PICTURE FROM GOLDBRICK HOUSE BLOG

Entrepreneurial readers may be as fascinated as I was by this blog, written by the team behind Goldbrick House, a new restaurant which has just opened in Bristol. It charts the ups-and-downs of opening a restaurant, from the initial idea to the eventual opening, and all the problems they encountered along the way.

I found it to be scary but inspirational reading, with sums of money at stake in a totally different dimension from those I have to fret about with mirrormirror. I thought I had enough problems keeping web designers etc. in line, but at least I don’t have to worry about planning permissions, acoustic reports and anxious investors. But lots of fascinating stuff about choosing the menu, developing the branding and logo and, of course, the interior design. Having seen the mood boards on the blog, I’d love to see the finished rooms, but can’t yet find them online. Oh and a friend of mine has just eaten there and was highly complimentary.

I wish now that I’d been blogging during mirrormirror’s development phase, though I don’t honestly know how I would have found the time. But there is something incredibly satisfying about creating something from scratch (we were even excited when our VAT number came through!) which you don’t get so much when watching a business grow slowly from day-to-day. It would be nice now to have a record of that period – all I really have to remind me are emails.

One day, when mirrormirror is rich and famous, I’d love to venture into the boutique hotel/chi-chi restaurant scene, though one clearly needs both the hide of a rhinoceros and the riches of Croesus to succeed. It may be sometime before I am ready to sally forth.

Yummy long weekend coming up, though unfortunately the weather doesn’t look terribly promising. We’re going to take the Minx to her first Notting Hill Carnival on Sunday afternoon and then are decamping to the Cotswolds for a bit of boutique hotel research here (we live slap bang in the middle of the Carnival, which means we have to escape after a bit as gets difficult to even walk out of our front door).

Just editing to say that Mike Bennett from Goldbrick House contacted me after reading this blog entry to send me a photo of the finished bar. I love seeing how mood boards translate into the finished article.

Courtesy of Mike Bennett from Goldbrick House