I need to fill you in.
We bought another building in Jeffersonville.
This one is across and down the street from the Epstein
house. It was once, long ago, Hotel
Jefferson Bar and Grill, then at some point it was Salina’s, and most recently
Mullally’s Pub. Last year, Michael was
teasing me that I bought the wrong building in town. That we should have bought the old pub with
the liquor store and ice cream stand attached because, honestly, what would
people rather have – muffins or beer and ice cream?
Our next door neighbor up here is a pastry chef and her
husband is an executive chef in the city.
For the last few months of 2016, over numerous dinners, we discussed the
pros and cons of owning a restaurant in Jeffersonville and imagined a business
model. They helped us understand the ins
and outs of an industry that we had only a passing familiarity with. At home, Michael and I came up with all sorts
of ideas of what we could do with the building: upgrade the liquor store
inventory and interior and host regular wine tastings; partner with the farms
in the area to create the restaurant menu; open a beer garden in the backyard
by the creek; sell coffee and muffins in the morning out of the ice cream
stand.
At the same time that we were ideating on all of this, we
were gutting the inside of the Epstein house, determining whether or not we
could renovate it. Two contractors and
an architect delivered the devastating news to us that we would be wise to tear
it down and start over with something new.
A majority of the house was in such bad shape that we would spend the
same amount of money fighting crooked walls and floors as we would spend
creating a brand new beautiful structure.
After some tears, we settled on the latter.
Sometime in January we decided to pull the trigger and put a
bid in on Mullally’s Pub. As much as
they wanted to, our neighbors decided they wouldn’t be able to move up here
full-time but they would help us in any way they could. We took ads out for a Chef de Cuisine and
somehow we got very, very lucky and found Chef John in April. Then we went on the hunt for a business
manager, someone to be our right-hand guy and help us run all of these new
ventures. Our neighbor Sue told us about
her friend Brendon who grew up in Jeffersonville and was looking to move back
home. He was living on the West Coast
and had been for the past 20 years, managing rock bands and concert tours. When we talked on the phone he told me he
wanted to move back home but he was so Type-A that he knew he’d only be able to
do it if he had a full-time job with a LOT to do because he wasn’t one to sit
still. That was pretty much all I needed to hear. He drove back east on July 14th
and was in our make-shift office above the restaurant the next morning. And none-to-soon, because we were already in
the middle of ripping out floors.
The interior of the bar and restaurant needed some updates
and we thought we’d replace the old tile floor, paint the walls, hang some new
lights, buy some new tables and chairs and open a restaurant. But when we pulled up the tile we realized
just how crooked the floors were, a six inch drop from point A to point B. While we were pulling up the floor in the
bathrooms, we thought we may as well pull out the old walls, too, and make one
of them ADA compliant. When the bathroom
walls came out we saw rotted wood and rotted floors behind and underneath the
beer cooler so all of that had to come out too.
As we looked for a way to put in heat and a/c, we realized the ceilings
were lacking support and the walls were lacking insulation so we ripped out
both the ceilings and the walls. We
decided while we were at it, we should replace the old windows and doors and
all of their rotted frames. Meanwhile,
Chef John was looking around his kitchen and realizing he could use a new
floor, a new hood, a new dishwasher, and new walls. So we ripped all of that out as well.
It probably sounds like a nightmare, but it was actually a
blessing. Once the walls and ceilings
were out, we could think about all new electric. We called Gary who had helped us design the
lighting in our apartment in the city and he designed a lighting schematic for
the entire restaurant and I went about hitting flea markets for old sconces and
pendants and chandeliers. But the best
day of the summer was when Michael and Josh spent an afternoon pulling old
things out of the attic to get ready for new insulation. First all of the Christmas decorations came
out, then Halloween, then St. Patrick’s Day, then Cinco de Mayo. Then six vintage copper hanging
lanterns. Then the old stained glass
shade from the Hotel Jefferson days came out.
It was broken in spots, but otherwise in great shape. I nearly cried. Then a few more stained glass lighting
fixtures. And then an ordinary cardboard
box at the bottom of which was, miraculously intact, two art deco 1930s milk
glass pendant lights. They are all going
to look amazing in the new restaurant.
But there was one more surprise waiting for us in the attic.
The sub floor was a collection of 12-foot old wooden planks,
which, of course, we had on our list to purchase for the new bar top. The old bar top that the Mullally’s had was
copper with a thick layer of apoxy on it and was beautiful, but it also had a
large lip at the edge that would make eating at the bar a bit
uncomfortable. We had decided a few
months back to make the new bar top out of wood – old wood would be ideal,
large solid planks of wood would be even more ideal. Like if you could get just a big ol’ tree and
lay it down. And there they were. Laying above our heads all summer.
But our reclaimed wood story actually starts a bit
earlier. After we realized we were going
to have to tear down the Epstein house, we asked Mike Barber to come over and
take a look at all of the old wood and tell us what we could do with it. Mike owns the Rustic Cottage down the road
and can make truly anything out of wood.
Could we make tables for the restaurant?
Was any of it any good? It turns
out the front of the house held beautiful old boards of hemlock which would
make gorgeous table tops and the old support beams in the walls would work for
the legs. Just wait until you see what
Mike did with this wood. It’s so
beautiful it makes you want to cry.
Our liquor licenses finally came through last week so we
were able to close on the entire property.
We now own the liquor store and are working to get that open. We’re building a beer garden in the backyard,
hoping to have it up and running by Oktoberfest in Jeffersonville. And a local family has asked us if they could
hold their rehearsal dinner in our restaurant on September 29th, so
I guess we have to be open by then!!
Every day of this summer has been completely, utterly non-stop but
completely and utterly glorious. It is
so amazing to see a parking lot full of pick-up trucks and an old building full
of people working to get this place open.
We collapse into bed every night and wake up the next day ready to run
into town and do more. The other night
as we were falling asleep, Michael said “My god, it feels like we’re building a
space ship to Mars.” And he’s
right. It feels a little bit like that.
