As many of you know by now, we are significantly upscaling our restaurant concept. We have been formerly known for 15 years as Italian Jim's Pizzeria. When we open our new place in Edmond we will be simply known as, "Italian Jim's Restaurant". We are losing the name, "Pizzeria". No, we are not getting rid of our pizza, but we are upscaling our menu and didn't want people to think all we did was pizza. We will be adding a really nice filet mignon, ribeye, salmon, and other signature chef dishes. We are "taking it up a couple of notches!" We will still be "casual" dining, but it's gonna be a really nice place! Things are getting close and it's possible and "preferred" for us to open sometime in April. May is not out of the question, but we want to make it happen in April. Also, we are excited about adding our glass blowing studio to our restaurant. To us, it's a completely natural fit. "Italian-style Art" (For centuries the glass blowing capital of the world had been Murano, Italy) and Italian food. At this point it seems there will be a few limited seats in the dinning room for folks to watch us blow glass from their table while they eat. Also, of course, people will be able to walk right into the studio before or after their meal to watch glass blowing.
We are going to have live and exciting demos of glass blowing and also host special glass events for groups of all sizes. We will be booking special "Romantic" evenings where a gentleman can bring his wife for a special Italian steak dinner (or whatever they want) and then after the exquisite meal, they will have an appointment in the studio with us to watch us create a special something "live" right in front of them and then after it anneals, pick it up and take it home. Business men can bring clients in and have the "experience" of watching something extraordinary created right in front of their clients eyes and then bring it to them later. For the next day or two the client will be highly anticipating the gift thats coming. We will have a video/photo service available eventually and will be able to document the experience on HD DVD to accompany the gift to the client, spouse, or date! Better book your Valentine's Day reservations soon!
I was talking with the owner of one of the major glass blowing supply houses in the United States the other day (I'm pretty sure he told me one time that he's the primary supplier to Mr. Chihuly) and he told me that as far as he knows, there is nothing or nobody in the United States doing what we are doing with the restaurant and art glass studio. We apparently, will be on the cutting edge in our industries!
(Make sure you "click" on the pictures to see a bigger version)I'm gonna be posting some pictures of "before" and "during". Some will just be "during". Brace yourself, this first set of photos was taken from very close to the same spot. The photo with all the dirt on the floor was taken March 4th, 2011, the other one was taken July 15th, 2010 before we even decided on this property for sure. Then later on, I'll just be posting random shots of different areas in the restaurant/studio. This shot in particular, is taken from the front of the building, in what is now the glass blowing studio. Don't let the booths fool you, they are just hanging out there in the studio until we are ready to put them in the restaurant part. The booths are totally wonderful! Circular booths! Not U-shaped booths! CIRCULAR! Yes, that's right, I think circular is better.
