Aroha Restaurant: We're Opening in September!

Hi everyone! It's insane how busy these past couple of weeks have been. I've barely had time to think, let alone type a blog. So much as happened. I barely know where to begin with all of the updates.

Our past few weeks have been primarily focused on the final stages of the restaurant's construction. We made our final decisions on the floors, the wall colors, etc., and we've purchased our equipment and 80% of our furniture. We decided to forgo vinyl booths for the outside and instead have beautiful couch-style banquettes surrounding the back patio. We have a meeting next week for the shade sails that will be installed above the front and back patios...and then we have to find misters. We're still searching for our tables and chairs for the outdoors, which is why we're holding off on announcing our official opening day. We have an idea in our minds, but we don't want to make it official until we know our customers can actually sit and eat!

The completed walls and ceiling!

Aesthetically, the walls and ceilings are now complete...and our 10 foot long water feature has been delivered. Yes. I know I kept saying it was 8 ft but apparently a mix up made it 10 ft. Luckily, it fits. It did take six guys though to move it, and it was not easy! Gwith was actually too scared to watch.

The 10 ft long water feature being delivered.

The kitchen's tile floors are also done and the speaker system has been installed as well. We spent about an hour this week just searching for and downloading over 24 hours of Kiwi music. Our most exciting news however, is that we now have two completed rooms! The bathrooms! They are fully tiled and painted, and they look awesome.

Interior of the women's restroom.

This week, we also picked out our plates, silverware, and glasses. Gwith entering that shop was like a kid entering Disneyland. There were so many types and shapes to choose from. I have also ordered all of our menu covers, which will be a nice black leathery material, with our logo in silver. In bigger news, we purchased our POS system, which will be complete with a Guest Services System where we can take down our customer's allergies, preferences, birthdays and anniversaries, etc. With this system, we are excited to be able to implement a high level of customer service at our restaurant. Our system will also feature a large number of dish modifications so we can easily let the kitchen know about allergies.

This past month, we also brought on board our awesome wine director and sommelier, Jordan Grieg. He is searching far and wide to ensure that we have an amazing wine collection, with 50-70% of our list being from New Zealand. It's not easy to find in the USA and he is working his hardest to make this happen.

Throughout all of the craziness, something had to fall through. As I mentioned in the previous Aroha blog, we were hiring a muralist to paint the Auckland skyline. Unfortunately, a situation arose and this hasn't been able to happen. We are still hopeful to get a mural or large canvas painting done for the restaurant before opening, however, getting everything else done is our first priority!

We're getting down to the wire here and will be placing ads for our employees very soon. In between all of our meetings and decision making, I've been writing the employee handbook and training manual. It has been time consuming but I think it will pay off to have those available.

I officially feel confident now in announcing that Aroha will be opening in September! We have a majority of the furniture and equipment arriving by mid-August, and once we have the rest of our furniture ordered and begin hiring employees, we will officially announce our grand opening date.

That's it for our latest Aroha updates! We are so glad we got to get away to Catalina Island earlier this month. The vacation time was much needed and refreshed us for at least the following 24 hours! I would love to say that I'm only kidding, but it's actually kind of true! Hopefully within the upcoming days, I'll be able to blog about our Catalina trip, as well as continue my European Adventure blogs!!

Catalina Island July 2014!

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30990 Russell Ranch Rd Unit C, Westlake Village, CA 91362
© 2014 Aroha Restaurant.

Aroha Restaurant: Our Westlake Magazine Cover & In Other News: Interior, Meetings, Phone Calls, Repeat

This week has been one of the craziest, if not the craziest of the summer. I'm trying to think of the last day we weren't in constant meetings or on lengthy phone calls regarding Aroha.

We began the week meeting with our good friend and mentor, Elie Balas, of Menchie's Frozen Yogurt. After weeks of going back and forth on whether or not we'd need to hire a general manager, Elie's advise convinced us that we could in fact run the restaurant on our own. It's funny. That was our original plan. However, somewhere amongst the hectic summer days, we began to question if we'd need another hand. When there's enough time to overthink everything, plans can change drastically. Thankfully, Elie brought us right back to our original focus. We honestly couldn't have asked for a better mentor and are so thankful we met with him before this hectic week truly began.

The rest of this week has been a lot of running around and a lot of interior design. First of all, we found a fantastic muralist here in LA to paint the Auckland Skyline within our restaurant. He begins sketching it on Monday and we cannot wait to reveal it! Our 8 foot long water feature is also nearing completion. For the last two days, we drove back and forth around the valley looking at flooring, picking up samples, checking out equipment, meeting with various people, and spending our in between time on the phone or emailing. Among other things, we picked out the bathroom tiles and stalls this week. It's funny how when you plan to build a restaurant, there are just certain things you don't think about in terms of the design. I'd have to say that bathroom stalls were definitely one of them! Who knew there were so many different types and colors to choose from?!

We also picked out our beautiful floors and walls. We are still working on figuring out the cabinets and counter tops! Luckily, we're not quite there yet, so we have a little bit of wiggle room.

On Monday, the wires for the sign will be installed. We are still trying to determine when we want to put the sign up. Originally, we were going to wait until opening, however, with all of the buzz, we're now starting to think we should put it up sooner.

Construction wise, everything is progressing like crazy! At the beginning of the week, the crew was working on installing the air conditioning and heating system, as well as finishing the walls. By yesterday, half the ceilings were already up and the hood system was being installed! We are currently talking with someone to install our sound system and will hopefully have that underway next week. I am so excited for everyone to see the restaurant when it's completed.

Typing all of this, I'm still not sure how we've done so much in just a weeks time. Besides everything mentioned above, I have also created all of the employee job descriptions. They are now ready to go and we will most likely begin our search within the next two weeks. As of yesterday, we now have a very talented man creating our wine list.

Next week, we will be looking at more equipment, as well as picking out our seats and tables! We're cramming in a whole lot on Monday, as on Tuesday, we're taking off to Catalina Island for our final three days of relaxation.

If there wasn't any better way to end this crazy week, our cover story in Westlake Magazine came out yesterday! We are so pleased with the article and would like to thank everyone involved for this incredible opportunity including the magazine's founder Rebecca Grossman, writer Charly Emery, photographer Jane Gibson, makeup artist Nicola Gerboc, reporter Robyn Flans, and Liz Barrett from the Chamber of Commerce.

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30990 Russell Ranch Rd Unit C, Westlake Village, CA 91362
© 2014 Aroha Restaurant.

Our European Adventure, Part 3 - Tuscany: Pisa & Florence!

It's funny. As I said in my last Europe blog, Tuscany was my absolute favorite place of the trip. Strangely though, when asked what the worst place of the trip was, the answer would also be located within Tuscany. Where is that, might you ask? That would have to be Pisa.

Pisa
I'll never forget...the street sellers chasing us through the parking lot

After leaving the castle in Chianti, we began our drive to Florence. Before arriving in Florence, however, we decided to detour to Pisa. As we passed Florence and got on the tollway for Pisa, we accidentally drove through the wrong toll lane. At the time, we didn't know what that meant. Were we going to be chased after by the Italian police for not paying the toll? Were we going to get a ticket? We really had no idea what to expect. As we kept driving, nothing happened and we relaxed. When we got to the toll exit, we tried to go through the correct lane but suddenly realized what we did wrong: we never got a tollway ticket to insert into the machine. Whoops. As we tried to insert money, and it wouldn't accept it, a bunch of cars began pulling up behind us. Finally, Gwith pushed the help button and luckily the person on the line spoke English. They explained that since we didn't have the ticket, we would be charged €25 on our credit card. After numerous honks from the row of cars behind us, we were finally let through.

As we continued our drive, Gwith realized the gas meter was running lower and it was time to stop at a gas station. Unfortunately for us, we had no idea how to use the self service station, or which gas we needed. A friendly Italian motorcyclist came over to us and tried to help as best he could. He didn't speak English but he was able to point out which type of gas our car used. After he left, Gwith fiddled with the machine until he finally figured out how to use it. I took the opportunity of this stop to use the restroom at the station. The people in the store were really creepy and I was glad to get out of there quickly. Or at least as quickly as I could. I couldn't figure out how to use the bathroom key! It wouldn't turn, no matter how much I tried...and when I finally got it, I was almost stuck in the bathroom for good!

In retrospect, the creepy people should've been a warning for Pisa! When we arrived, we drove into a parking lot surrounded by street sellers. We kept driving towards the back of the lot to get away from them but as we parked, we could see one walking towards the car. We got out as quickly as we could. Unfortunately, we couldn't avoid him. We managed to continue walking, ignoring his efforts for conversation, and zigzagged our way out of the parking lot, past a large group of other street sellers. Once we were at the Leaning Tower of Pisa, it was cool. We had our fun taking photos with the tower and watching hundreds of other tourists doing the same. Was it worth the photo? Maybe. Maybe not. Basically, I'm glad I went because now I'll never how the urge to do it again. Before we left, we went into the McDonald's to use the restroom. To actually use it though, Gwith had to buy food to get the bathroom code. He wasn't exactly excited to eat McDonald's, because as he said, it tastes the same pretty much everywhere. Once we got back to the parking lot, Gwith stopped at the machine to pay. While we were standing there, the street seller approached us again, trying to sell us sunglasses. Gwith looked at him and told him he didn't need a pair. The man responded, "You have money for parking. You can buy these sunglasses." Gwith continued to shake his head and refuse. I clutched my purse and we walked back to the car, with the street sellers following behind. We were so relieved to get back into the car and leave for Florence!

Florence
I'll never forget...the amazing wines of Chianti

Our first night in Florence, we wandered to a local restaurant to eat dinner. Our dinner was mediocre but the real highlight was randomly meeting a couple from New York who knew an acquaintance of Gwith's from Auckland! It's crazy how small of a world it really is.

The hotel itself was quite strange. We stayed at Hotel Silla, and we're still convinced it was once a hospital and we were staying in the psychiatric ward. There were numerous alarming factors that led us to this conclusion. First of all, the layout of the Hotel screamed hospital. Secondly, the lock on the bathroom door had been removed. Thirdly, there was a public restroom in the corridor. Fourthly, there was a gate in front of the many steps to get down to our floor. Still not convinced? Here are some pictures:

Aside from the weird hotel layout, the people working there were at least friendly and I was pleased with how many gluten free options they provided me for breakfast!

The next morning, we headed out for our wine tour! We were thrilled to find out the tour guide was an American, only because we could actually understand her throughout the tour! Our tour group was full of very nice people as well and it was all around just a great, relaxing day. From the moment our tour begin, I could see Gwith's face light up with excitement. As our guide taught us about Chianti and the wines, I could practically feel Gwith soaking up every last bit of information.

The view from the second winery.

The first winery we visited had some of the best wines we had ever tasted. We ended up buying a bottle of the white wine, and in retrospect, I wish we had bought a bottle of our favorite red as well! We did take a picture of the bottles however, and got a information sheet for supplying the wines in our restaurant, Aroha. We are really hoping we will be able to provide some of these delicious wines! I could go on and on just about the wines but I can't forget the amazing cheeses and olive oil as well. I can not thank our guide enough for explaining the differences between real olive oil and the handful of fake olive oils sold in the USA. It was an eye opening experience for me and convinced me to find truly pure olive oils back home. It's appalling how many brands label themselves as "pure olive oil" but still use a mixture of olive oil and canola. Ironically, while Italian brands sold in Italy cannot get away with this, a large amount of the Italian brands exported to the USA, do. Here's a helpful tip for finding olive oil: Besides researching the brands, a pure olive oil should give you a fiery sensation in the back of your throat while tasting it.

While touring the winery, we learned about the use of sulfites in wine. While most wines already have natural sulfites from the grape skin, the wines sent to the USA have additional artificial sulfites added to preserve the wine longer. It was amazing to discover the difference between drinking wine in Italy versus back home. We had no next day headaches or sleepiness. The alcohol content was also lower and therefore, far less affecting. As a huge lightweight who can't normally go beyond half a glass, I'm living proof of this. I tried multiple wines at the winery and found myself doing okay.

If the day wasn't already going well, our next stop made Gwith's trip complete. For lunch, we stopped at a butchery owned by famous butcher, Dario Cecchini. Besides being known for his skills and restaurants, he has also trained Gordon Ramsey and Jamie Oliver. Gwith was ecstatic when he got to meet him and take a picture with him. The real highlight though for him was the lard Dario made. It was creamy, buttery, and full of flavor. Seriously, Gwith is still talking about it even now. Ask him what the highlight of the trip was for him? He'll say "lard".

The following winery was absolutely beautiful. The surrounding scenery was breathtaking. While the wines at this location weren't nearly as good, we still enjoyed our time, nonetheless. Afterwards, our tour guide took us all to a small village to stretch our legs and walk around before heading back to Florence. There, Gwith and I wandered into a meat and cheese shop. Gwith's eyes widened with excitement when he saw all of the meat hanging from the ceiling. I, however, was most excited about the stonewalled cheese cave downstairs. It shouldn't be a surprise that we ended up buying some things while we were there!

Florence

After arriving back in Florence, we walked along the river during sunset to find Florence's most popular gluten-free restaurant, Ristorante Ciro & Sons. It also turned out to be Florence's most popular restaurant in general. People were lined up at the door just waiting to get in! We were starving but it was worth the wait in the end. I got to enjoy gluten-free garlic bread and lasagna, while Gwith had a seafood pizza. For dessert, we shared lemon sorbet which was served inside a lemon. We also overheard a very interesting and um, inappropriate, conversation at the next table. I would share it on here but it's not exactly PG-13 material. It's questionable if it even falls under an R rating.

The next day, we were ready to leave Florence. Florence on the other hand, wasn't quite ready for us to leave. As we pulled onto the main street in our rental car, we discovered all of the main roads were blocked off for a race. Needless to say, our GPS wasn't happy and didn't understand the circumstances. As we tried finding a way out of the city, we stopped to ask a police officer where to go. Unfortunately, he didn't speak English well and directed us backwards. As we continued driving around confused, we found another police officer to ask who luckily spoke some English. She directed us on how to leave the city. Of course, this didn't stop the GPS from trying to tell us to turn around every chance it got. We thought detouring in LA was a challenge. Nothing beats trying to detour in a foreign city!

Quick Tips for Tourists Going to Pisa and Florence

• Don't go to Pisa.

• Okay. Go to Pisa if you really want the photo but please go with a group, and preferably, on a tour bus.

• Also, clutch your things while walking around Pisa and don't talk to strangers...unless they're tourists taking photos of each other.

• Stock up on Gluten-Free snacks in Florence, if you're GF of course! They have hundreds of tasty treats sold in the pharmacies.

• Do a wine tour and do it with this company, Tuscan Wine Tours. You won't regret it.

• My husband would not be please if I didn't write this, so I have to: try the lard.

• If you're gluten-free, going to Ristorante Ciro & Sons is a must. Be smarter than us though! Make reservations in advance if you'd like a gluten-free pizza. They need 24 hours notice. Most likely so the dough can rise to it's fluffy delicious self, like the pizzeria in Rome.

• Walk along the river at sunset. It's beautiful.

Next up on my European Adventure blogs: why Venice and Disneyland have similar qualities and why Milan is AMAZING and my husband should keep me away next time...

Our European Adventure Blogs

Part 1: Chicago & Rome!

Part 2: Tuscany - Our Drive to Chianti!

Part 3: Tuscany - Pisa & Florence! (Now Reading)
Part 4: Venice & Milan! (Coming Soon)

Part 5: Switzerland - Zurich & Lucerne (Coming Soon)

Part 6: The Magic of Paris (Coming Soon)
Part 7: Why the Hilton in Belgium Can't Get Customer Service Right (Coming Soon)

Aroha: Light Speed Ahead!

Big changes are now beginning at Aroha. During the week, our final permit was checked off, giving us the go ahead to continue and finish all of the construction! As of next week, we will be ordering our equipment.

Before the rest of the walls go up, we stopped by the restaurant with my parents and wrote our names on the inside of the wall, along with an "In loving memory..." for my grandpa and Gwith's mom. It's nice to know this will always be there, inside our restaurant. We are so grateful for all that Pa and Janet did for us and we know they would be proud. On another note, check out our beautiful artwork! Stick figure smiley faces and heart faces have been a long standing tradition in my family since as long as I can remember. It seemed only natural to draw them on the wall as well...and of course, we couldn't help but draw Willow too!

It's amazing how fast time has flown by. In just a few months, the place has gone from an empty space, to full framework, to plasterboards and soon enough, it will all be complete. It's crazy how in just a few days, the rest of the walls and the ceiling will be covered! Once it's finished, I will be posting photos of each of the steps!

This past week, Gwith and I finalized each of the menus and we are excited about our unique twists on a few Kiwi classics! We want to keep you guessing and in suspense until the restaurant opens, so we can't give anymore details beyond that. All I can say is though, the menu sounds delicious. We've also worked on plating styles (YES! I said we!). I'm still very excited that some of my styles will be at the restaurant. Honestly, since I'm not a chef, I didn't expect that. However, I sat down next to Gwith and started drawing some styles and he really liked them!

Other exciting news happened to us this week but we can't talk about it for another few weeks. It's incredible though and we are beyond flabbergasted about this opportunity!

Next week, Westlake Magazine hits local stores, offices, and hotels with our cover story! We can't wait to see what it looks like! If you live in an area that receives Westlake Magazine, be sure to check it out. If not, I think they also have an online version to view.

Time is moving fast now and in just a blink of an eye, we'll be opening. We are still expecting the first week of September but we'll officially announce a date as we get closer.

Switching topics from the restaurant, I'll give a short update too on one of our leisurely activities of the week! At the end of last week, my sister's fiancee, Miles, hosted an incredibly fun interactive murder mystery party! We searched the house for clues, trying to regain our memories, and figure out which one of us was the killer. The best part, however, had to be when Gwith, our friend Ben, and I were running around the backyard trying to escape being chased by a crazy person (aka my sister). When we heard a noise, Gwith ducked to the side of the house, hiding in the shadows, while Ben and I hid under a tree. Suddenly, we saw my dad walking by. Oddly, he looked straight at Ben and I, didn't see us, and continued to almost walk past Gwith too. Gwith, being the silly guy he is though, decided to jump out and scare my dad. Little did he know my dad was actually the killer of the evening! My dad taps Gwith, walks off, and Gwith sits on the ground. Ben and I came over to grab him, when he looks at us and says "I'm dead." Whoops. The rest of the evening, every time my dad tried to lure us away, we'd eye him and shake our heads. He had no idea we saw the whole thing go down! It was hilarious and way too much fun! Miles plans to eventually sell some of his murder mystery games. I will keep everyone updated on their availability in the future. They are great for parties and we may even host one at the restaurant someday!

Anyways, that's it for this week's update! Next week, the news and updates will be flowing as Aroha really begins to take shape! Tomorrow, I will be releasing Part 3 of my European Adventure blog, so please check it out when you get the chance!

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30990 Russell Ranch Rd Unit C, Westlake Village, CA 91362
© 2014 Aroha Restaurant.

The Sims 4: What the $!%# Do You Mean There's No Toddlers??

I haven't talked about The Sims 4 for months because honestly, there hasn't been much to talk about. The Sims Team has been repeating the same "highlights" for months: intuitive facial molding, quick building, and...emotions! With the arrival of E3, fans were certain this meant new news and were full of excitement.

I for one have been playing the game since 2000, the year it first came out, when I was 9 years old. Since then, I've bought every base game, expansion pack, and stuff pack on the day of its release to complete my collection. With all of the latest Sims 4 news, you'd think I'd be jumping up and down ready for September. Instead, every piece of the latest news has been about constant disappointments of what's not in the game or has been removed.

It all started with the custom design color wheel and patterns. I loved this aspect in The Sims 3 but when it was announced that it wouldn't be in The Sims 4, I made my peace with it. It wasn't the *most* important thing to have in the game and in all honesty, it would probably make Create-a-Sim less glitchy.

Next, it was announced that the public spaces will not be able to be edited. This is disappointing as while you can still have community lots and venues, the public spaces are supposedly where all the action occurs. I can't say I was ecstatic when they announced the loading screens between locations either, but again, I decided to believe the game will work better and faster than The Sims 3 for this reason.

Last year, EB World sent subscribers and email referencing the ability to create apartments in The Sims 4. As of June 14th, it was confirmed that apartments will not be in the base game either. Honestly, as much as I'd like apartments, I didn't expect them to be in the base game.

Two of the next announcements made me mad. Last year, The Sims Official Magazine announced the ability for sims to finally buy their clothes. During the latest trend however of nixing ideas, that one got nixed as well. The Sims team also announced the Woohoo skill last year. It sounded hilarious and awesome but alas, has also been removed.

All of these things have added up and dwindled my excitement for the new game. However, none of them compare to yesterday's news. And I'm not talking about the "no pools, no swimwear", which does suck because that's been in the game since the original.

I'm talking about no toddlers. Okay, I get it. In the original sims, toddlers didn't exist either...but that's why The Sims 2 came out. The life stages. Families could finally grow. You could raise your sim from a baby to a toddler, to a child, to a teenager, to an adult. As the most popular reason behind the game, this was of course carried over into The Sims 3. If anything, fans were hoping for more life stages, not less. As a game that's focused on its life-like gameplay, removing a life stage is a huge step back. By the cryptic SimGuru twitter comments, we can only assume they plan to add toddlers in during a future expansion pack just to get more money out of the fans.

"@SimGuruGraham: There's nothing preventing adding additional ages as the game evolves. CASt is a good example of a feature that is not technically feasible to add post launch."

I'd buy the expansion pack for other reasons but I will not buy it for something that should've been in the base game.

The Sims 3: Toddler

Maybe some fans out there don't care. I don't know. But a lot of the community is in an uproar. Some of my favorite gaming moments of the Sims are raising the adorable toddlers. Teaching them to walk, talk, and the adorable father-daughter cuddle photos that cover my Sim's living room wall. I love putting my toddler on the playground ride and my toddler refusing to get off. I love my sim holding her toddler in the water at the beach, while splashing and playing. I love when my toddler's older sibling sits on the ground for a game of peek-a-boo or a hug. And I love when my sim reads to her little toddler on the floor. The amount of cuteness and joy the toddlers bring to the game has actually been incredible. To remove such an important life stage is baffling.

The Sims 3: Toddler and Parent

I would consider myself a long standing fan of the Sims series. However, with this latest toddler news, I'm incredibly angry. This will probably be the first time in my life that I don't get the new game. It feels weird. This game has been a part of my life for so long. Buying it on the day of release has even been a tradition. But that's it. They've announced far too many disappointing things for the game and no toddlers takes the cake.

A tip for EA: Try announcing some good news, instead of just the same news, bad news, or saying "we can't discuss that yet". It might save a few fans...if there are any left.