sneak peeks • luncheonettevintage

assembling the tags that go into luncheonette packages: shop coupon and vintage recipe

I'll let you in on a secret. The kitchen here at luncheonettevintage, land of the curatorial orthodoxy involving old clothes and thingamabobs, used to be a crying shame.

snacking

When I moved in, it was a mish-mash of wood paneling, painted spoiled milk color, and all laid itsy-katsy and joined together with scraps of wood painted the sad browns of bad digestion. As it got worse (we had to open the wall, etc), we just left it. Not denial, just priorities.

note fiestaware plate sulking in the rack

But priorities are meant to shift. In my world,  kitchen is office and the kitchen table is workstation. And it's a shopwide policy that no task is completed without well-brewed coffee. When I write "from the kitchen" in my convo signoffs, I'm serious.  I do everything, nearly, in this kitchen. Don't we all?

double yoke egg next to single yoke egg on milk glass plate on 50s table

Soon as we could, we embarked on the Great Renovation. Theme: farmhouse kitchen with modern, um, coffee maker. Slightly industrial (there would be an exposed vent pipe) to remind me of the good old days in my Dumbo loft (I once lived atop an old coffee packing factory in Brooklyn). We were trepidatious, but the fortunes of old building quality lurking beneath crap soon smiled upon us.

Within the cracked and besmirched old wall panels, we found old, stalwart beams. Note coffee maker, always within reach.

rough hewn beams in the walls

Under 5 layers of linoleum, we found real wood plank floors. Total surprise there.

hand sanding, then came 9 coats of polyurethane

We finished the floors, applied real wainscoting (hammered and fit together one piece at a time) reused what we could. We refinished the rusty 1950s metal sink cabinet (fun job. right), and the kitchen cabinet. We had to replace the tiny 1970s range (coated with oil, prone to heat surges). But another rule was no fuss. When Supercool Relative Guy Who Wields Them Big Tools came in with giant shelving brackets and bolts, I did not object. It was a combination of get-er-done and do-it-right.

brother in law trying not to stand on new stove

with range hood

Note milk glass 1940s cake plate nestled next to industrial fan exhaust pipe. Noone here loves that but me, but since I am the head cook, it stays. And the reno continues, since my buddy the amazing carpenter guy had to interrupt his for-the-love-of-family, heavily discounted labor to go work on a real (as in real paying) renovation project. So someday, our kitchen will all be finished. Curtains will be hung on real rods, not string.

draped over string

The table cloth below? Just laid out to take a picture for the shop. But that's the point: things can now be laid out and photographed for the shop.

egg colored chairs

So it's not finished. But I kind of love it the way it is. Thanks for stopping in.

Guest Curator

Blue Birthday Presents for my Sister

Jana here, from luncheonettevintage. I curated a little list for my sister. Because, well, she rules. We've been super close since Day One and she is the main object of my gift giving obsession, partially because she inherited our mother's amazing ability to shop (the retail gene, we call it), but doesn't shop for herself nearly enough.

My sister, who is younger but more mature, is also part sensible and part silly, part girlish, part powerhouse. And she recently got a great big promotion. As it's her birthday soon, I picked out some work-related items in her favorite color (also genetic, from the maternal side), blue. Each item's a multitasker, same as she. 

LOVE languages tote bag, BucktoothedBunny

Tote bag / Message to Self. Girl carries huge folders and files and papers everywhere, because she rarely stops working. Here's a sweetly optimistic and appropriately global-centric and heartfelt tote that, when in the elevator with the Mayor on the way to your office in the morning, you can flip to render plain workaday navy, and then flip it back for a smile at the sight of all that lovely love.

14 oz blue coffee mug, JDWolfepottery

Coffee Cup / Sign of Professional Self-Respect. Since high level types shouldn't be wielding paper cups with logos and plastic lids from their desk, here's a cup for pouring the rest of her take-out latte into.

Button bracelet, nicolecarey

Jewelry / Figgedagibbit. Otherwise known in the female workforce as a bracelet to fidget with while reviewing massive budgets and spreadsheets. Also doubles as sign of being not without a sense of humor when dealing with possibly resentful colleagues who might otherwise label a newly promoted person as suddenly inaccessible.

Open Sea photo, Maddenphotography

Art / Covert Escapist Moment. When the four walls and million items on the to-do list are beginning to multiply on their own, a photograph of the sea, positioned somewhere very easily stared at, will help.

Underwood typewriter, Sarahanntiques

Bangable Object / Childhood Reminder. When we were little and Mom took us to work with her (she worked in a museum), we got to play in the meeting room with the office supplies. My sister liked to play librarian — stamping on "library cards" with a loud, resolute thump, or write irate, overblown letters on the old manual typewriter, which often resulted in tangled diatribes and tirades in which one letter was superimposed over the other until the paper shredded against the roller. Always good to remember one's roots. 

Swing arm lamp, AMRadio

Lightgiver / Possible weapon. Long ago we sisters decided that swing-arm lamps made great swords and staged a mock swordfight using our desk lamps, which we unplugged and pulled out of their clamp stands with great force. Our house was modern; our mother was furious; but we had a blast. Now that she's a grown-up, she can just swing the lamp a bit too abruptly in some fool's direction. Should have a good effect.

Giant hat, Floradorahats

Beach hat the size of an umbrella / Relaxation strategy. The heck with work, honey. Go to the beach. Having a birthday in July has its advantages. Enjoy them!

things we carry

left to right, bottom row: bucktoothedbunny bag, vintage change purse, vintage measuring tape. Middle row: Kiehl's hand salve, Burt's Bees lip shimmer, Smith's lip balm, silver hairband, beat-up iphone, envelope from dad, Muji ruler, Moleskin notebook, Muji pen, other pen, Robert Marc custom clip-on shades in vintage leather case. Top row: keys to the warehouse with Tekserve lights and gym pass, sports tape, 1950s vintage mirror from mom's high school dance purse.

Jana's bag

Hi. I'm Jana, from luncheonettevintage. The truth is, I don't really have one bag. I have about five of them going at any one time, some vintage, some not, some big, some not. I just use the one that suits the day. The day I photographed this was a go to town day: trips to the organic supermarket, a thrift shop, and a stint in a cafe to work on an article (there's nothing like a soy cappuccino from this place). And the best go to town bag is the Alice in Wonderland shoulder bag by bucktoothedbunny, which I use all the time. Having Alice with me is a nice reminder to enjoy the ride.

All laid out on our kitchen table (1950s, from a yard sale) is what you might call the daily carry. The bag may change, but the daily carry doesn't:

Wallet, a pebble grain leather Tusk which my mom gave me years ago. It holds an amazing amount of stuff. See Fellini's concept of a film within a film: it's my carry within a carry.

Vintage see-through change purse that was a welcome surprise from someone I did a shop trade with. I was really after a 1960s green-flocked paisley recipe binder, but this has proved far more useful. The binder sits on a shelf look. And haven't used but like to admire.

Very weathered, softened, faded (to the point of not being entirely readable in dim light, but I'm loyal) measuring tape I got from my great friend and superb artist and metalsmith Carolanne. She moved to LA and I miss her big terrible. Great to have a measuring tape in your bag when you're looking at vintage and can't figure out a size, or just feel like whipping it out to look official.

iphone. not the 4g. the 3g. As in, I'm not fallin for your hype, apple. Not until I've saved up enough to upgrade.

And the photo on the iphone is my sister, posing in front of a barn from a recent upstate jaunt. Sisters rule!

Kiehl's ultimate strength hand salve, a must. We live a farmer's life around here, and then there's all that hand-washing after rifling through vintage. If you spend any time at your local Salvation Army thrift shop, you know what I mean.

Smith's minted rose lip balm, which tastes delicious, and was a present from my sister. Every year we give each other lots of little items like this. We're both hard workers who sometimes forget things like brushing our hair. So often, we give each other hair brushes

Note there is no hair brush in this carry. Draw your own conclusions.

Burt's Bees pink lip shimmer. My Chanel lipstick lives in the night bag, I swear.

Hairband, silver, which unfortunately matches at least 20 strands of my brown hair.

Sports tape, to tape up the arch of my foot before I go for a run. This way I never lose the tape, at least theoretically.

Set of keys to the warehouse with a great little Tekserve flashlight tab on it and the "You're #1" key-fob from my friends at the RV sales place. Sometimes they have airstreams, and I get to look and dream.

Very delicate and worn out clip-on shades (custom-made) to my very delicate and worn out Robert Marc eyeglasses.

2 essential pens: a Muji multipen with 6 different colors, and a black uni-ball Signo.  Muji rules.

The anti-moleskin moleskin notebook: it comes in packs of threes, and the pages are big enough to hold my notes for the article or story I'm writing. I color code them by month by coloring in the spine stitches (e.g. 5 stitches colored in = this book was used for May). I go through a lot of these.

Envelope from a letter my dad sent me recently, because I love his handwriting, and he's been writing to me at nearly a hundred addresses all my life.

Mirror in a satin case from a 1950s clutch that used to belong to my mother in the actual 1950s. I think she wore it to a high school dance, and no doubt looked absolutely elegant. I find myself keeping all sorts of these little artifacts close: they remind me of her, but they also remind me to check in the mirror, as she might say.

Debatable as to whether or not this is necessary, but I love the muji aluminum 6" ruler.

The only thing missing is my car key, but that lives on the end of a bandana that I've kind of twisted and tied to make it very large and unmistakable. That lives in my car, unless I am in town and tie the bandana around the shoulder strap of the bag, then tuck the key inside where it can finally have a nap.

That's it. That's the daily carry.