Service time

Another milestone - first meal served. Granted, these people were paid to eat as we sampled the menu with the crew. Several hits, a few misses, some tweaking to be done.

OK, the Wheat Thins in the third picture weren't on the menu. That photo was from a staff meeting. Working backwards, the food shot is a roast beef sandwich on semolina bread, a killer sandwich possible only needing a cheese change. That bread is so good I can't even tell you. The roast beef is perfectly rare, tender, juicy, and sliced thin. We've gone back and forth about using goat cheese or blue, as excellent goat cheese is available locally yet we've tracked down a fantastic buttermilk blue cheese that would be perfect. This version had the goat. The top photo is the front part of the dining room, effectively looking down Larimer from inside the front door. I love the way the view from the entrance includes the different heights of seating along the front windows.

Bread formulation is almost 100% ready with the major exception of bagels. One piece of large equipment after another has had issues, until finally we replaced the faulty electronics on the big mixer Friday night and mixed a batch. That thing makes such gorgeous dough I was beside myself. And with the proper mixing time and fermentation time the bagel machine made smooth, uniform bagels which are now retarding for a test bake this weekend. After seeing how the machiner was screwing up our timing we changed our training plans for next week, and even made a contingency plan to open without bagels on the menu. But now we can get back on track and work things out. We'll mix a couple more batches on Saturday and try out the blueberry and maybe cinnamon raisin. One foot in front of the other.

The Bakers

Baker is a fine word. For our Executive Baker, Jacqueline Blanchard, it only covers part of what she has in her arsenal. Jackie graduated from Chef John Folse Culinary Institute at Nicholls State University, Thibodaux, LA and founded the Horticulture Society there. She is active in the Slow Food movement and while in school competed and won medals in several regional Jr American Culinary Federation competitions. In school and out, she held positions at restaurants such as Restaurant August in New Orleans, The French Laundry Farm (apprentice), Chez Panisse (stagier), and Bouchon (Chef de Partie), all in CA. Jackie came to Colorado to work at Frasca (Chef de Partie) in Boulder, plus get a little bit of time on the slopes. She is responsible for refining our menu and including some terrific Cajun and international influences to our sandwiches.

Natalia Spampinato is a Denver local whose schooling includes studies at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, OR, and CU in Denver. Her professional career started at Andre's Confiserie Suisse in Denver (Pastry Chef, Baker), then Frasca in Boulder (Assistant Pastry Chef). While excellent at baking bread, Natalia makes mouth watering brioche and to-die-for cookies. I know you'll want to try some (and box up a dozen) when you come in.

Opening Soon. Seriously.

Finally, a date. We'll throw open the doors on Saturday, March 14. A day when, according to the weatherman, it will be cloudy and 48F. A hot cup of coffee on a day like that would be nice. We'll have it ready.

The last two weeks have been a whirlwind of activity. Some items of note.
*The end of construction
*All permits signed off
*Certificate of Occupancy issued
*Second baker hired/started (more on the bakers very soon)
*Equipment repaired
*More equipment repaired
*Checkbooks balanced
*Almost 300 responses to online job ads
*Resumes reviewed, minds read, personalities dissected, work habits scrutinized
*Interviews scheduled and conducted
*Budgets checked
*Specialty flours delivered - we're like kids in a sandbox!
*Breads, cookies, and some pastries baked tested
*First batch of bagels baked (not good enough for sale, but still..)!
*Opening schedule planned
*First food order placed

Coming up: If you're in the area and happen by 22nd and Larimer in the first part of the week, you will see
*Signage going up. Window decals, the big "Hi*Rise", and the ubiquitous neon "OPEN"
*Boxes. And boxes. And boxes.
*Furniture being moved
*Samples being handed out. Seriously, if the door is open, poke your head in. If we have baked something recently, we'll be glad to share.

Pushing it

We've reached the point where almost everything is in the building but still constantly moving. An odd juggling act it is. The spiral mixer has to be in place to make sure the electrical connection is right, then all (600? 700?) lbs of it has to be moved because the ceiling above is going in. The bagel machine has to be taken apart for cleaning and new belts, put together temporarily to check placement and connections, then moved and taken apart again. It causes a certain level of brain damage. And it shows how this is such a business of details. The best part - seeing the plans become real, getting excited about baking/cooking in the space, seeing how the flow of equipment and raw materials will make the menu that's only been in mind and on paper til now.

Our Executive Baker, Jackie, and I had our first meeting with our food distributor today. The lineup of products they carry is mind boggling. Spent most of the time talking about food (as it should be) with a fair amount of packaging, cleaning supplies, and brand identity thrown in. Surprises - its 2009 and the options for unbleached/recycled paper products is pretty limited. They're out there. But it's cheaper, and often more acceptable, to have paper products bleached and virgin instead of brown and recycled. Buy brown. We're trying to source as many recycled paper and packaging options as possible. We'll recycle and compost too. If anyone reading this knows of a community garden or other group that would like waste for composting, contact Doug at info@hirisedenver.com.

Shouldn't this be simpler?

When you come in to the restaurant I hope you notice the floor. For a simple slab of concrete it sure became a pain in my a&& in January. We knew the floor had issues. In order to seal it to meet health code, we would have to grind it. "Grinding" the floor removes the top few millimeters of concrete. The floor grinder looks like your standard janitor floor buffer on steroids, which is a fair comparison. Once ground, the floor should be ready to finish.


To keep a long story short, the grinding worked but the finish process didn't. A chemical reaction (or two, or more) caused the floor to be cloudy and several professionals to claim "I've never seen this before". The remedy? Take it all off and start over. back to the grinding. What should have taken a week took almost a month and we lost valuable construction time, but there was no option to fix it later.

I describe the finished look as "leathery". The light colored specks you see in some photos are the aggregate (gravel) in the concrete. Normally you wouldn't see them, but they show themselves after grinding. Except for the time, this is what we had hoped for. Here are some photos of the finished project.

Next: cabinets and equipment.

The First Commandment of Sandwich

The First Commandment of Sandwich: Bread is King

- Michael Showalter



Check out his Youtube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ywv65lWZkM



I ran into a couple the other day as I was leaving the shop from a good day of unloading equipment. One of them asked "Is this going to be a restaurant?" A bakery and sandwich shop, I answered. She said. "What kind of bread?" Really good sandwich breads, baguette, focaccia, kaiser rolls, bagels, ciabatta. "Cool! We can't wait!" When I tell people about Hi*Rise, the conversation rarely strays far from bread, and everyone has a favorite. "Will you have croissant?" (yes). Folks with an East Coast upbringing often ask if we're going to boil our bagels (yes). Donuts? (no) But a donut sandwich does have a certain appeal.


(Tangent: Mitch Hedberg does a bit about going into a deli to order a pastrami sandwich. The waiter asks him his favorite bread and cheese he likes. Hedberg answers but the waiter cuts him off. "I am not making you a banana bread-pastrami-cottage cheese sandwich. That would severely ruin my reputation.")


When the bread is right, the sandwich is easy. Nothing has to be dressed up. The flavors speak for themselves. If you wouldn't eat the bread by itself, you shouldn't make a sandwich with it. That's the approach we have at Hi*Rise. The bread comes first. Bread is the expression of the baker's control over ingredients, time, and temperature. Vary the combination to get crusty and chewy vs. tender and yielding. See the personality? Good bread has character and purpose. That is the basis for any sandwich's combo of ingredients, and will be the focus of everything Hi*Rise does.

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.