For those of you who care about Satchel’s, and for those of you who are just curious about Satchel’s and my obsession with it, here’s an update. Satchel sent this email to the people who contributed something to the Satchel’s “Employee Relief Fund” via an IndieGoGo campaign a while back. I thought I would pass it along to update those people who care, but who didn’t give to the fund.

If you have no idea what I’m talking about, here is an article that talks about the fire that damaged the kitchen at Satchel’s.

And here’s the latest update email:

Hello! Please forgive me for waiting so long to reach out to you and say thanks for helping the Satchel’s employees! I have been working such long days, sometimes 16-18 hour days. My desk is piled high, my clothes need washing, my car needs cleaning but the restaurant re-model is moving along pretty good. The outpouring of support for our indiegogo campaign raising money for employees was incredible. I knew that folks loved our pizzas and salads and staff, but I had no idea that you loved us THIS much! It was humbling and kept me going through the hardest times.

It became apparent quickly after the fire that putting things back the way they were just wasn’t an option. Our tiny kitchen had 8 people working in there and there was very little space for the amount of food we were putting out. Also, in order to increase our occupancy to be more in line with the people we serve, we needed our “back door exit” to be through a hallway instead of through our prep room. The code doesn’t allow customers to exit through the kitchen so we’ve had to not only re-model the kitchen for more space, but also the prep room. We’ve combined these 2 rooms into one bigger connected kitchen and we feel we will have a better flow and more efficient kitchen, hopefully getting your food to you even faster, (notice I said “hopefully.”) The progress is good. Today the exterior walls were put on and tomorrow the electrician is supposed to start running the new electric. There is a lot to do but I am on it every day.

Those of you who got a perk of a cake made by my mom, I’ve already contacted you about how to begin the claim process for that. For the 2 of you that gave enough to get a painting or collage of mine, I will be in touch about that later. Basically my art show will go up in December and you’ll be able to pick from the paintings then. Those of you who gave enough for a menu-back, I’ll contact you when I get a little further along with the re-model and have some extra time. And for the majority of you who are waiting patiently for calzones and pizzas and salads, I’ll be sending out details of how to claim your food when we have a re-opening date. I would like to open for a couple days before the “official” opening to just feed those of you who gave to our campaign. But you’ll be able to come in any time and claim your perk after that as well. I’m still a but too swamped to figure it all out right now.

I just wanted to get out an email to say thanks to everyone for your gifts and your support. The employees were all so very happy and grateful. One employee told me how she cried when she saw the money show up in her account. I feel pretty sure that you’ll be seeing familiar happy faces when we re-open and all of us will be so glad to get a regular paycheck and a pizza again, especially me! I hope I get the chance to thank each of you in person when we re-open, as best I can tell I am hoping that we will be able to re-open in early June.

thank you thank you thank you.

satchel