Inspiration Everywhere!

Andy and I have descended on our old stomping grounds!  Back in Phoenix for a week to spend the holidays with the Harper family.  Between tree decorating and gift wrapping we managed to sneak out for a few hours to troll around Phoenix, Arcadia, and Scottsdale for some architecture and design inspiration for the Hank & Hazel's building.  We had a few hiccups with our building that slowed us down for a few months this fall, but now we're in the clear and raring to get this thing renovated so we can open this business we're so excited to share with you all!

So- first things first.  Here are some pictures of the building.  From the exterior you can see that it looks a really lame furniture store.  The kind you would never shop in!!  And from the inside, I wanted you to see a picture of the cool roof - it's a wood roof in a barrel shape.  So cool and old-fashioned.  Trust me - they don't build 'em like this anymore!  What we're working on now is how to make this pretty uncool building have a hip, old-timey vibe.

Future home of Hank & Hazel's!

Here's the roof - we want to try to leave at least part of it exposed so it can add to the old-fashioned feel of our market. 

 On our tour of hip, cool food businesses in Phoenix here are a few of our stops (and the learnings we're taking back to our architect!)

Learning #1: Find cool ways to merchandise your products on antique hutches, rolling wooden shelves, branded coolers, etc.

 


Learning #2: Paint cool signage- it's cheap and makes a huge impact (and we have LOTS of exterior wall that needs treatment!)

Learning #3: Offer 15, 16, 17, 18 or 19 minute parking spots.  I swear we saw one of each on our tour.  This one is my favorite!  Since we were just popping in at most of these places we used this feature almost everywhere.

Learning #4: The outdoor patio is key.  Put landscaping in movable containers and use lots of wood to make an inviting space for people to spend time in.

Learning #5: Be small, not big.  You feel so much better in a space that is full of both products and people.  When there's not enough stuff in a market it feels awkward.  And we all know how lame it is to be in a restaurant where there's only one other couple.  You start picking the place apart to try to figure out why you're the only sucker who's there while everyone else is across the street in the trendy new spot.

Delightfully full of interesting stuff!

Why am I the only one in here?!!?!?!?!?

Learning #6: Kids Corner - since we'll be having our own kid around the shop this is a no-brainer for us, but I loved seeing it at the Chestnut!  Andy's dad is hand carving a "rocking-pig" for us, and I want to fill up the rest with those Melissa & Doug food cutting toys and a kid's play kitchen, and a mini-shopping cart for toddlers to follow their parents around the store with.

Learning #7: A nice bathroom.  It makes a place seem so much cooler when even the restroom is nice and matches the decor of the venue.

The one thing we forgot to take a picture of on our tour of Phoenix was Saturday morning cocktail hour at Southern Rail with my super hip cousins Amy and Luke (who gave us the list of all the places we visited for inspiration and continue to send ideas pouring our way!)  Cheers!  

During our stay at the Newton, though, we did somehow catch a photo of Al Michaels doing a book signing at Changing Hands bookstore.  Nice...

So - these are a few of the things we picked up, but we want to hear from you!  What are your favorite features at places you frequent - restaurants, markets, butcher shops etc?  If you want to like our new facebook page: make a post and share some of your ideas with us!  Eventually I hope to start promoting our blog posts there so I can reserve my facebook page for just posting cute pictures of my baby (obviously what facebook was designed for!!)

A Very Meaty Birthday

I'm a terrible blogger.  I do awesome, cool stuff every day, but can't manage to take pictures of it all and write a few words to share it.  But, I'll make an exception today because I'm having a heck of a day and I actually remembered to snap some pics!

Andy and I have been very busy the last few months.  We've picked a name for our business: Hank & Hazel's Butcher Shop and Eatery, and we've just finished working with our graphic designer on our logo.  How cool is that?!

The logo!  Isn't it just too cute?

 In between meetings with our architect to design the renovations to the building we bought, and meetings with the City of Vacaville planning department, we've been going crazy with recipe development.  I have no excuse for not sharing with you all our progression from struggling to get the texture of our sausages right using the KitchenAid attachments, and forgetting to add curing salt to a full size ham(yikes!  What a waste!!), to some of our true successes - such as the homemade Pastrami Reuben that just melted in your mouth or our Bockwurst which is light and fluffy and so yum!

Which brings us to today - the day I will actually tell you about some of these adventures.  I got up really early so I could get out to Starbucks for my free birthday drink.  Venti Iced Americano - what a way to start the day!  By the time I got back to the house, Andy had gotten the Turchetta cooking in the sous vide and put yesterday's production of hot links into the smoker.  The Turchetta was my brother, Seamus' idea - its two turkey breasts seasoned with typical porchetta seasonings (but with sage as the dominant spice), rolled up in turkey skin and slow cooked for four hours.   See pics below!

Turchetta Spice Mix

The Turchetta.  Looks pretty cool, huh? 

Slicing it up - pretty delish!

For the Hot Links, Andy and I challenged ourselves to try to develop a recipe that would be better than my Dad's favorite "Evergood" hot links.  So, when we pulled our links from the smoker at like 9am, it seemed only right to cook up one of each and do a taste test.  I've had a lot of decadent birthdays over the years, but none have included a sausage taste-off before 10am.  Andy - thanks for keeping it interesting!  

The sausages just before coming out of the smoker!  I wish you all could have smelled it!

Cast Iron Cook-Off

The Evergood is redder, but ours has better smoke, more complex flavors and is bigger.  I feel like there is a really good sausage / size joke here, but I'll leave that to your imagination...

After all this, it's obviously time to start making some sausage, right?  After butchering up that turkey yesterday for the turchetta, we turned the rest of it into trim for Turkey Sausage with Tart Cherries (it should be mentioned that we reserved the drumsticks to smoke and make caveman style drummies for Andy and my Dad...obviously...)  Didn't get pics of the sausage making process - I promise I'll do a good job of that one of these days.

Now time to read all of the lovely birthday messages on Facebook and watch World Cup soccer with my amazing husband while the baby naps, before meeting up with my family for a birthday celebration filled with board games, dry-aged steaks and ice cream with caramel sauce.  Meatiest birthday I've ever had.  Thank you all for making it amazing!!

A Pork Chop By Any Other Name Would Smell As Sweet

Apologies for the radio silence the last few months!  Andy and I stayed very busy preparing for the baby and spending time with family over the holidays.  We were ready for the baby to arrive a few weeks early, but he didn't show up until nearly three weeks late, so we had a pretty extended last hurrah.  On January 12 we welcomed Harold Porter Harper into the family - he's tall, lanky and has red hair - so we are a little bit mystified about who he looks like.  (Is it possible that dying my hair red all those years could seep into my gene pool?)  Since he was born we've been working pretty much full time just trying to keep the little guy alive, but I think we're starting to get the hang of this parenting thing and we're ready to get busy on the butcher shop again (our 2nd baby!).

The Little Guy (looking pretty dapper...)

So - here's the question of the day: What should we name it?  Please leave a comment with absolutely any suggestions that you have for a cool name for our butcher shop.  Otherwise, we've developed two front runners that we're considering and we'd love it if you could weigh in and tell us which you think is better!  We're using the phrase "Local and Pastured Meats" in both names because we want the name to be very clear so that customers know what we're selling and how we're differentiated from other butchers.  We intend to source as locally as possible and to work with ranchers who share our philosophy of slow-grown animals raised naturally without hormones and antibiotics.

Option 1: Porter's Local and Pastured Meats
Porter is my family's name, and as we're living on the family ranch and back in my hometown it seems like a nice nod to the history of my family in this community.  We may grow the butcher shop into more of a market over time with other locally-sourced, sustainable products and produce.  Porter's is a strong name and could easily grow into "Porter's Market" down the road as we grow.

Option 2: Hank and Hazel's Local and Pastured Meats
As Andy and I decided to leave our corporate jobs and pursue this butcher shop concept, my Dad bought a pair of Mangalitsa breeding pigs.  He named the boar "Hank" after my grandpa, and named the sow "Hazel" after an adorable, young 2nd cousin of mine in Petaluma.  Hank and Hazel were in many ways the reason we took the leap to start this business, so it could be a great story to name the shop after them.  The name also seems kind of hip and catchy, and a little bit old-school - kind of like the business we're starting.

So, what do you think?  Please leave comments here or on Facebook!