No. 53 - Two weeks out

A mad dash to complete construction

Wait, they painted that door casing the wrong color. There are gaps in between some of the floor tile. Shit, I drew the sconces too low in the restroom vanity and now it’s too low in real life. Damn, we need to add three more outlets on the pass. Why aren’t the baseboards dying into each other right? They’re not caulking the seams. Why did they spray the paint on instead of rolling & brushing it?! Fuuuck.

Hi, I’m Jolyn, and I’m actively learning to let go of perfection.

The problem with being the designer and owner of a project is that you’re now double-y invested in the whole thing. I want everything to be exactly what I dreamed of, but, sometimes I have to take off my designer hat and stop being so nit-picky about things that really only matter to me. It’s a delicate balance; it’s important to address things that I don’t believe are being done correctly, but I also can’t let those kinds of issues frustrate me to a point where I’m no longer effective.

some early progress pics from when the floors and the shell of our bar was put in! photo: carter hiyama

I’m not sure I can really comprehend how, in two weeks time, construction will be over. Like, keys handed back, no more work in the space except for us, over. It feels simultaneously like something visually major is changing everyday and everything is happening all at once, yet there’s so much that needs to be done. All the subs are right on top of each other, more and more (big) things are being delivered each day, cramping everyone’s workspaces more and more. We’re talking table bases, kitchen equipment, shelving, lighting, big custom cabinetry pieces, etc. It’s chaos, and I imagine this is exactly what it’s supposed to feel like right now.

Louis and I, separately, have had moments where we’ve felt completely overwhelmed, times when we’ve needed to cry it out in order to move through our big feelings, weeks when we’ve taken mental health days to reset. We’re constantly feeling that dread of missing something major that might ruin us (being dramatic, but still). It’s hard to explain to someone just how much we need to keep track of and how little is actually in our control sometimes. I don’t know why the person making our dining tables is telling me, a week before his scheduled delivery, that the material we’ve paid him to purchase months ago is backordered. As the internet says, it really do be like that sometimes! 🥲

a lot more action in the space these days! photo: carter hiyama

We went from going on-site once a week to being there (pretty much) everyday, really, really quickly. As it should be! This past week, we got in our internet, security cameras, and the beginning pieces of our chef’s counter, banquettes, kitchen pass, and server stations, which means we can start working out of there as our office! 🎉 It doesn’t feel close to whole in any way; we have plenty of unfinished surfaces and quite a few wobbly vintage chairs that still need to be fixed (on my personal project list!), but it’s somethin’! If any of y’all wanna help put together some table bases, holler at yo’ girl.

If you’re reading this the day this comes out, we’ll be installing our kitchen equipment (!!) on the line AND all the cute lighting I purchased. Speaking of lighting, remember when I said my restroom sconces were too low? Well, Louis had the bright idea (pun, intended!) to flip our sconces upside-down to visually raise the light without moving the electrical box! GENIUS! That’s what we call creative problem solving.

shots of a few lights that have been installed already! more to come! :)

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If that wasn’t enough, we’re also hiring!! Currently looking for FOH managers of all levels, but would love to start talking to folks interested in hourly FOH/BOH positions too! If you know anyone that would be a good fit for our team, have them email hello@xiaoyepdx.com with a resume and a note about what their looking for in their next position!

We purposely put a call out for FOH managers at all levels so we could see what the talent pool was going to be like; our goal is to find two experienced managers with complementary skillsets to run the day-to-day ops and manage the FOH team while I handle all the marketing, collaborations/events, private dining, merch, and be support on the floor during service. AND, in the event we can’t find two candidates for these positions? Well, the plan is for me to slot into one of them and hire someone who has the potential, starting them as an hourly team member to learn all the FOH positions, and fast track them into management to take my place. We’ve had a few interviews already, with more in the next two weeks, and it’s getting me more and more excited about building a team!

forever hauling things :)