Ceiling. I have nothing clever to say about our ceiling

With the City not cooperating at this point we are doing what we can, without breaking any rules. The natural order of a traditional build-out has been interrupted. So....the installation of the ceiling grid will begin this week. As we are in a very old retail space, we have 13 foot ceilings (even accounting for the mechanicals of the apartment above our space), to permit access to the mechanicals, we are going to use the newest generation of ceiling. Interestingly, even as it is a new form of an established technology, the appearance of the ceiling will be traditional. The entire space will be a mix of the modern and the traditional. Also, Sam was bravely installing insulation today over the old clerestory panels above the window runs. It would be nice to restore those clerestory panels back to windows when we replace the windows down the road. As it is now, the light in the space is great. Staying positive, progress, is in fact, progress.

Dealing with the City is like living a Kafka novel

The City. The City. I can't say more now, bad karma, but once we are open and operating, the stories.....

In addition to the new front door, we also have a new rear security door. Ahhhh, security. We will be painting the front door and window frames soon, the window frames will be a color to match the window frames of the window of the apartments above us, and the door will be a shade lighter. Subtle. More interesting additions and refinements to our product mix this past week (we are seeing these late product discoveries as a silver lining in our delay cloud).

Oh, and I broke a long bone in my right foot Crutches for six weeks. Funny thing is, this is going to be a great specialty market and cafe. We have be fine-tuning the deli menu, and the sandwiches are going to be mind-blowing, the salads delicious, fresh, and unique. I could go on, but the bottom line is that the broken foot is no fun, the delays are crazy and irritating, but Z&H is going to fantastic. I think there is some sort of lesson here...

The Ugliest Door in the World...is gone.

Today 'The Ugliest Door in the World' was consigned to the big dumpster in the sky.  We will post some before and after photos of the doors, old (read ugly) and new (read bright and inviting). It is amazing that it takes five men nearly eight hours to install a commercial door set, but the results are excellent. Next up, the ceiling.

And about the website...

Our fantastic website developer has assured me that we will have the first phase of our website up and running soon. It will not having movies or dancing bears, but it will be informative and functional (with a strong design sense).

Nicoise, Picholine, Lucque.....

Mmmmmm. We have formalized our deli offerings over the past couple of weeks. It is an interesting and delicious mix (with some unusual and unique offerings). Work continues in the store, and with each day the progress is more tangible. Also, as a reminder, if there are any suggestions for products we are very interested in hearing new ideas. Finally, we have been invited to attend the 53rd Street TIF meeting this coming Monday, I think that we are going to be introduced as a new, local-resident owned and operated business in our community. If you can make the meeting we would happy to talk food.

HVAC and Duct Work

An interesting piece of trivia, one of the few things duct tape is not good for is taping and sealing duct work. We have been graced by the presence of our HVAC guy, and we will be moving forward on that important work this coming Tuesday. We have to rotate the entire HVAC unit (oddly, the people who originally installed it have it in such a way as not to be accessible for service. Strange.) and we will install actual fixed duck work (as opposed to what was in the space, that horrible flexible duct). It is clear to us now that our goal of opening in May will be foiled. The City has conspired to delay us with the many layer of bureaucracy that are seemingly impossible to move through in an efficiant manner. These delay snowball into affecting the scheduling of contractors and then the timeline is shot. We are targeting sometime in June now, the planning that has gone into Z&H will be reflected by the MarketCafe you will experience. It will exceed your expectations. You have our pledge.