To The Beer Hall ...

Before I proceed to today's happenings, I would like to thank all of you who left comments on my (admittedly) testy question regarding cash or plastic payments. None of the answers were surprising, and being diners ourselves (on occasion), we certainly know all too well, what it means having to drudge to the ATM to pay for dinner.

As business owners, however, we are suddenly on the other side of the equation, which forces us to think about issues like this one. What are the pros and cons of one solution over another? Here are two points that speak for accepting plastic: Plastic makes a business more transparent, which is a good thing in the eyes of the IRS, and therefore also good for the business, because it makes a business look less suspicious, and prone to audits. And at a recent seminar for restaurateurs (future and current) at the CIA we learned that the IRS recently started a program for the food service industry, which makes it easier for the business to track and report tip income for its employees (this program requires a certain percentage of payments to be made with plastic). Neither of these points may be important to you, but they are to us.

At the same seminar we also learned about some of the quirks of New York sales tax, like why the exact same plain bagel is subject to sales tax if you eat it on premise, but not if you take it with you (unless it is toasted, or handled in any other form or fashion, at which point it becomes prepared food, and therefore is subject to sales tax again).

Enough of the tough topics, back to the basics. We started finishing drywalling the beer hall, and taping the existing drywall, because on Friday we want to start plastering the beer hall, and that will be really exciting.


Jeff was back today assembling the AC tube for the eastern side of the beer hall. If you can't see it in the picture below, that is a good thing, because that's how it's supposed to be.


Dirk