Park Slope Bar: Bogota Bistro

Hey Marybeth!

The bar is being built! I thought you might want to know that.

Bogota Bistro

My Father

My father was always an entrepreneur and even when he was on someone else's payroll, he was still finding ways to be his own boss and bring in extra money. He once found an abandoned, yet still functional, soda can machine which he hauled to the factory where he worked and loaded with 10 cent cans of Pathmark soda which the machine would dispense for 75 cents. Today he is in his 70's, retired and living in a beat-up little house in Palestine yet he still runs his own little general merchandise store outside of his home.

The Global Clubhouse

The Global Clubhouse. Did you know that the U.S. State Dept. sponsors a website that helps promote American culture across the middle east? It should come as no surprise. I am featured in this month's edition as a member of Meetup. The story also appears on the site's sister Arabic version:
http://himag.com/articles/art1.cfm?topicId=1&id=870.

Resource: Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York

Restaurant Opportunities Center-New York

Job Training and Development

ROC-NY holds team meetings every Monday at 12pm and Wednesday at 3:30pm where restaurant workers or those desiring to work in the restaurant industry can receive and share information about their rights, life skills, and job openings in the restaurant industry. ROC-NY also offers job training classes in English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL), Computers, Bartending, Cooking, and Photography. Members can also receive help from ROC-NY in creating or updating their resume. All programs are free of charge.

Crossroads Cafe - Brooklyn, NY

Congratulations to our friends Suzanne and Yasmine who just opened up a neighborhood coffee shop in Windsor Park Terrace! We met Suzanne at a WIBO class that we spoke at over a year ago. It was cool how they happened to be passing directly in front of Bogota at the precise moment that we were locking up. There was an available parking spot right in front of Bogota and we gave them a tour of what is to be our restaurant. They also filled us in on their process and how exciting it's been for them to receive the response they've gotten from the neighborhood.

It's been great watching her 'do it' and, like us, she and her partner have done it.

Congratulations!

Crossroads Cafe
1241A Prospect Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11218
718 972 1852

This Is Not A Dream; This Is Not A Test

I came home and passed out from exhaustion at about 11:30 last night only to wake up 3 hours later with my head spinning a hundred and one things around about this restaurant. When I said "yes" to the idea of opening a restaurant, I had no idea what I was in for. It feels as though everything that has been my life up until this point is now over. Bogota has become a 24 hour project consuming all my time and leaving me with very little for all the things I feel that make me 'me.' I am really hoping that things can settle down a bit so that I can reintegrate what had been my life even just a few weeks ago with what is becoming my life today. I am missing a lot of those people, places, hobbies and things. And now, as I sit here wide awake at 3:58 in the morning, I include sleeping among that list.