Rachel and I decided to make the new chairs and tabletops for Twisted Tree Cafe from reclaimed Heart Pine. I've used it in the past and besides being a good environmental choice, the stuff is absolutely breathtaking. The dining set pictured on my homepage is made from it. That photo is a good preview of what we're doing in the cafe: we're using the same wood species, and the chair I designed is a simplified variation of the one in the pictured.

On our day off this week we jumped in the truck and headed to a mill that specializes in reclaimed lumber from old buildings. They've got an amazing amount of space just crammed with stacks and stacks of old beams. I love workspaces of all kinds, and I can't help romanticizing them, so here's a little black and white photography:

...and the couple who owned it wanted to sell it. It happens that my girlfriend Rachel has always wanted to have her own cafe. So last Spring we became the third owners of the 10-year-old Twisted Tree Cafe in Asbury Park NJ.

And that's why I haven't updated the blog for the last 6 months or so.

Now that the Summer vacation crowds have dissipated, I'm back in the shop at least a few days a week. And what does a guy who's used to building everything in his life do when he has a shop and a cafe? Right: cafe makeover.

The first phase of the project is being built from these babies: