Is it just me, or is anyone else feeling sort of holiday food’ed out? I never thought I would say this, but if I see another cookie, cake, or slice of chocolate pecan pie, I am going to do something crazy, like look the other way. Today, after lunch, I stood in front of the last of the cranberry upside-down cake from Christmas dinner and, fork poised in mid-air, thought, Nah, nevermind. Sometimes I hardly know myself at all.
So let’s not talk about food right now. Instead, I thought we might have a Restaurant Day. Because a major detail has been decided since I first told you about the restaurant, and we want to share it with you. Namely, the name.
The restaurant is going to be called Delancey. We chose it because it reminds us of New York, and since Brandon’s pizza sensibility is so rooted there, it seems fitting. It’s the name of a street in Manhattan, as well as a subway stop, and though it’s not in a particularly glamorous part of town, when Brandon was living in New York, it was one of his favorite stations: always bustling, packed with all sorts of people going to all sorts of places. Plus, isn’t it a pretty word? To me, it feels kind of classy and old-fashioned, like dark wood and tarnished copper and old men in tweed suits smoking cigars. Not that the restaurant will necessarily include any of those things, but we like the idea.
Also, for those of you who asked and those who have speculated, Delancey will be in Ballard, on 70th Street NW, between 14th and Alonzo Avenues. There’s a sweet little strip of businesses there, and Brandon is thrilled to have snatched a spot among them. Number 1415, to be precise.
I went over to the space a couple of weeks ago, in the midst of the big snowstorm, and I took some photographs for you. The place doesn’t look anything like a restaurant yet, so don’t get too excited. I just thought you might like to see it in all its various stages, from ladders and dust (right now) to the day the doors open (in early spring, we hope). If you’d like to view any of the photographs in a larger size, just click on them.
Right now, Brandon is working on pretty boring things: picking out toilet fixtures, submitting applications for various permits, and scraping down the popcorn ceiling. But I think there’s often something beautiful about boring things, like light fixtures and painter’s tape.
Or a mural of two ships, sailing peacefully across the wall above the main door. Once we start painting, I have a feeling it won’t be there anymore.
There are also lots of buckets. Soon they won’t be there anymore either. I won’t miss them.
Here’s a prep table. It holds the all-important bag of Cool Ranch Doritos. And in the back there, you can see the three-compartment sink that will go in the kitchen. When Brandon brought it from the restaurant supply store, it fit into our friend Bonnie’s car by mere centimeters.
And here are Brandon’s new best friends, a surgical mask and a scraper, his tools for removing the gnarly popcorn ceiling. (He had it tested for asbestos, and it came back safe, so please don’t worry.) They’ve spent lots of hours together, that man, that mask, and that scraper. Personally, I like spending time with the boom box on the chair. While I took this photograph, it played Bruce Springsteen’s “Glory Days” for me.
I think that’s all for now, but when we have more to show and tell, we certainly will. There are more Restaurant Days to come, for sure.
In the meantime, here’s to a warm and bright New Year! I hope your 2009 is even better than you can imagine. Thank you, always, for being here.
