Dear cheese-loving friends,
Sorry I've been worse than usual in keeping in touch with many of you. All my energy (and then some) has been focused on getting the shop up and running.
I'm pleased to announce that the Leslieville Cheese Market will officially open to the public on Saturday, June 17. However, you're invited to the Celebratory Grand Opening Night on Friday, June 16, at 8:00pm (no earlier!). There won't be anything for sale on Friday; it's an opportunity to have a glass of wine, enjoy some cheesy tastings, and check out the new digs.
Festivities will take place at the Leslieville Cheese Market (891 Queen Street East at Logan) and next door at K&S restaurant, which I have reserved.
Our favorite DJ, Big League Chu, will be spinning live. This party will be substituting for the annual rally in the alley. So as usual, please invite everyone, and your attendance is mandatory.
See you there!
Michael
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Updated Thursday, June 15 at 3:55 p.m.
Monday, June 12
On Monday, a refrigeration guy came and looked at my two-door display freezer. I bought it at the Benaco auction for $675. I started it up last week. The temperature wasn't going below 1 C. The guy looked at it and said, "It's working great!" I said "But it's supposed to go to -15." He said "No it's not, this is just a fridge." I pointed at the auction tag still on the front glass, "It says freezer." Predictably, he said, "I don't care what it says."
Too late to call anyone to deal with the freezer fiasco tonight.
My employee started this morning, thank god. She was planning chalk boards and other odd jobs around. Nick came in as well and was scrubbing the racks that go inside the coolers. I'm on the phone non stop, and guiding them at the same time.
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Oops, can't keep going, I'm so tired that I'm dreaming while I sit at my computer. Bed time.
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Updated Tuesday, June 13 at 10:35 a.m.
Sunday June 11
Ordering is almost over. By Friday, the sales reps that had sat down with me either in person or on the phone and walked me through their lists had received my orders. The ones who had let me fend for myself hadn't. I'm not afraid to admit that this is a daunting process for me. It's also not a coincidence that the "Orders Pending" pile consists of the companies with the longest lists. But there are companies with very long lists from whom I have ordered already. Paul at Arla Foods, formerly National Cheese, went through the list with me and worked up an order from a pay phone at No Frills.
There's a food and cheese distributor called Disley Foods. They are quite large in Toronto, though not a huge conglomerate. I met their sales rep before any of the others, about four weeks ago. He's a great guy with some nice food items. I was very happy with him and have every intention of ordering from him. As the last four weeks flew by, with my ear glued to one phone or other, I haven't connected with him. Two weeks ago I called and left a message saying I had every intention of ordering, but that I was swamped with the task of sorting through lists from suppliers. He finally called the other day and said hello. I told him quite honestly what was going on. I told him I need help. But he said that he doesn't like to be pushy. I was practically begging. He said that other sales people will write up orders and be pushy, and I'll end up with things that I don't need. I may end up with the odd thing here and there that I don't need, but hey, man, I can take care of myself. A few too many items may be better than none at all. He let me go from that phone call without ordering, and I still haven't heard from him.
Friday afternoon, I had a guy named Nick come and help out with some of the laborious tasks so that I can concentrate on my lists. Nick is studying linguistics at U of T, so I took advantage off the fact that he is, um, smart. I diverted him from scrubbing the cooler to sitting down beside my desk. I used his mind as a scratch pad of cheeses. We went through the lists for five hours, me on the phone ordering, him organizing, calculating, and just plain remembering. We really kicked ass. I was considering Friday at 5 as my deadline for all of my orders. I only have two companies left to order from. They're organized; all I have to do is call Monday morning.
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Updated Monday, June 12 at 11:10 a.m.
Saturday June 10
Fired up the panini press for the first time. That is a milestone. Grilled cheese at the Cheese Market is one of my favorite aspects of the future business. And the benefits include lots of product testing.
The concept is that it sells more cheese, with little extra effort. I will weigh the sandwich and sell it for the price of the cheese. This concept depends on the fact that it cooks itself. Stick it on the grill, set a timer, and forget about it.
Thankfully I checked the instruction manual, because I wouldn't have known that I had to burn off the industrial lubricants on the cast-iron grill. The instructions said leave it on full for 20 minutes. It took at least 40 for the noxious fumes to stop smoking off the grill. I had one of the tenants upstairs come down, worried. "I can smell it, and I live in apartment 3!" I take it that is some remote corner of the building. "Please don't burn the building down until I move out next month!"
I made the first grilled cheese sandwich ever at the Leslieville Cheese Market. Used a nice washed rind cheese from Quebec, Dournier, and a local Artisanal white bread, baked in a hearth not 500 feet from the shop. That's right, Wonder bread! The result, unbelievable. A little fresh ground pepper to finish it off. While I will have Wonder available, mainly for the kids, don't worry, I'll have some lovely breads from Epi Bakery for the adults.
There will also be a few cured meats like prosciutto, venison summer sausage and nuss schinken. And a few veggies, like grilled red peppers from the antipasto bar.
I'm just generally exhausted these days and find it very difficult to get excited about anything. But I must say I am still very excited about the grilled cheese.
Coincidentally, a woman named Ruth came with samples of her excellent "Hattie's Preserves" apple chutney and green tomato chutney. I had hoped to find some chutneys to serve on the side with the grilled cheese. Here they are!
I'm also going to make my own ketchup, to serve on the side. From tomato paste, not from raw tomatoes. Beats Heinz by a mile. Tomato paste, after all, is a Mother Sauce. Red gravy. And my margin is higher on food I prepare myself.
At the end of the day, Ruth called to break up with me. She decided that she wouldn't be able to maintain supplying me and supplying her own gig at the East York Farmer's Market. I don't actually think my requirements would be that onerous, but I hope she's right.
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Updated Monday, June 12 at 10:56 a.m.
Friday, June 9
Good news! My quest for baguette is over. I've spent weeks looking for a baguette that appeals to my exceedingly high standards. Or my exceedingly self-righteous bias. Or my overly enthusiastic gluttony.
Describe a great baguette: The crust has to be crispy, which requires that it has just recently been baked. But not just that, I think they oil the crust before baking. The inside should be dense, but not too dense. It should smell bready, not yeasty, and the smell should make you salivate.
Well, OK, I know who has the best baguette: ACE Bakery. ACE also has the best marketing and distribution network. I knew this for sure when I saw their custom prefab baguette stand on the main floor of Mt. Sinai Hospital. I don't think less of them for this. But I hoped to find a baker who has equivalent breads, nice logo and packaging, and possibly less supermarket-style brand recognition.
I was very excited about Fred's Bread. Never heard of it, but a few people had mentioned it. I like the name. That's important, it shows they have some flare. Most of their breads are organic. That also excites me. I called and a sales rep came promptly with 18 loves of bread for me to try. I had bought an ACE baguette at Loblaws that morning to compare to. I tried Fred's baguette first, and it wasn't what I was hoping for. In fact it was falling far short. The flesh was airy and the crust was chewy. I had a hard time biting it. I told her that. She told me, "ACE uses more salt and other chemicals, we don't." Not sure what she means by the other chemicals. I'm thinking "Yeah, well…bring on the salt!" Fred's had an amazing olive and chipotle pepper mini loaf. And a subtly sweet walnut loaf with purple flesh (don't know why). Their other loaves were mostly sourdough based, and were quite honestly, all the same and boring. I feel terrible saying this, because I think they are a great company with good ethics and high standards of production quality. But people have to like the end result.
I have been to a local bakery/café called Bonjour Brioche (812 Queen Street East) a number of times. They are typically too busy, so I wished them well and gave up on them. But every once in a while, I have to get their unbelievable chocolate croissants. Honestly, you wont find a better croissant in the world. As the next sortie in my quest for baguette I tried theirs. It was excellent. I love the fact that they are local. Sadly, the owner, whose name escapes me at this moment,
Feeling frustrated, I was grasping for straws. I remembered walking along Bayview around Davisville and popping in to a bakery there. Epi bakery, quite small but well loved by Leasiders. I called the manager Stan, and asked about their breads, and whether they were wholesaling and more importantly, delivering. He was interested in the prospect, as they were just gearing up a delivery route downtown. I told him I would come by in a few days to try out his wares. Of course I jumped in the ranger and was there in 12 minutes. Met Stan and he handed me samples, which I ripped apart with growing enthusiasm. The baguette, amazing. Black olive loaf, full of flavor with big olives all through. The multigrain loaf I quite enjoyed, and I never enjoy multigrain!
My decision was made on the spot. It was quite a relief.
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Updated Friday, June 9 at 4:55 p.m.
Thursday, June 8
Applied for a special occasion permit today for the opening party night, June 16th. I mainly did this because while the music, beer, wine, and cheese will be flowing mostly at the reserved K&S restaurant next door, I expect people will saunter back and forth to the market, beer in hand. I can't condone that. I also can't afford to be shut down for a liquor violation before I open.
Oh yes, Randy from Inniskillin Wines called out of the blue and kindly offered a case of assorted wines for the opening night. I must remember to call and give him some notice.
That reminds me, I must "request" wines for K&S to have on hand that night. They won't be stellar, but we'll try to find a happy medium.
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Updated Friday, June 9 at 9:05 a.m.
Wednesday, June 7
My biggest problem right now, and the source of another 100 phone calls, is air conditioning. The electrician finished the 200-amp upgrade just in time for the heat wave last week. So I try the A/C, and it doesn't work. It's hard to even get someone to show up to look at it. A guy came today and told me that the compressor's dead. He said he would replace the whole unit for $4,000, including installation. The compressor alone is $1,500, but he won't replace it—it's too much trouble.
I have five refrigerators. They won't work without the A/C working. Refrigeration guys are affected by the heat wave also. The machinery needs to do a lot more work. My big display case has an external compressor in the basement that needs to be reconnected. I had one guy lined up who cancelled every day for a week. He finally came last night. My small display case needs the compressor replaced. Not sure if he will have time to look at it when he comes back tonight to finish the big case.
I have calls in with some other A/C people and refrigeration people, to hedge my bets. It's hard to hedge my bets, though, when they won't show up.
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Updated Wednesday, June 7 at 3:39 p.m.
Tuesday, June 6
Went to Home Depot to get the plywood fronts and shelves for my counters. Nice birch plywood is $54 a sheet. I went at a quiet time so that I could get them to cut it up for me there, instead of me doing it on the sidewalk in front of the shop. That worked out well. Last night I installed two shelves inside each counter and some of the fronts.
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Updated Tuesday, June 6 at 9:54 p.m.
Friday, June 2
The Riverdale Art Walk is happening this weekend. It's a well organized event and a great contribution of culture to the city. Details can be found in their catalogue, which has been inserted into every NOW Magazine this week.
I volunteered my space for the Walk, but they didn't have an artist for me. While speaking with one of the organizers, March Gregoroff, I asked if she knew any artists who had paintings of food to put on my walls. Turns out March does. She's not exhibiting in the Walk because she's organizing it. So she brought some very fine paintings of wine, onions, tomatoes and cheese, and we hung them. I'm going to open my door tomorrow, and maybe some people will wander through.
The paintings will remain at the shop and will be for sale.
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Updated Friday, June 2 at 4:21 p.m.
Thursday, June 1
Still on the phone and meeting suppliers during the day. I've got four of five counters built. They still need their countertops. I bought the tops at Ikea yesterday. Up late every night with friends coming to help.
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Updated Friday, June 2 at 4:00 p.m.
Wednesday, May 31
For the past two weeks I've been ramping up my efforts to procure cheese and other comestibles. I have been sitting at the office, on the phone, meeting sales reps, trying to get everything organized on the computer. That's all I've done. For a while there, nothing was changing in the store. I wasn't doing anything to get the space looking like it's supposed to in the end. So last week I started doing more physical tasks after hours, while still arranging meetings and calling people during the day.That's right, I've redoubled my efforts! (Don't get to use that word very often.)
I'm completely exhausted. I was up until 3 a.m. on Monday night running armoured number 12 wire for the 20-amp outlets that are needed, one for each refrigerator. There are counters to be built, shelves to be put together. The refrigerators all need to be leveled. And still I foresee endless phone calls.
As for my efforts to buy cheese, the small companies are great. They call me, arrange meetings, give me samples, walk me through the process of ordering, and give good advice.
I am absolutely shocked at the lack of interest of the big cheese producers/importers/distributors. They take their time getting back to me, if they do at all. I would mention the names of the five or so big companies, but I'd hate to see how they treat me if they don't like me. There's one company, Jan K. Overweel, which I believe (but don't have any way of confirming until I speak with them) is the biggest importer of Gouda made by Frico in Holland. I called them once and waited a week. Then I left a message every day for a week. Then I called and explained my situation to whoever would listen to me. I tried to entice her by telling her that I was opening a cheese shop. How many new cheese shops open every year? She agreed that this could be a good opportunity for her company. The problem was, Overweel just bought another company, and their sales forces had merged. "I would like to have a sales rep call you, but quite honestly I don't know who your sales rep would be." That was three weeks ago.
They know that they have what I need. I suppose it all stems from the fact that we have this crazy quota system for cheese production and importation. I'll have to tell you about that tomorrow because I have to get back to work.
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Updated Wednesday, May 31 at 9:36 a.m.
Tim McConvey writes:
The other day I found myself at Queen and Logan, and saw your store. It immediately caught my attention. I had no idea you had this ongoing dialogue, as well. It will be fun to watch and read both at the same time. I live in the Beaches.
All through school, my two best friends worked at a cheese store called La Maison de Fromage (at Prince Edward and Bloor). It was the neighborhood hotspot and gold mine! There was nothing in the neighborhood (just like your situation), and it was THE place to go—they also did a little catering. They had relatively easy parking, which you have as well!
I just opened a store at my cottage in Gananoque (called One in a 1000). This will be my second week! Enjoy the ride—I realized that the fun was in the startup. My morning alarm never goes off anymore, and I am having a blast.
Enough about me. BEST OF LUCK and I will be in!
Tim
Tuesday, May 30
Since the official opening day is Saturday the 17th of June, I have arranged an opening party for Friday, the 16th of June. The restaurant next door to the Cheese Market is K&S, owned by Sue and Tony. It's got that "local" feel. The food is actually quite good, because they make everything right there. More importantly, they have a liquor license, and beer is $2.75. I have it booked for a private party starting at 8 p.m., till probably midnight. "Private" meaning everyone's invited, especially Globe and Mail Report on [Small] Business Cheese Diaries Blog Readers!
More importantly, the great Toronto DJ Big League Chu has confirmed that he will liven up the night.
There's no turning back.
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Updated Tuesday, May 30 at 10:50 p.m.
Friday, May 26th
Bought a computer over the phone from Sean at OTA Computers on College. There is always a temptation, like a lamb to the slaughter, to call Dell because I see their ads with low, low prices. Each time, I've resisted the urge and called Sean instead. Their prices work out the same after adding in Dell's mandatory $100 delivery fee. It's $600 for a pumped-up Pentium 4 with Windows installed. I call Sean because I trust him not to sell me on anything extra. I call because I trust OTA not to go out of business for warranty service. But mostly I call him because I've seen him every two years for 12 years, and he's remembered my name from the beginning.
I asked Sean how business is these days, considering computers are so damn cheap. He said "terrible." My home computer is five years old, and I don't foresee the need to upgrade it. It's plenty fast, and my new computer for the shop is way too fast.
I bought Windows with the computer. I upgraded my old Pagemaker 6.0 licence to the latest version of Adobe InDesign, to be compatible with my designer and printing company. I'm not spending any more on software and not installing any stolen software.
For Office, I'm extremely happy that OpenOffice.org is finally comparable to Microsoft Office. Sun Microsystems developed it so that they don't need to buy everyone who works for them a copy of Microsoft Whatever. OpenOffice includes a Word-like program, an Excel-like spreadsheet, a Powerpoint-like program and an Access-like database. Photoshop is replaced by GIMP, free photo-manipulation software. Outlook is replaced by Thunderbird. Firefox replaces Internet Explorer. And they're all ZERO DOLLARS.
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Updated Friday, May 26 at 9:05 p.m.
Thursday, May 25th
Call State Farm downtown to try to get business insurance. We go through all of the preliminary imformation that they require. I mention that I have house insurance with another State Farm agent. I don't like him and have no desire to give him more business. But he can keep my house policy. The woman on the phone hesitates. "This may be a problem," she says. "We would have to have you call him and tell him that you want to move your existing insurance over to us. Otherwise he will find out and accuse us of stealing his client." My first reaction is that I have no time for their internal politics. My insurance would be for Leslieville Cheese Market Inc., an entirely discreet entity under the law. I just happen to be the president. If the president of, say, Loblaws, has house insurance with a certain State Farm agent, does Loblaws have to go through the same agent? I think not.
I tell her that I simply don't have time to switch my house insurance over to her office, and I ask her to forget that I had told her about my house insurance. She says no. I say that I'm going to have to call another State Farm agent and not mention my house insurance. She agreed that that's all I could do. We hang up. I call another State Farm agent. $2,200 per year. Not exactly a bargain, which means, that's right, I'm still looking for business insurance.
An annoying P.S.: I get a call from my original State Farm agent. He hears that I'm interested in insuring a new business. I just said "No, I'm not." I have an insurance broker now anyway. Thanks for passing that along, State Farm!
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Updated Thursday, May 25 at 8:45 p.m.
Friday May 19th
Dear Michael,
I have been following your blog in The Globe and Mail , with a personal interest in the cheese as well as from a business point of view as that is a big part of what I do.
Regarding your cheese seminars, I have always wondered why it is always wine and cheese, and am attaching a link to an article that appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle about a year ago. It may be of interest to you.
Regards,
Richard Sakanashi
Thanks for the link. That's a great resource. I am aware of beer/cheese connections. I believe that wine and cheese are held in higher esteem by academia. Cheese experts also tend to be sommeliers. Being a sommelier is not just about knowing wines, but pairing wines with foods.
Will have to find someone to conduct the seminar... need a Toronto beer expert and evangelist to work with me...
Any beer experts out there?
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Updated Friday, May 17 at 3:21 a.m.
Thursday May 18th post script
A new acquaintance of mine, Ron, hangs out at the coffee shop next store. He's a foodie. He has expressed his love for cheese, and is very happy that I'm opening in his hood. His fave is Manchego, which demonstrates his refined taste.
He told me today that on the 17th of May he rushed out of the house and showed up at the shop, only to realize that the sign says "JUNE 17."
A lot of excited people have told me in the last while that they will be my first customer. Sorry folks, Ron's got you all beat.
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Updated Friday, May 17 at 2:52 a.m.
Thursday May 18th
John Lin is my electrician. He was recommended to me by my landlord as being conscientious and inexpensive. He's upgrading the electrical for my unit from 100 amps to 200 amps. He's charging $1,800 plus $400 expenses. $1,800 for commercial electrics is a good price. Once he's done I'll wire up an outlet for each of the refrigerators I have. That's easy.
John told me that his big problem is that his English is terrible. He was right. He said he doesn't like to study English. That's really too bad, because it's hard for me to understand what he's saying. His sentences mostly use Chinese grammar.
The Chinese didn't have cheese, you know. Back in the day, Chinese pizza was a sorry affair. They topped it with as few possible shreds of cheese, which makes sense, considering they hated it. I'm sure that's different now. They probably have Pizza Hut. The adults from China seem to still hate cheese. But the kids are loving it. I have a really good grasp of the Chinese cheese demographic, since I've had to explain the cheese shop concept to Chinese people many, many times in the last month.
Chinese people of a certain age think that cheese smells sickly milky. Which is what Chinese people used to tell me I smelled like (in Taiwan). So it's no wonder they didn't like a lot of cheese on their pizza.
I was having a little in-depth chat with John; he was troubled. Once, a client of his gave him some cheese. His problem: "So...what was I supposed to do with it?" It was still a mystery to him. Wow. Eating cheese recreationally equates to culture shock for some.
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Updated Friday, May 17 at 2:52 a.m.
Wednesday May 17th
I feel like I'm getting behind with the blog. I have posted fairly regularly, I know. But I feel like I'm not covering all the business issues that arise. I've been getting to bed early, collapsing at 10 p.m. Other times I stay up answering the business emails on my home computer that I can't read at the shop during the day. For the past two mornings I've woken up at 6 a.m. This is not normal for me. I lie in bed thinking about electrical work or peeling the vinyl Pepsi logo off the fridge. I get sick of mulling it over again, get up, go to the shop, and do it.
This morning I was chatting with Matt at Mercury Espresso bar from 6:30 to 7:30 a.m. It was a very quiet and pleasant time.
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Updated Friday, May 17 at 2:52 a.m.
Tuesday May 16th
Julia Rogers is a cheese consultant. Her company name is Cheese Culture. She makes her living educating people about cheese. Let's just sum her up by saying "hyper-competent." She'll advise retailers about types of cheeses, storage and serving temperatures, procedures, training employees, etc. She also organizes educational gatherings to educate consumers about cheese. When I met her, I immediately saw that she was much more qualified to teach cheese than me. I asked that she propose some classes with set dates so that we could advertise them even before the opening of the shop.
I was concerned with breaking even, 'cause, well, that's my job. There's the expense of paying her, plus the licence for wine, plus the cost of the cheese. I do have to keep in mind that a seminar with 15 people needs to be economical. Advertising in a magazine can cost hundreds of dollars, but reach thousands of people. That can work out to far less than a dollar to communicate with one person. A young business has limited promotional and advertising dollars.
Julia reminded me that I'll offer a purchase discount to the attendees, so cheese sales at the end of the educational seminar would take care of any short fall. Plus, with Julia's help, we'll meet and get to know many of our future loyal customers. While I do have to keep these fiscal issues in mind, I'm always up for a get-together, and I think these nights are going to be a blast.
Here's the scoop:
Night School for Cheese Fans
Enhance your cheese knowledge and appreciation, while enjoying Leslieville Cheese Market's flavourful wares. Join cheese specialist Julia Rogers of Cheese Culture for a series of fun, tasty and informative classes.
Cheese Families and Flavours, Thursday, June 22, 7 p.m.
How can cheese express thousands of different shapes, forms, aromas and tastes when it's all made of essentially the same ingredient? This class describes the range of cheese families, and explains how production, terroir and aging create flavours. Use professional tasting tools to better assess, remember and tell friends about the fantastic cheeses you'll be sampling.
What's New in Quebec and Ontario Cheese, Thursday, July 6, 7 p.m.
Discover the latest and loveliest local cheeses during this tutored tasting. Learn what it took to turn our Cheddar-centric nation into a mecca for craft cheese producers and consumers. You're guaranteed to leave with enough "new favourites" to inspire a summer of terrific cheese plates.
Classic European Cheese, Thursday, July 20, 7 p.m.
Indulge in savoury treats and fascinating lore from the cheese cultures of Italy, France, England and Spain. Learn about the origins of the world's classic cheeses and taste why they are as popular today as they ever were. If this evening doesn't make history and geography fun, nothing will.
Each one-hour class costs $XX and includes a glass of wine and the opportunity to save XX% on all cheese purchases. Space is limited, so register in advance to avoid disappointment. (I'll insert the exact figures later, when they're available...)
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Updated Tuesday, May 16 at 9:39 a.m.
Monday May 15th
One of the coolers I bought a while back at auction is 44 inches deep. That's wider than any single door on a storefront. My mover, Kevin, arranged to have a glass service come to remove the glass from my front window while they "hump the beast" over the threshold. This is where Kevin earns his keep. It's quite an impressive sight.
There were a few tense moments with the glass, but mostly the glass guys stood around, then went for lunch. They charged $325, which is a far cry from the $1,500 and $675 that I was quoted by "a friend of a friend."
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Updated Monday, May 15 at 12:26 a.m.
Sunday, May 14
I get Sasha started painting the office. I try to look busy and pretend I don't have a hangover. He's not hung over. I credit the fact that he's 10 years younger. He tells me to dab spots on the ceiling from yesterday. Good idea. I take orders quite well from expert painters. The one order he is not foolish enough to give is to tell me to paint.
A woman pops her head in the door. "Hi! How's it's going?" I go to the door and introduce myself. She's Ruth-Anne. "I've been reading your blog. I live in Ottawa, and I had to come see how you're doing." That's dedication! Presumably she's not in Toronto just to visit me.
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Updated Sunday, May 14 at 4:15 p.m.
Saturday, May 13
Sasha came from the Ukraine last year. He helped me with a reno job that I was doing at the time. I taught him how to do electrical and plumbing. Electrical and plumbing are both very easy. All you need to do is ask the electricians and plumbers at Home Depot how to do them. What I would prefer to take credit for is teaching him that they're easy enough for anyone to do. Electrical is child's play and Sasha will readily agree with me on that now. Plumbing he took and mastered. I always hated plumbing because it is far more stressful. Soldering while the water is turned off, one risks burning the place down. Then the water is turned on. Pinhole leaks mean the connection must be soldered again. But the pipe is full of water now, so soldering is not possible. Cut the pipe open and now one has two joints to solder.
Sasha is an ambitious fellow and far more energetic than I. I credit the fact that he is 10 years younger. I try not to compare him with myself 10 years ago. He's been renovating for the last year, while finishing a business English course. He has become a good drywall taper, although nobody likes that job. He seems also to have become an expert painter.
I hate painting and avoid it at all costs. This weekend I asked Sasha for help painting. What that really meant was I needed him to paint while I run around and clean up the spots of paint that he drops. He agreed because we always have a good laugh. And I always have beer in the fridge.
We finished just about everything in the shop on Saturday. Sunday was for touch-ups and the office.
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Updated Monday, May 14 at 10:24 a.m.
Thursday, May 11
I've got four refrigerators in a warehouse right down the street. Mover calls, has to bump the time till later that day. Glass guy can't do it later that day. I call glass places, nobody will work same day service, not even for overtime pay. A glass guy, "friend of a friend," will at least talk to me about it. He's doing me a favour. He says same day after hours he's paying his guys double time for three hours, therefore $1,500. My attitude: "You gotta be kidding me."
"Well I can't do it for less than $675," which is a pretty astounding discount from $1,500.
I call Kevin the mover. His reaction: "That's stupid money. We'll do it tomorrow."
Wednesday, May 10
I had a call yesterday from a woman named Minnie. She'd heard about the Cheese Market by reading the blog. She kept apologizing for calling. She makes and delivers prepared food, and she would like to meet me. I'm happy to meet her, but I didn't get a chance to tell her that I won't be selling fresh prepared foods.
Just met with Minnie. We went into the shop, which is a bloody mess from the painting weekend. She started by telling me that I should call Malcolm at X Business. I asked her (nicely), "Who is Malcom, who are you, and what do you want?" Her answer: "I don't want anything." Hmmm, tricky. She continued, "You've turned into a business man very quickly!" Actually, I was a business man before I was a cheese monger. It certainly makes meetings shorter.
She said that she was looking for drop-off locations for her food. "Hey, THAT'S A GREAT IDEA!" It is a good idea, but I was more excited about finally finding out what she was getting at. So my immediate response was, "I'll need to charge you a few cents for each one." Those were my exact words. A few cents is very reasonable.
"And I'll need something in writing." She asked what I needed in writing. I need everything. Agreements, procedures, information, everything.
She started to pack up to leave. "I'm sorry," she said, "I suppose we don't understand each other, I would have brought you traffic and put you in my newsletter." You're right, I don't understand you! Not until you tell me what it is you want!
I told her that she seems insulted by my asking for payment. She said she wasn't insulted. But the way she was acting made it seem like I would never see her again. I told her that I would be willing to give her a trial period for free, but would still need something in writing. I'm a nice guy; a trial period is a very generous offer! She left very quickly, saying she would e-mail me something in writing. Something in writing is what I should have received before anything else.
Her proposition requires refrigeration space. It also requires staff time interacting with her customers. It also involves stocking and an organizational system. I'm not opening a library. All of this means that when she says she doesn't want anything from me, she's wrong. Will this arrangement be beneficial to her business? Yes. So how is it that she doesn't want something from me? I was starting to get the feeling that she thought she was doing me a favour, and that my wanting small remuneration for service lacked virtue. I guess that's why she refused to admit she wanted anything from me.
I never found out who Malcolm was.
The Good Mother
My mum drove through the city today. She said that on her way through she had to drop off a few things. A few things turned into a carload. A Rubbermaid garbage bin, an extension cord, beautiful hand woven baskets, napkins, toilet paper, and more. To top it all off she brought three huge gift baskets that she and a friend spent a day putting together. They are worth over $100 each. I'll be having promotional draws to give them away, probably using a business card jar to collect people's info. As a grand prize, she has also offered to have people stay at her bed and breakfast for a night in Niagara-on-the-Lake. Thanks, Mum!
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Updated Wednesday, May 10 at 11:24 a.m.
Tuesday, May 9
Going to the auctions to buy refrigeration created a timing problem. Auctions take time and effort, so I would have to buy something on the spot. Until last week the shop wasn't ready for equipment. If I saw something I liked I couldn't buy it unless I had somewhere to put it. Down the avenue at Eastern is a warehouse called Nick's Shipping. Yogi is the owner; it's a small family business that ships exclusively to Greece (416-778-0758). I asked him if he could help out by sparing a 10-foot-by-10-foot space for just over a month. He said yes, and didn't ask for anything in return.
We ended up moving things in three times, and moving the infamous chocolate cooler out once. His generosity was compounded.
I never did call storage companies to find out what they would have charged me for this service, probably because I was afraid of what I would hear. So I don't know how much money he saved me, but I do know how much trouble he saved me.
Let's just say that neighbourly gestures like these don't go without recompense. Further, to publish on a national newspaper's web site whatever reciprocal gesture I might make would violate the spirit of our agreement.
Floor plan
Draft floor plan for refrigeration. Probably the 25th iteration by now, definitely not the last. Have to have a pretty accurate notion of where things will be before the movers arrive. Those coolers are heavy and hard to move. The sheet glass (6 feet wide by 9 feet high) is coming out of the front window to get the biggest one in.
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Updated Tuesday, May 9 at 10:16 a.m.
Thursday, May 4
The neighborhood is developing at a rate far faster than anyone could have predicted, which is causing a quiet clash of class and culture. Example: The planned Starbucks (Report on Business, May 1) will have a negligible impact on the clientele of the coffee shop right across the street. They are mostly welfare and low-income folk who are not on Starbucks' radar.
Last week I had two guys from craigslist.org helping rip out a wall and patch some drywall. A woman walked in to the shop and offered us oral sex for $20. I firmly and politely told her that she shouldn't just walk in; the windows are papered and the store is quite obviously not open yet. She left.
I saw her again on Sunday. The entire left side of her face was purple and yellow. She said that I could have sex with her for $50. I told her I didn't like to see her in that condition, and I wished she would take better care of herself. She said "Alright, $30." I think she missed my point. It made me sad.
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Updated Thursday, May 4 at 10:16 a.m.
Wednesday, May 3
When I first made my cheese shop plans known to my friends, I distributed my web address so that they could post all of their amazing ideas about what they would like to see in a cheese shop. So far, 44 top-notch postings with great ideas. Since my friends are also my target demographic, I have already modified my plans based on this feedback. For example, I will have a small organic vegetable selection, and have purchased an extra open front display case to accommodate.
We were out for dinner with Camille and Alex. They hadn't received my mass email to all my friends, so were surprised by the news of the shop. Camille instantly said "You have to sell grilled cheese. With any kind of cheese." I was shocked. The simplest idea, but the most brilliant. (Well, I just happen to love grilled cheese.) I was so excited I bought a brand spanking new Italian panini grill at Nella Restaurant & Foodservice for $750. It is a beautiful machine.
Called the city. Preparing food can require a licence that ranges from "Restaurant" to "Take-out" to "Refreshments." Will need to adjust my business licence application to include "Refreshments." This classification is based on seating and percentage of sales.
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Updated Wednesday, May 3 at 4:38 p.m
Tuesday, May 2
Posted ads for summer retail help at OCAD, Ryerson and George Brown. Also for artists who would like to hang cheese art on the walls to sell.
"Culinary Arts Students: Are you going to spend your summer chopping parsley at Jack Astor's? Legend has it that Susur Lee worked for a year in a sausage shop. How impressed would a chef (potential employer) be if you were a master of cheese? I am opening a cheese shop in June at Queen and Logan. I need an employee for the summer and longer. You will become a cheese expert. "Cheese sommelier" is a term I've heard bouncing around recently. You don't gain a deep and meaningful relationship with cheese by reading a textbook. I will soon have to start thinking about cheese trays for Christmas. Skillful combinations and artful presentations are needed. Pairing cheddars with chutneys is the latest thing. Maybe you can come up with the next big thing."
Spoke to a guy on the sidewalk in front of the shop. He said he'd just graduated from George Brown Culinary Arts. He said he's working at Value Village until he finds a job in the industry. I asked whether my employment sign will work at George Brown. He said there's no way because George Brown students get jobs before anyone else. He thinks I'd do better at Sheridan.
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Updated Tuesday, May 2 at 10:53 a.m
Thursday, April 27
A week ago, a Ryerson film student and photographer named Kar Wai Ng called. I'd placed an ad at Ryerson's Fine Arts building asking for artists to create cheese- and food-related art. He was interested in contributing. He e-mailed me a link to his design company's website, where I not only saw photos, but logos. I'd never intended to have a logo. But I did need the shop name laid out nicely on business cards and letterhead. I e-mailed him back, asking him to come by the shop to talk about business cards and a few postcard flyers that I'll need designed over the next little while.
When we met, we identified the need for imagery, particularly photos of cheese. I asked him if he had an hour to spare right then. We drove to Alex Farms on the Danforth to buy props for what became a serious photographic undertaking. We left with 14 pieces of cheese worth $125. It is most definitely the most money I have ever spent on cheese. Six weeks from now I'll be spending 50 times that much.
There were a few days of shooting, and some nights of telephone meetings about the direction and tone of the photos. The objective here was to give me a nice little catalogue of photos I could draw on for my advertising needs over the next few years. Today, this objective was easily exceeded, as Kar Wai delivered a folder full of 75 images. The result is a bunch of fun, creative, and technically excellent shots.
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Updated Thursday, April 27 at 4:08 p.m
Wednesday, April 26
The restaurant-equipment auction happens every two weeks at Benaco Sales. A month ago, at the Wednesday viewing for the Thursday auction, the staff told me that a particularly beautiful cold display case would be fine for cheese. Asking was necessary, since the front of the case has the word "Chocolate" on it. I asked a few people who worked there, and they all said it would go down to 4 C. I bought it for $3,100. When I had it delivered, I noticed that the doors were single-pane glass. Most coolers I've seen have double-pane thermo glass at the back. I didn't notice that at the viewing. I called the company that made the unit, QBD, and asked a sales person. Turns out chocolate doesn't need to go less than 13 C. I asked if the unit could be retrofitted to cool lower. He said that there would probably be fogging issues if we did that. He also said the unit conditions the air so that there would be no condensation on the chocolate. A fancy and expensive feature, but not necessary for cheese. I made a quick web page with photos, and called a bunch of chocolate shops in Toronto. As expected, chocolate shops are already set for display cases. I'd have to be lucky enough to find a shop that's opening or expanding.
The auction-house dilemma lies in the fact that these auctions are "as is." Buyer beware. At the same time, when you ask the auction-house employees for advice, they give it to you. They're sincerely helpful and considerate people. So when I called them and told them what had happened, they were very understanding—and they were willing to compensate me for the mix-up. I had to rush the case back to the auction. It will be there this week. Let's hope someone needs it as much as I thought I did. The viewing is today, Wednesday, and the auction is tomorrow. I bought it for $3,100. It retails for $6,081. It's extremely clean, modern, and quite beautiful. I need a chocolatier to be at this auction.
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Updated Wednesday, April 26 at 12:31 p.m
Monday, April 24
Ralston is installing the sign today.
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Updated Tuesday, April 25 at 12:26 a.m
Saturday, April 22, 7 a.m.
Toyed with the idea of getting up earlier, but just lay there. Seven in the morning is pretty damn good. I have to get this done early because I have friends coming at 9 a.m. to help get the vinyl tile down. My brain is totally fried. For the last week I've had trouble remembering things I did just a few minutes before. Sleep deprivation.
Setting up a retail store is perfect for someone with ADD. I have seven tasks on the go at any one time. Jumping from one to another is no problem. As long as I'm working on something, things are getting done.
I brought an old beer fridge from my basement and stocked it with Bohemian (Molson's quite tasty buck-a-beer lager). It's in direct competition with Labatt's buck-a-beer, Lucky Lager, which is almost as good as Bohemian. There's no hope of getting friends to come by and lend a hand unless there's a fridge full of beer. There are quite a few empty cases around now that I really must return.
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Updated Saturday, April 22
Friday, April 21
Drove to Scarborough to pick up the amazing vinyl flooring. Then I had to cook dinner for eight people by 7:30. I foolishly thought that since it was roast beef, I'd have lots of time to do other things. Made braised onions, dijon mushrooms, Yorkshire pudding, mashed potatoes, green beans, and baked apples for dessert. It's actually Saturday morning at 2 a.m. I'm too stressed out to sleep in these days anyway, so I'll get up early and get back on track. I've told myself that I'd get up in the morning and finish something many times in my life. It's never really worked. But I know that it will work tomorrow.
I got a "door hanger" flyer from Cycle Therapy on Queen Street East—a flyer that's shaped like a "do not disturb" sign, the kind you hang on your doorknob in a hotel. They were promoting their new location. I told a friend that I intend to do the same thing. He said he gets door hangers weekly, which rather dilutes the impact of the unique format. But he lives in Leaside. I suppose only Leaside residents were worth the investment in door hangers. Until now.
I also know a guy who delivers flyers for a living, Ray. He's very trustworthy; he helps my dad out on occasion. He does have stiff competition, though. Canada Post is quite economical for flyer distribution. "Unaddressed mail." Just go to the post office and write a list of postal codes to be distributed to.
Thursday, April 20
Went to Value Village across the street from the shop. Needed to buy some spoons for coffee. Ended up with $100 worth of stuff. If you know Value Village, you know that's a big pile of stuff. And I had a 33% off coupon for spending $30 the day before. I found a few retro fondue sets in excellent condition. Outfitted my espresso machine with cups and saucers. A chocolate fondue set, perfect condition and cheap enough to buy on spec.
I found a chalkboard artist on craigslist.org. I got quite a few responses, but only one had direct experience. I called her and it took her two weeks to respond to me. I miss the call and call back. Days go by. I give up and post another ad on craigslist. As soon as the ad goes up, the artist from weeks ago calls. But then she tells me she can't meet for another week. I tell her that I need responsive service and that I'll go with someone else. I got an e-mail from a young professional illustrator named Renee Nault. Looks great. Arrange a meeting for Saturday afternoon. I must make a chalkboard by then.
Tuesday, April 18
The sub-floor is down—two layers where the carpet was removed.
Ralston, the local sign maker, came by to tell me that my sign will be ready next week. This is far sooner than expected. I'm not going to discourage him, but I'd be happy not having a sign until May. Ralston is a godsend. Retailers in Leslieville unanimously recommend him for all sign-making needs. John at Sushi Marche down the street asked him for a sandwich board with a picture of a fish. Ralston came back with library books and asked exactly which fish. Now there's a beautiful hand-painted yellow-fin tuna beckoning people in.
I met Ralston with vague ideas about colours and styles. He took the reigns and inspired confidence from the beginning. He sketched a sign above the shop that has the full name on it—Leslieville Cheese Market & Fine Foods. The style he recommended was bang-on from the beginning. And it sticks out perpendicular to the front of the shop, so that people can use it as a landmark when they're approaching from farther down the street. Of course, the hanging sign is going to be a big wheel of cheese made of Styrofoam. I can't wait to see it all. Ralston works for himself, and his prices reflect that—I'm paying $1,300. (By the way, Ralston's phone number is 416-461-2338.)
Sunday, April 16, 9 a.m.
Easter Sunday morning. There's a methadone clinic at the back of my building on the southwest corner of Queeen and Logan. The drugstore at the front of the building is where patients go to get their dosed orange juice. For this reason, the drugstore has to open every day. There's a guy pulling on the door, saying, "I know he's in there! I need my drink, man."
Thursday, April 13
Every day for the past couple of weeks, I wake up thinking it'll be my last day working on the reno. But it never is. In an hour or so, I've got a guy coming to put down the sub-floor at the shop. I'll just go over and get him started. He says we should put the sub-floor right over the carpet. Have to remember to call Home Depot and ask them if there's any reason we shouldn't do that. Taking away the carpet would lower the floor of half the space. I'm starting to imagine a bad mildew smell that would require the floor to be ripped up and the carpet removed later.
I opened a bank account at TD, since they're right across the street. TD Merchant Services seems like the best choice for Interac and credit card services. I'd made up my mind to go with them, but hadn't told them or taken any steps in that direction. Then I get a call saying they have my Interac terminal, when could it be delivered? I told them, "I haven't ordered an Interac terminal. I don't have floors, walls or counters." Then the bank tells me that they've already charged my new account, which sends it into overdraft, since I haven't transferred any money to that account yet.
Posted an ad on craigslist.org for labour—$11 an hour. I got 10 calls within an hour.
Wednesday, April 12
I went to the bankruptcy auction today (held by Benaco Sales here in Toronto) to buy stuff for the store. It's crawling with restaurant people, and it's pretty competitive. But I got set up with some very cheap refrigeration. I bought an eight-foot butcher cooler for $300! If I were to buy that new, it would cost me $12,000 to $14,000. And I got a three-door Pepsi fridge for $800—that's cheap as hell. New, that would cost about $6,000. Kevin, the commercial mover, owns Auction Express (416 831-5616). He's turned out to be an invaluable aid—my refrigeration consultant. He's found me a few good deals and been very generous with advice. His reward is the delivery fee I pay him when he finds something for me.
Commercial insurance. I find that people are just not calling me back. Corporate sales people who aren't on commission. They know I need them.