Saturday, June 27, 2015

The tabletop as art display space: Ceramic mosaic tops by Furthur



The LA Times today reports that for some time "...tables with ceramic-tiled tops have often been relegated to patio and pool areas — strictly outdoors.




But that's changing, says Michelle Arias, who, with her husband, Raymond, opened Furthur on Sunset Boulevard 20 years ago. Tables adorned with 4-by-4-inch Mexican azulejos (ceramic wall tiles) are now in-home worthy because the quality of the tiles that she gets in Dolores Hidalgo, about a 40-minute drive north from San Miguel de Allende in central Mexico, has so vastly improved.




Azulejos can be traced to Moorish influences in the Iberian peninsula. Both there and in Mexico they became an obvious status statement — ornamental wall art that also functioned as a temperature moderator. Azulejos turned up on walls, floors, ceilings and were featured in churches and royal mansions




Read More Here

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Screen Door Will Open For Brunch and Lunch Seven Days a Week

The Screen Door has been added to my itinerary for next visit to PDX land.

Image: Allison Jones


A massive bombshell from weekend brunchmaster Screen Door. Starting June 11, the Southern fried East Burnside restaurant will  open for brunch and lunch seven days a week.That's right: chicken and waffles on a Monday, all the grits and Spicy Creole Bloody Marys you can handle Tuesday, Friday, Sunday, whatever—just throw your calendar away entirely. Also, the restaurant will debut a huge new lunch menu, built around a line-up of 13 Southern sandwiches (muffaletta and brisket to po’boys served on custom Alessio French bread). “It is kinda nuts,” says co-owner David Mouton with a laugh. “But we are so excited.
Along with that big sandwich roster, expect a half-dozen appetizers and a heavy emphasis on salads and veggie specials at lunch to balance out the restaurant’s meaty eats; a nod to the fact that every Screen Door meal need not be a gut-busting challenge.
Screen Door has had the market cornered on weekend brunch for nearly a decade now, with parody-worthy weekend wait lines creeping around the block and a crack team of 50+ staffers, including a handful kitchen pros whose sole job is to handle the 2,200 pounds of chicken the restaurant fries up each week.

The expanded hours and ambitious new menus have brought their own challenges—first and foremost, a lack of space. In addition to the restaurant’s own kitchen, Mouton and wife/co-owner Nicole now rent a commissary kitchen where the crew does all its batch cooking--like stewing collard greens and gumbo and butchering chickens. They also renovated the Screen Door’s garage to make space for a second “micro-kitchen,” where their baker can churn out fresh biscuits and daily shortcakes and its chefs can whip up dinner specials. 

With August marking the restaurant’s 10 year anniversary, Mouton says it was the right time to make some big changes. “Over the last couple of years we’ve been tempted to open another Screen Door over the river or open different concepts. But instead of taking our eye off the ball, we’d rather expand our hours here and maintain our institutional status,” he says, crediting the restaurant’s staff for giving him and Nicole confidence to undertake the expansion. “The sentimental reason is that I really want to respond to the neighbors. They’ve been asking us to open for brunch on weekdays for years. You know, we didn’t open the restaurant with fried chicken and waffles [on the menu], that was a customer request. In fact, all of our main menu items were customer requests. We just respond to what people ask for.”

“Screen Door is its own beast,” Mouton laughs. “It’s taken on its own life—we’re just here to steer it."
Screen Door's new hours:
  • Weekday brunch 8 am-2 p.m; lunch served 10:30 am-2 pm (Mon-Fri)
  • Dinner 5:30 pm-10 pm Tues-Sat; 5:30 pm-9 pm Sun-Mon
  • Saturday & Sunday brunch 9 am-2:30 pm
2337 E Burnside St
503-542-0880


Tuesday, June 02, 2015

From Mukava, the World’s First Egonomic Reading Table.

From Mukava, the world’s first ergonomic reading table. 



Designed by multi-award winning industrial designer Hiroshi Ono, Mukava is compatible with all mobile and tablet devices as well as books and documents. Mukava features our patented hinge system that adjusts to more than twelve possible positions, making your reading or viewing experience comfortable wherever you are. Feel free to watch their new promotional video highlighting its versatility and design:


Mukava currently offers three revolutionary products which are listed below

3) Mukava For Monitor Arm (http://www.mukava-tables.com/?page_id=21874)


All of their products are currently in production and they will begin taking pre-orders on May 25 in preparation for a full product launch on 1 July, 2015.

Mükava is about more than selling the world’s best reading table. They are about helping communities at home and abroad to learn to read. Mukava's Project for Adult Literacy and Schools, LLC is focussed on two causes; adult literacy in America and building a school for homeless children in Jakarta, Indonesia. Twenty percent of the total profits of their company go to their causes.