For the love of all things vintage, clever, designed, and/or delicious, we celebrate objects and rituals in all their glory!

10.30.2009

Another day at the office

I have to give my collegues and myself a good pat on the back. It's been a busy year for us at Henrybuilt and it's all starting to pan out:



First, the much anticipated launch of our new company Viola Park, which offers a kitchen system that shares much of the same sensibilities of Henrybuilt's at a mid-ranged price level. It's goal is to give all of us aspiring to Henrybuilt an option for a well-designed cabinetry system. At it's core is a fully standardized system that's versatile enough to fit most spaces and fit any look from traditional to modern minimalist with an equal level of functionality and refinement. Just like Henrybuilt, the quality is top notch, differing from Henrybuilt in material options and hardware finishes. However, it shares many of the same construction techniques and functional hardware. We're able to offer the system at a lower price by consolidating design assistance into an online interface that takes you through a few simple levels of questions to present a set of design options to fit your situation.

I personally had a hand in helping develop the cabinetry options, the website's design tools, and the aluminum pulls/handles that are Viola Park exclusives. So exciting to see it all come together after months of preparation! Expect to see much more for Viola Park!

The second bit of exciting news: Henrybuilt is featured in I.D. magazine's New and Notable edition! This is for a project I also had a role in ushering to reality: the Workspace Component Group. It's an integrated set of tools (cutting board, colander, and knife block) designed to integrate with our backsplash system and interface with the workzone around the sink. Hooray! This system was also recently nominated in the Interior Design Magazine products of the year, which has yet to reveal the finalists. Fingers crossed!

10.13.2009

Eay My Story Report Part III: Stories+Maker=Awesome Pizzas

Not to make this a novel or anything...but there's just so much to every pizza that I must share! There are 18 pizzas total, and each has a great story and interesting combination of ingredients! Feel free to make any of these pizzas so you can try it yourself!

Here's a run down of each pizza and the cliff-notes version of the stories:
Jared: Improv of this quote:
Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions.

Ingredients: Pear, olive oil, sage, salami, ricotta, and mozzarella woven together on a web of self-made happiness!
David: Improv of this quote:
Star light, star bright,
Here’s the wish I wish tonight.

Ingredients: olive oil, mushrooms, eggplant, fresh tomatoes, figs rosemary and fontina cheese
Chika: Improv of this quote
His Elvis impersonation left something to be desired; his lip didn’t
quite curl and he always forgot the verses to Hound Dog.

Ingredients:
peanut butter, almond butter, apple slices, peeled amd seeded grapes, honey, and ricotta cheese.
Jamie&Brian: Compromise Pie (Improv)
Story:Brian and i share a LOT. when we go out to eat we always share each course. That way we can order an appetizer, a salad and entree and sometimes when we're feeling crazy, a dessert. this allows us to experience the entire meal progression without breaking our belts or our wallets. the only thing we do not share are our drinks. but of course, we each get two of those.

Ingredients: one half: potato, onion, salami, goat cheese and green onions
one half: black olives, goat cheese and green onions
Melanie: Improv of this quote
OUR share of night to bear,
Our share of morning,
Our blank in bliss to fill,
Our blank in scorning.

Here a star, and there a star,
Some lose their way.
Here a mist, and there a mist,
Afterwards—day!

Ingredients: salami, green onions, garlic, yellow tomato, eggplant, and 4 type of cheese (goat, port townsend, mozarella, and ricotta)
Story author: Linda & Nicholas
Maker: Natalia
Story: They share a sweet story of how every year, a herd of goats are brought in by the Unviersity in Tacoma to graze some 8ft tall of overgrown area for 2 weeks straight. They'd hop on each other's back to get as how friends would do to each other in order to reach higher and eat some more.

Ingredients: goat cheese, blackberries, wild greens, olive oil, salt & pepper
Story author: Chelsea
Maker: Andrew
Story: Two islands: Chelsea contrasted the sites and sounds of living on Bainbridge Island relative to her previous home in Manhatten.

Ingredients: Stinging Nettles, Island Grown Shiitake Mushrooms, Port Madison Farm Goat Cheese, Nanami Togarishi, Dandelion Greens, Old Amsterdam Gouda, Fingerling Potatoes, Goya Hot Sauce
Story Author: Christa
Pizza Maker: Jean
Story:
Purple not Pink: a story about childhood obsession with the color purple and how she O.D on drinking grape juice at a party and puked it up on her bed that night.

Ingredients: purple cabbage, purple potato, grape seed oil, grapes, figs, prosciutto, raisins soaked in red wine and balsamic vinegar. ricotta cheese, topped with crushed blue corn tortilla.
Story Author: Nin
Makers: Linda & Nicholas:
Story: Nin tells a story professing his love for ketchup (in contrast to his sister's hatred for it)

Ingredients: heirloom and orange grape tomatoes, balsamic vinegar, honey, chili oil, olive oil, salt and pepper, cheese
Story Author: Julia
Maker: Christianna
Story: Leopard print meets Scarlet Begonias: Julia's college years as a wannabe hippie-child contrasted sharply with her first dorm-mate a rebellious home-schooled punk.

Ingredients used: 1/2 Hippie patchwork side: blue potatoes, yellow bell pepper, beet greens, shallots, soft goat cheese, grape tomatoes, tomato sauce, Parmesan. 1/2 Punk leopard skin side: sliced garlic, black olive slices, yellow bell pepper pieces, Parmesan.
Story Author: Mike
Maker: Chelsea
Story: Mike set aside personal comfort in favor of meeting a challenge to take down a pile of world-famous "suicide wings."

Ingredients: habanero peppers (both yellow and orange), heirloom garlic (both cooked and raw), jalapeno peppers and sun dried tomatoes, marinara sauce, hot pepper oil, ricotta cheese, mozzarella cheese, basil, parmigiano
.
Story Author: Andrew
Pizza Maker: Julia
Story: How Andrew won Tricia over with repeated orders of Huevos Rancheros.

Ingredients: chopped hard boiled egg, black beans, green onions, fresh tomatoes, avocado, blue corn tortilla chips, chile oil, tomato sauce, mozzarella, queso fresco

Story Author: Natalia
Maker: Christa
Story: A move back to the NW from LA inspired Natalia's for spicy comfort foods.

Ingredients:
spiced brisket, roasted garlic, gruyere cheese, removed habenero jalapeno (not available)
Story Author: James
Maker: Nin

pizza made: James' day-dreamt retirement plan: being a simple shepherd on a majestic mountain.

Ingredient:
Sheep's milk cheese, lamb, olive oil, chives, salt, tomato sauce.
Story Author: Jean
Maker: James
Story: Jean laments the low market value of her Asian packed lunches on the American cafeteria exchange.

Ingredients: Pork Belly, Cilantro, Sesame Oil, toasted garlic slices, lotus root
Story Author: Christianna
Maker: Tricia
Story: Christianna shares a story of her recent move from Port Angeles to Seattle and a new neighbor who shared homemade plum jam as a welcoming gift.

Ingredients: Plum Jam, Quince, Lavender,
Story Author: Dylan
Maker: Mike
Story: Dylan tells the story of the atypical ways people's ages play a role in his life.

Ingredients: Green tomatoes, Port Townsend Trailhead Tomme cheese, green onions, queso fresco, salami, extra virgin olive oil

Story Author: Tricia
Maker: Dylan

Story: Tricia learned early on as a child that she's a way better cook than her mom and dares to experiment with unconventional combination of ingredients. Maybe sometimes a little too daring....but she eventually learned overtime that sometime basic classic combination of ingredients simply hits the spot.

Ingredients: Dark chocolate, sea salt, Habanero peppers.

Thanks Tricia for giving us an opportunity to do such a fun event! and of course thanks everyone for making such great effort in coming up with all those amazing pizzas!! GROUP HIGH FIVE!!

All the participants names starting from the left: Nicholas, Linda, Christa, Nin, Tricia, Andrew, James, Chelsea, Christianna, Heath, Mike, Julia, Melanie, Jamie, Brian, Chika, Jared, David, Dylan, Jean, Natalia.

I dream of tube amp

Several years ago I got pretty deep into collecting vintage audio equipment...it got pretty serious: stacks of classic receivers, turntables, and reel to reel tape decks. I have to say, there is a permanent soft-spot in my heart for sexy audio equipment. The past couple years I've kept my consumptive hi-fi habits at bay and purged a good deal of my stuff... clean and sober for a good 2 years I think.

After seeing Case Real's Elekit tube amp, I have serious cause for concern about a relapse! Look at how gorgeous this thing is!! I want one! I can't control myself..

Eat My Story Report Part II

At long last we get to our wrap up post on the latest greatest Brite event: Eat My Story.
Let me just start by saying this without a doubt this was most the delicious Brite event thus far. True, this was not so hard to do with Seattle pizza powerhouse Via Tribunali graciously hosting the event plus the creative (albeit amateur) culinary skills of all the event's participants. For every part deliciousness, Tricia Martin of Eating is Art and Food Loyal (her new venture!) added equal parts fascination, experience, and social interaction with her big picture concept:

How can a pizza tell a story?
The rules were simple (and the results awesome...more on that later):

  • Share a short story with the group (150 words or less).
  • Pick and bring pizza ingredients to the event that will tell you story.
  • Come to Via Tribunali the day of the event. Pick someone else's story at random.
  • Interpret that person's story on the pizza using their ingredients (adding or subtracting as necessary)...lotsa room for creativity here.
  • Cook your creation to perfection at 1000 degrees F in Via Tribunali's wood fired oven.
  • Share your the story and pizza with group...drink vino...converse...revel...enjoy.

To shake things up a bit, we added an improv edition at the last minute for those unprepared without stories. These were short stories, quotes, limericks, even tweets chosen at random from a hat.
The results were amazingly beautiful and delicious as well as accurate at telling their corresponding stories. Here's the play-by-play of the day: It was a perfect pizza day at lovely Georgetown (south Seattle). Via Tribunali was the perfect spot for the event with lots of rustic charm and "little slice of Italy" feel. The space was perfect: a long communal table and plenty of room to make some mess.

In true Brite style, Jean laser-cut some signs in cardboard and of course made Brite merit badges for each participants...neatly arranged at the sign in table. As people began too arrive, the ingredients table turned into a cornucopia of amazing ingredients. Everything from heirloom tomatoes to grapes to pork belly to chocolate and everything in between.
Tricia handmade and illustrated these amazing peels for every pizza including cute drawings of each ingredient and the story of the pizza.
Once we were situated, Via Trib brought out the wine and a parade of their signature pies and anti-pasti plates. Leonardo, their GM (and a real Italian of course) introduced us to the history of the resturant, telling the colorful story only as a true Italian can with great expressive hand gestures. We learned how pizza began, it's importance to Italian culture, and how Via Trib's owners had a dream of bringing that to Seattle, decided to buy a defunct pizzeria in Naples, shipped it here, and started their very own Napolian pizzeria right here in Seattle.

We were ready to leave our own mark. Everyone set out to work preparing their incredients and working out the details of their interpretations. There was a healthy buzz around the room as people shared their stories as well as their ingredients and offered eachother ideas and support. Go team! You could see the creative concoctions taking shape:
Jean was trying to make sense of the variety of purple ingredients in front of her.
Christa carefully cut up her ingredients to try to mimic the farm fields when seen from air.
Andrew was contemplating what would happen to Tortilla chips at 1000 degrees.
Chika was confidently crafting a pizza loosely based on a poor Elvis impersonation... Leonardo and his staff carefully showed us how work dough into a thin-crusted pie letting us try and succeed in some way, shape, or form in making our own vessels for our stories. 3 at a time we went to the dough station to try our hand at it and artfully arranging our ingredients.
Roughly 2 minutes after plunging each pizza into the via tribunali inferno, the group was blessed with steaming hot pizza...charred perfectly around the edges. Triumphantly, the pizza makers would reenter the dining hall proudly presenting their creations. After a photo op, each pizza had it's story read aloud to the group then we dug in. It was amazing just how much more each story resonated after tasting the pizza and going through the whole ritual Tricia had orchestrated. I've never tasted so many different types of pizzas in my life! I think everyone went home and took a pizza nap after the event, and some leftovers, too.
Next post will have all the stories and the individual pizzas!
Here is where you can see ALL hundred+ yummy looking photos of the event!