macerating shallots

Food Cart Project Part XLIII: Leveling, etc.

noreply@blogger.com (Tommy) — Mon, 11 Apr 2016 18:51:00 +0000

Moving the cart last weekend was, naturally, a very big milestone, but work is far from done before opening. The main thing after getting the cart in place was getting it level on its jackstands. My neighbor Tony graciously lent me his floor jack, which is a lot easier to use than my smaller shop jack. It's not dead perfect, of course, but I've got it about as level as possible:

I also had to re-engineer the back steps a bit. The risers are positioned a little more narrowly to fit with the curb behind the cart. This necessitated building a couple of supports out of some scrap lumber to keep it from getting too tippy:

I bought a sweep for the door yesterday, but it ended up being a bit too tall for the really small gap at the bottom, so I picked up a piece of angle aluminum, trimmed it to the door's width, and mounted it to the door such that it's flush with the bottom part of the jamb when closed. This should keep out pests and drafts about as well as the sweep would have, I figure:

So, things are coming along. We've got a pretty nice bright primary color thing going on in this corner of the pod. From left to right, we have Halibut's fish & chips, Dönerländ, TNT Grillin', and of course, the not long to open Burmasphere...

Food Cart Project Part XLII: The Move

noreply@blogger.com (Tommy) — Mon, 04 Apr 2016 00:38:00 +0000

A very big milestone in this project was achieved today: Moving the now-completed cart from the garage bay at Civilian over to its new home at the Piedmont Station Food Cart Pod. The first step was getting the cart off of its jack stands and onto the wheels, and then moving it forward enough to pivot it out through one of the doors. This required a lot of hands, and I was fortunate enough to have a group of ten friends show up to help out...

Next came the task of hitching it up to Hernan's rig:

The move itself was pretty short, only about two and a half miles. Once we got to Piedmont Station, Hernan pulled it in far enough to get it unhitched and maneuvered into place:

And here it is, back up on its jack stands, at its new home:

Though the whole process went off without so much as a hiccup, it was nerve-wracking nevertheless. Any number of things could have gone wrong. Taking it off the jack stands at Civilian was a very slow and dicey proposition, due to the uneven garage floor. Once supported by the wheels alone, it had a lean of several degrees, and I was worried that the whole structure might rack. I was also concerned about the tires, which are rated at about a half ton less than what the cart weighs; I was worried one of them would blow out on the way over. I was worried that the lag bolts securing the box to the frame of the trailer would shear. I was worried that a cop might pull us over. I was worried that we'd snarl up traffic somewhere along the route. I was worried about a lot of things. But none of those things happened, and the cart arrived safely and in one piece. After we were finished, I took everybody over to the Radio Room and bought them brunch. Needless to say, a pretty stout tab, but well worth it, and hey, that's what credit cards are for. I have nothing but love for these people, I could not have done it without them!

I'm still a ways off from opening at this point, though. I have to coordinate with the electrician about getting the power connected, then I have to schedule a pre-opening inspection with the health department. Then there's the issue of insurance, and getting up to speed on the accounting software, and making a few last minute recipe tweaks... It's getting closer, though. Stay tuned!

Food Cart Project Part XLI: I Think I Might Be Finished...

noreply@blogger.com (Tommy) — Mon, 28 Mar 2016 01:57:00 +0000

This weekend, like last weekend, was devoted to finishing the plumbing and taking care of the last of the miscellaneous tasks I've been putting off for way too long now... And dare I say it, I may just have knocked them all out. The most important of these was the plumbing. I got the gray water tank installed, and then trimmed, fit and glued up all of the ABS under the sinks:

I also trimmed up some zinc flashing and attached it around the exhaust hood vent opening. Not the best fabrication job, obviously, as you can see from the buckling at the front, but it's a bit more finished than a big gaping hole in the ceiling...

I also installed a piece of plywood over the hole in the wall that the esophageal tubing comes through. This I might have to re-do, for a tighter fit around the tubing itself, but like the vent hood, it's a bit more finished than the gaping hole that existed before:

Lastly, I reworked the steps to the back door a bit. The top now extends to the jamb, with enough clearance below for draining the gray water tank. I'm also considering painting them...

The big move is scheduled for next Sunday. I'll have most of next weekend to make whatever other tweaks I might think of, but like I said, I think this thing is mostly done, with respect to the build-out. This project is about to become a job... Stay tuned!

Food Cart Project Part XL: Odds & Ends

noreply@blogger.com (Tommy) — Sun, 20 Mar 2016 23:41:00 +0000

So it's getting down to the last few bits & pieces before the cart gets moved to its new home at Piedmont Station. This weekend was about plumbing (as will be next weekend), among other random tasks. As you can see here, I've installed the esophageal tubing. This is the tubing that leads from the hose door to the fresh water tank:

I also installed the grommet on the gray water tank, which will accept the ABS pipe that drains the sinks...

I got the first of that ABS manifold glued up as well:

The last of the awning lock hardware has been installed:

And, since I know I won't be serving out of the side window for the forseeable future, I put up some more shelving over it. If you squint, you can see that I installed a length of 2x4, painted white, with a bracket to support the middle of the shelf. At this point, I have a pretty good amount of storage in this thing...

Needless to say, things are moving right along. I'll post up some more photos once the plumbing is finished, and of course after that, I'll document the move. Stay tuned!

Food Cart Project Part XXXIX: Electrical and Grey Water

noreply@blogger.com (Tommy) — Mon, 14 Mar 2016 03:14:00 +0000

A handful of very significant things have happened over the past few weeks. First, the electrical work was done. I contracted West Side Electric to do this work, and their guy banged it out in just six hours. I went with a 100 amp panel, with plenty of circuits:

Naturally, there are outlets throughout the cart. Here's a "quad" which will accommodate the lights:

Here's another quad for the rice cooker, and incidentals like charging the phone or running a fan when it gets hot out:

Here are some outlets for the induction burners and deep fryers:

I also installed the grey water tank. I mounted it to the floor joists using steel strapping. The tank itself is 52 gallons...

It's fitted with a coupling, a knife valve and a cap which has a hose attachment. I'll need to pick up a pump at the hardware store, but otherwise, my grey water set-up is in place:

The outflow plumbing, once installed, will connect to the grey water tank through this hole in the floor:

The most important thing that's happened recently, though, is that I found a space for the cart, and signed a lease. I'll be at the Piedmont Station cart pod on NE Killingsworth and 7th. A very big milestone, obviously. So, things are getting pretty close to finished with respect to construction, and I'm not far from being operational. Stay tuned!

Food Cart Project Part XXXVIII: Ceiling, etc.

noreply@blogger.com (Tommy) — Mon, 25 Jan 2016 03:22:00 +0000

I got a number of things done on the cart this weekend. The first task knocked out of the way was installing and painting the threshold:

After painting this, and then walking across it a few times, it occurred to me that white may not be the smartest color for a threshold. So, I'll probably paint it a nice practical gray at some point. I also built an awning for the front window. I'll most likely be serving out of this window, rather than the side window, and being that the materials are cheap and the build is easy, I decided to make another one rather than repurpose the first one...

The main accomplishment this weekend, however, was installing FRP panels on the ceiling to cover up the joists and insulation. This was a two person job, for sure. James, who does lapidary work at Civilian, gave me a hand with the first half of the job, and my friend Devin pitched in for the second half. This gives the ceiling a much more finished look, obviously, and I'm pretty sure the health inspector wouldn't have been down with the exposed ceiling guts...

I was hoping to meet up with the electrician this weekend as well, but he couldn't seem to make it happen. I may just be calling another electrician here in the next day or two. Hopefully, you'll be seeing a post revolving around outlets, conduit and a panel before much longer. Either way, stay tuned!

Food Cart Project Part XXXVII: Roof completed

noreply@blogger.com (Tommy) — Sun, 10 Jan 2016 19:39:00 +0000

The past couple weeks have been spent finishing up the roof. The first thing I did after getting it into place was to build a soffit around it to keep the wind from pulling it off:

I got some plywood in place in front of the soffit, to cover the exposed Tyvek, and once that was done, I was ready to paint. Here are a couple shots of the end result:

This is a big step forward in terms of having the exterior more or less finished, but there's still much work to be done. The graywater tank still needs to be mounted, and the internal plumbing is only about halfway done. I'm also still sorting out scheduling with my electrician, hoping to have that work done by the end of the month. And, I'm only just starting to poke around about finding a space to rent. But the end, or rather the beginning, is in sight... Stay tuned!

Food Cart Project Part XXXVI: Raising the Roof

noreply@blogger.com (Tommy) — Sun, 27 Dec 2015 02:28:00 +0000

The past couple weekends have involved getting the roof canopy finished, and moved into place. I'd built the basic structure a few months back, and with the hood and fan in place, I was finally able to start attaching the corrugated steel:

Of course, a notch had to be cut out to accomodate the fan...

It took four of us to hoist it into place. It was an awkward job that involved several ladders, but took us all of five minutes...

I've got it on supports which put it at about a two degree angle:

I'll probably rig up some sort of soffit on there to keep the wind from getting under the canopy, which is not attached by a whole lot. As far as overhang, there's about eight inches on the sides, and around eighteen on either end. Not a ton, but probably just enough:

Here it is from above. This gives you a better idea of how it fits with the fan. The piece of corrugated on the lower right corner goes back on once I've caulked the front and side of the fan...

I also put in a call to Chris, an electrician who was recommended to me by Dale, who installed the hood and fan. Chris has some time in January, so the electrical will soon be getting dialed in. That should be pretty straightforward, I don't imagine it'll be much more than a one day job for him. Once I have a date for that nailed down, I think it'll be time to start calling around to cart pods and see who might have some space for a Burmese cart!

Food Cart Project Part XXXV: Hood Installation

noreply@blogger.com (Tommy) — Mon, 14 Dec 2015 00:10:00 +0000

I met up with my hood installation guy, Dale Barron, and one of his employees, Israel, this weekend to get the exhaust hood and fan into place. The hood was mounted directly against the wall, into the studs, using angle aluminum:

A hole was then cut into the ceiling through to the roof:

Up on the roof we have the curb, which the fan itself mounts to:

Once the curb was all set up, the hood was pulled back down and the ductwork was welded in:

The hood then went back up, and the ductwork was attached to the curb before mounting the fan:

Here we have the more or less completed cooking wall:

Another view of that, through the service window:

Here's a detail of one of the service window Buddhas:

The next big step, which probably won't happen until the holidays, is getting the electrical work done, and apart from getting the roof canopy into place, that's pretty much the last step before finding a spot in a pod to rent and getting this thing operational.

Food Cart Project Part XXXIV: Service Counter and Exhaust Hood

noreply@blogger.com (Tommy) — Sun, 15 Nov 2015 22:06:00 +0000

More forward movement's been made on the cart. I got a string of lights mounted underneath the awning over the service window. I think this gives a nice inviting effect, and of course a little extra light won't hurt when it gets dark out (these days, around 5:00 pm):

I also stained and finished the service counter:

I used a pretty dark stain, sanded some of it off to get this interesting grain effect, then finished it with six coats of polyurethane. The combination of the finish and the dents, gouges and wear the wood had to begin with (an old doug fir 2x8, by the way, for those of you who keep track of such things) gives it a nice patina, I think:

I also got a lot of caulking done around the trim. I'm about halfway done with that. Most significantly, though, my exhaust hood and fan arrived this week. Those will get installed next weekend...

Definitely looking forward to having those in place. Stay tuned!

Food Cart Project Part XXXIII: Exhaust Hood, Awning and Menu.

noreply@blogger.com (Tommy) — Sun, 01 Nov 2015 23:06:00 +0000

Last weekend I met with a guy called Dale Barron, who does exhaust hood installations for restaurants, to assess my cart and discuss helping me with installing a hood. A few days later, I ordered my hood and fan from a company called Ventilation Direct. It's basically a six foot wide version of this (minus the fire suppression system; a class B extinguisher should suffice, in the short term, anyway):

That's set to ship about a week and a half into November, so installation of that will probably happen in the second half of the month, or perhaps early December. After that comes the electrical work. In the meantime, there are lots of loose ends to be tied up. This weekend, one of those loose ends I attended to was building an awning and some steps for the service window:

The awning is mounted on hinges just above the window, and the supports are secured at the base of the window with linch pins:

I also worked on the chalkboard menu, which mounts in the window:

If you're thinking I didn't quite crop that photo tight enough to read what's on the menu, well, yeah, you're right. Don't want to give away too much this early in the game... But I've got the menu items pretty much nailed down at this point. The prices will be added to it once I've finished sorting out all of the food costing. Here's what that awning looks like when it's collapsed, by the way:

That'll be secured with a padlock eventually. The shelf underneath the window is a fir 2x8 I picked up at the Rebuilding Center. I'll be staining and varnishing that next weekend.

I also had a great talk this weekend with an old friend of mine who's a web developer. He's going to take what I designed for the Squarespace website I created, and mark up something a little more sophisticated with respect to search engine optimization, mobile device displays and the like. I'm looking forward to getting that rebuilt, because the Squarespace site, while attractive, doesn't support HTML text, which makes it difficult for Google, Bing, et al to find it; obviously, less than ideal.

Food Cart Project Part XXXII: Thoughts...

noreply@blogger.com (Tommy) — Fri, 23 Oct 2015 08:46:00 +0000

A good friend of mine from high school died yesterday. I hadn't seen her in years, but we'd stayed in touch sporadically through social media, and I'd remained close to her family over the years, particularly with her step-brother, Dan. He's one of my favorite people in this world, and a guy I still spend time with on a regular basis, even though we live in different states. Dan's step-sister Gretchen died far too young, a few years younger than I am now, and her passing has me thinking about my own life, and the crossroads I'm standing at now.

I'm more than a bit intimidated by what it is I'm about to do, and it's not lost on me that the idea of turning one's passion into a career is, even under the best of circumstances, arguably an exercise in foolish naiveté. But despite all common sense, I can't ignore the constant nagging pull of that passion, either. I find myself, mid-way through life, thinking a lot about food these days. I think about how it's defined my sensibilities. I think about how it's sustained my relationships. I think about how it's informed my opinions, and I think about how it's served as a context through which I've navigated my experiences over the years, and how it's enabled me to grow and investigate my own capacities. As I've come to regard food as a creative medium, I now see those abstract yet familiar objects, colorful and tactile, enticing or mundane, that we take for granted with every trip to the grocery store, as the foundation of a sort of language, one that becomes more native to me with each passing day, week, month and year.

I've learned a lot of things in the past year or so. I've learned how to strip rust from a flatbed trailer, and how to prime and paint the bare metal. I've learned how to replace axles and leaf springs. I've learned how to frame out a floor, four walls and a roof. I've learned how to install sheathing, insulation, FRP, siding, trim and sheet stainless. I've learned how to hang doors and windows. Flooring. Lighting. Counters. Sinks. Plumbing. Health department regulations... I've learned all of that. I've also learned about sourcing ingredients, food costing, layering flavors, designing recipes, service logistics, POS and accounting software... What I've really learned in all of this, though, is how much I don't know, and how much I have to learn.

What is it that leads us to abandon the path that those who loved us the most did their best to set us upon? What is it about that cliff we all inevitably encounter that prompts us to leap, despite everything that's conditioned us to the contrary? Why is it that desire and security have never been able to exist in the same place, and why can't all of this shit just be simple, for fuck's sake? And why don't any of us have any idea where any of this is heading? I have no answers to these questions, obviously, nobody does. But we all face them nevertheless, and we all do our best to answer them in our own way.

My best guess is a food cart... God help me.

Rest in peace, Gretchen.

Food Cart Project Part XXXI: More Plumbing!

noreply@blogger.com (Tommy) — Sun, 11 Oct 2015 22:41:00 +0000

I got back into the plumbing in a big way this weekend. The water heater arrived, and my first step was to get it mounted to the wall. It came with a template for placing the screws, so this was pretty easy:

I also picked up a faucet this weekend. No big fancy wall mounted hose or anything like that, just a simple faucet. Getting it all shored up behind the backsplash was a little bit of a production, as the sink is set into the counter rather than mounted directly to the wall, and the faucet's not really designed to be mounted directly to the backsplash, but I managed to get it sorted out:

After that was done, I moved the sinks and their counter out of the way, and got back to work on the cold line. I got that into the water heater, and ran the hot line out as well:

Here's what that looks like with the sinks back in place:

The lines aren't attached to the faucets yet. I may run flexible braided stainless lines to them instead of connecting them directly to the pex, which you see sticking upward. Still mulling that over. The last order of the weekend was to get the drain pipes in place. None of this is glued yet, it's just roughed in, and the piece going down to the floor is a stand in. Once I have the gray water tank mounted, I'll cut out a hole in the floor and run a longer length of pipe down into it. But this is more or less what it's going to look like:

So, next up is ordering an exhaust hood, getting that installed and then contracting an electrician to get this thing powered up.

Food Cart Project Part XXX: Refrigeration and Stainless.

noreply@blogger.com (Tommy) — Sun, 04 Oct 2015 18:32:00 +0000

Plumbing is still underway in the cart. I've been stalled due to having to sort out my water heater options. The one I'd ordered turned out to be a gas model, which I'm trying to avoid. Rick over at Curtis Trailers was very cool about this, as it's an item he can put into his floor stock and move fairly quickly. Figuring out which electric model to go with required I do a little snooping around to see what sort of electrical service is typical for food cart pods around town, and it turns out that 200 amp service is pretty much the norm, or at least not uncommon. This is good news, because on demand electric water heaters are power hogs, and this operation is already pretty electricity intensive, with the induction burners, deep fryers and rice cookers. 200 amps should be plenty of power, though. I ended up ordering an 11kW EcoSmart water heater, which should arrive this week, and I'll get back to the plumbing next weekend.

In the meantime, I've been working on other tasks, the first being refrigeration. I picked up this 7 cubic foot merchandising fridge last weekend from Smitty's Vending Services. And yes, it is actually run by a guy called Smitty. This is not a huge refrigerator by any means, but my Cambros fit in there pretty nicely, and I think it should serve my purposes pretty well as long as I'm judicious in packing it:

I bought some sheet stainless for the cooking wall, and installed it over the backer board this weekend. So, there are no longer any unfinished walls in the cart. That's kind of a milestone. You'll also notice that I swapped out the formica counters I'd built for a couple of stainless prep tables. I'm pretty sure the Multnomah County Environmental Health Department will prefer this set up:

Those tables have bottom shelves which will house the immersion circulator, an extra rice cooker and the ice cream maker. At some point, I might squeeze in a countertop convection oven down there as well, but here's how it stands at present:

I also had a conversation on the phone this weekend with a guy called Dale Barron, who does a lot of work installing stainless and exhaust hoods around town. I was referred to him by the guys over at the Oregon Deli Company on Mississippi Avenue, where he'd done a particularly impressive installation. He was much more encouraging than the last guy I talked to about hoods, and he's open to the idea of helping me install it. We'll be setting up a time next weekend to have him come take a look at the cart and devise a strategy. I'm looking forward to that, and I imagine he'll have a recommendation or two for electricians. Much forward movement; stay tuned!

Food Cart Project Part XXIX: Shelving!

noreply@blogger.com (Tommy) — Mon, 21 Sep 2015 00:16:00 +0000

I was hoping to continue with the plumbing this weekend, but my tankless water heater has yet to arrive, and I'm kind of stuck from going any further until I have that, so I spent the past few days dialing in the shelving. What I'd originally put up was pretty flimsy plywood, which was in place as a stopgap because I had a bunch of leftover material. I replaced that with 1/2" MDF, and while I was at it I decided to expand it a bit. I imagine the Multnomah County Health Department will be more comfortable with this than the barely painted, rough plywood. Here are a couple shots of that:

My cousin Barry's wife Shellane had an audition in town, for a commercial for Haggen Supermarkets, so they came down from Seattle with the kids. We had brunch across the street at Broder Nord, and they had a look through the cart. Barry and Shellane ran a bar in Queen Anne back in the day, and now have a bottle shop up in Lake City; it's always good to have someone with some experience in the food service industry take a walk through and not find anything too out of whack. And of course, it was great to see these guys...

So, with any luck, I'll have some more plumbing to show off next weekend. For now, I'm happy with the shelves.

Food Cart Project Part XXVIII: Plumbing Begins.

noreply@blogger.com (Tommy) — Mon, 14 Sep 2015 01:47:00 +0000

Having picked up the sinks and first round of supplies last weekend, I was able to jump into the plumbing side of things over the last few days. The first step was to install the water pump to the wall:

Next was to run the cold line from the fresh water tank to the pump:

And then to continue it from the pump to the T-connections which will lead to the cold faucets on the ware and hand sinks:

Here's how all of that looks from underneath, with the sinks and their counter back in place (if you look closely at the fresh water tank, you can see the "cage" I built for it out of 2x4s, which I then painted white; this is to help the tank keep its shape when full):

You might have noticed that there isn't any copper anywhere to be seen. I used what's known as "pex," which stands for cross-linked polyethylene. It's pretty much standard nowadays in mobile, as well as residential, plumbing applications. The connections basically screw on to the pex, and create a seal (other connection types include using copper compression rings, and expanding the tubing with a plastic "shape memory" collar that shrinks back to its original size).

After all of that was in place, I installed the door for the water:

Here's what that looks like from inside the cart:

The large hole will be connected to the fresh water tank's inlet with about 1-1/2" esophageal tubing, while the smaller hole will be connected to the tank's air vent with 1/2" tubing (the door itself, of course, not being air-tight). A piece of plywood, painted white and with a couple of holes cut out for the tubing, will finish it up nicely, and I'll get some of the insulation packed back in there.

Before I can go any further, of course, I'll need the tankless water heater and the gray water tank. Those are on order and should arrive sometime this week. So, by the end of next weekend, I should have some more plumbing in place for you to check out...

Food Cart Project Part XXVII: Plumbing is Nigh...

noreply@blogger.com (Tommy) — Sun, 06 Sep 2015 03:31:00 +0000

Lots of forward movement on the cart this weekend. I headed to Pitman Restaurant Supply on Friday to pick up my sinks. I had to do a fair amount of re-engineering on the counters on Thursday, as I'd designed them for a three compartment ware sink without drain pans, but per an update in Multnomah County regulations, a drain pan on either side of the the sink is now required (glad I found out about that before buying the sink!). I got that sorted out, however, cut out a couple of holes in the counter for the hand sink and the ware sink, and voila, my sinks are now in place:

I also visited my plumbing guy, Rick, at Curtis Trailers this weekend, and picked up the majority of my plumbing supplies. The gray water tank and tankless water heater are still on order, but the fresh water tank, pump, water lines, and various fittings are now in possession. Here's the fresh water tank:

The ware sink will need a faucet, obviously, and I'll need to build a cage out 2X4s for the fresh water tank to keep the sides from bulging out when it's full, but I feel pretty good about this weekend's progress. Curtis Trailers, by the way, is Portland's go-to for RV supplies, and they have a couple of really nicely restored vintage camping trailers on display up in the mezzanine in their showroom. This one's a 1937 Coleman Roadhouse:

So, that's where I am so far. The next couple of weekends will be devoted to plumbing, then the electrical and exhaust hood work will begin. Stay tuned!

Food Cart Project Part XXVI: The Trim is Done!

noreply@blogger.com (Tommy) — Mon, 31 Aug 2015 19:13:00 +0000

The trim ended up being a much more involved process than I'd anticipated, but I finally finished sizing it, getting it into place, and painting it. Here are some shots of that:

Here's a shot of the trim around the side window. I'll probably pull the horizontal pieces off at some point and carve some detail into them with the jigsaw...

I also got the ball rolling on the plumbing this weekend. Rick over at Curtis Trailers has my sink and tanks on order, and I'll be picking those up along with the pump, water heater and assorted hardware, hoses and fittings next Saturday. So, things are moving along...

Food Cart Project Part XXV: Nothin' but Trim...

noreply@blogger.com (Tommy) — Sun, 16 Aug 2015 22:40:00 +0000

I've spent the last couple of weekends working on exterior trim. This turned out to be a much bigger task than I'd anticipated, but I'm mostly finished measuring, cutting and installing it; just need to finish up on the front window side, as well as a small piece above the door, and it'll be ready to paint. Most of it will be painted with the same maroon I used on the millwork in the door window, but the vertical pieces covering the seams between the siding panels will be the same yellow. Here are some shots of it as it stands now:

So, yeah, just trim. Not a whole lot to look at, but it represents another step forward, and I think once it's painted, it'll make a world of difference, so be looking forward to that next weekend!

Oh, one interesting development that's worthy of mention: My landlords, a couple called Sue and Trip, run a construction business in addition to the three apartment buildings they own. Lately, they've been expanding that business into the development side, and are working on two properties at the moment which will include food cart pods. One of these developments is in SE Portland, right on the new Max line to Milwaukie, and is slated to open mid-fall. I've been renting my apartment from these two for six years now, I have a very good relationship with them, and I'd be more than happy to rent space for the cart from them if the numbers and the timeline pencil out... So that could well be a possibility for a location once I'm done with build-out and have the mechanicals in place. Obviously, this is potentially exciting news... Stay tuned!

Food Cart Project Part XXIV: Big Yella Box, Big Yella Box, Meet Me Down By the Big Yella Box!

noreply@blogger.com (Tommy) — Sun, 02 Aug 2015 21:46:00 +0000

I finished gluing up the insulation on the last roof panel this weekend. Behold my innovative clamping method:

With that last panel finally in place, the roof/ceiling is done (the first part of it, at any rate; the upper canopy still needs to be built). Here's what it looks like through the door:

I also got the exterior siding put up this weekend. I went with standard composite bead board. It's not exactly an exterior grade material, so I'm just kind of hoping for the best in terms of how it holds up to the weather. But it's cheap, light, and it was relatively easy to install. Worst case scenario, I'll end up replacing it with cedar shake somewhere down the road...

I finished that up last night, and came in this morning to knock out the first coat of mustard yellow exterior paint:

It's difficult to tell from the photos, but after the first coat, the color is still pretty uneven. Next weekend, I'll give it a second coat, and paint and install the trim. At that point, this thing is gonna start to look like a food cart. It is a pretty aggressive shade of yellow, obviously, so I picked up a can of a slightly lighter shade, and will be using that to paint on a subtle ghosted bamboo pattern, which I think should serve to visually break it up a bit. Stay tuned!

Food Cart Project Part XXIII: The Door is Complete!

noreply@blogger.com (Tommy) — Mon, 27 Jul 2015 03:43:00 +0000

After spending a couple of weeks on vacation in Michigan, and another couple of weeks re-integrating into society back here in Portland, I've gotten back to work on the cart in earnest. This weekend revolved around the door. I bought a knob, and dead bolts for the upper and lower halves of the door. Before I installed those, however, I filled in a few sections of wood that had been gouged out by a previous owner, primarily where the old knob had been:

After filling and sanding, the door was ready for a few coats of paint (turning a dark brown door into a yellow one, it turns out, takes a bit more than a few coats...), and then for its new hardware:

Once the knob and dead bolts were in place, I drilled out holes in the jamb for them, and installed the strike:

I then painted said jamb and strike...

...And the door is now fully functional:

I painted the mill work with the maroon I've chosen for the exterior trim, and replaced the glass in the window with a piece of bead board, painted to match the door:

The rest of the cart, once the siding is on, will be painted in this same yellow. Because it's a little on the mustardy side, I'll probably get a can of slightly paler yellow and paint on a subtle ghosted bamboo pattern or some such to break it up a bit. But for now, I'm liking the color.

I also started work on gluing the board insulation to the ceiling/roof panels, and getting them into place. The middle section is the first one I've completed. It sits nice and flush with the joists:

Next weekend will involve finishing the other two sections, and most likely a round of phone calls to electricians, exhaust hood folks and Curtis trailer, whom I'm getting all of my plumbing supplies from. Stay tuned!

Food Cart Project Part XXII: Civilian Studios Open House Catering Gig

noreply@blogger.com (Macerating Shallots) — Mon, 22 Jun 2015 05:58:00 +0000

Civilian Studios, whose garage bay I'm renting to build out the cart, had their third annual open house this weekend. I ended up catering the event, so a few items from the Burmasphere menu had their public debut. On the menu for the event was a coconut chicken curry, a pickled tea leaf salad called Lahpet Thok, deep fried chickpea fritters with a balachaung dipping sauce, and ghost chile ice cream (this last one isn't Burmese, it just tastes good). I used Civilian's kitchen as my prep space the day before the event:

Working in an unfamiliar space is always awkward, and if I'd been thinking, I'd have sent an e-mail out asking folks to clear anything out of the fridge that they didn't need in there; space was pretty tight in that fridge. But I managed to make it work. I did, however, spill over onto this rolling table in the next room over. Here we see the chicken breasts, vacuum bagged and awaiting their turn in the circulator:

I also used this space to start building the curry while the chicken breasts were cooking. The new induction burners work really nicely, by the way. I'm very pleased with them so far...

Eventually I finished the prep, and it was time to get the show on the road. My sous chef, Jen, and I set up in the garage bay right next to the cart, so folks could get a look at it as they were waiting in line for their Burmese eats. Jen's foodservice experience is limited to ice cream (for that matter, apart from coffee, so is mine), but she was a natural on the deep fryer. She was responsible for all of the chickpea fritter orders, and did an awesome job. I was on saute, cranking out the coconut chicken curries. Here we are getting things set up:

My mom and my aunt came into town to help out as well. They were mostly responsible for assembling the tea leaf salads. My friend Chelle helped out as well, but managed to dodge the photos...

Apart from a minor circuit issue involving the deep fryer and the rice cooker, the whole thing went off pretty much without a hitch. In just a little over two hours, we ran out of food; we went through around 45 coconut chicken curries, probably 50 chickpea fritter orders, 40 or 50 tea leaf salads and maybe 30 orders of ghost chile ice cream. It took 20 or 30 minutes for people to pick up on what we were doing, but once they did we had a line most of the time, and we never did get in the weeds. Great work from this crew, and having never cooked for a large group before, it was nice to discover that I'm at least reasonably good at cooking under pressure. And thanks to all of my friends and fellow Civilian folks who tried the food. I got lots of positive feedback; I have a hunch Portlanders will eat this stuff...

I wasn't able to get any photos of the rest of the open house, because I was pretty busy with this. But there was a lot of great art on display, and a number of folks trekked across the railroad tracks to North Coast Seed Studios, who were having their open house as well. I didn't get over there, but it's apparently a pretty impressive place. I'll have to check it out next time they have an art sale over there.

Food Cart Project Part XXI: Equipment is Rolling In!

noreply@blogger.com (Macerating Shallots) — Mon, 15 Jun 2015 21:41:00 +0000

I got some more work done on the ceiling/roof structure this weekend, but that's still a work in progress, so no photos as of yet. The photogenic aspect of this weekend's progress, however, is the equipment. I picked up my undercounter freezer on Friday:

My ice cream maker also arrived. This is technically a home unit, but it has a compressor, so I won't have to go through the rigamarole of freezing the bowl for every batch of ice cream...

I picked up my magnetic induction burners and a second deep fryer:

I may have to cover those counter surfaces with stainless, we'll see... Here's the larger view, with the freezer moved into place:

I also brought my immersion circulator in from home. I'm not sure if the Coleman cooler set up will pass muster with the Multnomah County health department, but if not I'll just get a Cambro for it...

Here's the mohnyin tjin for next weekend's open house. I figured I'd let it ferment in the cart, maybe it'll pick up some terroir...

Photos of that Civilian open house catering gig to come next weekend, by the way. That should be fun. In other important news, my loan with the credit union was secured last week, so this project is now funded. That's a big step forward. Stay tuned!

Food Cart Project Part XX: Roof, Lighting, and Plumbing Talk.

noreply@blogger.com (Macerating Shallots) — Mon, 08 Jun 2015 04:29:00 +0000

I started sheathing the ceiling/roof structure this weekend:

Once I got all of that sheathing in place, the interior of the cart suddenly became significantly darker...

...Which is nothing a couple of LED shop lights can't take care of:

I also started filling in the cracks around the window trim. I hadn't worked with wood filler for a number of years, so I was surprised to discover that it's now purple. It turns white once it's dry, though...

I also started working on the canopy that will be attached to the roof. This will be covered in corrugated metal, and will be slanted at about 3 degrees, high to low from front to back:

It's time to start thinking about getting the plumbing work underway, as well as start coordinating contractors for the electrical and exhaust hood work. I had a brief but very useful conversation with Rick Humphrey at Curtis Trailer on SE Powell. Rick's the go-to guy for food cart plumbing issues in Portland, and he gave me some great information about the sinks, pump and pipes/fittings I'll need for the cart. One thing I discovered in talking with Rick is that the Multnomah County Environmental Health department now requires ware sinks with a drain pan at either end, which means I'll need a sink significantly wider than the one I spec'ed in the plan review, and unless I can get grandfathered in, which is probably not likely, I'll have to tear apart two of my counters and rebuild them. It's the first real setback I've run into thus far, but it's a manageable one. Thankfully, I didn't rush out and buy that sink I'd spec'ed...

Here are two more of Austin's bonsai stands. The one on the left was fumed with high concentration ammonia, giving the mahogany in the middle a nice reddish tint. I'm amazed at the variety of styles Austin's able to work in. I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of them...

So, lots done, very productive weekend. Keep checking in, things are really starting to come together!

Food Cart Project Part XIX: Roof, etcetera...

noreply@blogger.com (Macerating Shallots) — Mon, 01 Jun 2015 01:03:00 +0000

This weekend's work on the cart started with finishing the last section of counter, which was built out of 2x2s and plywood:

After gluing the Formica into place, it took some finagling to get it even with the other counters (the photos above show that it torques a bit upward at the upper left corner), but it worked out nicely:

I also added the trim around the inside of the windows. I'll need to fill and paint the gaps, but these turned out pretty well...

After cutting a hole for this pan, I now have an ice bath for mise en place items that need to stay below 40 F. The pan doesn't really work with Cambros, but it holds six round 1-qt. deli containers perfectly:

Also, I finally got the roof structure started. This will be covered with plywood, wrapped in Tyvek and fitted with R-6 board insulation:

Here's the larger view of everything so far:

As I mentioned last week, we have a number of artisans doing very interesting things at Civilian. Here's Austin working on another bonsai stand. He's got a total of thirteen commissions for these things, and he's doing each one as a unique piece, specific to its tree...

I happened upon another artisan, Jacob, out on the back patio, heat treating parts for his tattoo equipment. The guy doesn't just do tattoos, he makes his own tattoo machines. How bad ass is that?

And finally, here we have Austin and Ashley's dog Maui, who likes to stand on the bookshelf in the lounge area and survey her domain...