We're Open!

It's been a while since I posted for a few reasons. First, I was waiting to get some good pictures of the building, and there never seemed to be the perfect time to take them. Second, we've been kind of busy. We opened last Sunday, and both before and after that Jill and I have spent every waking moment (and there haven't been a lot of other moments) working. There seems to be an infinite amount of "last minute" stuff to do, and we still haven't finished everything that was on our list of jobs to do before we opened. It's kind of discouraging.

Right before we opened, we had a big push to get the place in decent shape. Several of our friends helped, including Emily, who served as our master painter:


The heating system wasn't fully functional until two days before our Grand Opening, so we did most of our last-minute work in the cold, which is why I'm wearing a hat and scarf while unpacking our hundreds of boxes:


Jill's boyfriend David, who's behind all the boxes here, deserves special recognition for being the guy who got stuff done in the days right before we opened. He stepped in when Jill and I were getting too tired to deal with the "bad" jobs, like drilling the hundreds of holes in the outside wall that were necessary to hang our sign letters, which involved drilling into brick that alternately crumbled and resisted so much that you had to put your entire weight behind the drill, while standing in a ladder in the cold. David also should be awarded a Purple Heart for being injured multiple times in the line of duty.

We finally got the sign up, although not quite before the Grand Opening. I haven't had a chance to take a picture of it during the day, but here's a look at it on the whole building:


Here's the view when you walk in the front door:


We haven't had a lot of customers in the cafe, and those who have come seem surprised that we're open, so let me clarify that we are, in fact, open. Seven days a week, 6:30 am-5:00 pm on weekdays, 7:30 am-5:00 pm on weekends. The slow start was good for a few days so that Jill could work out the kinks with the equipment, get her employees up to speed, etc. But now we're ready for customers, so if you read this blog and you haven't come in yet, consider this your guilt trip. I can tell you that Jill's espresso is great. I just had a latte for the first time a couple of days ago, and it was fantastic. Our hot cocoa is really good too--we did extensive testing to find the right recipe and the right cocoa, and it's the best I've ever had.

Also, I've been baking all kinds of pastries and breakfast foods for the cafe, and they've been turning out really well. I wasn't sure how I would do in the beginning because I'm still getting used to the oven and stuff, but I've been very pleased with the quality of the baked goods. Everything is baked fresh every day, and it's getting sad to have no one eating them. I've made muffins (blueberry, cranberry-walnut-orange, and mocha chip), scones (sweet milk, oatmeal, and blueberry), biscotti (chocolate walnut and orange almond), pecan coffee cake, pumpkin bread, and chocolate brioche. See, you've been missing out. So far we've had comments that the blueberry muffins and the chocolate-walnut biscotti are the best ever in their categories, and I personally think that someone other than me should try the brioche.

I've also been making lots of savory breakfast food, because we expected some demand from people who wanted something to eat other than pastries (silly people). We're serving our version of stuffed French toast, which we call Colorado toast, filled with either caramelized apples or ham and Gruyere cheese. We also have breakfast pizzas with eggs and various toppings, like tomato and bacon with provolone, or the one I made tonight, which had sauteed mushrooms, red bell peppers, and onions, deglazed with a little sherry and seasoned with fresh thyme. Mmmmmm.

I spent a day making holiday cookies that we are selling as a cookie tray. There are a bunch of different miniature cookies, all of which taste really good (unlike the assortment you get at Safeway, which all taste like pasty sugar). You can preorder a cookie tray for pickup anytime before December 24. Let us know if you'd like one for a holiday party or to have around for munching!


Here's a look at the "working" part of the kitchen, where I do our baking and teach cooking classes:


And here's the dining area, where my classes sit down and eat the fruits of their labor:


You can see the beautiful gingerbread houses that were decorated in the first of my Gingerbread House Decorating parties (there's another one on December 23, so sign up now!). My classes have been going well, although we still need help promoting them to teenagers, because we haven't had enough teen registrations to hold a teen class yet. But the adult classes have been good: the Hearty Soups and Breads class had a good turnout and we made some great soups, and the Secrets of Baking Fantastic Breads class was also a lot of fun. Here are some of the great breads we made: