One of our good friends Katie brought us some amazing cupcakes for California Shabu-Shabu’s Costa Mesa 2 year anniversary a few weeks ago, and they were just too stunning not to share! Domo’s fur is individually hand piped!!!!! Thank you Katie, they tasted as good as they looked!! 
So excited to have this big walk in! This is the corner that will soon be piled high with beer kegs!
This was a few hours after the last pictures in the last post.
So we’re finally catching up to the present with the blog. My apologies again for such lengthy delays. You’re almost caught up!! And methinks we’re close to an August opening?? Lets just get on with the build. Walk-in cooler will be a lifesaver for us. This thing took literally a day to put together. It was kind of like a big piece of ikea furniture.
So it seemed like I left for a few days when the framing was just metal studs, and came back to drywall everywhere. A few days later, it was as if the entire Extreme Makeover team had stormed through the space with their army of eager beavers; taping, patching, and sanding the hell out of every surface to get it to the smoothness that it is now.
This work was literally done over the course of 3-4 days; from raw framing to finished patched drywall! Why couldn’t the rest of the build go as smooth!? I was just informed today that one of our inspectors had made a correction on Thursday, scheduled to come back Friday, but never showed. Weekend LOST!! Yet one more delay…more than one more dollar… frustrated…
Since we were unable to create the open ceiling design we were hoping for, we were stuck spending more money on drywall… everywhere!! But despite the added cost, time, and trouble, I think things turned out looking pretty sweet. Some of the angles and corners were put in purely because we needed extra plumbing in the walls, but the final product was unexpectedly pleasant. Hopefully you guys like it too!
In the spirit of suggestive blog headings… one of the costliest parts of this project is this 3 story ventilation shaft. Well, at least sometime soon its going to protrude from somewhere along the atrium wall. Maybe the correct term should have been “shafting”.
And last but not least, this is the big hunk of floor that was taken out to make room for yummy shabu steam…
So this is the first WordPress post, and I’m still getting used to the way things work. If you’re back, thank you for migrating with us, and if this is the first visit, Welcome! Hopefully this slick new facade will help me post with utmost urgency and frequency.
A couple weeks ago, our blowers and AC units finally arrived! Great stuff, but part of the challenge or pain of building a shabu spot is the wallet shattering need for massive ventilation to exhaust the steam from the inside of the restaurant. All of this would be so much easier with a 1 story building… boo hoo
Ken measures, while Wayne assesses the damage to our checkbook.
