The rest of the afternoon was quiet. One fella came in for a short beer (he asked for something light, and the Spotted Cow surprised him), but then the sign delivery folks showed up. The sign over the door was a temporary one, and now I had the real one. The hardware to hang it was already there, so all they had to do was take one down and put up the other.

Here it is.

Those of you who have run their own brick-and-mortar know that tight feeling in the throat and the tears in the eyes when the sign shows up. It’s for real now.

Indeed it was. The first munch at FB was at 6, and I was as proud as a Catholic with new quadruplets. Two of the mods showed up early, ordered pizza for the members, and set up in the loft. People started showing up early — Pat, Scarlett and her crew, and the crowd from EARLY came in. The loft will hold 40 in a pinch, and it was full.

I got to show off my beer list (including the Big Eddy Russian Imperial Stout that Mark said he would never forgive me for if I didn’t carry it), and of course we did the dungeon tour while the non-kinksters up front got waited on by Ret, who showed up again so she could get vetted with the group. I asked her to just run tabs for everyone until I could free up, and made a mental note to backdate her employment start.

Boss did Her magic disappearing act. She doesn’t like crowds that aren’t Her crowds, and this crowd wasn’t — yet.

I also instituted a new rule, which I added to the menu. You get $1 dollar off each beer you order if you bring your glasses back to the bar and wipe down your table before you leave.

All in all, business was brisk and it was a great night.