10 SMALL BUSINESSES

10 DESIGNERS

10 MAKEOVERS

10 DAYS

MAIN ST MAKEOVER

Pablo's Panaderia 311 E. Grand River Ave.

My name is Oscar. I'm a decorator. I'm making over Pablo's Panaderia.

I'm Pablo. This is Pablo's Panaderia. The best restaurant in town.

I am a cook, and I always wanted my own business.

I worked for someone else for years. I feel good now that I am my own boss.

I want new tables and chairs.

What's here now isn't typical for a Mexican restaurant.

Pablo's Panaderia is always full of people and joy but maybe needs more function and structure, and...

... even a little bit stronger identity.

PLANNING THE MAKEOVER November 2007

Hello, Pablo. I brought Oscar today.

For each business I try to find a good inspirational picture.

Instead of looking at the most typically Mexican since we have a lot of Mexican chain restaurants could we find something more peculiar?

Our concept for Pablo's was Mexican, but not your run-of-the-mill Mexican.

A modern take on Mexican.

I love the mural, so we'll keep that. But we paint the orange walls white to make them more contemporary and also to showcase the mural more.

Except for that wall. I want to paint it pink.

Like bougainvillea pink.

An intense pink is not easy to persuade somebody to accept.

Let's see how pink you dare to go. Maybe Pablo was a bit hesitant.

Is it that one? Or that one? But he had full confidence in what we were doing.

Fashion pink.

It's not your run-of-the-mill Mexican color, but it still works.

It compliments the brick and the wood in a very nice way.

Fashion pink. Well, if they say it goes with this place, I'll stay with it.

They are the professionals.

On some of the walls, we'll keep some of the fun things you have but maybe this wall we'll fill with real aloe vera plants.

- And put them all over the wall.

- Okay.

The functional needs of Pablo's were his prep counter his bread shed, as we call it, and his cash counter that was propped up in another corner of the restaurant.

We could make that into one counter.

Let's have all the functions in one counter, both prepping and cash.

So the staff don't have to run around.

We thought high-backed wooden chairs would be nice instead.

- What do say to that?

- Chairs and tables.

Keep your tables.

Pablo wanted the chairs I suggested, but also wanted new tabletops which were not in our original plan.

- You want to change the top?

- Yeah.

In my creative concept, I was looking into possibilities of what we could do.

- Maybe we could keep the bases.

- And change the tabletops.

Solid beech?

Then it was up to the individual decorator to see that it does work.

- We have to think about that.

- Yeah.

Since we opened three years ago, I've thought of making some changes.

But now that we're three, even better.

- Like it?

- Everything's great.

It's going to work out great. Beautiful restaurant, nice people.

- I need big drawers for the money.

- More money for the drawers!

I'm mostly excited about working with Pablo in a Mexican restaurant.

"Oscar touches". See the recipe. Well, we'll see.

THE MAKEOVER January 2008

The Warehouse

- Oh, my gosh!

- I'll talk to them tonight.

- Uh-oh.

- What happened?

My plants are dead. That's what happened.

It's always something, right?

Pablo is an amazing character. A good individual.

What he had done for us was to take down what he could and paint the walls himself. Once all the pink was up, he loved it.

It's a more inviting feel when you open the door.

His biggest trouble was his bread display shed.

The problem was there weren't any doors. It was exposed.

It needed to go.

We found a glass door cabinet. We used three of them in order to store enough to make it look like a bread counter.

I think we succeeded in that.

I love it.

As you can see, he made fresh bread today. It's great.

Get it in there! Okay?

The second thing we did was a counter workspace for his co-workers.

Also to have a proper space for the cashier.

He had an old prep counter on one side and a cash counter on the other.

It would be more practical to keep them together.

And at the same time create a counter that had more storage space.

The other one was small, didn't have enough space and was very visible.

Now it has drawers. Great. All that space.

And look at this.

Beautiful. And here is much better working space and a flat area.

Very nice. And this ledge creates a nice diversion. Tremendous change.

- Thank you.

- No problem. Thank you.

Mats' idea of aloe vera plants on the wall gave it a nice focal point. Good.

The aloe vera plants became a big statement.

Less is more, but that doesn't mean poor.

So choose a few things and then go to town with them.

That's the concept. I told our project leader we needed 20 plants but that's what it takes to exaggerate something so simple.

- And by that making a statement.

- Good idea!

Nice.

- Has this been a fun place to work?

- It's been excellent.

The food is great. The people are great.

Yeah, it's been quite an adventure.

Oscar made me feel quite calm. He had good control of the situation.

Oscar's my number one choice.

The fact that he's of Mexican descent made it easy for him to communicate with Pablo and the staff.

It's gone very smoothly thanks to Oscar.

He was clever enough with the budget to add tabletops in solid oak and screw on the old bases that Pablo already had.

So he changed the tables into something new and fresh.

And as for the seating, I built 43 chairs for him.

We walked from our workstation all the way to the restaurant.

- Are they better than the old ones?

- Much better.

I can't hold them.

- I think it looks great.

- Let me know if you want beers.

- Margaritas?

- Margaritas? Yes!

I like them.

I'm ecstatic with the results. Awesome.

He likes it, I like it. Everybody's happy.

When I got here, I couldn't recognize the restaurant.

There are so many changes.

I think it's the totality of it all that makes it so nice.

It incorporates and keeps some of the good features he already had.

We just made it more efficient, a bit stronger in character.

Before

After

Before

After

This is perfect.

When a customer walks in, it's very nice and inviting.

When they leave, they want to come back. Pablo will get more customers.

He's a little bit shy, but he loves it.

If it wasn't full before, now it's definitely full.

Thank you.

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