Alex Bitar Photography

I woke up Sunday morning thinking, "Hmm...we're going to be using our space for rotating art and I need to put out an email for artists who would be interested in displaying their art in the restaurant. I need to set that up."

A fellow paisano from Colombia had heard of Bogota and stopped by to see what we were about. This fellow pulls up in his motorcycle gear and peers into the window with a friend of his. Amidst the interviews we were conducting that day in search of our starting lineup, I walked out and greeted them. The young man, Alex Bitar is a Colombian photographer and artist. A friend of his had told him about Bogota Latin Bistro and he decided to come by from Harlem to check us out.

"Are you interested in any artwork?" he asked.
"We are, although we are not in a place to purchase. We actually want to use our restaurant to display revolving art. Is that something you're interested in?"
"I just came back from Colombia. I have some images I think you'd love. Let's stay in touch."

Absolutely Alex. Here's a plug for you just for stopping by.
Alex Bitar Photography

Bogota: The Interviews-Round 1

Another exciting day in Bogota history.

Thank you to all the applicants who submitted their resumes and showed up for the first round of group interviews yesterday.We are scheduling another round soon for those who we weren't able to accomodate due to the large number of people we had scheduled and we'll hold call backs for those we feel would be strong candidates to help kick off Bogota Latin Bistro. We met a lot of great applicants yesterday and feel very strongly about quite a large number of them.

A BIG Thank You to our friends Tami, Mika, and Melinda who turned out to help us with these interviews and provide us with feedback.

An addendum: having the applicants waiting outside as we prepared ourselves inside was great marketing. It generated quite a buzz from people passing by in addition to nearby business owners including nearby restaurateurs - one of whom we saw peeking in our window to see what was going on.

CRAINS New York, Where Are You?

The story of Bogota Bistro is a CRAINS New York article waiting to be written. In truth, it's actually several articles. I need to contact someone there. We have a very interesting story to tell. People also keep telling us about this show called 'coming soon' on cable tv. I don't have cable tv (yeah, I know, people think I'm nuts when I tell them this but, hey, it's either I have cable TV or I have the money to buy a can of paint for the restaurant. I'll choose the can of paint and besides, there's no time for tv. Not for the foreseeable future. In any case, this show, 'coming soon', it sounds like we'd be a prime candidate for it.

The Kitchen Equipment Has Arrived

I was sitting in Gorilla Coffee, calling up job applicants and setting up appointments when I see the big WinSupply truck roll by. I excitedly packed everything up and rushed back to the space where the drama of unloading the equipment began to unfold. There was street construction going and the street crew was pretty uncooperative in allowing us to park the truck in front of our space to unload the equipment. It did work out when a young woman who had parked practically in front of the space shows up and pulls out thus giving us the parking spot we needed.


Then there was the issue of fitting all this through the door. And then we noticed that our construction crew didn't seem very happy with all the equipment getting in their way as they're working. Then there was the issue of getting it all downstairs.


In the end, it all worked out. It always does.