Cinco de Sol

I just realized that it’s been two weeks since I last posted. You guys must think that we have gotten lost somewhere in the South Pacific. Quite honestly, sometimes we feel that way too.

My biggest wake-up call came on Cinco de Mayo (nobody knew what that was) when I put together a playlist of all Jimmy Buffet songs to run throughout the day. I might as well have been playing Martian music because not one person had ever heard Margaritaville. Even our Mexican beer supplier was not aware of Cinco de Mayo, but they were kind enough to play along and provide some posters and banners and a special price for Sol. Speaking of which, Sol beer outsells Corona 5-1.

We have been up and running with no major meltdowns since ANZAC day. Sales are steadily improving and our first marketing campaign – Burrito Bucks – has been a resounding success. We have tweaked our menu a bit already by adding a variety of Danish pastries for our rapidly growing morning tea trade. I am sure we are the only Mexican restaurant in the world where the quality of our coffee brings ‘em in the door! We have also added a mini burrito to better relate to the traditional Kiwi pie.

It has been quite a ride so far. Things that we take for granted are either just not available or require importing from the States. Highchairs? There is one choice, the cheapo metal and plastic variety. I showed our supplier a picture of a simple wooden chair we used at Mexicali and Baja and got the standard answer: “We can have them custom made.” That has been the case for wooden dining tables, saloon doors, stainless steel tables and even the sweet & sour that we use in margaritas. In fact, during our first week we used all of the sweet & sour in the entire country! We now have our juice and produce purveyors coming up with samples of mixes they can provide so we don’t have to worry about running out. We have had to import taco and tostada shell forms and plastic baskets from the States. Thank goodness JB ordered $30,000 worth of beans to get us started or we would be rolling burritos with baked beans.

We have been sharing our Subaru Legacy for three months now and it has gotten to the point where JB and I need our own wheels. It’s either that or give up grocery shopping and golf. Well, you gotta eat and you gotta play, so after much research we have purchased a Prius. It’s a 2002 and imported from Japan. Well, you might be thinking, all Prius’ are imported from Japan. Nope, this is REALLY from Japan. All of the instructions, buttons and displays are in Japanese. We are hedging our bets against the day that petrol becomes another one of those commodities you can’t get here. We pick it up on Wednesday and then . . . it’s off to the golf course!

Conor’s projector on the outside wall has been a huge hit with rugby fans all along the wharf. I cannot believe how it draws people from the ferries. It’s provided us with an interesting situation, however. The Float bar next door charges a cover to watch rugby, so all of those customers are stopping by our place to watch the game for free. On the other side are the deros from Provedor who have been swilling $3 Heinekens all night and stumble over to watch while drooling on the new glass windbreaks and creating general havoc. Grant from Float is probably not a happy camper, although he hasn’t said anything yet. Any time you cast a wide net you run the risk of getting some bottom feeders, so I’m sure Richard from Provedor doesn’t mind us entertaining his troops.

Next up, Lions and Tacos and Beers – oh my!