The quest for the holy...Money

Banks don't like cafes. As we discovered, cafe's don't like banks either. Ok, not All banks. Rejection is not fun. Our original plan for Esplanade was to develop approximately on two floors, approximately 4000 sq. ft each. The restaurant would occupy the downstairs, incorporating a beautiful spiral staircase that let to the upstairs retail store. A two part comprehensive business plan was written with narratives and financials that included the normal projections for three years. The plan only called for $150,000 in borrowed money, we now realize that banks only give half of what they are asked for... Bank One rejected the project without hesitation, we don't hold a grudge. So did those people at the PNC, we are uncertain of exactly what they have in their bank. Lexington Federal doesn't play dice with the universe.

Central Bank was the most polite and National City encouraged us to revise the scope of the project. Good advice. We went back to the drawing board and came up with a two phase concept that included an option for the second floor in the second year. We separated the businesses so that the banks never heard the word "restaurant". We then presented the retail store part of our expansion to National City Bank, and obtained approval. The Restaurant part of the project was taken to Community Ventures. That Virtuous enterprise also approved a loan. The Lexington Urban County Government got the third part. Their approval is forthcoming...we hope. So far we received $74,000, and are learning to do what we want with half of what we need, but possibly in twice the time.