Today Chrissy and I held a meeting with the Managers and we told them for the first time what was in store for RigaTony’s, and ultimately for them. I had expected them to be happy about the move, but they were practically jumping out of their seats with excitement. Laura especially. She kept interrupting me saying “Can we go there? Can we go now?!” Which is what we ended up doing. I took them on a tour of the building giving them an overview of the plan – which is all I actually have right now! Steph was just wowed by the place, especially the patio plan, and Hutson had some bizarre décor ideas which I won’t disturb you with. It was hot and muggy and pretty oppressive inside the building but its so exciting we hardly noticed.
We talked about how and when to tell our customers about the move. It’s the scariest part to me because information gets garbled so easily and “RigaTony’s is moving” will inevitably get translated into “RigaTony’s is closing!” It could be a disaster as we’re at least 9 months from the move and I can visualize people not coming for dinner because RigaTony’s is closed!!! I have a plan for communicating this clearly that which we discussed at length which, as it happens, includes this blog.
While we were taking pictures of the outside a couple pulled up to have lunch. We told them the restaurant wasn’t open and Laura launched into a hard sell for Iguana Mack’s which included a discount card.