Tag Archives: Bellingham

Upcycling: Shabby Chic On Steroids

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Thanks to a tweet from the RE Store, Bellingham, Washington’s purveyors of reclaimed household and building materials, I came across a project by Brooklyn, New York brothers-builders-designers Evan and Oliver Haslegrave that takes the Shabby Chic style of interior design and cranks it up to eleven.

Perfect for this installment of my Upcycling series!

Transforming a space that had been empty, save for the bathroom, into a home, the Haselgraves pulled out all the stops, using a wide variety of reclaimed materials, including copper pipe, lumber, molding, windows and doors, as well as choice antique store finds scattered about. (My personal favorite is the croquet mallet chandelier. See below.)

While I have to admit that it’s all a bit too shabby for my taste, meaning I prefer a more refined design in my own living spaces, I can’t help admiring their having taken an idea and an approach and totally going for it like this.

Here are some more images (via Design Sponge):

Brandywine Kitchen: Locavores Rejoice!

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I LOVE discovering a new restaurant with certain characteristics that keep me coming back on a regular basis. Those characteristics typically include: a nice, friendly ambiance; unique, well-prepared food; healthy options alongside more indulgent choices; some measure of organic and local ingredients; and, particularly in these tight economic times, reasonable prices.

Bellingham, Washington’s own Brandywine Kitchen simply nails it on all accounts! And while this post may seem to only be relevant for folks here in Bellingham, I actually think it speaks to a fairly universal business principle.

Now, I’m a total proponent of paying extra for organic, locally produced food. Consider it a tax I gladly pay to support a more sustainable future.

That said, it seems to me that most of the locavore restaurants that I have been to — eateries that feature locally-grown and organic food — have been of the high-end, fine dining variety. And while I like that experience from time to time, on special occasions, for instance, I simply can’t afford to eat like that regularly, and neither can most people.

Enter, Brandywine Kitchen! Their tagline: From Seed to Plate

Founded originally as a small, organic heirloom tomato farm, owners Azizi Tookas and Chris Sunde then started selling prepared foods at the Bellingham Farmers Market, and eventually opened up the restaurant last year.

The space is elegant without being stuffy, and the first economizing element you notice upon entering is that there’s no wait service. Customers simply walk up to the counter, order their food, receive a number, visit a smaller counter for napkins, water, or fountain drinks, and then select their own table. On the tail end of the dining experience, customers are asked to do their own busing.

The most expensive entrée on the menu is $10.95, and several entrées and most of their sandwiches are $8.95 to $9.95. And while this could make for a pricey lunch, it’s hard to find a good restaurant that serves dinner for less than $12.00, and locavore restaurants more typically run as high as $15.00 to $25.00, not including starters, beverages, and desserts.

So, this business principle that I was speaking of is the recognition that 99% is much, MUCH bigger than 1%, and therefore it makes more sense to cater to the 99%, with affordable prices and a relaxed, casual atmosphere.

The other notable thing about the Brandywine Kitchen menu is that it is supremely accessible. Instead of fancy, nouvelle cuisine, with tiny but gorgeous fusion concoctions, the Brandywine serves recognizable favorites, such as Mac & Cheese, Fish & Chips, and Chicken Pot Pie, all made with the best, healthiest ingredients available, mostly coming from a list of local farmers and other vendors, whose names are listed proudly on a chalkboard near the front counter.

I had the special, a bison meatball sub, and unlike most restaurants, the special was the same price as most of the other entrées. The sub was absolutely delicious!

Again, this is the kind of food that most people eat on a regular basis. It’s a brilliant, sustainable business formula, the place is packed with people raving about it, and I wish the owners continued success, for very selfish reasons, of course.

Local Living Economies & Co-ops

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A little over a year ago, I wrote about a conference taking place here in Bellingham, Washington, an annual event put on by the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE).

I wrote in that post how, in the face of federal, state, and local government failure to adequately address economic and environmental crises, the best solution is for local communities to take charge and make change happen on a neighborhood-by-neighborhood, town-by-town basis, and that’s what BALLE is all about.

It’s a nice coincidence that today is the first day of the 2012 BALLE conference, and I just happened to come across an inspiring article at Fast Company that totally fits this subject.

Hippie Capitalism: How An Impoverished U.S. City Is Building An Economy On Co-ops

With sky-high unemployment, Richmond, California, is not a place where traditional business models alone can dent poverty. The city has turned to co-ops in hopes that people who might be unemployable in the traditional economy gain access to both jobs and control over their own labor.

What’s really remarkable in this story is that the local government, led by an ambitious mayor, is spearheading this movement.

“There’s not a lot of help coming from the federal government, or the state government,” says the city’s Green Party mayor, Gayle McLaughlin. “So we’re kind of on our own.” Two years ago, she went all the way to Spain in search of another economic model that might reinvigorate her city…

The Basque Country in Spain is home to the world’s most famous worker-owned co-op, the Mondragon Corporation, based in the town of Mondragon. The 55-year-old corporation includes some 250 smaller co-ops, with more than 80,000 employees, the vast majority of them members and owners themselves…

And so she brought the idea back to California and hired what is probably the only official municipal worker co-op consultant in the country. As of January, the first co-op born from this campaign, the aptly named Liberty Ship Café, is up and running, with plans for new bike shop, bakery, urban agriculture, and solar installation co-ops on the way.

Mayor McLaughlin’s program is in its infancy, but you have to admire the bigness of her vision, and hope, for the sake of struggling Richmond, that she can succeed.