On the wrong side of early.

But on the right side of optimism.

As much as we pushed the fridge, it wouldn’t squeeze through the pub cellar door.

So we would have to drag it back and take its wheels off.

Every inch counts.

I literally remember every painful minute.

The second attempt with the frisée met with more success.

The fridge made it up to street level.

At the exact same time, a car pulled up - Porsche Cayenne.

The owner asked if we were open.

I said this was our very last day.

The irony was that same week; we were voted one of only 8 new pub/restaurants to go into a posh food awards book.

I started out as a sleeping partner, and by default, the baton passed to me to run it.

I was doing the remake of Clueless in Chicago, but in Cardigan.

The sleeping partner stopped sleeping.

It was a car crash -in slow motion.

And we were there mouths open, watching all the bits of the car fly ever so slowly through the air.

But guess what?

The waiter who was helping me with that darn fridge wrote one of the most-watched TV commercials of last Christmas. Globally.

One of the other waiters started a gin brand that is going crazy.

One of the customers was so taken with it; she moved to Cardigan.

And then became one of the lead investors in the super successful local cafe and bakery.

When you look at it one way, it was an abject failure.

And when you look at it through another lens, it was a launchpad.

Yes, a little early.

But super happy we did it.