She's a big girl

01.17.2009 Saturday - This is a day I've been looking forward to for a very long time. The big oven is here! After a trailer full of assorted parts and panels, these photos show the face being brought in. She is the biggest thing in the kitchen - almost an 8' cube - so she had to come in first. I don't believe one should get all wistful about machinery, because they can't be wistful back. But this is an OVEN! 250,000 BTUs . Six revolving shelves (think Ferris wheel) each three sheet pans wide - 58". The shelves are stone lined, the best surface for most of the breads we will be doing. It will take a couple of days to put her together. Not super complicated, just BIG. Then hours firing up at the absolute lowest temperature, slowly rising to 500 degrees to temper the stones. After that, we'll get down to baking!

In the interest of clarity, I should point out that while almost 63 square feet of oven stone and a quarter million BTUs is a lot, mine is the smallest model revolving oven this company makes. As my friend Simone would say, "Yeah, but still...".

Construction is ongoing, and getting down to the details. We are currently in the process of staining the concrete floor. Then the final push to occupancy as all the equpiment, cabinets, and furniture can come in. If you want to read a well written and comprehensive restaurant construction blog, try http://www.startingarestaurantblog.com/.

Thanks to all of you who have stopped by to look, introduce yourselves, and see what's going on. Send an email to info@hirisedenver.com and we'll include you in announcements and pre-opening events.