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Square Pegs, Round Holes
June 7, 2007

I’m no Handy Andy, but given a bit of direction and limited access to dangerous tools, it turns out I can be a competent handyman.

My contractor gave me a few tasks that I needed to complete over Memorial Day weekend if I still wanted to have Terroir’s pre-opening open house/thank you /charity event later that week. First, I called my retired dentist father-in-law and asked if he happened to be free over the weekend and would like to stretch his manual-labor muscles. After I threw in dinner cooked at their house by my wife and me, he agreed to come to the restaurant for several days. To be fair, he previously had asked if there was anything he could do for Terroir, so it wasn’t exactly a hard sell. With tool boxes, coffee cups and leather gloves in hand, we headed over to the restaurant.

Task one: Assemble the wine-racking systems for my wall of wine. Not as easy as I assumed it would be—or as the instructions led us to believe. Certainly not brain surgery, but it usually helps if ALL pieces that are supposed to be in the box are actually in the box. Many, many hours later, we had 23½ wine racks completed (see photo). Yes, 23½. Go figure.

Task two: Cut in half two of the seven wine barrels I purchased from a local winery, then reinforce and attach the staves (the curved wooden slats that make up the barrels) to the hoops so we could use them as planter boxes. FYI—oak is a very hard wood. The theme of the weekend turned out to be “not as easy as I assumed.” My front-of-the-house manager and a gardener friend went out to procure the necessary materials and plants need to fill our boxes. I must admit, they turned out beautifully—a mix of edible flowers, herbs and native grasses. They’re somewhat heavy, so thank you, Razz (the general contractor’s superintendent on site), for the use of the palette jack.

Task three: Disassemble the remaining wine barrels so my contractor could assemble the staves as part of the dropped-ceiling component over my bar (see photo). By the way, all one needs to take apart wine barrels are a pry bar, a hammer and a little persuasion.

Task four: Begin to put together the tables. As you might remember, a local bamboo artist made the table tops, and I had to separately purchase the base components. Task four was postponed due to hunger, exhaustion and nice weather. I figured it might be the last chance for me to take a relaxing motorcycle ride for a while. And trust me; I need a relaxing motorcycle ride.

And the journey continues.

Cheers!

Stu

Comments or questions? E-mail Chef Stu at StuStein@rimag.com.

Posted by Stu Stein on June 7, 2007 | Comments (0)