Monday at supper time Carm arrived back from helping with the deck building at Sol d’ Acapulco. Our friends Trudie and Leo were building a giant deck as a favour for the new owner of the restaurant. Alicia was a long time employee of Rudy’s, the previous owner, so when he was ready to retire, Alicia was ready to make the purchase.
Although her budget is very limited, Alicia has big plans for the restaurant once known as Bierstube. First, she changed the name to Sol D’ Acapulco to reflect the new menu items inspired by her Mexican heritage. Hand in had with this was engaging the services of a fantastic chef capable of making the original German food that is still on the menu, but also the new menu items.
This was coupled with many upgrades to the interior which had been the original German inspired decor. Previously dated and somewhat shabby (we liked it though!), it is now brighter with a Mexican theme.
Next in her sights was the outside – she wanted to introduce a patio... Trudie & Leo have been friends with both her and the previous owner for many, many years – they wanted to help Alicia make a good go of the new restaurant. Hence the deck building. A big patio in the summer is bound to draw more clients.
Carm and I wanted to give a little bit of help as well. So Tuesday morning I dropped Carm off there, and picked up Trudie for a quick shop at Rob McIntosh. As soon as we got back, we had hammers and nails in our hands and got to work as well.
With four of us working on the same project it could well have been chaos, but we quickly found our roles and worked together well, pairing up to work on different jobs depending on skill level. I won’t say how old T&L are, but lets just say they are significantly older than I am… but man, oh man… I could barely keep up to their pace, in fact, I couldn’t keep up with Trudie at all.
It wasn’t long before I got going, that lunch was served to me (since I missed out when the guys ate). Toasted rye bread sandwiched an omelette, bacon and ham. Yum! Good fuel for some building.
Before we knew it, it was time to get ready for supper - we rushed back to the camper with the dogs (who had been with us), fed them, fed Grace, and got showered. Then rushed back to the restaurant to be treated to a fantastic supper.
Otto, the chef (see photo), made Carm his favourite schnitzel, he made Leo a special liver dish, and Trudi & I a shrimp dish with an orzo sauce that was delicious – way better than I’d expect to get at a little restaurant in the middle of nowhere. Otto saw Leo give me a taste of his liver, and before I could blink an eye there was a side dish of it in front of me. Oh my gosh, I was so full! Happily full.
Partway through our meal Alicia brought Trudie & I corinitos (sp?) – a margarita with a corona tipped into it. As you sip the marg, the beer slowly mixes in. Quite a tasty combination :-)
Wednesday we were due to leave camp, but wanted to help out another day, so we packed up, checked out, and drove over to Sol d’A where we parked for the day. Slides went out for the dogs and Grace, work clothes were donned, and away we went. Wed was decking day, board upon board was measured, cut and screwed. With 4 of us working we got about 1/2 of the decking put on – Trudie & Leo have a few more days left of hard work.
At lunch time we were called in for a delicious soup, served with Salisbury steak sandwiches. It was supper time before we knew it - time to head home… but we were convinced to stay for a “quick” supper – this time we both had schnitzel and German potato salad, followed by Black Forest Cake. Full and satisfied (and a bit achy from all the bending over!), we made our way home. There is an advantage to helping people out at a restaurant! Although my waist line disagrees…
We hope that Alicia has the best of luck with her endeavour. She’s an incredibly hard worker, has a really good chef, and soon has a giant patio overlooking the water! I hope to have photos in a few weeks of a bustling deck, filled with happy clients.
The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand. ~Vince Lombardi
No comments:
Post a Comment