#buildingPLR before/after photos + one app to rule them all

Things are moving super fast.

October 18th, 2024. Signed up with all of the third-party delivery apps:

• DoorDash

• UBER Eats

• GrubHub

• InstaCart

• PostMates

Corporate has also required us to set up an account with Deliverect.

I asked Gemini for the best explanation for what Deliverect does lol!

Below is a video explainer directly from their website. I’ll let you know once we go live, how efficient it is.

December 12th, 2024. We got approved by the Building Department!

We can now demolition the place and turn it into Pepper Lunch!

Shout-out to:

• Pistil Consortia, our architecture firm, for putting together plans, responding to all corrections, and following up with the Building Department, the Irvine Ranch Water District.

• STMCO, our construction partner, for getting everything ready while waiting to work on the space; and wasting no time once we had the green light.

Let’s get into some Before/After photos…

You’ll see that the original space had a narrow back dining area, that had a few tables and chairs.

We are not a typical fast casual concept where we rely heavily on take-out and delivery.

We need more tables and chairs because of the experience…so…

We destroyed the wall an moved it back for more seating area, and make the kitchen smaller.

Our kitchen requirements are smaller than a typical fast casual.

We have no marinating, chopping, or prepping of any sort needed - which minimizes the space AND eliminates the cost of labor needed to prep.

Corporate has done an amazing job with calibrating the concept so that:

• Because our food supply comes cut, already - there are less need for knives (limiting the liabilities) - and our staff just needs to weigh, assemble, and serve.

• We don’t need a massive walk-in fridge or freezer. All of our needs are under-counter - which means inventory is quicker to access, and if anything breaks, it’s cheaper and easier to fix and swap out than a large, walk-in.

Thank goodness this wall had no structural importance, and could be moved without an entirely new permit application (which would probably set us back for months, more money, and undue headaches).

Also pictured here are all of our chairs, tables, wall graphics, custom wood slats to turn this place into a Pepper Lunch - courtesy of MSW Store Rollout Services (go Mike Lucke for making all of this easy!

Here was the front counter, pre-demolition:

We cut down the left-side of counter, so that there could be a walkway directly to the dining area (while it was Roll Em Up, employees had to walk all the way around and enter the dining area through the back - which was odd and inefficient).

This allows us to take less steps and reach customers faster.

And here is what our construction team STMCO did with the millwork MSW delivered, so far…

You’ll also notice that little rectangular pass-through window in the above image.

Because our store opens super-wide, because of the beautiful sliding doors….

…the Health Department required that we turn that pass-through hole into a drive-through window….

I know…absurd lol!

But I am not gonna fight with the powers that be.

Thy will be done. Sucks, because this piece was like, almost $3,000?

Anyway - that’s progress!

Questions for me?

Is there something you learned?

Anything you’d like me to cover?