These copperplate engravings illustrate The Principal Operations of Weaving reproduced from a book of 1748 in the collection at Dennis Severs House. Many of these activities would have been a familiar sight in Spitalfields three centuries ago.
Ribbon Weaving
Dennis Severs House, 18 Folgate House, Spitalfields, E1
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Fabric and yarn shopping in Japan is the bee’s knees! There is such a wide range of unique fabric, yarns and notions available, and the attention to detail is spectacular. Regular readers will already have followed my exploits in Tokyo (part 1, part 2) and Kyoto, but I thought that I would gather all the info on the best shops, how to get there, and some maps, all into one post. Hopefully other travelers to Japan will find it useful!
General info
Tokyo
Fabric
Fabric and Yarn
Buttons
If you’re interested in crafts beyond sewing and knitting, or you’re interested in exploring other less well-known stores and neighbourhoods, check out the Tokyo Craft Guide, written by Miss Matatabi. There’s free info on Nippori Town and Shibuya, and a downloadable eBook to other areas which is well worth the investment.
Kyoto
All the stores mentioned below are within a square mile of each other, making a shopping day or afternoon very achievable in Kyoto.
Fabric
Notions
Yarn
There are plenty of very cool boutiques and cafes around this area, so you’ll have an amazing day!
Let me know in the comments if you have any questions. Do you know any other “no-miss” fabric and yarn stores in Japan that folks should add to their lists?
The post Guide to Fabric and Yarn Shopping in Japan appeared first on Cashmerette.
The Tree of Life (2011) dir. Terrence Malick / DP: Emmanuel Lubezki
Fan Bing Bing at the opening ceremony and premiere of “La Tete Haute” during the 68th annual Cannes Film Festival on May 13, 2015
WASHINGTON—Arguing that the measure would help women fully understand the consequences of their decision, members of the House of Representatives introduced a new bill this week that would require anyone seeking an abortion to view images of the congressmen she will disappoint prior to undergoing the procedure. “Before any pregnancy can be terminated, women will have a chance to see the faces of these politicians, which will help them make an informed decision as to whether they’d really like to go through with letting down an elected public servant,” Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ) said of the proposed law, which also mandates that women listen to audio of the lawmakers’ talking points on when life begins. “What this bill does is show women that, hey, these congressmen aren’t just faceless legislators; they’re real politicians whose agendas are being destroyed. Once they see the actual eyes and ears ...
68.00 USD
Lovely swimsuit by Rose Marie Reid of California, button straps and the sweetest studded detail at the bust, gathered hip area and back zipper, see note below for fabric fade and make sure to check all pictures. Please check the measurements for best fit.
Item ships first class worldwide.
c o n d i t i o n
Overall super pretty with fade through the center and gathered hip area, this is visible in the pictures but does not particularly detract from how cute it is! sold as is.
size: XS-S
length 20.5" from highest point on cup to skirt hem
hip up to 36"
bust 32"
waist 22-26"
shop previews on instagram @wildfellhall
★check out our vintage lingerie shop right here!
http://www.etsy.com/shop/theslipperie
Thank you for stopping by!
The new public market opening this summer in Boston will never sell a banana or an avocado. In the winter and spring, when there are fewer vegetables in the fields, there will be fewer vegetables in the market’s stalls. And if local fishermen can’t catch it, it won’t be on offer.
The Boston Public Market will be home to about 40 vendors, who will sell fruits and vegetables, fish and meat, and honey—all grown, caught or produced in New England.
Most major cities either have large public markets these days or have one in works — think Detroit’s Eastern Market, San Francisco’s Ferry Building Marketplace, or Portland, Oregon’s James Beard Public Market, scheduled to open in 2018. While these markets are all champions of local food and farmers, however, none have taken their sourcing rules quite as far.
Boston’s market will be the first permanent, year-round market in the country to require its products—not just its proprietors—to be all-local, a model that is both exciting and risky, said Elizabeth Morningstar, chief executive of the Boston Public Market Association, the nonprofit that will operate the new enterprise.
“Do I know if it’s going to succeed? I don’t,” Morningstar said. “Do I think it’s the right thing to do? One hundred percent.”
The goals behind the ambitious rules are the same as those driving the burgeoning local food movement: boost economic development, help people eat healthier, reduce carbon emissions from long-haul transportation, and encourage consumers to reconnect with the land where their food is grown.
The state of Massachusetts is paying for half of the estimated $13 million it will cost to get the market up and running. The environmental nonprofit The Conservation Fund has given the project a $3 million line of credit; private and foundation donations make up the rest of the budget.
The building is still a work in progress. Men and women in hard hats walk the raw concrete floors where shoppers will meander come summer. Visible ducts and wires run along the ceiling and a stack of pipes obscures a wall that will be covered in a cascade of flowers. The banks of floor-to-ceiling windows that line the front of the building are covered in colorful posters that promote the coming market and prevent passers-by from peering in at the unfinished space.
As the market nears completion, however, questions remain about its pioneering local-only mandate. Will the farms of highly seasonal New England have anything to sell in winter? Will consumers find the selection too limited?
Morningstar has conquered any doubts she once had about supply. More than 300 potential vendors–the vast majority from Massachusetts–have expressed interest in setting up shop in the market, she said. Applicants must submit a rigorous business plan guaranteeing their ability to provide enough product all year. “Even the small businesses have been very diligent about their supply model,” Morningstar said.
The growers selling fruits and vegetables have all found ways to extend their offerings through the colder, less fertile months. For instance, Corner Stalk Farm grows greens in converted shipping containers all year. Red Apple Farm will supplement its fruit with cider and treats like doughnuts. Other farms plan to offer items that will store well throughout the winter like root vegetables and winter squash. The first round of vendors also includes businesses selling meat, cheese, milk, ice cream, honey, wine, smoked fish, and greenhouse-grown flowers.
Not every ingredient will come from New England–market rules allow prepared foods to use components from outside the region, though the final product must be produced locally. The market will also sell chocolate and seasoned nuts grown out of New England, but processed in neighboring Somerville. And it will have a coffee vendor and some smoothies for sale there that will contain coconut.
The question of demand is not as clearly resolved, but there is every reason for optimism.
“Local” continues to be one of the most commercially appealing words in the food business, said Rachel Greenberger, director of food entrepreneurship program Food Sol at Babson College in Wellesley, Massachussets. Though the market will not have the one-stop convenience of a traditional supermarket, Morningstar points to data that indicate most shoppers already make multiple stops to buy all of the groceries they want.
Still, consumer education will be essential if the market is to succeed, said Gregory Watson, who was commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources when the plans for the market were taking shape.
“You want to manage those customer expectations right up front, so [they] don’t come in expecting tropical fruit,” he said.
Several vendors will include educational pieces in their own stalls, Morningstar said. An active beehive will buzz behind plexiglass at the booth of the Boston Honey Company of Holliston and Taza Chocolate of Somerville will have a traditional chocolate grinding stone on display.
In the market’s kitchen, a versatile space in the corner of the facility, visitors will be able to sample produce or practice their stir-fry technique in hands-on cooking classes. Area conservation group the Trustees of Reservations will coordinate the programming.
“This is definitely a radical concept, so the education becomes all the more important,” said Mimi Hall, market programming director for the Trustees of Reservations.
Though a market is always a tourist draw, planners are shaping the Boston facility to serve residents first and foremost, Morningstar said. Most vendors will serve some prepared food options, but the only seating will be eight small tables in the center of the space. The goal is not to become a dining destination, but to stay focused on the needs of local shoppers looking for dinner ingredients, she said
To make sure the market is an option for all residents regardless of income, all vendors are required to accept Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, (AKA food stamps). Classes will also be priced to make them affordable to a wide range of participants, Hall said. One-third of the events will be free, she said, and another third will cost less than $20.
“We’re making sure people of all different backgrounds and all different means get connected to the land,” Hall said.
If the market succeeds, it could be an important catalyst for growth in the local food economy in New England, several people said. Having a guaranteed year-round outlet could encourage farmers to look at boosting greenhouse production, for instance, said Watson.
The market is also an important step in building needed local food infrastructure, Greenberger said. And for Morningstar, the market will help both grow and satisfy Boston’s corps of local food devotees.
“Shopping in a public market is a value statement,” she said. “People go because they like what it says about them and about the community.”
The post Boston to Launch the Nation’s First ‘All-Local’ Public Market appeared first on Civil Eats.
“bad luck isn’t brought by broken mirrors, but by broken minds”
suspiria (1977) dir. dario argento
They smell nice, don’t they? Do you like lilies too?
دختری در شب تنها به خانه میرود (A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night, 2014)
you were just telling me about how you sang the song of love together.
This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items from the newly acquired Santo Domingo collection.
The mandrake root is often referenced in mythical texts and stories, with many powerful magical powers ascribed to it. The root can resemble human limbs and rumor is that when it is pulled from the ground it lets out a blood curdling scream that can kill anyone who hears it. In the introduction, Leslie Shepard tells the myth of how to remove the root. 
“You had to stop your ears with wax, expose enough of the plant to tie it to a dog, then incite the animal to pull the mandrake, the dog dying in the process. After that the plant was safe to handle and had various magical properties.” The root was clearly thought to be a very powerful magical object if people were willing to risk death to obtain it! Although the plant does have mildly medical qualities, in ancient Rome it was used as an anesthetic and was later used to treat rheumatism, it is in fact a very dangerous plant as the berries contain a very potent poison.
This book, The Mystic Mandrake, follows the history of the plant for 3,000 years, from ancient civilizations to current times both looking at the medical and scientific aspects of the plants as well as addressing the magic and superstition that surrounds the root. Long considered an aphrodisiac, many herbalists discuss the different male and female incarnations of the plant. Written by C.J.S. Thompson, the curator of the museum at the Royal College of Surgeons, this book is well researched and thorough. Thompson looks at different literary references, including Shakespeares’ Antony and Cleopatra, as well as historical documents and objects to weave his story about the magical plant. 
Thompson wrote extensively on plants and poisons, as well as the links between the medical world and the magical. Several other of Thompson’s books can be found at Harvard including The Quacks of Old London, Magic and healing, and Poisons and poisoners, with historical accounts of some famous mysteries in ancient and modern times. The Mystic Mandrake is part of the Santo Doming Collection and can be viewed at Widener Library.
Thanks to Emma Clement, Santo Domingo Library Assistant, for contributing this post.
Russian Sledgesback collar
110.00 USD
Beautiful emerald silk dress from the early 1950s, side zipper and very flattering wrap bodice with large collar feature at the back, no labels, nicely gathered skirt, quality silk fabric. Belt loops but no belt. Please check the measurements for best fit and condition notes below.
Item ships first class worldwide.
c o n d i t i o n
Lovely!
size: small-medium
bust 34"
waist 26-27"
hip free
bodice length 16"
skirt length 25"
shop previews on instagram @wildfellhall
★visit our vintage lingerie shop right here!
http://www.etsy.com/shop/theslipperie
Russian Sledgesvia rosalind
The lights show couples — a man and a woman, two women or two men. Set up recently at 47 crossings, they were to be taken down in June, after the conclusion of several gay-friendly events.
Russian Sledgesvia rosalind
Earthlight
“Earthlight is the partial illumination of the dark portion of the moon’s surface by light reflected from the Earth and from the Earth’s airglow. It is also known as Earthshine [or] Planetshine, the Moon’s ashen glow, or the old Moon in the new Moon’s arms.”
Russian Sledgesvia chelsea
44.4%
During the drawdown of the Vietnam War, I recall feeling surreal about the U.S. not being at war, because, while we weren’t involved in Vietnam all my life, it sure felt like we were. That was an in-your-face war, with film footage dominating the evening news, war protesters, and fear of the draft. Times have changed. Journalist Martha Raddatz included this line in her commencement speech at Kenyon College:
You have spent more than half your lives with this country at war. And yet the huge majority of you, and those your age, the huge majority of all people in this country have not been affected by these conflicts.
The Washington Post, ever on alert for factual errors, checked to see if that was true. Students graduating from college in 2015 were mostly born in the early ‘90s, and have lived between 60 and 70 percent of their lives during the War on Terror. To see how this compares to other age groups, they made a table for all Americans born in the past 100 years. I see that while our country has been at war for 43% of my life, that figure is 83% for my two youngest children, born in 1998. The graph is a bit small in the image above, but you can see it much larger and read how it came about at The Washington Post. -via Digg
Russian SledgesI just made two of these in as many days
this thing rules
I want twenty
I’m so excited to finally announce that the Morris Blazer is now available for purchase! Now lets get to know the Morris a little better.
I originally designed the Morris back when I was still doing Hound and produced it for 2 seasons (Fall ’11 and Spring ’12) before I quit to have more time to pursue Grainline Studio. That blazer was a crazy seller, I don’t even want to think about how many Morris Blazers I’ve made. I loved that blazer as soon as I finished the first one and honestly haven’t stopped loving it since. I find that I wear the Morris most during the spring – summer – fall seasons since it’s perfect for tossing on in changing weather as well as all those overly air conditioned places I find myself in all summer long. It’s casual enough that you can wear it daily but doesn’t look out of place dressed up a bit as well.
Garment Details The Morris Blazer is the perfect mix of casual and cool. It will quickly become the go-to garment to complete any outfit. With a mixture of drape and structure, bracelet length sleeves, and gentle shawl collar, it looks great dressed up or down. It works up well in fabrics with stretch, making it comfortable on top of everything else!
Techniques involved include sewing a straight seam, setting sleeves, sewing a shawl collar, facings, and topstitching. Pattern is nested to facilitate cutting between sizes if needed.
Both the woven and knit version follow the same instructions and you do not need any knit-specific sewing equipment for this pattern. The only thing I used a serger for was to finish my seam allowances.
Suggested Fabrics One of the things I’m most excited about with the Morris Blazer is the fact that it’s drafted so that you can make it in both stretch wovens or stable knits meaning lots of flexibility! The navy blue blazer was sewn up in stretch wool suiting which has such an amazing drape. The striped blazer is Ponte knit which looks pulled together but feels like you’re wearing an undercover sweatshirt. Since both fabrications involve stretch you don’t need to worry about feeling restricted as some blazers can do. I’ve also made one up in French terry which has a bit more drape than the ponte and it worked out quite well. The blazer is unlined.
Difficulty The Morris Blazer is rated Advanced Beginner because of the shawl collar. We always strive to make sure that every step involved is clearly explained so if you’ve got a garment or two under your belt you should be just fine with this one.
I can’t wait to see Morris Blazers popping up here and there, I know a few of you have been waiting on this one for a while. As always we’ll be doing a sew along – I know a lot of people find them boring – but I think it’s a nice courtesy to offer to customers. No date on that yet since we’ve abruptly found out last week that the Grainline Studio studio is moving, but I’ll update you with that as soon as I know.
One last thing. If you’re purchasing the print version of the Morris Blazer they won’t be shipping out until after May 1st. I apologize for the inconvenience but we’re currently in the middle of packing up the entire studio for the move this weekend and I don’t predict us being able to ship much of anything – especially since the new patterns still need assembly – before then. I would never have planned a move to coincide with the launch of new patterns but things happen and you get through them the best you can. Kendra and I, with the help of a small team of friends, will be working super hard to make sure you get them asap though!
Russian Sledges#butts
Russian Sledgesmeanwhile in portland (maine)
Get ready for them. I’ll have a piece about Santa Cruz’s Venus Spirits which already makes Ladrón Agave Spirit in blanco and, soon, reposado and añejo versions. Coincidentally, it looks like St. George Spirits is getting back into the business based on its Instagram feed. The story is that they tried years ago but were defeated by the mighty agave fiber. It will be fascinating to hear how they approach this challenge with fresh energy and to see who else jumps into this game.
We swore we’d never do it again. #agave #neversaynever #sorrynotsorry
A photo posted by @stgeorgespirits on
Agave in the house for the first time since 2008. #sevenyearitch #iwishiknewhowtoquityou
A photo posted by @stgeorgespirits on
Russian Sledgesin the mood for love autoshare forever
"That era has passed. Nothing that belonged to it exists any more."
Forever wondering if I am contributing to a conversation by using my own experiences or being self centered and rude.
Russian Sledges????
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Unvaccinated children who do not have a medical exemption would have to study at home or in organized, private home-schooling groups.
The post California Senate votes to end ‘personal belief’ exemption for vaccines appeared first on Religion News Service.
Russian Sledgesso, this is what's happening to the former Sherman Cafe space
Bread & Salt's Josh Lewin and Katrina Jazayeri are opening their first restaurant in Somerville later this year.
Ever since Josh Lewin left Beacon Hill Bistro just over a year ago, he's made no secret of the fact that he wants to open his own place in the not-so-distant future: "The goal is restaurant ownership," he said then. At the time, he and Katrina Jazayeri were already throwing pop-ups and events under their Bread & Salt Hospitality moniker, and this past year has allowed them to grow the business substantially, including a seven-month stint running the culinary program at Wink & Nod in the South End. (The bar has been functioning as a pop-up incubator, first giving the Whisk team a temporary home, then Bread & Salt, and now Akinto.) Lewin also found time to travel the country a bit completing a number of stages at restaurants like Atelier Crenn in San Francisco and Rasika in DC.
Now, Lewin and Jazayeri are moving forward with their first restaurant: Juliet. (It's Jazayeri's middle name, and it "sounds great for a cafe," Lewin says. Juliet will be a cafe in the European sense, not the American "coffee shop" sense; more on that later.) It will be located in the former Sherman Cafe space (257 Washington St.) in Somerville's increasingly bustling Union Square neighborhood. Sherman Cafe closed in September 2014, preceded by its sibling market around the corner of the same building; that market space is now home to Gracie's Ice Cream.
Union Square has always been particularly interesting to the duo, and they've lived in the area for the past few years. (Lewin used to be based in Dorchester and thought he'd never cross the river, but he "accidentally" ended up in Somerville when the house in which he was renting an apartment was sold. A convenient move to Cambridge came up with a friend — but it turned out it wasn't actually Cambridge. When the mail came on the first day, Lewin was surprised to find out he was actually living in Somerville.)
A year ago, Lewin spoke about how much he would have loved to buy Union Square's Mid-Nite Convenient when it was briefly up for sale because he's interested in building concepts around the existing history of a space:
"We want to leave our mark, but we would love to be able to unlock a door into an existing history and merge our concept with that and just happily integrate with the community, giving them something familiar but showing improvement. I think it's a really fun concept, acknowledging the history of what you're part of ... We do have some concepts in mind that would be ground-up stuff, but we're more interested in sharing a history with something and celebrating a community on the rise."
Now that Lewin and Jazayeri have signed the lease on the Sherman Cafe space, they're reiterating the importance of the neighborhood, its history, and its growth.
"We've been looking at this space for almost a year," Lewin tells Eater. "We were very clear that we were holding out for Union Square unless the perfect situation came up somewhere else. This place is going to change. We've been going to these planning meetings for Union Square, and I'm telling you this place is going to be totally different, but we want to be a part of that. We were customers at the old cafe for a long time and got wind from the folks at Gracie's, who knew us, so this really naturally happened instead of this business going on the market. It's a nice neighborhood way of coming into an opportunity."
Juliet will offer several different types of dining experiences to meet a variety of needs, from grab-and-go commuter snacks to set breakfasts to full-service dining by an open kitchen.
"As it was a cafe, and it's at the bus stop, we know that a big percentage of the people who come in are going to be interested in a cup of coffee, something they can get in under two minutes and catch the bus, so we're going to make sure to accommodate them with a lot of fun options," says Jazayeri. "Menu items that are designed to be really fast to execute and also portable to make sense to eat on the road or a half-hour after you've bought it."
There will also be counter service available for the people who want to "come in, have a cup of tea, maybe a sandwich, soup, or salad, sit, read their book, hang out for a while," Jazayeri continues. Diners will order at the counter, and the team will bring out the food and clear plates.
Some of the seating, most likely a smaller portion than the seat-yourself area, will be devoted to full-service dining, from breakfast on, with a view into the open kitchen.
The team is still finalizing their dinner-service model and overall hours.
We're focused on meals and conversations.
Even though Jazayeri mentions diners sitting and reading, it's not the the team's intention that this will be a coffee shop where people sit with laptops and do work. "We want it to be a restaurant — a casual restaurant, but a restaurant," she says. "We've got great coffee shops in the area, and we're not equipped to be that, nor do we want to be that. We're focused on meals and conversations. Take a break from your work, come and hang out, read your book, start your day with us, have lunch with us, relax after you get off the bus."
"We don’t want to compete with some of the other places in the Square that are doing that," Lewin adds. "We want to add something that’s not already here. When you think about a cafe in the American sense of the word, or at least the Boston sense of the word, it means 'coffee shop,' and it means somewhere to work. What we’re more inspired by is the European-style cafe where it’s a place away from your home, and it is very much a restaurant. It doesn’t mean it’s where you go for your special occasion or your weekend, but it’s an all-day, everyday restaurant and a place where you can have some fun. Not just a coffee shop."
"It's a meeting place," Katrina says, "and there's no requirement to have a meal with us by any means. We'll have great drink options. You're hungry? Great. You're meeting a friend for coffee? Great."
It's early to get too specific about the menu, but the duo is particularly excited about the idea of a set breakfast. "We've been thinking about this for a long time, ever since going to our favorite place in Brooklyn, Okonomi," says Jazayeri, "and we also noticed on our trip to Europe that during every meal there was sort of this set. A meal involves more than one item — it's your coffee, your juice, your bread item..."
"There are limited choices, and it just works," Lewin says. "We've thought about it for you, trust me. Plus, it only costs a few bucks, and you sit down and order that. We're not saying that we would do a Japanese-style breakfast, but at Okonomi, you spend $15 and you're in one of the hippest places in Brooklyn, and a plate comes out to you with some pickles, some vegetables, a Japanese omelette, a rice bowl with a poached egg on it, and you can add some salmon roe. You eat it and feel great because someone's really, really thought it through. So for our full-service dining, we want that experience to start with breakfast and move all the way through the day. Breakfast isn't an after-thought. Breakfast is actually one of the phases of the day that we're most excited about."
Diners can expect lots of items made in-house, entirely from scratch, from tea to cheese to yogurt. "The farmer relationships that we’ve built over my time at Beacon Hill Bistro and Katrina’s time at Cuisine en Locale are going to be just as important to us here as in the past, and that means doing a lot of it ourselves," says Lewin. "Also, we want to really be a place where people can learn in the kitchen as well as in service. In the kitchen, if someone is with us for a year, two years, they should be ready to either be a manager with us at that point or move on and really impress somebody somewhere else, and that means having a large skill set and understanding process, and that means making a lot of things from scratch and doing it the right way, so we’ll be doing a lot of that."
Some of the tea will be made in-house based on what the team has learned from a local company called Boston Teawrights. Additionally, there'll be tea from Mem Tea in Watertown. "We won't have an exclusively handmade tea program because that’s going to be restricting for certain people and we’re not experts yet," says Jazayeri. "It’s a learning process for everyone, which is important to us, and we think the product can be interesting and dynamic, but we’ll also have the classics that you expect."
"We talked a lot about what a coffee and tea program looks like, because it’s a little bit new territory for us," says Lewin. "Coming from a full-service restaurant, coffee and tea is important, but it’s usually hidden. At an all-day serving cafe, especially with an open kitchen, it’s not so hidden. But we’re not trying to compete with the coolest coffee shops around; we don’t know that much. It’s not going to be the most expensive coffee in town. We’re not going to have the largest menu of house-dreamt-up espresso drinks and stuff like that, but we’ll have your classics, we’ll train our staff to make them very well, and we think we will have a couple specialty options too."
The design process is in the works; to the right, see a working draft of the restaurant's logo, created by Jazayeri. Since Lewin and Jazayeri are so interested in integrating with the existing history of spaces, their renovations won't be too heavy. "We've got such great light in that space," says Jazayeri. "Our goal is not to make it unrecognizable; we don't want it to feel like a brand new space. We want it to feel like a freshened, exciting, 'us' space, but if you loved Sherman, we want you to feel like this is the same space. And we loved Sherman."
"You'll see some of Sherman Cafe there, but it will look like ours," Lewin says. "We’re not going to redirect the roots too much — if you’ve sat and enjoyed a sandwich and a coffee at Sherman Cafe, you’ll be seated on the same level, you’ll see some of the same lines that you used to. But we’re going to build it up a little bit more. We’re going to design the dining room to be a more comfortable space."
"But the biggest change is going to be in the kitchen," he continues. "We want to open the kitchen to accomplish a few things. We want that kitchen counter seating to overlook the work going on in the kitchen so diners can interact with the people working there to allow for that full-service feeling. We also want to put on a little show. We’re really confident in our kitchen programs, and we have a great staff, and we want to see them work. And we want our staff to be comfortable at work. It’s a great space, but the kitchen that’s in there is a little bit of a box, and we want to blow that out and let people feel like they’re part of the world while they’re working. The kitchen life is hard enough. We don’t want them to feel enclosed. I’m used to working in basements, and I’m tired of it. I want to be out in the open."
They hope to have a little bit of outdoor seating as well; the sidewalk out front is fairly wide. "We think it would be great for that area of town," says Lewin. There’s this great little shop right next to us now, Loyal Supply Co. They’ve been really helpful for us; it's a nice young company, and they’re actually designers and do design work out of their office at the store, and they’ve just been great neighbors. Since they have a beautiful store, we want to build a beautiful store and invite people to sit outside in that kind of forgotten stretch of Washington Street."
We'll explore different spaces in different manifestations as time goes on.
In offering multiple dining experiences to suit different occasions, Lewin and Jazayeri draw some inspiration from Torrisi Italian Specialties in New York, a restaurant that started out by offering a wildly popular prix fixe at night — and sandwiches during the day. The company has spawned multiple other restaurants with even more to come.
"Cooks were in there working with these great ingredients, and you could just stop in on your lunch break and get a sandwich," Lewin says. "This idea has been incubating with us for a long time, being able to be multiple things to the community with just some simple adjustments to the program."
"And that’s kind of foundational to our company goals as a whole," says Jazayeri, "in terms of the core idea that we’ll explore different spaces and different manifestations as time goes on. But it’ll be based on what makes you want to return to a place: It’s flexibility, but it’s also trust and consistency."
"People know us for doing all sorts of really specific things," says Lewin, "and they've put a lot of trust in us to come out and celebrate this holiday or that event. They know that they can get some really great versions of globally-inspired classics, and we do our research and we have things that we love. At Juliet, we want to be able to continue to celebrate some of that but in a more structured environment. Basically what we’re trying to build is a place for us to share our favorite things and to build a framework that we can train our staff in. There’s a lot of consistency but kind of an open conversation. These are the things we love; this is our neighborhood spot. And in the future, we may build some more specific restaurants or some more full-service restaurants, but this is small on purpose, it’s neighborhood on purpose, and it’s a place for us to introduce ourselves to Union Square and the greater area — as a real anchor to what we do in the future."
Lewin and Jazayeri launched a Kickstarter campaign today, hoping to earn $40,000 in the next 28 days. "We need a little bit of help. It’s a small project, and there’s a lot of investment money kind of available to us, and people are interested in us, but as this is such a personal project, we want to be careful about entering into those arrangements," says Lewin. "We have future plans, bigger projects, and we want to preserve some of those potential relationships for those larger future projects. We want to be able to keep this one personal focused and with the help of the neighborhood."
"If the neighborhood is not interested in it, and our Kickstarter is unsuccessful, that tells us something, but we don't expect that to happen," he continues. Kickstarter is a nice opportunity to reach people before opening, Lewin explains. "You're just getting a cash advance; you've sold some stuff on good faith, and we'll be looking forward to opening our doors and making good on those commitments. I think it'll be a nice, natural way to build something with such a neighborhood focus."
"We want to encourage people to be involved and be vocal and tell us what they think of what we’re doing," says Jazayeri. "We want there to be that dialogue. We’re not building our temple and hoping people are interested in it. We want to build something that works for everyone, and through the Kickstarter rewards, we get to invite people who are interested in this project in for classes and events. We have plans for the money we hope to raise on Kickstarter, but regardless of that, we also want to know who’s interested in this project and us and Union Square."
"It’s a great initial outreach tool," says Lewin, "and it allows us to ask for that help and expose ourselves to the neighborhood. We’re not going to be that spot that had all this money in the bank and just kind of plopped down in your neighborhood. We want to let you know that we’re here for you and we’ll need your help for years going forward as well as right now."
"Community is super important," Lewin continues, "and people say that a lot, and they often mean it, but what we mean by that is that we really want to observe how people interact with us at Juliet and how they enjoy it and adjust to it. It’s very important to us that we’re not just dropping a cookie-cutter concept on a neighborhood, and we talked about that a year ago; it’s not something that we just dreamt up. Our vision starts with the specific place, the front door as well as the neighborhood around it, and so that’s really important to us. We want to grow into it. It should be comfortable; it should feel like you’re part of our lives, part of our home to some degree. You’ll see the space change, you’ll see the space evolve with us and with Union Square as well as the menu and the experience that you have. We’ll open up with a great program — but a program that leaves a lot of room for the impact that the community has in reverse on us."
Russian Sledgeshave been listening to sam amidon's version of "Lily-O" ("The Cruel Brother" here) on repeat
