Response from Health Dept.

Two months and two days after submitting our initial plans to the Health Department, we finally received a response!  The fact that we got a response was very exciting, but the actual response was not so exciting.  The list of corrections they issued has 30 items on it, which isn’t horrible, but also isn’t really great.

I suppose the bright side is that once we make these corrections, there should no longer be a reason for them not to approve our plans.  This whole process of starting a new business has a tendancy to be manic like this, but I’m trying to stay hopeful that we’re almost in the home-stretch.

Hurry Up and Wait…

After the emotional high of last week (getting our Conditional Use Permit approved), I was hoping to get another boost this week with a plan-approval from the Health Department. But alas, *sigh* no such luck.

I was able to speak with one of the plan checkers though, and they told me we should be getting a response from them early next week.  Apparently there are only 3 sets of plans on the shelf in front of ours, and the work of reviewing those plans is divided between two people.  However, after running this statement through my handy “Bureaucratic Translator” I discovered that the reality looks more like 2-3 weeks.  Luckily I have some experience at this waiting game, and I know just how to handle it.  What’s the secret?  It’s simple…Bug the holy hell out of them with lots of friendly phone calls!  What’s that you say? …Oh…yes, I’ll hold…

The Results Are In…

Wooo Hooo!  Just got back from our public hearing, and our Conditional Use Permit has been approved!!!  I feel like a giant weight has been lifted off my chest, and I can finally breathe a big sigh of relief.  So that’s what I’m doing right now…  Oh, and enjoying a celebratory drink or three!

So, what does this all mean?  Well, basically this approval means that the City of Los Angeles will allow us to operate a beer-tavern, with an attached microbrewery at this location.  In other words, we are allowed to commercially brew beer in our building, and to sell that beer to the public for both on-site and off-site consumption.

Now don’t get too excited just yet…We still have to get our approvals from the Health Department and Building & Safety, and we still need our state and federal licences before we can legally sell beer.  BUT – getting approval from the City of LA was probably the biggest hurdle we had to overcome, and now we’ve done it!

However, because we were already able to start the application process for all of the things I just mentioned, things are going to start happening very quickly now.  Be sure to stay tuned!!!!!