I am baking 4 loaves of olive bread in the morning. They will be for sale for $5.95 and will be available by 10am. If you want me to hold one for you email me at fioremarketcafe@gmail.com.

Stop by early for a slice of cinnamon bread smeared with butter.

Hear are a few pictures from the day.

Ciao.

Today was a bit better, but large full rain clouds kept the sun from warming us up. I wore an old Irish wool sweater my mother bought in Dublin quite a few years ago. It’s still warm, but the moths have made it quite unattractive with the holes they’ve carved out of the fabric. I don’t care too much. I wear it with Irish pride.

I have taken a ton of pictures lately. It’s one thing I have been diligent about. My camera is always at my side and when I do forget it which isn’t very often I still have the I phone to capture the day.

here are some pictures from the last 12 days. I hope you enjoy. The health inspection is  Monday I promise.  No more jibbery about.

I have been spoiled by our experience in Italy. I  have tasted great olive oil. I have even participated in the making of fantastic oil. It was a real treat. The fact I got to do it with my oldest son made it  better.

Yesterday I drove an hour outside of LA to Temecula. Temecula from the freeway looks like one big strip mall, a new one but a strip mall all the same.  I hate strip malls more than anything. They are soulless to me. They are pretty, clean boxes that lack character. Maybe they are just too perfect for me.

About 20 miles south east of the main section of Temecula  is the Temecula Olive Oil Company. This is were the olive are grown and pressed and it looks very much like rural Italy. It’s pristine, clean and rural. The houses are average. Some are not much to look at. The hillsides are strewn with large, smooth boulders. Olive trees cluster around each other and lay out across the land. They look just like Italian olive trees. Most of them are Italian. The equipment at the Olive Mill has Italian writing across it with names I don’t recognize, but words that are clearly Italian.

At this orchard a huge semi truck is parked. At the back of the trucks the doors are wide open and a large hopper is perched on the back. It looks exactly like the hopper I saw at the community olive mill in Italy. That hopper is the only similarity The rest of the machinery looks like something from a NASA space station. It sure doesn’t look like an olive oil press, but surprisingly it performs the same function. The oil drips from the centrifuge at the final stage of the pressing. The oil is golden in color and tastes buttery. It lacks the deep green color of the olive oil I am accustomed to in Italy,but it’s fresh and tastes really good.

Here are some pictures from the day.

We finally did it. The mammoth hot water heater is  connected. The electricity is not, but it’s full of water and  the pipes are sealed and leak free. We had complications. A few connections were not right resulting in some leaks in some very cumbersome spots.  One leak required that  we replace an elbow and a 1- 1/4 inlet valve.

Fernando walked a block to his friend Martin’s work shop to borrow a tool. Martin has worked at this shop for 32 years. They work on engines for the aerospace industry. When Fernando returned he had a very solid but strange looking wrench. I had never seen one like this. It was heavy with a worn, but quality wood handle. The tool was made of heavy duty steel. On the upper part of the tool was an inscription of the date. The date was 1880. Now  isn’t that environmentally conscious., hanging onto something instead of throwing it away for a newer version.

The most comical part of the day came when Fernando was tightening the inlet valve on the top of the water heater. He was standing on the dishwasher. He hand the wrench around the valve and was pulling with all his might. Because he was desperate to get this connection right (it was one of the leakers) he was putting his weight into it. His back was against the wall which was really a French style window.

I heard a pop. It was quick, but not too loud. It sounded like a weak gun shot.

Fernando’s ass broke out the window. Yikes.

No more Inn and Out burger for you Fernando

On Thursday evenings I always browse the South Pasadena Farmer’s Market. It is probably the best one in LA county.  Most of the vendors are certified organic and extremely local. I met Michelle Goldman from Living Lettuce. Her farm is in Reseda. Can’t get much more local than that. I hope to purchase  her lettuce greens and herbs  for Fiore.

When I go to the market I  bring my camera. Today was no exception. Here are some photographs.

The first one is of Lissa Reynolds. She is the owner of the Fremont Centre Theatre that Fiore is now a part of. Check out their website. She has a new musical starting on November 26th called Sweet Mama Green Bean. Anne and I got a glimpse of the show during the intermission of her last show called Top Dog UnderDog. Her husband, James was the director of that terrific show Their son Jed was one of the actors. It was a two man show that really dealt with some fascinating issues. I don’t go to many plays, but this one hit me hard. Made me think about so many things.

The picture of her was taken at the temporary art gallery for SPARC. They were supposed to be squatters  for 48 hours. Luckily it has turned out to be months. They’re hoping to stay in the space for years.

SPARC is the South Pasadena Arts Council where Lissa is striving to make ART a big part of daily life for everyone in  South Pasadena. They recently had their Giant Easel Event at Art Walk on October 23rd.

Here are some other photographs from my stroll.

The olives in these photographs could pass for authentic Italian olives, but in reality they come from two very small trees from a lot in Los Angeles. Go figure.

And some fresh mint

I walked down to Mike and Anne’s in South Pasadena and spoke with the owner, Ashley to ask about her water heater. She had the same problem that we are having. The health department required her to have an overabundance of hot water. Ashly said that the people who she bought the water heaters from said she has enough hot water to supply a 120 unit apartment building. Is that crazy or what?

Here are a few photographs from the South Pasadena Farmer’s Market

Today’s to do list:

- Get a land line. Why does a land line cost so much when no one uses a land lines anymore? We only need one for incoming calls yet it’s still expensive.

- Apply for business license. Done.

- Find a 50 gallon 16KW water heater. The 40 gallon tank works  fantastic, but the health dept wants me to upgrade. What about being environmentally conscious. Where is that old one  end up? If anyone needs a great 40 gallon electric water heater give me a call.

- Make a decision about the espresso machine. Yikes. I have a perfectly good (free)  machine without  NSF certification. I need to now spend $1500-$5000 on another machine. The silver lining is that the old machine will come home with me.

- Order patio chairs. Anne found them at a great price. She ordered 10 tables and 20 chairs today.  With the community table we can seat 34 people. That’s pretty good. I am happy with that. Done

- Logo Logo Logo. We need to get a jump on this. We’ve been dealing so much with construction that we haven’t finalized our logo. We love the look of typewriter font. We also like this logo

Radish We’re pretty crazy about Radish. Anne says our place will look just as cool when she gets done with it.

- Find or have manufactured an 18 inch stainless steel safety guard for the back of the 4 burner stove. This was unanticipated. The first inspector made no mention of a problem with the stove, but her replacement found a need to make a change.

Down to Washington Street tomorrow to have some one make  one for me. Hopefully it won’t cost too much.

I haven’t written for two weeks. Maybe I have been lazy or maybe it’s been the distraction of the LA county health department that has kept me busier than I wish or maybe it’s been the falling rain. It’s been raining in LA for days which is extremely unusual for this time of year.

Today the clouds parted and gave us a  brief glimpses of a blue sky. I drank an espresso on the patio at Fiore while I pondered the leaks from my newly installed prep sink. I spent  too much time taking the fixtures on and off, tightening them before adding more white tape, putting them back on only to be greeted by the long slow drip of water from the back of the sink. By the time I left the restaurant I got the leak down to about 4 seconds from when the leak formed on the bottom of the flex pipe until it dropped to the floor. The puddle was small but definitely present. I pretended it wasn’t too bad. I’ll give it another try tomorrow.

Anne set tables on the patio last week to see how they look. We ate lunch on the tables and watched the people pass by. Immediately we were interrupted by mothers with strollers wondering if we were open. It was an encouraging sign.

I’ve posted some new pictures. Some of them are rather crude. They show our current reality. A month ago I posted some really sweet looking pictures of my ideal kitchen. I was so damn proud of how it came together, but now after consultation with the health department the kitchen looks like a motorcycle workshop. There are  tools everywhere and those tools are surrounded by dirty espresso cups, used espresso, a bottle of olive oil and my beautiful and wonderfully performing espresso machine that was on hiatus in my garage for 7 years. Now that i have it working like a dream I was informed by the health department that I can’t use it because it is not NSF certified. It doesn’t have that little blue sticker. Those inspectors are like blood hounds, but instead of looking for something good they spend all there time looking for these little blue tags. The tags glisten on the stainless steel sinks. They are usually hidden on equipment, but if caught in the right light they stand out like a light on a Christmas tree.

The work table is my 8 foot long wood table that I bought to use in the kitchen. I was inotified by my new friends that it was too old and worn to be used in the kitchen. I must replace it with a shiny new stainless steel table. Oh the warmth of it. Can’t wait.

Sorry for the deep sarcasm.

We’re actually ok with everything. Fiore is moving along. I hope to have the majority of the work finished by next week. It’s been a fun ride so far.