Well, at this point we were about a week out from our grand opening on November 15th.  The three of us were understandably anxious and there was one major obstacle still looming - the liquor license.  This was the first hurdle that was running on “Belizean Time” and we were trying to take it in stride since we knew it was bound to happen at some point.  If you recall, Cathy - who heads up the liquor license commission - had told us that they would be having a special assembly to determine whether or not we would be granted the license.  Well, that meeting kept being put off and we were starting to get nervous - how would it work to have our grand opening without the ability to legally serve alcohol.  So since Cathy’s phone never seemed to work and she never, ever returned messages, we routinely had to go to her house to check on the status.  We still hadn’t gotten used to standing outside someone’s house and yelling for them tocome out but that was what had to be done.  The last we had heard Cathy informed us that the fire chief, a police officer, the health inspector and she would come by the business to inspect the place and then after the inspection a decision would be made.  In the meantime we had already started doing some advertising in hopes that the liquor license would, in fact, come through in time. 

The various forms of advertisting that we thought would work best were simple, but being new to the area we weren’t sure what form of advertising would be most effective.  We posted up and handed out about 400 flyers around town - we weren’t sure what would happen due to the fact that we are not on a main road and there are really no street signs around which meant a high likelihood that people simply wouldn’t be able to find us.  We stuck a simple map on the flyer in hopes that it would slightly help the situation.  We also contacted one of the local radio stations to put some radio spots out for the preceding week.  There are really only two local radio stations for Corozal so there’s a great chance that people would hear the ad - it’s kind of a wonderful occurance when you are driving through town listening to the radio station and it suddenly blares out in surround sound because the building you just past is playingthe same station and then this same thing happens about ten times on your ride.  That’s when you know you are truly in a small town.  The third and final form of advertisement that we used was the “friendship” email list.  I simply sent out a PDF of the flyer that was being posted around town so that the expats would know we would be open.  So we restlessly awaited Saturday to see if anyone would actually show up. 

So back to the liquor license inspection - it took about thee set dates before they actually showed up, but the four inspectors finally arrived at the bar the Thursday before our Saturday grand opening - talk about cutting it close.  We had hired a couple girls to waitress for us so we were in the process of training them when the four “inspectors” showed up.  I was in the house when they arrived but Will was in the bar to greet them.  Suddenly Will barged through the door of the house and in a panic asks where the application is.  I had absolutely no idea what he was talking about and he was in a panic so it automatically increased my anxiety level and I started getting frantic.  “The inspectors are here and they want to see the application!  They said we should have it!”  Will exclaimed.  It was not clicking in my head - I was in charge of all the paperwork and I had no idea how I could have missed this requirement.  The tension level in the house was moving up at a rapid pace, I snapped back that I didn’t know what they were talking about.  My train of thought was that this had something to do with the new employees and that we needed something documenting them.  I’m madly running around the place looking through all my various stacks of paperwork and asking Will, “what exactly are they asking for?”  He shot back, “I don’t know!  They just said an application!”  Finally I got frustrated and went over there to ask them exactly what they were looking for - I wasn’t sure why there was such alarm, it was a simple inspection but now the situation felt like a red alert, five alarm panic situation and it just seemed so unnecessary.  Once I got over to the bar I asked one of the inspectors what exactly they were looking for and he simply responded, “th paper you received from town hall - we all have to sign it.”  That’s it??  Of course I knew what they were talking about so I told them to hold on for  minute and I went back to the house to grab the paper they needed which had been sitting on the counter the whole time.  I headed back out to them and handed them the paper, once they had that they started the inspection.  This part did make me a little nervous since we had no idea what they would be looking for and we were planning on a big opening day in two days.  I had absolutely no reason to worry, they basically just looked around for about 15 minutes and said everything was fine.  I just had to put up a couple signs regarding alcohol consumption, we needed a larger fire extinguisher and the employees had to sign up for the food handlers permit.  The four of them signed the paper and gave us instructions to take that back to town hall and pay the fee.  So we were set to sell alcohol - yes!  We had avoided major disaster so far. 

So everything was falling in to place for the Grand Opening.  We had hired a DJ and had put the word out that we would be open so now it was just a matter of waiting for the big day.

3 Responses to “Grand Opening Looms…”

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  By Joe, July 5, 2009 @ 10:27 pm

  Great writing Kristi, keep the stories coming!
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  By Carbunkle Trumpet, July 7, 2009 @ 10:26 am

  Sounds like the bar is taking shape, met you with my wife down in San Pedro at the Blog Fiesta. Good luck with the bar and keep the beer cold!
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  By Belizedragonfly, July 9, 2009 @ 3:10 pm

  Yes, we are up and running - we’ve been open now for about 6 months - the story is about 7 months behind and then I’m going to insert posts that are present day I think. I hope it doesn’t get too confusing - we’ll see I guess. Hopefully you guys can get back to belize soon!

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