Tonight is the official opening of Delancey, the new pizza place on 70th, and it literally took blood, sweat and tears to get the place open. For the last few months, we’ve been following the progress of Brandon Pettit’s new restaurant on their often-updated Twitter page. From painting to building to making the concrete tables, Brandon and his wife have done just about all the work themselves. It hasn’t been easy. In July Brandon tweeted, “4 hours in the emergency room, cut thumb while shopping for stainless sheet, thankfully no tendon damage.” Then just one day before their soft opening last week, “Delancey is possessed, no one else is here, mirror fell off the wall and shattered in the bathroom, I walk in and the water is running.”
Brandon’s wife, Molly, the gal behind the popular food blog Orangette, has also written in detail about their trials and tribulations. “The cook we hired to help Brandon with the pizzas didn’t show up for his first official day of work — the day before our first pre-opening dinner,” she blogged. “Brandon has burned his business card in the pizza oven.” Between Brandon’s Tweets and Molly’s blog, it’s a fascinating look into the stressful life of launching a restaurant.
Rebekah Denn of “Eat All About It” took some video of the interior, the pizza-making and the actual pizza. Delancey will be open Wednesday – Sunday at 5 p.m. closing either 9-ish or 10-ish depending on the day. And as Brandon tweeted today, they will take reservations for parties of 6 – 10.
I wish them the best of luck, but….I do not like the blurry web page of theirs at all. Gives me a headache almost immediately.
Yeah, I hope the web page gets a tweak. Very annoying.
And I have trouble with YouTube vids so that link didn't clear up any mysteries.
However, I'm looking forward to trying the pizza here.
Yeah, sounds like they've had a lot to overcome, but nothing good comes easy. As we all know good help isn't easy to find either.
I'm glad that they are open finally. And yes, fix that web site!
Shopping for stainless sheet? Should have come over to OnlineMetals or bought it on our website. No sharp edges!
/full disclosure: I work there.
I'm looking forward to eating the fruit of their sweat and blood. Huh. That didn't make any sense and sounds kind of gross.
I don't mind their website design — at least it's not bogged down with a bunch of Flash — but it'll be more useful when they get a menu up there. Link to menu from Orangette:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_lOMDVLuMAkQ/SoJlXa_v0…
Best of luck!
Thanks for the link, Gurple!
Forgive my ignorance, but what the heck is Grana?
It's a highly illegal amphetamine — I'm not surprised they're not posting the menu.
No, actually I think it's a kind of cheese:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grana_%28cheese%29
Menu approved.
I will be dining there within the week.
What'da I know? I usually get my pizza from Zekes. Thanks!
Hey Roy! I've been to your shop! And your website ROCKS!
This is my favorite quote:
“Proper Steel Handling Instructions…
Kids, I can not stress enough the importance of properly maintaining your steel products.
When steam cleaning your tank car, do not immediately seal it up, and then leave for the night.
This is what happens: “
http://blog.onlinemetals.com/?p=134
oh, that's priceless…
ok, the video finally worked for me.
Question.
Why are the cooks not wearing gloves?
I'd pull the video folks.
Do cooks usually wear gloves?
I would like to try this place soon.
I do wish, however, that they'd remove the 'C' from the name. I think 'Delaney' sounds more natural.
also, being closed two days per week seems a little excessive.
I think they can remove the blood and sweat until they're open on Tuesdays, too.
Depends on what they're cooking. If the food is going to be cooked after handling (assembling a pizza), gloves aren't required. If the food is ready to serve w/o cooking (assembling a salad), then gloves are required.
Correct, like a handful of Parmesan cheese, barehanded, tossed onto a pizza after cooking. Use a shaker at least…
Ah. Someone who knoweth that of which they speaketh.
Sorry, my forsooth is a little rusty.
That just means it's working. Soon you'll be clucking like a chicken and craving Delancey pizza.
It's basically a one man operation. I'll give him two days off per week. I bet he'll spend them at the restaurant anyway, making it better.
My understanding is that Delancey is a name that evokes a specific feeling for the owners. One of the things I've learned to watch out for when naming things is the seemingly endless ways that you can spell some words. But now that we has teh interwebs, you can often find a restaurant even if you're spelling it worng.
Glad you appreciate our place. The blog is something we really enjoy doing; the person who runs it has free rein to make it as fun and interesting as possible, and she does a great job.
Next time you come in, ask for Chris. Would be nice to put a face to an online identity.
Stop being so nit-pickey.
Delancey is a well known street in New York. It's also a subway stop.
Delaney would be unnatural to most of us.
Dis picture *is* my face! It's me made up as my evil cousin Captain Dick Silver.
If you want to see me as a girl, look at the pic I use in the Forums. ;-)
Next time I'm in, I'll say hi!
Or open your own restaurant and learn what it's like to do restaurant work 7 days a week, while listening to people tell you to rename your restaurant.