Growing up in rural New Mexico I learned some unusual things at an early age. I learned that you shouldn’t make friends with a calf, no matter how cute, because eventually he will grow up to be hamburgers. I learned how pipes explode when they freeze and just how many apricots you can eat before you get sick. One of those valuable life lessons was this: bad things come from Dallas.
This was due to the ever increasing invasion that plagued my State. The surgically modified hordes of platinum fluff, sugar-daddy in tow, swarmed New Mexico in search of ski hills and culture. We were taught as locals to react with two key tactics: 1) raise all prices and 2) insist that you do not speak English when confronted.
At this point you are likely wondering what any of this could possibly do with KitchenInc. Let me indulge you. Since leaving New Mexico some eight years ago I have given little thought to the Dallas invasion. However, this past fall I have been forced to remember that childhood adage: bad things come from Dallas.
After months of negotiation, signing the lease for 907 Franklin at last was a most triumphant moment. I celebrated with homemade pizza and an Argentinean cab I’d been saving. I had signed not one, but FOUR copies of the lease and dutifully handed over my deposit check. It could not possibly get more official. We would open in time for the 2009 Holiday season. Such optimism, such joy was mine!
Several weeks later, after sending endless “WTF?” emails, our Landlord’s local middleman responded with most unexpected news. A lawyer in Dallas, in his final review of our lease, had decided that he did not like some of the wording and also noticed a mistake in our rent calculation. The wording in question obligated our landlord to complete build-out of our new entryway as part of the “Landlord’s Work.” Lawyer was uncomfortable with this clause since the ability of the landlord to complete the door depended on City permits that were not yet received.
Fine, we would simply have to wait until permits were in before final execution….or we could amend the lease with proposed language that invalidated the landlord obligations we had spent months negotiating out. “You pick,” the lawyer seemed to propose as though we had much of a choice in the matter.
Well then, how long would it take to obtain the required permits?

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