Opening Weekend

We opened for real the same day as the summer exhibition opened. In the week between commencement and the opening, we focused our efforts primarily on getting paperwork in order. I had foolishly assumed that everything would be in working order and that we would just show up and start running the shop. Fortunately for us, things were functional, just not optimally functional.

We opened the doors at six pm and were more or less ready. We had our case filled with cakes and our refrigerator filled with milk. My milk steaming skills needed work, but I had planned a trip to our coffee supplier the following week, so I just had to survive until I made it to the barista class. While there really wasn't much new that first evening people seemed positive to seeing us behind the counter.

The first sign of trouble popped up while we were trying to get some wax out of a candle holder. David filled up our main kitchen sink with hot water and in went the candle holder. Later, when I ran the dishwasher, the water didn't go down the drain - it came up in both sinks! As can be imagine, I was not particularly excited by this sight, but I was relieved that it didn't come cascading over the lip of the sinks and onto the floor (which we have now learned slopes away from the drain). To be fair, it must be mentioned that the wax was simply the last straw in a very long list of problems with the drain. The solution for the evening was, thankfully, David driving home, getting our emergency drain cleaner (the Norwegian equivalent of Drain-O) and pouring it down both drains.

Once we got the sinks functioning, I could get back to work on the dinner that I was preparing for the artists and board members. Things were rolling along, granted slightly behind schedule, when we discovered that we didn't have enough flatware for 19 people. Ingerid, one of the administrators, drove home and brought her own personal silverware to save the day. I served couscous with ground beef and vegetables and tzatziki in tomato boats. For dessert we had chocolate pudding with blackberry-ginger sauce topped with whipped cream. Dinner was a success.

The following day we were open regular hours, plus we hosted two concerts. As part of the Haukeliseter Festival, we had a concert with Ola Bäckström and Per Gudmundson. They were wonderful, the room was filled and people enjoyed the new tastes we had to offer. We started on a positive note building a reputation for good coffee, good food, and a good place to meet people.

The second group was a cowboy band from Oslo with some connection to the local population. The audience was considerably (and surprisingly) smaller - seven band members and fifteen audience members. As thoroughly accustomed to folk music concerts as I am, I was shocked when they announced that they would be taking a break and then playing a second set. I actually thought they were joking, so did David. So they played a second set and by the end of the evening they had earned enough money to pay for their food (but I was nice and gave them their coffee). One thing we have learned as music students is to always negotiate your contract beforehand - if you want a deal on food, let someone know that upfront so things don't get awkward when it's time to settle the bill.

We had survived the first weekend, now the real work was about to begin.