1995-1996: Gregory's

Hometown chef Greg Grass has had many various restaurants in Sandpoint.  His current venture was a fine dining establishment focusing on seafood with a full bakery.  I was hired to give the baker and the chef their days off.

The restaurant started doing Tuesday night dinner theater.  Murder mysteries to be exact. So every Tuesday night an ambulance would show up at the front door and take away a victim.

In conjunction with Coldwater Creek Gregory's opened up a wood-fired pizza restaurant on the Cedar Street Bridge and the main commissary at Coldwater Creek's corporate Headquarters.  I started to work shifts at the pizza restaurant as well.  Everything was going well at Gregory's until a few things happened.  One of the major events that started  the decline was the major invetor had a heart attack (not again) and wanted his money out of the business.  So the wine inventory was sold off at below cost to raise the funds.  I scored a case of Chainti classico for $4 a bottle.  A case of White Chateuanuef de Pape for $6  bottle and I almost scored a bottle of Chateua D'quem but I was just short of cash so sad.  The other event that broke up the last vestage of managment was the realization that the money manager had been spending his time developing his own restaurant and not managing the money.  The bills had not been paid and collectors loomed at the door.  Bad juju for a few and a lesson in loyalty for others.  I however discovered a local coffee shop called Java Adagio where I learned to sit drink coffee and enjoy the day as people passed by in this small American town.  How I miss Java.  Here's a shout out to Deb.  It was at Java that I made my next job contact.