In which we eagerly anticipate our new tenant.

We, along with a lot of Belfast folks, are eagerly anticipating the opening of our new tenant, a wood fired pizza company.  Thats right, you heard it hear first...or maybe second, or possibly third.  I have been accosted on the street by people who have heard rumors about the new restaurant going into the lower level.  When ex-Mayor, Mike Hurley called out to us on the street the other day to tell us that his people came from a small village about 10 minutes from where one of our new tenants grew up, you know the word is out on the street.  So, we welcome Alex, a master pizza chef trained to make pizza in the traditional Neapolitan manner, and his lovely partner, Clementina, who will be responsible for the front of the house.

To that end, Clementina told us how she wanted to finish the floor in the new space.  Greg and I spent weeks agonizing over what to put down on the concrete to make the space look lovely and useable as a gallery or office space.  If you are long time readers, you will remember our 88 boxes of flooring.  Clementina and Alex wanted to keep the floor simple and so chose to paint the floor a gorgeous blue color.  Funnily enough, our favorite paint guy came to measure the space and see what we needed in terms of paint and thought 3 maybe 4 gallons would do the trick....here is a photo of Greg on the fifth gallon.

And the space after the second coat and six and a half gallons of paint later.  Greg and I decided that the floor needed a third coat.  Note how the floor reflects the light from the windows.  There are no lights on in the space in this photo.

The addition you see below will house the pizza oven, a 2 ton, three part oven that is being shipped from Italy in the next few weeks.  

One of the lovely things about the blue floor is how the color changes with light.  Below is a photo of the floor after the 8th gallon of paint.  When the lights are off, the color is a deep, gorgeous blue.  With the lights on, the color of the floor turns a soft lilac color that softens up the space.  

Brava, Clementina, I cannot wait to see the rest of your buildout plans come to fruition.  

Hopefully, the restaurant will open in mid-January.  The buildout starts today.  Greg and I are off to Kansas, but back in time to see the oven installed.