Zrazy diary
Diary of my first popup
Friday evening: In a torrential storm, I deliver my equipment and ingredients to Getaway. The rain is coming down in sheets, I’m double-parked while we’re trying to haul stuff from the trunk, the B32 suddenly looms behind me and I fly into the car, blinkers still flashing, to get it out of the way. Inside it’s calm, and I lay out my sheet pans and put herbs into water and test the induction burner with my new gigantic stainless steel pot. We lock the place up, and the rain has stopped by the time we go home.
4:45 AM: My alarm goes off, my iPhone the only bright thing in the darkness. I dress and eat something fast for breakfast, a small flour tortilla that I smear with peanut butter and jelly. Laika and Anthony barely stir as I leave the apartment. The streets are mostly empty and very quiet.
5:15 AM: I’m peeling and chopping potatoes. Sevdaliza is filling the space, which has just begun to lighten a little. The plants along the large windows facing the street are starting to throw shadows.
7 AM: By the time Sam, who owns the space, has arrived, I’m finally folding the zrazy but everything took longer than I expected. His first coffee customers line up and he switches the music to something more jazzy. I listen to their talk about vacations and jobs and kids as I assemble the food as efficiently as I can.
10 AM: I’m behind on everything, folding more zrazy while another batch is cooking, hearing people arrive and getting their orders packaged up, checking them off my list, which I’m very glad I printed out. I’m counting and recounting what I’ve made and what I have left to fulfill to figure out what’s available for on-the-spot orders. I make some arithmetic mistakes. The timer beeps and I lose my count. Luckily the cooking process is forgiving, the zrazy don’t burn if they sit on the griddle a few extra minutes, and the half-folded ones wait patiently for me to finish. I go through way too many disposable gloves.
11:30 AM: Things have calmed down, people are still coming in for their orders but I’ve assembled all of the zrazy and even managed to address the explosion of dough that briefly overtook the back kitchen area. Now I can step outside to say hi to Anthony and to the friends who came out to support me and get breakfast. I’m happy that they seem happy.
12 PM: I finally notice my body, and the fact that I haven’t eaten or drunk water or gone to the bathroom in a long time. I scrape the last bits of dough from the mixing bowl to form a sort of crumbly cake that I fry and eat.
1:30 PM: The last customers are my friends. I’ve been cleaning up and gathering my stuff together between orders, so I don’t have too much left to do. We help Sam break down the outside table and chairs. I load all the equipment into my car.
2:30 PM: We stop by Archestratus, which is having its re-opening day. It’s nice to see the owner, Paige, who is enthusiastic and flustered and busy, with a line down the block of people waiting to enter. Now we’re on the waterfront next to the Greenpoint ferry dock. I have some kind of lime-flavored beer. The sun is too hot and between that and the beer and the hours I’ve been standing, I feel completely melted. It’s a nice feeling.