Yulia’s Restaurant.

As soon as she arose early Tuesday morning, Yulia satisfied a Want by purchasing another community lot.

“So THAT’S what you’re doing with the rest of the money,” observed Derek, who had also just arisen. He was in one of the house’s two kitchens, dutifully making and freezing mac and cheese before leaving for the hospital.

“I still have to fix up the break room,” Yulia answered, “so it’s going to take even MORE money. I should be able to use a lot of the furniture I took from the Emporium, though.”

Yevgenya was enthusiastically making mac and cheese in the other kitchen. She was very excited to be part of her mother’s new venture.

Yanastasia was thoughtfully making her parents’ bed without being asked,

and Yedrek—who was extremely neat—had taken it upon himself to clean up the entire dining room (also without being asked).

“Those are some diligent kids we’ve got,” Yulia remarked, pleased but also somewhat amused.

“Must be the good example set by their mother,” Derek complimented his wife.

With her husband gone to work, her 4 children gone to school, and the butler at the house so he could keep the home venue tidy, Yulia headed out to her first day at her new restaurant.

‘This car’s probably reducing the property value of the entire neighborhood!” Yulia thought ruefully. ‘Perhaps Derek’s got a point.’

Arriving at her brand-new restaurant, Yulia thought that her jalopy would probably discourage potential customers, so resolved to call a car dealer before another day had gone by.

It was an elegant and serene dining room,

with a take-out area where Yulia could sell all the mac and cheese entrees that her family had made and frozen.

She walked into the commercial kitchen, and caught her breath.

There was a gleaming chef’s station,

a sous-chef workstation with 2 additional cooktops,

a defrosting bin with wine storage above, which were flanked by a triple refrigerator and a double standing freezer,

and a cooler for fresh produce.

Yulia went to the phone to see if anyone good was available to hire.

She got VERY lucky--Rodney Jung had both a Silver badge in Register, AND a Silver badge in Restocking! Since Yulia needed both for her take-out area, she hired him in a snap.

Her friend Marisa Bendett’s name also came up and, though Marisa didn’t have any badges, she was the most competent cook available for the day.

She called her new employees in to work, and also her longtime employees.

She then filled her display cases with some of the frozen mac and cheese entrees that she and Derek had made, and priced them to “Ridiculously Cheap”,

and set out her snapdragons in useful places.

The moving van arrived with the furniture and fixtures from the store Yulia had just closed, so she was able to set up the employee break room.

Her employees arrived, and she set about assigning them their duties. Her assignments were based on the badges and skills her employees had. The only badges relevant to a restaurant were Register, Restocking, Flower Arranging (because the snapdragons added so much to customer loyalty), and Sales (which wasn’t at the moment important, because the take-out food would initially be priced “Ridiculously Cheap”, and Yulia—who had a Gold badge in Sales--could always do “Sales – Dazzle” if she needed to.) Except, of course, that any employee who had 5 badge points could be promoted to Manager, which would greatly help Yulia with her workload, and greatly reduce her need to multi-task.

Assigning Christian was simple—since his only relevant badge was a Gold in Flower Arranging, she put him to work making snapdragons. It was hard enough to find someone with that particular Gold badge that it wasn’t worth it to train him on something else in order for him to gain 2 more badge points to be promoted to Manager. He was a bit eccentric, and Yulia managed him with a light hand—she didn’t ask him to wear a uniform, and he didn’t have to check his schedule with her. When he felt like making bouquets, he did; when he got tired, he went to sleep in one of the tents without saying a word to anyone.

Shelby already had 6 badge points—a Gold in Register plus a Gold in Restocking. So, she couldn’t advance in either of those relevant skills (though her ability to fill in as cashier or restocker if the restaurant got into trouble was useful). Shelby was already a Manager, so Yulia wouldn’t gain anything by advancing her in Sales. Yulia put the attractive young woman into a pretty dress and assigned her to be Hostess. Shelby was thrilled to have such a glamorous assignment!

Troy also had 6 badge points and was also already a Manager. His Gold in Restocking was useful in case the take-out operation fell behind. Yulia assigned him to be a Server (which he didn’t mind, because he thought his uniform was so sharp).

Virtually the same was true with Komei—he already had 6 badge points, was already a Manager, and his Silver in Restocking was useful. Yulia made him a Server, too.

Bruce had only 3 badge points, so needed 2 more in order to be promoted to Manager. He had a Bronze in Register and a Silver in Restocking, and Yulia assigned him to be Cashier, at least until the take-out operation got busy.

(She also put him in a slightly different uniform than Komei, so she would have SOME chance of telling them apart!)

As for her brand-new employees, Rodney already had 4 badge points—a Silver in each of the useful skills of Register and Restocking. Yulia assigned him to restock, hoping that he could earn a Gold badge in Restocking so that she could promote him to Manager. She put Rodney in the same uniform she had given Bruce.

Yulia asked Marisa—who had no badges, but was Level 3 in Cooking—to “Make Many” single portions of mac and cheese, since Yulia was trying to stay ahead of what she anticipated would be great take-out demand for that traditional food favorite.

Yulia then set her menu, and deleted any dish that required more than Level 3 Cooking skill (just in case Marisa had to take over from a more skilled chef),

then priced all the dishes to “Ridiculously Cheap.”

Yulia then took a VERY deep breath, and opened her restaurant for the first time.

__________________________

NOTES FROM THE AUTHOR:

Re the double kitchen in the new house: the 2nd kitchen has one door that only Derek can use (thank you OFB!), and one door that only Yulia can use. Locking the doors in this way forestalls the annoying and counter-productive potential behavior of Genya (and of the 3 other teenaged cooks to come!) of leaving the 1st kitchen and wandering into the 2nd kitchen and interfering with her parents’ cooking.

When your Sim owner arrives at a brand-new business, remember to go to the sign FIRST THING and “Close Business.” Otherwise, potential customers will show up and be annoyed that there’s no one to wait on them, etc. (Yulia has her Open/Closed sign in the kitchen so that it won’t detract from the lovely aesthetics of her restaurant.)

BEFORE your Sim puts her merchandise (for Yulia, all that frozen mac and cheese!) into the display case, go through her inventory, find any burned food, and put it temporarily on the floor.

You may not be able to delete it (even using “moveobjects on”), but you can at least have your Sim “Clean Up.”

It’s much easier and less time-consuming than having to remove burned food from the display case, and if a customer buys burned food, he could have a negative reaction.

To set the price of display case items, click on the Business Interface (in the upper-right corner), then on “Business Build Tools”, then set your price, then click on each DISPLAY CASE (and NOT on the display case items), then click “Business Build Tools” again to close the interface.

Again, Yulia had to summon her former employees (Christian, Shelby, Troy, Komei, and the overgrown puppy Bruce) to the restaurant via the teleporter painting in order to “Greet” then “Hire” them—none of them were EVER at home when she called! (Damned game….)

Shelby somehow came in with a wage of $120/hour, which is “Ridiculously Overpaid”!

But Yulia wasn’t about to change it, fearing negative consequences. (Probably just another way the game tries to screw with us, and Yulia’s too smart to fall for it!) She figured if she gets into money trouble, she could always price some of the mac and cheese take-out food really high and do “Sales – Dazzle” to ameliorate her cash flow.

Remember how a Manager can self-click and pick “Restock”? Well, it doesn’t work with “Be Server”—Yulia has to click on the podium and choose “Assign Server”.

Oh my word—not only do Servers autonomously clean counters, they also autonomously clean toilets! And gain Cleaning skill points doing so! (Provided, of course, that you have the totally fair and reasonable community-lot skilling hack from MATY.)

(Note: Troy was NOT assigned to “Tidy Up”—he’s working as a Server!)

In yet another example of the game screwing with us, Marisa suddenly showed up as “Underpaid”--

though Yulia JUST hired her, and she was fine with her pay when she started work, and she’s made a grand total of 3 mac and cheese entrees today! She must think very highly of herself!!! But from playing her before I know she’s Fortune Sim, so maybe she’s always money-grubbing….

I read somewhere (I’ll try to find the link) that you should keep some really cheap items on your menu, such as gelatin, so poor Sims will still be able to frequent your establishment.