Counter Tops

Most of the counter tops were laid today, and we are expecting to see the ComEd inspector tomorrow (this will be the fourth visit, if you are counting), each time they have come they have commented how nice our work is but, really, but, they are not the right person to sign off on the work (why come at all, right?). SO we hoe it is the right person tomorrow, and that we can schedule a connection for our line to be connected to the pole.

The Market at 45th and Cottage was a nice way to spend a beautiful afternoon. Thanks to everyone who stopped by. We will be sampling this Sunday, hopefully we will be able to bring even more items and we will keep fine tuning our stand over the coming weeks. And, we are hopeful to have the MarketCafe open while we are still young.

45th and Cottage Grove Community Market

Z&H MarketCafe will be setting up a tent and tables at the 45th and Cottage Grove Bronzeville Community Market this Sunday. We will feature the fantastic produce of Heritage Prairie Farm, who we will also feature in our MarketCafe space at 1126 East 47th. We are pleased that we have been able to work out this arrangement with Heritage Prairie Farm, they are terrific people with terrific products. As residents of the community and business owners here, we have an acute understanding of what it means to support our neighbors and the community at large, and it is fun to sell great produce at a Community Market. Over the next few weeks, as we get closer to opening the doors of the MarketCafe, we will be adding more interesting and delicious items to our offering at the Community Market. We hope to see everyone Sunday.

The march of progress

Everyday bring surprises. We are completing much of the less obvious work (cleanable walls in the prep room and cleaning closet, those sorts of things), the ceiling fans are in, and much of the electrical work is complete (we still wait on a magical call from ComEd). In addition to the La Marzocco being on the counter, the Clover machine has now made the trip into the MarketCafe. We can't help but smile, now with some help from ComEd (that would entail showing up and connecting us to the pole) and the City (inspectors giving us the thumbs up [this will occur after ComEd's work]).

Watch this space tomorrow for some interesting news about this weekend.

CHEESE!

We met with our cheese rep today, and I must say, I am excited.  We have been looking at those deli cases for months, and we can't wait to fill them.  The espresso machine is now in the space... I'll tell you what, kids... this place is going to look terrific.

Ladders

We spend a lot of time on ladders these days. It is like exercise, only with a paint brush in hand. The frame and core of the counter run was installed today, it looks fantastic. Tomorrow the guys will dry wall it and begin tiling (yes, more tile). We have also begun to erect our shelving. There are only a handful of items left to complete; now the pressure is on our electrician, plumber, ComEd, and the City inspectors.

it looks like a store!

this is my first post, and I have to say, it feels good to see Z&H come together.  To all of you that have stopped to ask about our progress, I want to thank you.  It feels great to know that others are as excited about the store as we are.  I drew the design for the counter today, and we are so glad that we have a custom designed counter, as the Clover machine that has been a very expensive paper weight for 3 months requires a special counter height.  We can't wait to start cranking out made to order drip coffee.

08/08/08

Funny how a mish-mash of oddness can make you happy. We were putting ceiling time in place today, the crew was finishing-up the fabrication of the hand-crafted front window/entryway trim and casing (they do beautiful work and I can recommend our GC for any work a home owner could imagine), the nearly all of the final tiling was completed today, and we made headway with ComEd, they need to visit us and install a meter head and connect our overhead power lines to the pole (this seems like dangerous work best left to professionals). If the stars align we are looking at a end of August opening. Wow.

Vegetables

It appears that we will be offering a lovingly edited selection of vegetables, more so than we ever imagined. We will not be HPP, but what you see in our store will be beautiful, fresh, local (when possible), and you will not find cactus leaves (ever) or strawberries in January.

Details, and more details

Two of the doors went up today, more of our marble front window ledge was installed (a nice detail that was a late addition, but will make a nice impact to the storefront), and more finish work on the front window wall was under way today. We ware please that our crew is so detailed focused, but it would be great to be open. We move forward in all areas of the finish work these days. The thousand details (literally thousands of details) are an interesting challenge to juggle among the four of us, but after we open the doors we will laugh, right? Oh, and we replaced two of the old front windows, they each had cracks and one of them had been patched (yes, apparently you can patch a plate glass window. It does not not look so great but...) the new windows looks much better and give the store a more professional look. The electrician was in today.... could keep going but I will stop. Wait until you taste our new recipe for orzo salad.