New member -introduction to our dreams

Hi everyone! I have taken advice I have seen given numerous times and read the threads dating back several months and enjoyed every second of it, not to mention avoiding asking a lot of common questions. Our timeframe of moving to USVI is 3 to 6 years- I don't know how I can stand it for so long after finding this site!!!

My name is Kendra Mattal (34), I am origanally from NYC, but have been living in Wichita, Kansas for almost three years. (Yo, I know- you wanna ask- why??) I met my husband, Kyle (he's 29), at The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York (in the Hudson Valley- a paradise of its own) while I was doing a postgraduate fellowship kitchen teaching position. (Yes, he was still a student, going through the third to last class- naughty me :)!) He is a born and bred Kansas man, we fell madly in love and he asked me to be his bride and move back to his home state. So, I did, move to Kansas sight unseen, we shipped one car, towed the other behind the U-Haul. It didn't hit me where I really was until living here for about 6 months and then seeing the national weather report map on TV- NYC in distance proportion to Wichita, I kinda freaked out. Up until that point, it just seemed like we took a really long road trip, even though we had planned, saved, budgeted and discussed everything to death for a year.

We are both executive chefs here in Kansas. I work for the world's largest foodservice company, servicing Boeing, Wichita. We serve over 10,000 people a day, not including the catering department. Kyle works for a much smaller, casual chain and he hates it. His dream job he was at for 2 years was elimanated last year, he even resorted to roofing in the winter. He is so talented yet work for his skill level is so limited in this small city . His job really does stink. He is going to quit this fall and work for his best friends that run an extremely successful nightclub here, working only three-four nights a week and making a ton more money than he is now- enabling us to finish paying off our student loans and saving more for our move. He is talking about picking up a part time line cook position as well to make extra money.

OUR MOVE: In my company, you must have been employed at least 18 months and then you become elegible for a transfer anywhere in the world in you want. I am elegible November 1st and have already talked to my boss about it- emphasising that it wouldn't be for several years,recommending that I request a position in November for that particular timeframe. I would imagine that plum positions like that in the islands are pretty rare. My husband would take a cooking position in one of the hotels if he can't find something in my company. We will have lots of money saved by then, but knowing a lot can happen to our industry between now and then, our plan B is to just to have gobs & gobs of money saved and proceed directly to our USVI dream.

OUR DREAM: To get out of the machine of working for a corporation or someone else and open our own little business- a little BBQ beach shack - I have heard them called a "lolo" on other islands- (we have visited Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao, I have also been to St. Martin.) Can someone tell me if this is what they are called on USVI? We make very, very good smoked and grilled BBQ. I did an informal business plan and we would only need to sell 50 orders a day to match what just one of our salaries is now. We will start small, on our spare time, then one of us will quit our job, then run it until is lucrative enough for both of us to work it full time. We imagine that would take at least a year or two after we acutally get it started. Before getting it started- permits, health department, equipment - we estimate that will take about 6- 12 months

I am writing this to introduce myself, you all seem awfully nice and helpful. Are we out of our minds with the beach shack thing- are the islands already over run with them? We feel we have some really special, affordable cuisine to offer to locals and tourist alike. I look forward to chatting with you all!