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The Chairs

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October-2015 I remember this day so easily. We bought these chairs on Craigslist that morning. Initially we were in a pick-up truck when we left to go get them. We were on the Turnpike and crossing that bridge that leads you to Jersey City when the pickup breaks down right in the middle of the bridge.   I started to panic a bit because there was no shoulder.  The only thing I remember is me looking at the him and saying "We need to get out of this car and run to safety." I just had this bad feeling about staying in the car. What if a n 18 wheeler came at full speed and didn't have enough time to brake? There was no shoulder for us to direct traffic either. We ended up walking to this little diner off the nearest exit and calling the police and a friend to come pick us up. We were having a horrible 24 hours. We were opening the restaurant in about a week. The night before we were in the restaurant trying to get the POS system to work. I was on the phone wit

The plants..

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Nyc - 2014 This is where the plant theme came from.   We went to eat one night at this place in the village on Houston.  It was a random night I can tell, I can see my Adidas sleeve in the picture.  That was my last minute go to outfit for last minute adventures.   He fell in the love with the view he had from his seat.   The next week we went bought 3 plants, of which I still have all of them  The plants were the beginning of everything so they remained one of our focal points.   It's taken me a few years to "our" .. "us"... "mine".    He always says "our restaurant" and I let him because I love hearing that but that was HIS.  That was HIS sweat, HIS hardwork.   I've fallen into the habit of saying it was ours because I put a lot into it too.  Just to make things clear, this was HIS.  I'm grateful and appreciative when he says it's mine too. So back to the plants.... At the time I was working at Michaels Arts and

Into the Cerulean blue

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The first thing we had to do was transform the restaurant from its cool, cold décor to something more "Cuban".  We were so excited, especially him.  In one afternoon, he painted over the old restaurant colors and covered everything up for the new reset.   I was at work when he sent me this and it made me laugh so hard.  If it wasn't for both of our sense of humors, we would of never of been able to do this together.     This r equired a lot of research.     I'm talking about random drives into Brooklyn to get inspired or going to Home Depot almost every day and getting new swatches.   "Jefe" knew exactly what he wanted, it's like when something is at the tip of your tongue, but you can't word it?... he doesn't have that problem.  This particular day we were just trying to figure out what the color of the awning was going to be.   Almost every day I would get a text or a call from him asking what I thought of this or what if we do this

Cuban Coffee.. Please come In

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Do you know how excited we were when we found a place that made this neon sign for us?  It was his vision, everything was always His vision.  I had a lot of input but since we had the same taste, everything he fell in love with I fell in love with too.  Come one now, he's a Gemini and I'm an Aquarius, we were meant to start this little beautiful restaurant.   The sign came that day and we couldn't stop going outside to look at it.  We were so giddy lol  This was welcoming.. come in, have a coffee and talk to us.   It reminded me of an old Deniro/Pacino movie, set in nyc in the 70's or 80's.  A neon sign anywhere in the middle of the night was a "Hello, come in."  I know that's why he fell in love with idea because it gives him life when he can talk and connect with people.   The real set it off was in SoHo though.   It was late and we were hungry and we both love Nyc so off we went into the Holland Tunnel that late Thursday night.   I don&