Caught in a Frenzy

Blahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I keep finding these older posts about us!  Now that we are starting to elbow out a little breathing room, we have been fervently catching up what the hubbub has been swirling around us.  We remember people coming in near when we opened and mentioning that they had seen a write up in the OC Register and BAM!  Here is what Claudia Kroener had to blab about us:

http://foodfrenzy.ocregister.com/2012/04/23/new-waffles-and-beer-spot-is-as-good-as-it-sounds/62842/#more-62842

Woah, I just noticed her post date and it looks as though it was near the beginning of our soft opening week.  Time has been flying by since, but we are constantly tinkering around and improving things day by day.  If any of you have stopped by and have any suggestions for us, please feel free to email info@theironpress.com and let your fingers mash up against that keyboard (or peck away at that tablet or smarty phone of yours) to let us know everything thats bouncing around that noggin of yours.

Smoochies, Len and Jerry

OCWEEKLY in 2 Weeksies

Yikes!  Please accept our apologies, as we have not been keeping up with our blog.  We have been running around like crazy little hamsters trying to get everything up to speed and deal with all the little (huge) issues that come up with opening up a new business.  We shall do our best to catch you guys up on everything and be much better on keeping everyone in the loop on what we are getting our waffle smelling little hands in to.

To get things going, we were lucky enough to get ourselves into OCWEEKLY...twice...in less than two (2) weeks!  Jerry and I bumped into one of their bloggers, Michelle Woo, at a beer tasting event over at Slaters 50/50 over in the Huntington Beach location a few (OK almost a couple of months) ago.  She wrote this sucker up for us:

http://blogs.ocweekly.com/stickaforkinit/2012/04/the_iron_press_a_craft_beer_an.php

Shortly thereafter, we had our grand and chaotic soft opening.  During which time, we were lucky enough to have had another OCWEEKLian visit us.  Not surprisingly, Anne Marie Panoringan, did not let out this little secret till nearly the end of her meal.  Here is what she had to say about us:

http://blogs.ocweekly.com/stickaforkinit/2012/04/iron_press_costa_mesa_mart_mix.php

We hope that those of you who have not stopped in yet, pop your head in and say hello to Jerry, me, or any of us over at The Iron Press soon!

Smoochies, Len and Jerry

Soggy Waffle Mess Resolved!

Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, so our waffles were fine and dandy until a few days into our soft opening week.  Our vendor swapped out our waffle irons and replaced them with ones that were supposed to work the same.  Into our shift we started hearing some rumblings about our waffles getting soft and soggy by the time the sandwiches were being chomped on.  We racked our brains for a few days, tinkered with our recipes, fiddled with the irons, and finally started banging our heads against the wall.  We started receiving some negative reviews on Yelp which lead to a few sleepless nights.  Needless to say, I look like a raccoon now, buuuuut, the problem has been fixed!

After some back and forth with our euipment provider, we finally figured out that the waffle irons were not heating up to the right temperature which was preventing our waffles from crisping up and also not allowing them to fluff up in the middle.  We have been rockin our waffles since then, so if you were one of those that mashed down on a soft waffle during those few shifts, please accept our sincerest apologies.  We hope you guys will give us another shot!

Smoochies, Len & Jerry

Semi-Soft Opening-ish

So...I do not want to jinx anything, but we will be launching a semi-soft opening-ish tonight (yes, tonight) starting at around 6 PM PST.  Swing by if you would like to get a taste of our food, but be warned, this is just a tasting as we are still working out some final hour tweaks.  We will be slinging food for free as you guys will be our test taste buds and we will be asking for donations for our beer, thank you for your cooperation ha ha!

I'll leave you guys with this last picture of me before I shocked myself trying to tinker with our waffle irons:

Being the good friend that he is, Alain simply shouted out "Woah!  I heard the shock from here!".  Yep, no "Are you OK?", just laughter ensued.  Anyhoo, off to pick up some last minute supplies.  We hope to see some of you guys here!

Smoochies, Len and Jerry

Burn Baby Burn

The little blue light you see between the rocks and grates is FIRE!  This was the first real piece of equipment that we prepped and got going, aside from refrigeration of course.  We have been working ourselves silly like little green elves nearing Christmas Eve getting our kitchen primed and ready for some cookin'!  Huge thanks goes out to Noah, who spent a good portion of a morning testing the equipment with me.  In the immortal words of Joe Cocker:

"Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends. Mm, I get high with a little help from my friends. Mm, gonna try with a little help from my friends."

I digress, insomnia is slowly starting to drive me batty.  Here's a great shot of Noah looking like a Chinese dude with his slippers and pony tail (before anyone gets crazy on me, know that I am Chinese, so there):

We cleaned up the charbroiler, laid out the lava rocks, sparked up the pilot light, and ceremonially lit up the burner for about three (3) hours to clean up and season the sucker:

Kai was even there to make sure Noah and I did not catch on fire (though Noah came close once).  Yes, I know child labor law alarm bells are ringing right now, but rest assured, we only made him handle a jack hammer under close supervision while sipping on some coffee from across the plaza.

After making sure the burners and the charbroiler were all peachy keen, we got the fryer going:

Any impurities that may have been present before has been boiled, skimmed, washed out, boiled again, and obliterated!  All that is left now is for us to bring the food in and get cranking...well, that and some last minute kitchen equipment shopping.  I have got my checklist all typed up on my phone and ready to hit up Restaurant Supply 2000 early in the morning.  If you happen to pass by and smell things burning, please call the fire department.  Otherwise, if it smells delisheroonie, come on in, we will probably have some things for you to taste!

Smoochies, Len and Jerry

Let Them Drink Beer!

We have locked down all thirty (30) of our handles over at The Iron Press!  Things got shuffled around a bit last minute because of availability, but we feel that it all worked out in our best interest as we scooped up some barrels of brews that were on very small runs.   Just to give you an idea of how many beers on average we would go through in one sitting, take a look at the bottles we dusted off the first round with Stone:

After that round we finished off a box that was left for us from Harbor Distribution, too ha ha.  It was a tough decision to narrow down our choices to just twenty-eight (28) taps (the last ones are reserved), but all-in-all, we are super happy with what we ended up choosing and feel super confident that we can find a beer for just about every palette out there!  I better shut up now because we want the beers to be a surprise for everyone who comes in, but I will leave you guys with one last shot of the beers we went through for our final tasting with Stone after two (2) rounds with Wine Warehouse:

Jerry and I like almost identical beers, so big thanks go out to everyone who lent us your tongues through all of our tastings!  Next up...prepping the kitchen...

Smoochies, Len and Jerry

So Like, Yeah...We Passed

Woooooooo hooooooooo!  We passed our final inspections!  OK, so we found out a little while ago, but we knew we still had a poop ton of work to finish before we closed in on some opening dates.  There were some gnarly changes they had us make, including the addition of a washable surface above our beer tap area.  Jaime and I banged our heads against a wall for a while until we came up with a design that would be the least intrusive to the overall look and feel of the restaurant.    We have warmed up to and have now named our new washable surface, "The Wave":

We have also been hard at work on some finishing touches.  I spent a good couple of days measuring things out with Jaime's crew and getting my hands a bit dirty with our foot rests and multi-purpose hooks (yes guys, these aren't just for purses).

Though there is still quite a bit left, we are getting really close to tying up all of our loose ends!  Everything is pretty much in over drive at the moment while we prepare ourselves *knawing on finger nails*.  You will probably see Jerry, my good buddy Noah, and I tinkering around in the kitchen from here on in.  If you do, pop your head in and say "Hi!", yeah?

Smoochies, Len and Jerry

We've Been Double Dipped!

I'm also double dipping on both The Iron Press' and Shuck' respective blogs, tee hee!  So, it looks like The Iron Press and Shuck were both mentioned within the OC Register ecosystem, but under different sections and journalists.  Check out the full articles here:

From Fast Food Maven by Nancy Luna - Costa Mesa center launching waffles & beer shop: http://fastfood.ocregister.com/2012/03/22/south-coast-collection-oc-mart-mix-restaurant-openings-iron-pressood-shops/152067/

From OC Retail by Hang Nguyen - Haven't been to SOCO? It's time to visit: http://retail.ocregister.com/2012/03/23/havent-been-to-soco-its-time-to-visit/70484/

Hopefully we can keep the steam going and continue to spread the word!

Just a little note: Arc is Noah's cute little cuddly baby, I'm just a wee little cog in the machine on that one.  Shuck is, according to Noah, our bastard child together.

Smoochies, Len and Jerry (I just realized this sounds eerily similar to another famous duo doling out delicious ice cream)

Cross Your Fingers, Toes, Eyes, EVERYTHING!

So I was burning the midnight oil last night building the last of our dry storage shelving and cleaning up the spot. Why the urgency in such small matters? Because we *gulp* are calling in for our (hopefully) last inspection this afternoon and we have to make sure everything is as perfect as possible. Please please keep your fingers, toes, eyes, everything, and anything crossed for us. Send us your good juju energy beans, we will take them! I will keep this short, as I am about to pass out, but here are a few snaps of what we have been going through to prepare for this day:

Do not worry, though, we still managed to find some time to goof off when we found an empty space at the OC Mart MIX with a large display window:

Smoochies, Len and Jerry

Help...Please...Help...

So like...help.  Not just because we are slowly withering away now from being so delayed.  Help because, as the days of frustration are turning into days of anxiety and we are nearer (oh please, oh please) to our opening, we are officially looking for some help around the shop!

Since we will be on quite a time crunch, we are looking for servers with experience in the industry already who can hustle, are motivated, yadda yadda yadda, just lay your eyes on this beastly six (6) page application:

http://theironpress.com/application.pdf

Yes, we know it's long.  Yes, we know it's a bit uncalled for.  Yes, we know it's appalling.  We are simply trying to weed out the people shooting out applications with a reckless abandonment.

In all seriousness, we are looking for:

- Friendly servers that can work well in a fast paced environment. - Minimum 1 year serving experience. - Able to work quickly under pressure, as we do get busy and our customers expect and are accustomed to a high level of service . - Energetic and ambitious attitude with constant sense of urgency while working. - Motivated team player. - Flexible work schedule is preferred but not required. - Knowledge and interest in beer scores biiiiiiiiig bonus points.

If you are interested, or know of anyone who might be, would you please point them towards this general direction. No this way. THIS WAY. OK, thank you!

Smoochies, Len and Jerry