We Tear Up Rug

Tearin' Up Some Rug

So like...that's Jerry and me tearing up some rug *ahem*.  Where the heck were we you ask? This is to be our new office, conference room, man cave, and crash pad!  We rented out some space within a seven (7) minute walk from The Iron Press because there wasn't enough space to build an office at the restaurant (plus, if/when we drink a little too much, we can "rest" up here for a bit).

 

We wanted to keep the design simple and professional, but wanted to maintain a warehouse feel to it (well, I did. Jerry took a little convincing but he's slooooooowly coming around).  We'll post up some sketches and ideas we have for the space, or better yet, if we get going on some rennovations soon, we'll toss some photos up on the blog to show you guys what we are up to.  Just so you get a mental image of what we are trying to achieve, we yanked out all the carpet in the space to expose the concrete.  We then removed all the asbestos filled drop ceiling panels to open up the area as you can see here:

We also peeled back all the aluminum foil to display the orginal wood ceiling.  We are planning to leave all the t-bars in place, but pull up the lights so that they will make a grid on the floor when turned on.  It all looks like a big mess at the moment, but hopefully my vision for our spot will pay off, though we are on a crazy tight budget.The thing that we wouldn't compromise about our space was that it had to have a large roll-up door so that we could flood the warehouse area with natural lighting and air when we wanted to.  The idea was to have the ability to bring the outside into our joint with the simple yank of a chain.  Here's Jerry rolling down the door after we finished up after our first day with the keys:

 Anyhoo, it's time we close up shop for the night, as well.  Jerry's got an early morning rendezvous with the OC Fairgrounds to peddle his effing delicious salsas, and I've got a long day of bouncing between the two construction sites making sure things aren't getting crooked!

Smochies, Len and Jerry

Cousin Calvin

See that handsome fellow looking back at you?  That would be my cousin Calvin who, incidentally, happens to be one bad @$$ mofo of an electrician.  The other dude in the orange shirt is Kevin.  Kevin works with Cal and has become a friend and drinking buddy through the last couple of years!  I called them on Saturday October 29th, 2011 AD to tell them they were ready to start, they showed up the next day at 8 AM PST to survey the job, and got to work on Monday.  Talk about efficiency, yeah?

We needed to have our electrical box relocated to it's new home so that Jaime and Fortino could finish up with their demolition and framing.  They're still making quite a raucous over there with all the saw cutting and jack hammering.  So, if you are reading this and are one of our neighbors over at SOCO, soooorrrrrrrrryyyyyyyy!

Things seem to be moving along at a nice pace, so I won't bore you guys with too many of the same pictures.  In other news, Jerry and I got the lease to our warehouse right down the street from the restaurant.  We'll be making some improvements to the space, but once we are done with them, we'll throw a giant shin dig over there!

Today is also a special day because Jerry and I have vowed to abstain from drinking for the month of November (OK, Jerry is allowed one free pass on our friend Joe's birthday) to discipline ourselves and really focus on getting our little baby up and running as soon as possible.  According to Facebook, our friends think we are going to fail miserably, but take heed all you naysayers, we shall prevail!

Smoochies, Len and Jerry

Sparks are Flying

Grinding Down the Base of the Chairs

 

So Jaime, whom you will meet in the very near future, has been working closely with us on designing the chairs in the restaurant.  We figured since we are waiting to break ground, we could get going on the fabrication of things in the restaurant that do not need approval from the city or the health department.  The picture above is one of his guys grinding down the last of our chairs.  We are working on finishing up the seats for the chairs now, but I am so freaking anal, that we haven't decided on a design yet!  Soon enough, though, as we are meeting up this week to sketch out how we want the seats to look like.

 

If you guys want to see some of the grinding action, take a peep at this video to catch some sparks flying all over the place:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlfYwxNh8o8

 

The First Prototype

 

A few weeks ago, we met up at Pete's Gourmade for some kickin' Basil Chicken Sandwiches in Tustin and to look at the first prototype for our chair bases.  From here we tweaked things a little bit by widening the chair bottoms to give them a little bit of a wider stance and more stability.  Wow, this is boring ha ha.  Sorry, everyone, but just wanted to give you guys a glimpse into some of the things I lose sleep on ha ha.

 

Messing Around on the Prototype

 

Hmm, not much to say here other than I like doing stupid things?  Those of you who know me can atest to this.  Jerry snapped this picture ha ha.  We are working on getting the counters built this week and hopefully we will can start on some of the building process at the location in a couple of days.

 

We should have some more exciting news for you guys very soon!

 

Smoochies,

Len

There You Are! Do I Know You? No, But There You Are!

Confused?  Me, too.  Think Austin Powers.  Anyhoo, we wanted to give you a little background information on where we are and what the heck we are doing.  So our address is 3321 Hyland Ave., Suite E in good ol' Costa Mesa.  Though that address is as vanilla as can be, the center we are in is anything but.  It is home to a new boutique market place called the oc mart MIX (take a peek here: http://www.theocmartmix.com), home to the likes of some rad shades and spectacles from Alexander Gray, crazy art from Nomadic Industries and As Issued, bad @$$ two-wheelers from Nirve, and many more cool little shops to hop around in.

Speaking of Nirve, check out these guys we picked up from them:

Jerry and I have been zipping around on these guys looking for warehouse space around the area, visiting friends like Lan who work in the area, and just all-around green/eco-friendly errands that we can run within a five (5) mile radius of our spot.  A big shout out goes out to Jeremy and Linda at Nirve who really took care of us.  These bikes are so sweet that I picked up an extra one for my house and my fellow trouble maker Jenn(y)fer nabbed one as well.

So far, our new home has generated some crazy buzz from Riviera to Locale to the Los Angeles Times (who, incidentally, are throwing a huge grand opening for this center along with CHOC in December).  Bounce around the internet and see what all the hubbub is about.  Better yet, stop on by and take a look for yourself!  You can see how our future restaurant is wrapped up in brown paper looking like a UPS package.

Smoochies, Len & Jerry

'Ello, World!

Man, we are so far behind on getting this blog going ha ha.  I know we have been telling people to check our blog to see how we are doing, but we are finally catching up now!  Some of you may know, but for those who do not yet, I have been working on a new project with some friends of mine.  We are in the process of slamming out a waffle sandwich joint that serves crazy local brews on tap and specialty bottled beers from around our little blue and green sphere!

Jerry is sitting next to me now staring at the screen as I type wondering what I am going to say.  I kind of have no idea either, but here we go...

So we weren't sure what we wanted to post up as our first photo.  We were thinking our logo?  Nupe, not quite down yet as we are looking into a couple of different color choices.  Maybe the inside of the restaurant?  Nahhh, too boring until we are a little further into construction.  Then, *ding ding*!  Why not post up one half of what the beating heart of The Iron Press will be?  Mmmmm...beer.  Take a closer peek at the picture, you will notice that the posting date was way back in August 24th, 2011 AD.  So all of you who say we have been twiddling our thumbs and slacking, TAKE THAT!

Now that we have this puppy up, please take a lookies back here soon as we will be posting up much more frequently.  In the meantime, you can pop on over to our temporary web site at www.theironpress.com for the most basic and ugly website since 1993 AD.

Smoochies, Len & Jerry