Rhapsody in Tile

The story of the tile that's going up in the meat and seafood, deli, and café departments bears repeating. Steven Crocker, our project manager, is the kind of guy who might sit with a cappuccino on a Saturday morning and cypher out a tile pattern. He's collaborated on a number of projects with Paul Burns, of Fireclay Tile, whom he introduced to me as the Willy Wonka of Tile.
And Steven did remind me of a kid in a candy shop when we went out to Paul's factory in Aromas to look at what he had in his yard. Steven had his heart set on Claymonde tile: Fireclay Tile's futuristic large format lightweight wall tile. A unique mixture of white clay and ceramic fiber is rolled into 3/16" thick sheets. Large ceramic sheets are bisque fired and then cut to size before being glazed in rich crackle glazes.

12" x 36" Claymonde in Kiwi
www.fireclaytile.com

Paul Burns designs the spectacularly colorful and delicious glazes for these tiles....and we couldn't afford any of it. We were like orphans looking in at Christmas dinner.... and then Steven noticed a MOUNTAIN of Claymonde tile, fractured and shining in the sun, stacked in crates. About 10 pallets worth, we estimated. It was variegated, dirty, and within minutes, it was all ours!
So, we've lived with this huge boneyard of tile for months now. We had it kept in a cage in the middle of the Downtown New Leaf parking lot while we tamed and sorted it, culling the healthy vibrant tile from the overly neutral or too strongly colored tile. We covered the walls of the deli and meat department at the downtown store with it, picking from the cream of the crop and biting our nails while we got a vision together and our awesome hero of a tile contractor, Keith Schuler from Elegant Tile Works and his crew Brendan and Eric, made it stick to the wall. We were happy with how that came out — ecstatic, to tell you the truth.



There is some huge irony in that Steven, this guy who ENJOYS organizing tile patterns, chose the only tile in the world that could never, ever be fully tamed, and for which no pattern could ever be devised ahead of time except as it happened through its application.... That's how it is with these things I suppose... you just get a concept going, and you start pushing things that direction.... and then... if you are lucky or good, something takes over, and all you can do is channel it. Keith Schuler made it look easy. And it wasn't! Need tiling? Call Keith. And I might have some tile you can buy too!

Have a look at what we have going on on the walls now at the Westside store before we cover them with counters, equipment, and menu boards.... as I mentioned, the tile is 100% reused, it was left over from other big projects and we bought it locally from Fireclay Tile. Here is a picture of Paul Burns with Steven Crocker.














Meat and Seafood...


























The Deli! The sandwich case will be to your left just in front of the door and the case with the éntrees and salads curves around that corner toward the hot bar.












I think the pizza oven is going somewhere in here....














And oh, stand back baby. The Café tile.
Steven lost a week of sleep while Keith was working on this!

























I think its hot. I only lost like one night of sleep.












Whatever else you may have to say about it, I am fairly confident that you will have to admit you've never seen anything quite like it before! Thanks Keith!!

Color.... you'd think it would be easier

So we have this intense green tile for the juice bar/cafe. This was the first "slapdown." The yellow is going to come out and we are going to cut back a bit on that really bright green color.
Regardless, the wall color, which is brushed out on the right, does not really work with the tile. And the darker swatch next to it is the ceiling color... but they are mighty similar. Seems like we're going to have to go back to the drawing board on the soffit color for the cafe.



















As you can see above, the yellow lab isn't even very yellow, but look at it below here! Pretty darned yellow, eh? Beneath it is the color we'd selected for the deli soffit, which was a pale orangey yellow is again, way too close in color to the ceiling.... and doesn't really go with the deli tile.


















All the colors on this side of the store keep turning really yellow, but I am pretty sure this red will stay red. This is for the wine department.


















This is the yellow above the dairy soffit...


















This is the orange for the meat/seafood soffit, you can sort of see the tile color beyond.


















Maybe this shows the tile better?



















Front wall color.



















Stay tuned, we obviously have some work to do here...

Summer in January

Out on the loading dock, things were hopping. Cameron had shipments flying left and right. It was crazy. Civilians were in the way. Steven was risking his limbs darting in front of the forklift to examine the granite slabs, never heeding the danger.



















A crowd of sinks showed up to interview for the different plumbed positions available at the new store. A nice group really. We thought we'd keep the lot of them.















Some hopeful millwork waited outside the seafood department.














The vanity case is a total diva and won't wait with the other millwork.















I think she might be wearing fur. (No, just kidding, its a palmwood of some kind...)














Still life with produce and electricians.
As a side note, Steven was my foreground, but he whisked out of the frame just as I shot it.



















Steven was in a bit of a dark mood, in stark contrast to the daylight streaming in the mullioned windows.



















I gasped loudly before realizing it was merely a casually discarded tamale husk.


















This may be the only time you ever see a COKE in the store at New Leaf....


















Steven haunts the wine department.





































Jared has discovered that earplugs really improve his on the job communication skills.


















Or was it just that Mike was singing "I want you to want me" at the top of his lungs......














Not everyone was feeling as cheerful, as this piece of Madix shelving will testify.


















And with that, Mercury goes retrograde for three weeks.

Gaining Face

The exterior of the store suddenly started coming together this week. Here is a shot taken in late morning, looking at the store's north face where all the customer entrances and exits are.















The building has a neo-industrial corrugated metal thing going on. Great scrap!


















Future outdoor seating area and cafe entrance.














Seating area and Fair Ave beyond.














I think what's missing here is the New Leaf banner....


















Seating area with back to Fair Ave. Both the entrance into cafe, on the left, and single door exit from Bonnie Doon Garden Co and the eating counter on the right, are visible. In the corner straight ahead, there'll be a fireplace. There will be cafe tables out here....















View along the face of the building. I think this is where we get to lock our bikes.

Community Kitchen

This is the community kitchen. The stovetop will go underneath that big hood.




















Wall shared with wine department, to the left of the entrance to the kitchen as you come in.















Your back is to the same wall now, looking out towards Ingalls St.















The sink, appliances and cabinets are along the wall shared with the deli.















Entrance to the kitchen with the deli on the right, wine to the left.
















Looking out across Fair Ave.

2009: A Tile Odyssey

The meat and seafood department. Love it.















The Deli. Delightful.















Oh yeah, that's what I'm talking about.














You mean we still have to do the cafe?
How lucky do we think we are?
Eventually, this tile shenanigan is going to catch up with us, and we'll be exposed for having bluffed our way through the entire project.
Sometimes, the best thing to do is just look and sound like you know what to do. And then something kicks in, and just pulls in together...
Here, Keith is preparing to trance channel the cafe tile.
Yup, that's it, that big pile on the floor.
















I'm starting to think this isn't really all luck. I'm starting to think we hired an AMAZING tile contractor.


















Dig it.


















Other highlights include:

This fabulous mesquite millwork for the cafe.















Is it me, or does it look like a very young store?