Thanks for stopping by! Man, oh, man, opening a second restaurant has been a challenge. We tried to get off on the right foot as much as possible by training the Cocoa Beach staff down in Melbourne so they could hit the ground running.

It mostly worked. But there are still some bugs to iron out and you found a couple of them. My chef (and fellow Surfer) Cheyne Balbier is already on the crab bisque project, and mahi, as well, to make sure they're within specs of our recipe.

Atmosphere... that's on me and my wife entirely. It's not going to have that worn-in feel of a 25+ year old pub. Instead, we're slowly bringing cool, antique (mostly European) beer-related stuff into it. You'll find a map from Brussels from the 1600s on the wall, and antique St Bernardus / Westvletern goodies on display, and old-time patents from alcohol-related products like corkscrews, fermenters and crap like that.

I have a neat 1500s map of Freising, Germany that shows Brauerie Weihenstepher before it was known by today's name. I need to get that puppy framed. And other nifty things to put on the walls and to use as decorations. Long Story, Short.... decorations are evolving. The beer distributors were tripping over themselves to give me Blue Moon, Leinenkugel and Budweiser signs. Nope; I'm not gonna do it. To me, my wife and daughter, this isn't a sprint; it's a marathon.

We know we'll have to earn business in Cocoa Beach to hang in there, and the whole Coasters team is excited to doing just that. Unfortunately this is just another business, where things take longer and cost more than you ever imagined. Just with fewer PowerPoint slide shows and email threads.

Cheers!

Edited: 04/03/2017 at 09:17 PM by DaveFL76