Three’s Company at Lake Nokomis

One of the shows I grew up watching was Three’s Company. John Ritter was hysterical running into everything and creating all kinds of hijinx. Janet was a cute brunette who impressed me with the quantity of makeup she wore. And of course Chrissy Snow played the daft blonde but was really just innocent (so I like to think).

I bring this up because it occurs to me that the Sandcastle team sort of fits this mold. My husband is a chef and so was Jack. I’m brunette and all business. Chele is a blonde. That similarity ends there. Chele is a wiz with numbers and has done the books for my husband’s restaurant Piccolo (www.piccolompls.com) since opening. We are the Three’s Company of Lake Nokomis.

I guess that makes the MPRB Mr. and Mrs. Roper since they are our landlords. Or perhaps they are more of the Don Knotts, Mr. Furley, type? Are they an older love-starved woman with her grumpy husband or a silly, yet kind, old man who fancies himself a ladies man?

Auditions

We have some openings for roles in our summer comedy. In particular, we need a Larry. Any playboys out there willing to be Jack’s best friend? No need to be a used car salesman like Larry but if you are, then best if you sell European cars as that is my husband’s, er, I mean Jack’s, favorite.

However, I would be open to gender-bend this role in the spirit of some great reboots that mixed things up. Who would have thought Starbuck would be better as a girl (BSG reference)? So we will also take auditions from strong, tough-talking, clever women. Perhaps you are a used bike salesperson and come by every day on your way to work. I’ll sneak you free ginger aguas!

Three’s Company ended with Jack owning his own restaurant. This is my husband’s second. He will need to balance his time and attention between the two. I am already thankful to the great staff at Piccolo for helping him during our opening in May (hopefully May). While Janet left her flower shop to be an aerobic instructor, I think I will just try to get yoga at the lake so I can keep mind and body healthy. Lastly, Chrissy Snow left the show and her cousin Cindy took her place. Again, no similarity there. Chele is stuck with us for the long haul!

What is all this Sandcastle stuff?

Some of you may have questions about how Sandcastle ended up with the concession at Lake Nokomis. I realize you may not attend MPRB meetings regularly, as do most people.  Or perhaps you had mono all through 2012?  Regardless of your reason, I’m happy to share some background with you.

In the spring of 2012 the MPRB formed a Community Advisory Committee (CAC) charged with putting forward a single business for running the concession. The CAC did a lot of work gathering information from local residents about what they wanted to see in the park. The MPRB then put out a request for proposals and Doug, Chele and I put one together. You can find it online here.

In the summer of 2012 we then presented to the CAC. There were two other parties that presented at the same time. The CAC deliberated and a month later we got the word that we were chosen.

At this point we went into negotiations with the park board. Using our proposal as a foundation, we spent five months first gathering information about what it would mean to build out the concession (it hasn’t been operational for a couple years). Secondly, figuring out who was responsible for what. On December 5, 2012 our lease agreement was approved by the full MPRB.

Community ~ Food ~ Sustainability

Community, food, and sustainability are the key principles that we laid out in our proposal. While we would love to do everything we outlined in the proposal in the first season, reality and resources won’t allow that. Here are some things that you will see in the first season:

• Concession building upgrade following green principles to make it meet code and put in a functional kitchen.

• Run the business as close to zero-waste as possible.

• MPRB will be landscaping, adding more seating, and building a pavilion.

•  Beer and wine sales with completion of the pavilion.

One large change from the proposal is that we will not have an off-site kitchen. All food preparation and service will happen on-site at the beach. This means that there will be no indoor seating. We do plan to develop some barriers to inclement weather in a pavilion but, really, who’s going to show up at a beach in a storm anyway? This also meant that we had to reimagine some of the visions for the space we stated in the proposal, like hanging local art of sandcastles and having our tagline ‘Eat Like a King’ written in multiple languages around the inside. We do plan to have the menus translated into multiple languages.

Lastly, we hope to work towards the environmental educational components throughout the first season. The second season will see that realized more fully. For other details about Sandcastle (like the menu) you can visit our website: www.sandcastlempls.com