In what was once a scraggly paved lot next to Dodge City, you'll now find a glass storefront flanked by a trio of brightly painted industrial shipping containers. El Rey, the long-awaited taqueria and beer garden set to open early next month on U Street, was created almost entirely from the giant steel boxes, a resource that's finding favor around the world as an inexpensive, upcycled way to build both restaurants and living quarters.

"Anything that's under cover is containers," says Ian Hilton, who with his brother, Eric, is one of the primary proprietors of the 3,100-square-foot El Rey.

The idea itself isn't new; Southeast Washington entertainment venue Fairgrounds uses the containers, too, though mostly as eye-candy. El Rey, which means "the king" in Spanish, is the first construction in Washington to employ them in substantive ways, to build out kitchens, bathrooms, dining space and design flourishes. In back, a large patio sits under a retractable roof, which can slowly roll back on nice days to shed sunlight on diners, or keep everyone under cover when the prospect of being outdoors is less appealing.

El Rey's menu will focus on tacos and tequila. It will keep a handful of beers on tap, most hailing from Mexican brewers, with a few lesser-known South American brews as well. At a street-facing window, U Street partiers will be able to score tacos without walking inside. But getting to this point was a three-year process, one that included rethinking the whole model for the business.

How El Rey was built:

July 2010: Co-owner Eric Hilton broaches the idea for a temporary summer beer garden and taco shop built out of industrial steel shipping containers. "I had seen, in different places in the Caribbean, houses built out of containers. It's a cool, recycled building material," says Hilton, whose other restaurant/bars include

The first proposed design submitted for El Rey, at 919 U St. NW. (Edit Lab @ Streetsense)

Brixton, Marvin and American Ice Company. "One of our partner-investors owns a shipping company [the Washington-based Paxton Van Lines], so that made it pretty easy to get them." The original plan? "We thought we were just going to throw some containers down and build some bathrooms and call it a day," Hilton says. "The project just sort of mushroomed."

Early 2011: Change of plans. Goodbye, "temporary." The District requires El Rey to undergo the same review process as a permanent structure, and rent on the property is due year-round, regardless of whether the restaurant would be open, co-owner Ian Hilton says. The team decides to rethink El Rey, adding the infrastructure of a year-round business, including a roof.

The architects' second go at El Rey adds a fixed roof over part of the restaurant, and a retractable roof over the beer garden. (Edit Lab @ Streetsense)

The rest is here:
How El Rey, D.C.’s first shipping-container restaurant, was built on U Street

Study: Teens ditching Facebook for other social media sites Study: Teens ditching Facebook for other social media sites

Updated: Friday, December 27 2013 10:25 PM EST2013-12-28 03:25:10 GMT

What does 2014 have in store for your life online? If you're young, it may not involve Facebook as much as an older brother, sister, mom, or dad.

What does 2014 have in store for your life online? If you're young, it may not involve Facebook as much as an older brother, sister, mom, or dad.

Updated: Friday, December 27 2013 10:23 PM EST2013-12-28 03:23:10 GMT

People are lining up to buy the original Air Jordan which Nike is re-releasing on Saturday.

People are lining up to buy the original Air Jordan which Nike is re-releasing on Saturday.

Updated: Friday, December 27 2013 9:30 PM EST2013-12-28 02:30:42 GMT

Attorney General Lisa Madigan filed a lawsuit Friday asking a judge to order a review of what caused an explosion earlier this month at a South Suburban chemical factory that left two workers hurt.

Attorney General Lisa Madigan filed a lawsuit Friday asking a judge to order a review of what caused an explosion earlier this month at a South Suburban chemical factory that left two workers hurt.

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Construction worker dies after mall construction collapse

In the span of the last year, Adrian Romero went from construction worker to food truck operator to brick-and-mortar restaurateur, specializing in the Agua Prieta-style Mexican cuisine he grew up on in Douglas.

On Dec. 13, Romero, who has lived in Tucson 13 years, opened Ole Rico Mexican Steakhouse in the original Mr. K's BBQ space at 1830 S. Park Ave. The restaurant serves a streamlined menu of burritos, Mexican sandwiches and quesadillas, ranging in price from $2.50 to $4.50. The most expensive item on the menu is the $12 grilled steak plate served with tortillas.

Romero said he has been cooking all his life, but he made his living doing construction with an uncle in Tucson. Last spring, he rolled out his Ole Rico food truck, which looks like a little cabin on wheels. He cooked steaks and burgers on an outdoor grill fueled by mesquite wood. He parked mostly on Tucson's southside near South Valencia Road and South Westover Avenue, and took the truck out on weekends to a few community events including Cyclovia and Second Saturdays Downtown.

Business was good, but the south side neighborhood wasn't the safest.

"It was kind of dangerous where I was at," Romero said. "Where I was at in Pima County, it was hard to find a spot."

Romero said he decided to make the leap to permanent restaurant after talking to the building's owner, Charles Kendrick.

Kendrick, the namesake for Mr. K's BBQ, runs his Afro-American Heritage Museum in half of the building and has had a restaurant in the other half since the late 1990s.

"I think it was the only possible setup for me to work the menu because he has the outside grills," Romero said.

Romero said he started working on cleaning up and painting the space in November. It had been vacant for months, since a short-lived Caribbean restaurant closed last summer. Mr. K's, which Kendrick's son, Ray, ran for more than a decade, moved further south on Park to 6302 S. Park Ave. in summer 2012.

Ole Rico is open 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays, 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays.

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From roadside to storefront, food truck owner makes the leap

the Holiday Inn Bordeaux is offering a new dining experience. The hotel opened Generals' Quarters on Dec. 19 in the spot formerly occupied by the All American Bar & Grille.

The All American Bar & Grille was closed following a salmonella outbreak in May. The hotel and restaurant are now managed by Interessant Hospitality based in Orlando, Fla.

Generals' Quarters features a casual menu of appetizers, salads, pizza, burgers and sandwiches.

"We are aiming for a place where people can relax more so than a night club feel, which is what it used to have," said Heidi Scheffler, the restaurant's food and beverage manager.

The kitchen is led by new executive chef John Turner, who trained at Johnson & Wales University and has worked in restaurants from Manhattan to Atlanta, said Heidi Politi, a sales manager at the hotel.

The new menu highlights fresh foods and appetizers, such as the crispy catfish bites served with Southern tartar sauce and fried okra. One item that caught my eye was the Cracker Jack Salad, made with caramel corn, peanuts, turkey and apple vinaigrette. I was a big fan of Cracker Jack as a kid. I can't wait to see how the sweet crunch of caramel corn adds to a salad.

The restaurant also received a makeover. Patrons will notice more historical military decor. The restaurant is decorated with items from local military surplus stores and from the Airborne & Special Operations Museum.

"We wanted to pay homage to the military and the community's military roots," Politi said.

Sports fans can watch games on any of the 15 flat-screen televisions. The restaurant opens each day at 4 p.m. and is at 1707 Owen Drive.

I know reading about food is probably the last thing you want to do after a few weeks of turkey, ham and sweet goodies. But bear with me. I have a few more tidbits in restaurant news.

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Retail Therapy: Restaurant at the Holiday Inn Bordeaux has a new look, new menu

STUART As they begin restoring two old buildings at a prominent downtown spot along U.S. 1, Jeff and Christine Hardin have persuaded the owners of a popular Tequesta dining spot to open their second restaurant there.

Hog Snappers, which opened in August 2009 at 279 S. U.S. 1 in the Palm Beach County part of Tequesta, has signed a 10-year lease for the former Bubbas Fish Camp site at 421 S. U.S. 1 in Stuart that has been vacant for more than a decade.

The Hardins company, Straticon Construction Services, specializes in restoration work. They paid $590,000 in February for the 1.34-acre site in Stuart that holds the 64-year-old restaurant property and the 86-year-old building that had been a hotel in its previous lives.

Jeff Hardin said as soon as the city of Stuart grants the permits, he will begin the $400,000 renovation project to build out Hog Snappers to the Rivaldos specifications.

How the two got together is a tale of fate.

After the Hardins bought the property, they looked for a suitable restaurant to fill the space.

Friends told them about Hog Snappers, he said, so they tried it.

We liked the restaurant so much we went and recruited them, Jeff Hardin said.

Hog Snappers owners Arthur and Melanie Rivaldo said the renovated building in Stuart will have the identical menu and seating capacity as their Tequesta restaurant.

But about 60 percent of the 74 seats in Stuart will be under cover outdoors. The Hog Snappers in Tequesta has no outdoor seating.

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Hog Snappers restaurant in Tequesta adding Stuart site

To ensure your restaurant opens on time and within budget, make sure you have your delivery dates nailed down and align yourself with an experienced restaurant construction firm.

We recently gave a restaurant trade magazine some tips on budgeting for a restaurant construction timeline. While the construction best practices we shared might be common knowledge with our experienced Chicago restaurant construction clients, I realize novice restaurant owners or entrepreneurs opening fast-casual franchise restaurants may not know how to create a successful restaurant construction schedule.

First and foremost, a restaurant construction timeline mainly depends on the following:

As the best restaurant construction firms will tell you, the most common reason construction schedules and budgets increase for a restaurant opening is not due to a commercial construction crisis (such a burst pipe, etc.), but because the restaurant contractor is waiting for delivery of construction materials. The scheduling of deliveries is absolutely crucial in opening a restaurant on time.

Because of this, successful general contractors will make sure independents and novice franchisees are aware of all the processes that go into opening a restaurant before construction even starts.

Note: it is during the restaurant design process when lead times on equipment and finishes are realized. For example, an oven could take six weeks to be delivered, certain wall tiles could take four weeks. As an operator discovers these lead times, he/she will start to prepare the construction timeline based on the delivery of these items. Of course, a restaurant construction contractor can also help owners prepare their delivery schedule.

And it is during the bidding process when the best general contractors will perform exploratory services to see if a roof needs to be replaced, if bathrooms arent up to code or if there are any serious construction demons all of which will affect your commercial construction budget and schedule.

Only after these three processes are done can you actually start building your restaurant. Too often, new restaurant operators rent space before they even hire an architect, which is a costly mistake to a restaurant construction budget and timeline. Restaurant operators could be paying rent on a space that they havent even moved into yet.

One way to avoid paying rent on a restaurant space before you open is to make sure there is verbiage in the lease/contract that says something along the lines of rent to commence within 20 days of opening and here is our projected opening date.

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Englewood Commercial Construction - Restaurant Construction ...

John Rivers' dream to open a Texas-style barbecue restaurant simmered for years on the back burner.

The life of this former health-care executive and Jacksonville native had always been fueled by faith and determination. So it was no surprise to many friends that in 2004 he launched a barbecue ministry to help members of a local family pay the mountain of medical bills associated with their daughter's battle with cancer.

Meghan Joyce lost her battle in 2005 at age 7, but her courage, strength and spirit laid the foundation of the core values of what was to become 4 Rivers Smokehouse. In the beginning, Rivers cooked out of his garage for various ministries, charities and friends.

In fact, the original 4 Rivers Smokehouse near Interstate 4 on Fairbanks Avenue was not conceived as a restaurant when it opened in October 2009.

"It was supposed to be commissary for the ministry," said Rivers. A takeout component was added to "Winter Park 1," as the team refers to the building that is now home to B&B Junction, a farm-to-table burger joint. "The next thing we knew, we had a line out the door and a parking issue to overcome."

Locations in Winter Garden and Longwood followed in 2011, and the cramped original Winter Park eatery moved east on Fairbanks Avenue into the old J&W Landscaping property in 2012. And a bakery component called The Sweet Shop offering premium ice cream and artisan shakes, drop-dead gorgeous baked goods and gourmet whoopie pies was added to the new entities.

Today, 4 Rivers has locations in Jacksonville and Gainesville, an eatery on track to open in April on University Boulevard near the University of Central Florida, and in July or August there will likely be another opening in Orange Park, near Jacksonville. There is also a line of sauces and rubs, and a mail-order operation.

And Rivers has just published his first cookbook, "The Southern Cowboy Cookbook," which includes recipes that were menu inspirations for The Coop, his soon-to-open restaurant concept in Winter Park that will focus on Southern comfort foods, including fried chicken.

Rivers is a four-time participant at the Food Network South Beach Wine & Food Festival, and he has cooked at the James Beard House in New York.

"It hard to believe we're at this point in the road," said Rivers.

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Restaurant founder John Rivers builds 2nd career of faith and barbecue

GATESVILLE A construction contractor began razing a 22-year-old, landmark restaurant to make room for a new Stripes convenience store.

In 1991, Andy Lella opened Andys Restaurant as it continued to be known even after its name changed to The Stockyard Steakhouse at the corner of U.S. Highway 84 and Business 36.

When Gatesville voters legalized the sale of beer and wine in the city last year, the Stripes convenience store chain made Lella an offer for the prime location.

The new store will sell alcoholic beverages, Lella said.

We will open a new Andys Restaurant on Main Street in Gatesville in March, Lella said, although he has not yet decided on the specific location.

The new Andys will be more modern, more efficient and smaller than the original, he said, but will have the same kitchen staff preparing the same menu.

The new restaurant will not serve beer and wine, Lella said.

The old eatery was a popular meeting place for local civic clubs, hungry ranchers, church-goers, bikers, locals and travelers young and old for more than two decades.

Coryell County artist Jon Brown painted a mural on three inside walls of the restaurant depicting the courthouse square.

Several local residents, including Lella, were featured in the painting.

Read more here:
Restaurant torn down to make way for Stripes

OLD SAYBROOK - Two storms have taken the Dock & Dine restaurant at Saybrook Point down, but not out.

Many area patrons of the iconic shorefront restaurant, in operation since 1940, worried its destruction by two storms in two years would finally take it down for good.

Since the restaurant suffered substantial damage in Superstorm Sandy, federal flood insurance rules required that, if it were to be rebuilt, it would have to meet current construction standards for structures in flood zones.

But owner Jon Kodama was not done. Forming a new firm, The Point, LLC, he and his partners decided to rebuild the Dock & Dine, this time to modern flood code standards.

The proposal started moving through the land use approval process in October 2013. After just six meetings with five commissions, The Point, LLC's, applications to construct a new, 13,500-square-foot restaurant 14 feet above the Connecticut River were approved. The last clearance, from the town's Zoning Commission, was secured Dec. 2.

With these approvals now in hand, the restaurant construction process can begin.

According to Joe Wren, project site engineer and owner's agent, the first step, demolition of the existing structure, should be completed by Jan. 15, 2014. Once the debris is cleared, drilling crews will move in. From mid-January through February 2014, 140 piles that will support the future restaurant facility will be driven.

Wren said that The Point, LLC, expects to finish construction of the new Dock & Dine, a restaurant facility that will be able to accommodate up to 425 patrons, by July 2014.

Several details of the new restaurant plans offer improvements for the general public and for patrons.

"The new building is set six feet further back from the river [than the original]," explained Wren.

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Taken Down Twice, But Not Out

Photo courtesy Henry Vilas Zoo

Construction of the Arctic Passage exhibit at the Henry Vilas Zoo is set to start in the spring of 2014, according to a release.

The new exhibit is the result of a historic partnership between the county and The Friends of the Henry Vilas Zoo, officials said. Dane County plans to award JP Cullen a $9.4 million contract to build the exhibit and indoor restaurant, pending approval by the Dane County Board.

Arctic Passages improved design brings polar bears back to Madison with a larger habitat and an underwater viewing area that brings people closer to one of the bears, according to the release. The exhibit will also include a new habitat for grizzly bears, complete with a creek that can be stocked with fish, which allows visitors the opportunity to watch a bear capture and eat a fish like bears do in the wild.

After years of planning, the county is set to break ground on the largest expansion in our free zoos 102-year history, Dane County Executive Joe Parisi said. This world-class exhibit will not only enhance one of the regions premiere destinations for families, it will provide important education on the impact climate change has had on the threatened polar bear population and our planet.

Also included in the habitat will be the first indoor dining option at the zoo. The restaurant will seat dozens, and includes a viewing window looking into the polar bear exhibit.

We couldnt be more excited to be a part of Arctic Passage, Tim Pertzborn of JP Cullen said. Its an honor to be able to contribute to a project that will have great economic and community impact regionally, in Dane County and in our neighboring Rock County as well.

Thanks to a community fundraising campaign, the Arctic Passage will also include a new exhibit for the zoos harbor seals, according to the release.

On the heels of this exciting step forward for the Arctic Passage, were excited to announce an anonymous $25,000 matching challenge grant to support the project, Friends of the Henry Vilas Zoo Executive Director Alison Prange said. We are asking community members to dig deep and help us match this grant by Jan. 18 to launch the final push to bring the bears back to Madison.

The project is estimated to cost a little over $10.5 million, according to the release. Dane County will fund $4.38 million of the exhibits design and construction costs. Friends of the Henry Vilas Zoo has raised $3.6 million and still needs to raise the remaining $1 million to complete the exhibit. The county will also fund the $1.6 million cost to design and build the indoor dining area.

Read more from the original source:
Construction on zoo?s new exhibit to start this spring