We had an appointment to taste some bread today. About an hour before that, though, another bakery rep popped in to give us samples, completely unsolicited. Mind you, in the 3 or 4 months of active buildout not one bread rep has stopped in. So today we tasted bread twice. I feel like Michael Phelps. But without the fitness. Incidentally, this baguette is one of the most beautiful I’ve ever seen. A delicious cap to the week.

Almost forgot about these! Metal-clad wall sconces! They each weigh a ton but are totally awesome! Upside-down Devo hats! Exclamations!

Wow, there’s a lot happening these days. Developments happen fast and furious (even 2 fast2 furious sometimes…Sorry.) Just in the last week we got in chairs and stools, which is making hanging around the space a whole lot nicer. 

This week also saw the beginning of the detailing of the chalkboard. Not much done yet, but the artist (who is awesome and will be named later once all is said and done. Let’s keep things anonymous, no?) So far she did begin a tromp l’oeil detail to fill in this weird spot near the ceiling.

The teal tile is up and grouted, and it is probably the boldest and coolest thing about this space. This one I’m going to let speak for itself.

And, lastly, the poster collage. I was playing coy, but we started to lay it out and it looks so friggin’ cool that I have to crow about it. It’s seriously the coolest thing about this place. I just said that about the tile but now I’m looking at it and am jazzed as all get out.

So. God. Damned. Cool.

Shopping for a three compartment sink, we came upon this beauty. Easily the most badass hobart I’ve ever seen. I really wish we needed one. Maybe we should open up a bakery…

Though we’re missing a door as yet, the facade of the space has come together, just as with everything else our guys do, seemingly overnight.

My conceptions of what would be difficult in this process have proven to be mostly boneheaded. I thought the idea of building a new cornice, or even of taking the rotten old one down, was crazy. The kind of thing that a Todd English (ugh) or a Keith McNally (not ugh) can do. Turns out a good carpenter can throw up an awesome cornice in a day and a half. I thought we’d just be painting the front, when in fact we’re putting a whole new face on it. 

In actuality, the hard parts are behind the walls and under the floors. The plumbing is the biggest headache of this whole endeavor, and mostly just because of our impending inspection. Trying to get the architect and the plumber to speak the same language (figuratively and literally) has been a challenge. This has me antsy because I need to start cooking and to do that I need water, which we won’t have until we get inspected. People have asked if I’m nervous for the opening; and while I am, to a certain extent, the whole cooking in a restaurant part is what I’ve done my whole adult life. That part I understand, I know, and I love. Deciding if we want to use sanded or non-sanded grout is not in my wheelhouse. Or at least it wasn’t before this whole thing started.

Now I know grout almost as well as I know béchamel…

The last of the white walls in the dining room are being covered up this week, and the two elements being put in are two of the boldest strokes of the entire build. Looking around the room we are realizing that there is not a single surface in this dining room (or the restroom, either) that is just painted surface. The closest thing is a chalkboard that’s going to be covered in text and illustrations; or maybe the wallpaper parts, which are tiny fleurs de lis (or “whodats” in NOLA speak.)

First up is the Real Teal tile, ringing the entire dining room. It’s crazy and super awesome. You can probably tell by my effusive tone that I love this stuff. 

As for the other part, that’s the poster collage, and that I can’t preview until it is fully realized. I’m even thinking of saving that picture for end of this bloggish endeavor, when all the brown paper is pulled off and we unwrap our present. At that point I’ll post a whole bunch of pictures, bid farewell, and start, you know, running a restaurant.

One final picture, just because I think it’s really cool. These are some water deposits we found on the outside wall one morning that initially freaked us out. We thought maybe the paint job got messed up, but then we figured out they smudged away easily. It kind of looks like a swarm dandelion heads were smashed up against our wall. 

Groovy, huh?

Here’s a better shot of the whole cornice, painted and cleaned up.

Here’s an annoying hitch I never thought I’d have to worry about: Apple Maps blows! I know I’m not the first to say this, but it’s really become an issue since I got an iPhone in the last week. Having spent an hour or so making sure we’d show up on Google maps, now I’ve realized we are un-findable on Apple’s top-notch maps program.
Apparently the only way to get your info on there is through the ‘report a problem’ function. Ugh.
Even worse than this is the fact that Apple’s in bed with every restauranteur’s favorite, Yelp! Here us New York restaurant types were hoping we could marginalize, and thus ignore, the populist protection racket; now we’ll be forced to pretend we like them.
At least until Google makes a downloadable map app and we can put this whole ugly episode behind us, that is.

On a lighter note, the last of our posters came, so stay tuned for pictures of that sometime this weekend. It will be awesome, I promise.

And just like that, the mural is gone. Well, everything but the Cheetah. We are now taking submissions for the cheetah’s name. Please note that it is so far ungendered (unless any biologists can identify the sex from this picture.)

In pictures: