The Repaint

So, we did repaint the shop. Two rooms, anyway. I had one friend lined up for two solid days of work and he came in on Monday, toward the end of the business day, while I was flying back from California, to spackle the walls and clear out as much furniture as he could.

When I showed up on Tuesday morning, absolutely sleep deprived at this point, and sad and weepy from losing Gretchen, I came in to a polka dotted coffee shop. Papaya red walls covered in white splotches. A few customers walked into the shop that morning, oblivious to the fact that it had no furniture and looked like a bad case of chicken pox. Some even made it as far as the counter, where they found me standing on furniture, packing plates. Some would even go so far as to order something…. Like, hello? We’re closed. I ended up having to close one of the interior doors, tape newspaper over the glass and post a second sign…. ...letting them know that they had entirely missed the first sign. It’s hard to believe folks in this town functioned without coffee for three whole days.

What was great, though, was the friends/patrons who would stop by and visit and offer an hour or two of their time. Just two hours into this project and I was well aware that we would really have to hustle to make this happen in three days, so every minute volunteered was graciously accepted. I offered up my baked goods and as much tea and coffee as folks could tolerate. We kept the stereo on Itunes Shuffle and had a great time.

Tara came out and painted the door purple. It is now Tara’s purple door.

Luke came.The wooden rectangle that the Torani syrups live on was taken down and Luke painted it red, to match the Chili Pepper wall. It’s now Luke’s red box. The ceiling, which was a shade of sky blue, was taken back to a bright white by Brian. Brian, who came out and showed us his best Grease Lightning. It’s now Brian’s white ceiling.

Manka came out and cut some edges for us. Jared was the foreman of the group. Holly came over on the last day, my weekday champion employee, and helped me put it all back together. We were able to take a break mid-day and walk across the street and eat lunch and drink a beer… something that we just can’t do any other day.

So we transformed the shop room from a jaundice yellow/chalk dust torture monotone color to a few different colors… all warm and cozy and welcoming. One full wall is now Chili Pepper… a deep red. The windows are painted a bright white and new wooden shelves were hung with black cast iron mounts. The wooden bar, old fashioned metal cupboards behind the counter, and the big metal door were all painted Eggplant. The rest of the walls were painted Café Royal… which is a perfect shade of creamy coffee…. Coffee the color of a brown paper bag. I like that.
Alot.

The middle room, which is a bright wanes cotting along the bottom half, was transformed from a papaya red to an Audubon Russet… a nice rusty, reddish brown. Everything is perfect. It feels like mine.

Now that I’m back to regular hours, I’ve been writing up a new breakfast menu and figuring out how to make it happen with the limited space I’ve got. I’ve figured out that I can scramble an egg with the steam wand on the espresso machine and I can make French toast on the Panini grill. If I can stay creative like this, I may be able to maintain my principles and not have to buy a microwave for the place. I just justify radiating people’s food.

I meet with the rep from my food distributor on Friday so he can help translate the thick catalogue of food options and hopefully….soon soon soon…. I’ll be the new breakfast joint in town. The breakfast joint with the purdy colored walls.