The First 'First Sunday Brunch'

First first Sunday Brunch

We rented the tea shop two doors to the north.  The previous tenant had done a lovely job of wood paneling the whole place, with lots of shelves.  The flooring is cheap linoleum in a gray narrow wood design, but the overall effect is warm and cozy.  The place is L shaped.  There is a room jutting out that has windows on two sides. 

The asking price was ridiculously low, only 26,000 rmb.  There is a hallway cutting the place across the back.  In the back off this hallway are three rooms.  A large bathroom empty but for a western toilet and a  

At one end of the hall, the only sink.
When funds increase, I plan
to move the wall making the
bathroom smaller and the sink area
larger.

urinal, a large store room with one window and only two sets of electric plugs side by side below the window, and the room on end which is  small and  square (maybe 10 feet by 10) with a window and the same electrical setup.  They share an air conditioning unit up high against the ceiling, with a cutout in the wall separating the two rooms.

For many months I’ve felt the need for more space.  We are dreadfully crowded in the bakery, yet more and more people want to come in and sit down.

My apartment has been used as a storage place for the bulk purchases, pretty much taking up my spare room.

store room and kitchen on the left,
the main shop through the door on right.
The blank space begs for a fridge,
but it has no electric outlet near.

Now we have this place, and no money left with which to outfit it.  At the same time, Han Dan texted me that she wanted to work with me.  She is a lovely bubbly early twenties lady who opened her own café in the downtown area, near WalMart.  She was giving it up as a lost cause.  I told her I would be very happy to have her work with me.  I knew she would be just the person I’d need to manage the new place, if we would be serving more customers. 

She straight away said that she wanted to give me her furniture.  We hopped on our ebikes and rode from the bakery to her café downtown.  I had wanted to go many times during the year, as she was a faithful customer to buy our brownies and cookies once a month or so.  Yet this was the first time. 

Her furniture consists of three sets of tables and upholstered benches.  She was also giving us three small tables and six chairs.

She walked me through her tiny place and asked what else I might need, to buy.  I told her I had no money, and could only buy if I could have six months to pay it off.  She made a long list of things I could use, and so we agreed.

Now the tea shop has furniture.  The previous owner left behind a very long three-tiered glass display table.  Also a very large freezer, that was too big to fit through the door to the back rooms.  There is also a black  onyx counter, wired under the floor for internet and power, but wires cut.  

The furnishings seem adequate, though not elegant

We inherited this table. It is so large,
Our foods seem so few

HanDan brought with her a POS terminal, a complex computer all in Chinese, of course, that has a lot of powerful functions for keeping tabs on the business.

 With the place looking so good, Randy and I went down to the second hand market near the railroad station and looked at furniture.  I picked out an eclectic set, for which I paid less than 2,000 rmb.

The glassed room would be the ‘salon’;  a comfortable place to sit, drink coffee, work on the internet, nibble on scones or muffins. 

As a trial run, my group of housewife ladies came for the biweekly gathering.  They arrayed themselves in the salon, and drank coffee.  Some ordered grilled cheese sandwiches, which I made on my new whiz bang appliance.  They had a god feel about the place.  It was hot and raining outside, but cool and cozy inside.

We were now ready for a slightly more ambitious dry run, a Sunday morning brunch buffet.

We advertised very little, really.  We published an event on the FB ex pat page, and I sent it out to my WeChat friends.  The rest was word of mouth.

I chose for pricing 138 rmb per person, 209 rmb per couple, kids under 10 free, above 10 half price.

Brotchen

I got to the bakery at 4 a.m. and began baking brotchen and making bear claws.  Fortunately, no one arrived at the designated opening time, as I was nowhere near ready.  People came closer to 10:30 than 9 a.m.

Bagels

We had waffles, bear claws slightly overcooked, cinnamon buns, bagels, English muffins, pumpernickel, Anadama slices, NY deli rye and Multigrain Sourdough, a bread popular with both foreigners and Chinese alike.  I offered a toaster, but it was off on the onyx counter, not on the buffet table.  I thought it interesting that no one used it, and made a note next time to put it on the buffet table.  The waffle iron was on the buffet table, and I periodically made a waffle and offered it.   I made Western omelets, without the ham; and Quiche Lorraine, 

XiaoBai cooking Randy's bacon

with bacon and so on.  Randy made a batch of baked beans and a bowl of SOS, or chipped meat in gravy.  He made biscuits to go with them, which were rather flat (he said his baking powder was too old).  He cooked up some bacon, but did not bring out his griller for sausage links.  I was disappointed about the last.

Bread basket remains, with Anadama
and Multigrain sourdough

When I arrived, shortly after 4 a.m.,  I went to the tea shop to get something from the storeroom.  That’s when I discovered that the power had been turned off by the management office!  When Randy heard this he gave up his griller, leaving it in the car.  But our baker, Julie, saved the day by going to the office at the dot of nine when it opened, and paying them off.  She returned breathless; the power came on immediately.

slightly overbaked bear claws

The usual suspects came, good friends all.  Perhaps around 20 people in all, many arriving at 11:30.  They had a good time, many meeting for the first time, especially the husbands.  Stephanie came with Emilio.  Ricky came and sat with them, thus they didn’t mingle much.  Still, everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. 

Theresa came with her Swiss husband and two copper-headed children, and their golden retriever.  It 

Theresa and her son. Both son and daughter
kept coming back for waffles.

brought me cognitive dissonance seeing grown people afraid of the most mild and friendly animal in the world.  They and others used their VIP cards, which thwarted my goal of enhancing my cash flow.  Next time I will include in the flyers and announcements that VIP cards are not valid.

The service was abominable.  People had to ask for water.  The coffee pot stood full, while the foolish adolescent volunteers came to me with alarm, that there was no coffee.   I had bought dishes enough for about 20 people.  The diners were used to leaving a dirty dish behind and getting a clean one at the buffet table. We ran out of dishes.  Randy kept on eye on the kitchen; he organized the volunteers, making a blue tub into a bussing tray, and tried to unlock the bottle neck.  Dishwashing was at the bakery, not the Tea Shop.  At times it seems like there was a bit of Keystone Cops going on, with people chasing each other between the two venues.  

Randy had suggested our offering a ‘champagne’, which upon sampling earlier in the month we discovered was sparkling hard cider.  I planned to mix it with frozen strawberries, but he had not bought any cider.  I 

asked him to run to the store for it, but he said he was out of money.  His pecuniary ways were beginning to get on my nerves.  I gave him money based on what he said it costs, wanting two bottles.  He brought back one.  Later I sent someone else with more money.  They are actually 52 rmb per bottle, not the 35 he said he had paid previously.

I should have had fruit juice, but did not.  I had lots of cut of fruit, however, and some cheeses.

The waffles were a big hit, as were the Western omelets even without ham.  The quiche exhibited only mild interest.

Cinnamon Buns

One and all said it was an enjoyable experience, and wanted to do it again.  I decided then and there that we would do it on the first Sunday of the next two months, and wing it from there.

The next day I sat down with my team of summer volunteers, and Han Dan. There were Chris, XiaoBai and young Jim. We reviewed the experience, and talked about how we could do it better.  I was trying to express the concept of stations, where each person would be responsible for a particular thing (water, coffee, or clearing tables) while also focusing on a particular group of tables.  Han Dan understood what I meant immediately, and explained it to the others.  We all felt we could do a much better job the next time.

That was July 7.  By July 20 all my volunteers were gone, except for young Jim.  Chris needed to attend a class in Shanghai to prepare for her studies abroad in the Fall.  Xiao Bai’s mother insisted that if he hadn’t found a paying job in Changzhou (where his college is) he must return home, to Shanxi Province, for the summer.  Han Dan’s mother also insisted that if I could not pay her better and give her ‘benefits’, she had to come work for relatives.

This photo showed me how bare
the walls looked.  I've now bought
four very inexpensive vases
to 'fill' that space until such time.

The next event is scheduled for August 3.   Han Dan said she thought her work schedule for that day would allow her to come and help, but the August schedule had not yet been published.  .  It is up to the Lord to provide another miracle or two, to find me staff for that event.