Sexy Printing Photos

John Marshall, a local professional photographer and friend came in on Monday to take photos of the printing equipment for the walls of the wine bar. I don't know how, but after rambling off a few indecipherable sentences of what I was looking for he "got it". He casually called me last night to tell me he had played with one of the photos and that it was up on his Flickr page.

Hot Damn!


If you hadn't guessed, that's a 1964 Davidson envelope press photographed from the side. It's still working and is regularly coaxed into printing return addresses on several thousand envelopes a day.

Averting Expensive Fixes

On Friday, it became clear that the 1200 lb swinging door was below the grade of the impending concrete pour. This caused more than a little bit of stress over the weekend since there was absolutely no telling how long it would take to cut it down and haul it out before the concrete could come down (time, I shall remind you = money)

As it turned out, the 1200 lb door was nothing more than a 400 lb door and it was cut down and hauled out in less than a half hour.

Simularly, our brand new, beautiful furnace came to a coughing halt over the weekend and refused to turn back on. Instead of calling our HVAC in, which would have cost quite a pretty penny, we were able to drain the exhaust water hose that had been pinned up to a wall.

Sure the plumbing, electric, flatwork, you name it turned out to be more expensive, but it's nice to have a couple of money saving moments.

The Concrete Pour Cometh

The gravel is set, the new(er) construction facade is up, and Tuesday, untold gallons of concrete will pour all over creation.

A Piece of Liquor License Ephemora ON THE HOUSE!

Apparently, you can serve booze in Missouri without a Sunday License if New Year Eve, St. Patty's day or Superbowl Sunday should fall on a Sunday (note, superbowl sunday usually falls on a Sunday).

Liquor License

I don't know if this is the Quixote in me but, I'm excited to finally be going through the process of getting a liquor license. It's a fairly serpenting series of steps which are set up with the interests of the neighborhood in mind. I went on down to city hall last week and gave the (extremely) nice woman about 17 pieces of paper, my photo ID, a thumbprint and some money and in exchange I recieved a printout of owners, businesses and tenants in a 350 food radius. She also gave me postcards which I would have to fill out by hand and then give back to her stamped. I ask you, when was the last time you hand wrote anything? I felt I was going to have to put my whole left arm in an epsom salt bath.

I gave back the postcards and if all goes well, I'll come back on Wednesday and get my petition form. In St. Louis, you have to have a majority of neighbors sign your petition for a liquor license. If a majority doesn't sign well....but hey, who doesn't like a little wine?

Rafter Mystery Explained

The ceiling came down and the joists were exposed. Big, huge, suckers, each one only a foot apart from another, a great example of old school overengineering. The question was, why is there white stuff on them?


At first, we thought they might be calcium deposits from old leaks, but they're way too uniform and they begin and end at very clear points.


It wasn't until Laclede Gas came out (formerly The Lacled Gaslight Company) to talk about changing our service around that we got a clue. I showed him the ceiling and in turn he showed me a copy of the original service request for the building from 1936 to The Diana Bakery Company. The front of the building was retail, and the rear was the bakery and the white stuff on the joists is 75 YEAR OLD FREAKING FLOUR!

We Could Stop Right Now And Have A Great Looking Squat

Not satisfied to stretch out the agonizing process, Nate and Nick thwacked out the rest of the ceiling over the weekend with their fancy raised scissor lift. I was tempted to stage my own "Inconvenient Truth" moment but I feel I've put just too much rank dorkiness on this site as it is. The joists are in good shape overall, which is a relief. We found a mysterious square opening in the wine bar ceiling that had been patched closed years ago and reinforced. It might have been an old chimney opening when the space was three separate retail spaces, but I'd prefer to imagine it as a closed up firehouse pole or an old trap door for a rum running operation.