Monday, February 14, 2011

Blisters and Bruises

The transformation has certainly begun at Each Peach Café… Lori and I have the blisters and bruises to prove it! And we’re loving every moment of it.

The serious work started on Saturday, Feb 12th. Christopher (my partner, Happy Valentine’s Day!), his brother specializes in HVAC and other very useful odds and ends. We walked through the place, making a to-do list and a Home Depot shopping list. Lori and I spent the evening prepping for painting the drop ceiling on Sunday.IMG_0120

Sunday morning we took the multitudes of ceiling fans and lights down. We had been told it “looks like a lighting supply store” because there were so many of them, which was SO true. Then we replaced any broken ceiling tiles. All in prep for painting…

Painting with a sprayer. Yeah. I rented a sprayer from Home Depot that morning, and then let Mike go to town. Of course, it didn’t take long for us to blow through the 2 gallons of paint we bought on Saturday, so Lori desperately found me a paint store that was open on Sunday so I could dash out and get more in an exact match. It was crazy! We managed the get the whole front room ceiling painted and most of the walls primed in less than 4 hours. Wow. Painting with a sprayer is amazing, but doesn’t come without a price. Even wearing a mask, all of our nose hairs were painted too.IMG_0130

This spring cleanse can’t come soon enough for me!

Sunday night, Lori and I started the demolition portion of the renovation by ripping any cheap, ugly, poorly finished trim off everywhere we could. Fun stuff! And a great reward after such a long day of painting and running around.

I was not thrilled with the color of the ceiling after it was completed, and couldn’t imagine going through all that work again to re-do it. Thankfully, it looked much better Monday morning in the daylight and with rested eyes. And everyone else seems to love it! That was a nice Valentine’s Day surprise, but even better was the floor ripper-upper thingy that the property’s work crew brought in for us to use! Awesome! Lori and I ripped up almost all of the flooring and most of the glue too in about 4 hours, leaving behind a nice concrete floor. Just wait to see what we have in store for that!IMG_0140

We could both certainly benefit from a chiropractic adjustment after removing that floor. Worth it? We shall see…

Tomorrow, Tuesday, the trash pile should be completely removed and the floors completely ready for the next step. We may even have time to do the taping in preparation for painting the walls.

Very exciting!

Everyone has started asking about the Each Peach menu, which Lori and I began to hammer out over the weekend. We will serve a standard set of smoothies, with a seasonal smoothie added in every now and again.

Partial Smoothies List
Each Peach Signature > peaches, yogurt, vanilla, honey
House Blend > orange, banana, strawberry, blueberry, yogurt, honey
Monkey Mocha > banana, almond butter, cacao, coffee, yogurt, coconut milk
Blue Breeze > blueberry, lemon, yogurt, vanilla, honey

Add-in options include protein, flaxseed and spinach. All smoothies are also available dairy-free by substituting the yogurt with almond milk or coconut milk.

Other menu items include coffee and teas, wheatgrass, steel cut oats, a salad-of-the-day, a soup-of-the-day, healthy snacks like kale chips (I have all my friends hooked on these!), Richardson’s ice cream and assorted gluten- and dairy- free desserts.

We’re targeting March 19th for our opening, but there’s lots to do before then! Wish us luck, and if you come across any handy gnomes send them our way. Until then, check out our neighbors! They are all awesome… Like Shannon at Bikram Yoga Danvers, Steve at Centre Street PIzza, and Vanessa at Bella Salon & Day Spa.

Augusta

Monday, February 7, 2011

In the Beginning…

Yesterday I stepped into #6 110 Newbury Street, Danvers, MA, for the first time as a tenant, and it felt a bit like the beginning of an epic journey – like the Odyssey, or Star Wars. There’s a sense of the unknown; of pride and anticipation.095

I promised to detail this journey, so I took several photographs yesterday to document the beginning.

There is a bay of windows and a counter to sit at along the front entrance. This is an area where people will be able to sit with laptops and hop on our WiFi, or just people watch through the windows.

There’s a nice long walk to the counter toward the 096back, with his and hers separate washrooms. A nice feature! Although, interestingly, the current décor in the men’s room seems more befitting a ladies’ room. No matter.

We learned of a pipe burst just after signing the lease, which is why there is a section cut away along the entire bottom edge of the drywall. Lots of work to do… But very much looking forward to it!

The countertop/cabinets left by the previous tenants will be moved to the back room for work space and storage. They actually left quite a few useful things… And some not-so-useful things too, like the used fly paper. Needless to say, there will be quite a transformation taking place over the next several weeks.097

Near the back counter, the space opens up quite a lot, making room for all sorts of possibilities. Then there is a large back room with plenty of space for a three-bay sink, dishwasher, storage, dehydrators, etc. And, there’s even a small back office. It’s such a workable space, with endless options, we are so excited to get in and get to work!

More to come…

I was asked for the coconut chips recipe. It’s VERY simple:

Coconut Chips
Young Thai Coconut Meat
Lemon juice
Salt
Cayenne

Mix together until “chipped” coconut meat is well coated. Dehydrate until crispy.

Enjoy!

Augusta