Honey vs. Vinegar

I learned one of life's greatest lessons in college from a well loved secretary.  She was honey sweet to everyone and when she needed a favor or had a special request, people bent over backwards to get it done.

I have had many not so shining moments, spewing vinegar and leaving a wake of smelliness when things did not go as planned.  To my credit, most of my sour years were during teen years and into my twenties.  But meeting this lovely secretary truly changed my outlook on life.  And I have been striving to choose honey over vinegar ever since.

Everyday we are faced with choices between honey and vinegar.  My most recent encounter came on December 4th while gaining our lovely Inglewood Zoning Planner's signature for our ABC license.  By now, you know that I researched and triple checked our zoning prior to signing our lease for our space.  When our Planner and I reviewed our potential property, I was pretty clear on our intended use (wholesale and retail sales for on and off site consumption), and our lovely planner signed off on it.  Turns out she made a mistake.  Before she said that we did not need a Special Use Permit for our tasting room.  She then realized that we will be selling beer directly to the public and THAT requires a Special Use Permit.   The Special Use Permit takes a minimum of two-three months to complete, which includes a hearing and a 20 day appeals period.  Inglewood also has a monthly filing deadline to get your Special Use Permit in by.  As I sat there I realized that the Special Use Permit filing deadline was the very next day, December 5th.  OMG.

We are now two to three months delayed on our tasting room.  If I didn't get our Special Use Permit application in by 5PM December 5th, we would be an additional 30 days behind schedule.  Ouch.  That is a three to four months of rent mistake.  Good thing we have a delay in taking possession of our space!

Honey vs. Vinegar.  It's a split second decision that can lead you down two very different paths.  One which is smooth gliding, the other bumpy, stinky and rough.  All my years of striving for honey paid off in tens as I sat at the planning counter and automatically poured honey.  Lots and lots of honey.

Just the look on our lovely Inglewood Zoning Planner's face told a story of how sorry she was for the miscommunication.  I sincerely got the feeling that she would go to bat for us if we could get our Special Use Permit application in by 5PM the next evening.   I know that the honey used today will helps us in the future if and when we need it.

I left the planning office on an impossible mission.  We had to design our tasting room (ADA Compliant), redesign our parking lot to meet the new parking requirements (ADA Compliant), provide exterior elevations of the building which included our "architectural design element of our brewery" (aka: our silo) and sign.  I had to write up answers to address their questions on the Special Use Permit form and provide supporting documentation.   We also needed our landlord to notarize and sign a form acknowledging our desired permit requests.  Did I mentioned that all of these plans had to be to scale?  All to be done in less than 24 hours!  I'm an optimist, but I'm also a realist.

Back to the honey.  Jonathan and I love to entertain.  We usually can't wait to share the new things we have discovered.  Most of our designers, trades and professionals that we have worked with have somehow become part of our extended family.  Maybe because we treat them as such, family.

So when I made a frantic phone call to our friend and designer Jeremy Taylor at 5PM December 4th, he assured me that together we would get it done.  Tons of Three Weavers love to Jeremy!  Not only do his interior and landscape designs rock, but he has become a dear friend.   You will have to check out our Jeremy Taylor designed Tasting Room!

Between Alexandra (brew master), Jeremy and I, we were able to knock out the tasting room layout.  The new parking lot took quite a bit longer as well as our "brewery architectural design element" (aka: silo) and building elevations.  I didn't finish my portion of the application until mid day.  Jeremy actually drove our finished printed plans directly to Inglewood Planning.  I was able to pay for our permit application at 5PM.  Our lovely Inglewood Zoning Planner made herself available all day to us, helping give us direction with our permit application.

It was a stressful 24 hours, one that I hope not to repeat.   After completing our permit application, I profusely apologized to Jeremy for my frantic crazy phone calls throughout the day.  Knowing that he had a long traffic filled drive home, I gave him the snickers bar I had.  Somehow I remembered that Jeremy likes snickers bars.

ABC, easy as 123!

The Alcohol Beverage Control employees are some of the nicest folks to work with.  I popped into the downtown office on Tuesday morning before Thanksgiving (walk-in application review is Monday - Thursday, 8AM to 10:30 only).   We reviewed our application, found a couple of things missing, and made our to do list for submitting our application.  Special Note:  Sign all your documents in front of the ABC employee.  It will save you money on notarizing signatures, unless the person who has to sign can not attend.

Here are the forms you will need:
Planned Operation (Non-Retail) ABC257-NR.
Anywhere it asks for application, list the brewery entity name.  You must have your location secured as the ABC license is tied to the location, not your brewery.

Licensed Premises Diagram (Non-Retail) ABC257-NR.
A hand drawing is fine, you just need to show all exterior walls of your license brewery, interior walls, stairs, exits, doors, general area where things are going (brew house, cellar, cold box, mill, bottling area, tasting room.)

Supplemental Diagram ABC253.
Again, a hand drawing is fine.  They want to see just your exterior walls in relation to streets.  Be sure to orientate your map N.

Application Questionnaire ABC217 (2+ pages depending on how many investors you have).
Here you have to list all of your investors, sources of funds, and how you plan to spend all that cash.  Be sure to list your SBA if you have one.  This form need to be notarized or signed in front of an ABC employee.

Application Signature Sheet ABC211-SIG.
If you do not sign the forms in front of the ABC employee, you will need to complete this form and have it notarized.  The ABC employee has me sign it in front of her anyways.  Go figure.

Depending on your entity type, you will need to complete:
Corporation ABC243 (2 pages).
Limited Liability Company Questionnaire ABC256-LLC (2 pages).
Partnership Questionnaire ABC256
Here you list all your information about your brewery and it's investors.  Please note that any investor that is a 10% or more owner must complete ABC208-A and B.  If any members list their trust as owners and they are 10% or more owners, you will need a copy of the executed trust documents.  If you have LLC's, Corps, or Partnerships as members of your entity and they are 10% or more owners, they will need to complete the entity questionnaire.  Any owners that are 10% or more owners of the LLC will have to complete ABC208-A and B.  Every entity will have to attach their operating agreement and articles of incorporation.

Individual Personal Affidavit ABC208-A and B.
This form needs to be notarized or signed in front of an ABC employee.  You will need a copy of your birth certificate or passport.

Certification Re: Chapter 15 Tied House Restrictions ABC140.
Every entity will have to complete this form.

Forms ABC 247 Statement Re: Residences and ABC251 Statement Re: Consideration Points are not required as they only apply to Retail licenses.

Dropped off our final application with a check yesterday and got a call this afternoon that our poster and fingerprinting forms are ready for pick up.  AWESOME!