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10:00am - 6:00pm
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Laissez
les bon temps rouler....... For anyone who may have missed it. . . me and about 30 of my Kitchenique family and friends packed up the store on Friday, April 17 and moved it "lock, stock and barrel", as my Dad would have said, down the road to City Market at Destiny. With the immeasurable assistance of my good friend Dom Damiano, the talent and hard work of Mike Spicer and his crew, and the unfailing efforts of the Kitchenique family and friends, we've just about managed to put all the pieces back together and will be re-opening as Vicki's Kitchenique (really original huh?) next week. It has been one of the most difficult projects I've ever undertaken and yet the most rewarding. The "move out" was like a barn raising in reverse. There was a very real sense of "community" shared with the family and friends who all showed up and pitched in to help. Also, I can't tell you how much I appreciate the support of everyone who purchased Gift Certificates to help keep us afloat during this time. An awful lot's happened since we closed. Betty Sims and her husband Bill actually hosted her class the Saturday we were moving at their condo at Seascape rather than cancel. They also donated the proceeds of that class to help with our move. Joelle and two of our computers have moved into my home office/spare bedroom where she's been working daily with Lucy observing from the day bed. We've had to get new licenses, permits, you name it and Joelle's been handling all that. We had some interesting experiences at our remote Bubbles & Brunch classes which you just had to be there to believe! Blaring acid rock music Saturday and "asphalt" dining on Sunday. Then last week we rented a meeting room at Sandestin and cooked on a table top for 44 attendees to fulfill obligations we'd made for private classes. And you thought we were just twiddling our thumbs! A week ago last Thursday in an attempt to get my mind off the pressures of the "build out, Dom dragged me off to the sticks, or more specifically to The Red Bay General Store, to cook for 67 "family style" in two seatings. All went well except for the last seating when Dom dropped the 36 Bruschetta (I had just assembled and heated) on the floor as they were about to be served. The funny thing is that with Jimmy's (The Red Bay Grocery's Weekend Chef) help we threw together ingredients on hand, heated up some Texas Toast and called it Bruschetta! No one seemed to notice and we get to tease Dom unmercifully for years to come! Then it's back to the "build out". First of all, my sincerest thanks to Mike Spicer, Stan and the whole crew. Amazing talent, vision, persistence and determination - all of which were called on in this project. We've run into several snags, the worst of which was the painted concrete floors. My dear friend Tammy Eby, owner of Neocrete, was all set to come in and "paint and finish" the floors when we realized they were peeling up all over. To make a long, painful story short we had to scrape the paint layers from the entire floor with four inch razor blades. Yep! On hands and knees back breaking work but it just had to be done. (Joelle is still looking for that clause in our job descriptions that includes "scraping floor with 4" scrapers" - among other things I always seem to find!) We got just about all of it up and Tammy's crew will take over tomorrow giving us a much preferred "stained" concrete floor instead of painted but setting us back a full week and a half in the process. In the meantime Joelle, Peggy, Sue and Judy have been there on a minute's notice to move, rearrange, stain, sand you name it! Thanks to John and Andrew, Judy's husband and son, for their help too - especially reaching those really high shelves for us! Kandy, Nedra and Denise all had health issues to deal with, claiming they were "not mental" but we wonder. And so we're hoping to get open sometime next
weekend and Chef Dan Pettis will teach our first class on Tuesday, May
26. I'm so grateful to so many for helping me reach this goal. It simply
would not have been possible without the army of support I've had throughout.
We're planning a huge celebration but need to get the kinks worked out
before announcing a date. I promise it will be a New Orleans style "fais
do-do" you won't want to miss so stay tuned - and in the meantime
- COME SEE US! I promise not to put you to work!
IF YOU WISH TO ORDER, PLEASE CALL TOLL FREE 1-800-476-2918 Coming
Soon to City Market at Destiny |
Class Schedule as a Word Document
E-newsletter
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news about coffee!
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