Hello All!

Another update here from Chef Tony & Iddi at Visions Restaurant in Bethesda...

We are in the middle of painting inside, and even just with a good base primer coat, the place looks amazing. My partner Iddi jabs me all the time because he says I want to make the place look like an Apple store.. well, he's not exactly wrong, they were one of the inspirations behind the look when we considered the spot. You also can't exactly argue with their success of their design prowess.

We have eliminated two sections of wall and created beautiful gentle archways in their place.. the process is pretty cool to watch because from a raw cut up space, with a little metal framing and drywall, you have this beautiful arch that just screams (or maybe whispers) of Italy to me and can look like an instant classic picture...it's pretty cool. After that, they use drywall paste and fill in all the spaces, sand it down and once it's painted, it looks like it's been there forever. As well, we've created a pseudo host stand that will house our OpenTable computer that will handle our seating.

We have dug out a drain area in our bar just to move over about a foot so we can drain our drink areas. In case you missed it, we'll have a 7-8 seat bar in the restaurant that will be a nice little place for a quick cocktail or to wait for a table. We're using a bar top surface just like Corian tile so it will not scratch, burn or change color. It's worth the investment in our minds, so that is being manufactured right now.

Bathrooms look much better, gone are the twin psychedelic colors that made up the floor and walls (my head spun every time I went in there...) and they have done a base primer so far, we'll paint and use most of the fixtures in there as they were in very good shape. Anyone with good ideas for the ladies bathroom that needs to be "sweeter" please forward to cheftony@visionsbethesda.com. We are after all, a couple of burly guys building a restaurant, we don't have time for all that frilly stuff!

Internet access is up (of course for me, right?) and we have our DirectTv installed, much to the chagrin to my dear father, who believes a bar is never supposed to have a tv or any other entertainment besides a little dinky radio for the ball game. On the other technology front, we'll have a Micros system installed, OpenTable and at least one flat screen (again, Fathers chagrin). We'll also setup to host corporate parties in both rooms, which will also have flat screens in case there is some sort of presentation.

We'll have an open window to the kitchen to see what's going on and get food out of the kitchen. Here is a picture of the window so far...


Thanks for listening and reading, it would be really nice to hear from anyone to let us know you're out there... email us at cheftony@visionsbethesda.com or chefiddi@visionsbethesda.com

Tony & Iddi

ps...here's our arches..we're like proud parents!