Supreme Comments

Welcome world, from the Supreme Commander. This is my first blog entry so listen carefully - I may never be allowed to write again. I’m being held in a small 27th floor apartment in downtown Auckland by a beautiful blond woman who only lets me out to build a restaurant in a secret undisclosed location.

I’ve been here over a month and now consider myself a local. Right mate! Sweet as! The first couple of weeks were a little tough, living on the North Shore, having to commute downtown and having no family to bounce decisions off of. Those days are long gone and things have settled down to a mad dash. Adjusting to living in a high-rise apartment is also very interesting.

We are all working hard and it is great to see everyone using and building on their areas of expertise. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve looked around and said how cool it is to be in this project with the family and our other son, Mike. Things have just fallen into place, it’s uncanny; acquiring the location, the takeover, establishing our professional relations, getting Mike as our kitchen manager, acquiring the company car, living with Malcolm and Janet, stealing Malcolm’s tools and trailer, meeting Andrew & Ed (Vision Interiors) and Graham (Food Design), joining Titirangi, our apartment, the tradesmen, bringing Malcolm on board, people we have met through the restaurant, friends of friends, future friends, good vibes from our friends in the States, the “finding the need and filling it” Mexicali concept and the overall ripeness of Auckland. Talk about different from Bend.

The restaurant construction schedule is on time and hopefully April 1st is achievable. Just after the final plans were on paper I made an executive decision to gut the building and start with a clean palette. That decision increased indoor seating, saved us future headaches, increased the traffic flow and kept us on schedule. Picking Vision Interiors as the project managers is paying off in spades and let the world know that was my LAST building demo project. I’m too old and it hurts, but I love it.

The next couple of week will see the electrical, plumbing, painting and flooring completed. We would like to start putting some pieces of kitchen equipment in by March 12th so we can start food testing. Mike and I will be starting to price out the menu, doing the layout for the POS system, finalizing our purveyors, picking out some small wares and monitoring the construction project for the next few weeks. God knows someone needs to keep an eye on Andrew. I think our plans to expand may happen earlier than we expected. We are really getting some good positive feedback.

I’m going to use MYOB accounting software (please let me know if you know anyone who has used this software) and the Micros 3700 QSR Point-Of-Sale. Accounting in NZ is much easier than the US because you have very few deductions, employee deductions are simple, everything is capitalized and everyone files individual tax returns. The average tax payer in NZ pays 48% in taxes. That includes a top indiviual tax rate of 39%, 12.5% GST of all goods and services and property taxes if you own property. There are no capital gains taxes and conversely you can’t write off business losses. No worries, we get taxed from both countries.

Its great talk to everyone and if I don’t hear from you I’ll assume you are in good health or don’t look at this blog. Pink; get your butt down here. Dana, I miss your spiritual advice and get Murphy this site. DK, were the hell are you and why haven’t we heard from you. Gus, keep the country safe. Wild-thing, keep a spot in the Invitational for BG and I. BG, Titirangi is so great to play and I think of you every round, keep the faith. Tom Day, come with your bro. “The Don-old”, what happened on the trip back from Baja and how is your best friend, George the Great doing? Murphy how’s Texas? Ernie, you haven’t lived until you seen New Zealand. The motorcycle crew, this is the place to ride bikes and I have some great trips planned, I may even import a bike or two. Peter, you need to plan your trip ASAP, we have your room ready. My new e-mail is jb@mexicalifresh.co.nz (by the way, that last bit is pronounced “en-zed”)