ciao samin

chris and me at pop-up general store :: march, 2010

(photo by melissa schneider)

chris and i fight about almost everything. for extended periods of time. it's sort of like a two-old-curmudgeons-sitting-on-the-front-porch dynamic.

so the fact that we came up with the name "pop-up general store" in under ten minutes is basically a miracle.

and, the fact that the general store has taken off so quickly is an even bigger miracle.

so much of having a restaurant is about compromise, or at least it was that way for us. it's exhausting. we sort of can't believe that we've figured out a way to make the things we love to cook and eat and get them out to people who can really appreciate it.

it's rare that cooks ever get to interact with the people who are eating our food. but chris and i are so community and family centered that we crave that connection--it's why we were always sneaking behind the bar at the restaurant to talk to customers and ask them how their food was.

we've structured the pop-up so that the cooks who make the food have to represent themselves on market days, and you know what? people love being about to meet and talk the people who've cooked for them. it's probably one of the most special parts of the whole thing.

i love that.