The Lunch Room

This past weekend Joel and Phillis teamed up with teen members of the Neutral Zone’s culinary arts club. Together we put on a Lunch Room-style event at the Neutral Zone. The dinner raised more than $500 to fund the club’s activities. Below are pictures from the preparation for the meal. Check out video footage on the posting beneath this one.

Sonya and Heather get psyched up for a long weekend.

Emma and Sonya chop vegetables for summer rolls.

Olivia dices cucumbers.

Drew and Olivia are hard at work slicing bread.

Joel and Nicole take a salad break.

Olivia poses with her tabletop artwork.

Emma puts her artistic skills to use.

Go team!!

COMING SOON: PHOTOS FROM THE EVENT ITSELF.

Part of the joy of starting a new food business is that you get approached by wholesalers like the wonderful AVALON BREADS to sample their goods. Joel and Phillis met with Avalon representatives on Friday to do just that.

Jacob and Lauren brought us an impressive and very tasty array of vegan breads and sweets. The olive bread and rye bread were so good we could have eaten the whole loaves. 

The cakes, cookies and bars were crazy good. It’s a good thing we came hungry! Workantile Exchange is a great meeting location downtown. Ask Joel about getting a tour and membership info.

Joel Panozzo was a boy who dreamed of someday having his own food cart. He imagined selling elephant ears and cotton candy to pleased customers — mostly his family and friends. At a tender young age he signed up for the Gold Star Products mailing list. How many young boys live for finding a fat catalog of kitchen and vending supplies in their mailbox? What did his parents think?

This week Joel’s dream came true. He visited Gold Star Products to look at items for his very own food cart. Cotton candy and elephant ears have transformed into summer rolls and curry potato wraps, but not much else has changed.

March 22, 2011, is a date that goes down in Joel Panozzo history.

Pulling into the Gold Star parking lot, the excitement is evident on Joel’s face.

Destiny fulfilled.

Just like the catalog, but better!

Stay tuned and watch the dream unfold in the shape of The Lunch Room’s food cart.

March 22, 2011
For more information contact:
Mark Hodesh, mark@downtownhomeandgarden.com, 734-662-8122

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Mark’s Carts eyes late April opening

Downtown outdoor food cart garden in Ann Arbor will offer gourmet street food ranging from breakfast burritos to pulled pork sandwiches to vegan treats.

With the warmer weather has come stepped-up construction on what is poised to become Ann Arbor’s premier street food scene. Workers are currently installing utilities and pouring concrete in the West Washington lot that will house up to ten food carts and a covered eating area. At the same time, work on a new commercial kitchen adjacent to the cart garden is in its final stages. Mark Hodesh, owner of Downtown Home and Garden and originator of the cart garden, predicts that Mark’s Carts will be up and running by late April.

“I am really pleased with how construction is shaping up,” said Hodesh. “At this pace, we will greet the spring by offering the community a wonderful new street food scene and attractive, affordable options for downtown dining.”

So far there are six food carts signed up for the cart garden. Hodesh is still accepting applications to fill the final four spots. Confirmed vendors at present include: San Street (Asian street food); Debajo del Sol (Spanish paella and tapas); The Lunch Room (vegan entrees, sides and baked goods); eat (locally sourced hearty sandwiches); Darcy’s Cart (breakfast burritos and more); and Humble Hogs (hoagies, braise-in-a bun, and other savory and sweet offerings).

Hodesh encourages other potential food cart operators to contact him. He is especially seeking vendors of Indian food, Jamaican food, and wood-fired pizza.

The idea for the food carts originated when Hodesh visited his daughter Jeanne in New York City last year. Impressed with the breadth of street food available there and the joyful, entrepreneurial spirit of the people running the carts, Hodesh decided to bring the concept home. Hodesh notes that Mark’s Carts also has an interesting historical connection: it is located on West Washington between Ashley Street and First Street, on the site of the former home of Herman Hertler. Hertler was one of the founders of Hertler Bros., the business that Hodesh bought in 1975 which is now Downtown Home and Garden.

A date for the cart garden opening will be announced in the coming month, as construction progresses.

“THE LUNCH ROOM” will soon have its name in lights. Joel and Andy created the large block letters last night. All that’s left to do is to sand and paint them, then mount them on the food cart roof. Painted white against an orange background and lit at night, these letters will make our food cart a spectacle to behold.

Please give us a holler if you have lead on any of the following items. Thanks!

yogurt maker

blender

cookie sheets

fire extinguisher

calibrated thermometer

cake trays

cupcake pans

stock pots

storage bins for dried goods

storage tubs w/ lids for refrigerator

food processor

hand mixer

mixing bowls

sautee pans

roasting pans/baking pans

tongs

single-use gloves

toaster

blender

juicer

rice cooker

fruit/veg scrubbers

knives

cutting boards

spatulas, spoons, peelers, other utensils

Local foodie, blogger, cook, and artist Nicole Ray published a really nice post about The Lunch Room today.

Read it here:

http://sloeginfizz.blogspot.com/2011/03/support-great-food-in-your-community.html

Local foodie, chef, and blogger Brian Steinberg wrote about The Lunch Room in his blog “Last One Eating.” Check out the story and photos here! There is even a sneak peek at The Lunch Room’s menu.

P.S. As we enter day 5 of our Kickstarter campaign we are 44% of the way to our goal. Take a look!

Mid-way through Day 3: $2864 raised. 35% to goal. We are getting excited. Please join in! We have great t-shirts, buttons, magnets, dinner parties etc. for your donations.

Click here.

 

The Lunch Room will open a food cart in April in Mark’s Cart’s courtyard. The Lunch Room’s Kickstarter financing campaign, launched today, is drawing wide support.

Today, The Lunch Room —the vegan foods brainchild of Phillis Engelbert and Joel Panozzo — launched a Kickstarter campaign to finance a food cart. Kickstarter.com is a website that facilitates the raising of start-up funds for creative projects. Entrepreneurs communicate their ideas through videos and offer rewards for donations. The Lunch Room hopes to raise $8,000 in a 30-day period. As of 3:00 pm, just eight hours after the launch of the campaign, $1,222 had been raised.

The Lunch Room was founded by next-door-neighbors and vegan foodies Engelbert and Panozzo in the summer of 2010. The pair began by cooking elaborate vegan meals for large groups of friends. In October the effort entered its “pop-up restaurant” phase. An underground undertaking, The Lunch Room operated on a reservations-only basis and served food at several different locations in Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti. It advertised its first event to an email list of 85 friends; as the word spread, that list grew to its current size of 375. The Lunch Room had held eleven dining events as of early March—including brunches, lunches, dinners—and had served over 450 meals. Reservations lists were capped at 35 to 50 people and sold out every time—sometimes within a day or two of being announced.

In early February, Engelbert and Panozzo learned of the initiative by Downtown Home & Garden owner Mark Hodesh to create a street food courtyard on W. Washington St., just west of Ashley, in downtown Ann Arbor. The Lunch Room applied for a coveted cart space and was accepted. The Lunch Room is now preparing for a spring and summer of selling food from a concessions cart. It will serve fresh, healthy, delicious, and economical breakfasts, lunches, dinners, sides, and baked goods.

For more information about The Lunch Room, see thelunchrooma2.com.

thelunchrooma2:

The food plate, clockwise from top left: oven-baked hash browns, cherry-oatmeal breakfast cookies, fruit and coconut-milk yogurt smoothie, carrot-fennel slaw, cauliflower-spinach-curry frittata.

THE CHEFS

Jeri

Joel

Phillis

Love those cookies!

Strummin’ and singin’: Me & Ryan (Jake Cinti & Ryan Shea)

It’s a party!

veganiemelanie:

   This morning (or I guess 12:45 is more afternoon) I went to the “best little vegan brunch in town,” The Lunch Room. It is a monthly meal put on by Phillis Engelbert and Joel Panozzo. They ask for a 15$ donation for fresh vegan food served on trays that beg a flashback to elementary school hot lunches. However, this was no pizza boat or tator tots.

   These two really know the way to a girl’s heart (and stomach). I walked in to be greeted by a few bottles of bubbly and a punch bowl of juice. As a college student, pre-gaming things with booze is all too familiar. However, shitty keg beer before a football game is  hardly comparable to classy mimosas before delicious vegan fare.

   The room was small and packed with long tables. Walking in I felt like everyone was staring at me. Surprisingly nervous, I sat at a table alone. I was not about to be the new girl in the card-carrying vegan club, and so (maybe with a little push from my mostly champagne mimosa) I sat at the cool kids table. I met a few new friends, and found myself recognizing familiar faces all around.

  Now to the food…

                                                The Brunch Menu

                                                Our meal!

                                         Frittata front and center

   We had a “frittata” of cauliflower and spinach that was curry-riffic. My new pal Tara said she could easily forget eggs if she could make it. Phillis has this amazing knack for making tofu tasty, whether it is making a fake frittata or vegan cream cheeze. Another highlight of the meal was the breakfast cookies. Joel said that they have 1/4 cup of sugar in the entire batch. As someone slowly reducing their sugar intake, they were my perfect little Nicotine patch. The chefs will be selling them at their food cart that will be opening in April at Downtown Home & Garden!

Struggle of the day: Resisting the guff paczkis and tagalongs in the kitchen all day. Damn you girl scout cookies.

year-off:

The Lunch Room served a record number of guests at its special Valentine’s Day dinner. We came up with a thematic, inspired and very tasty menu!

PREP

FIrst up, stuffed pasta shells with marinara sauce

Joel stirs the marinara.

Robbie displays the shell stuffing: a cashew cream-tofu-spinach-and basil mixture.

Phillis begins stuffing the shells.

Item #2: Beet-potato rosti hearts

Joel towers over Phillis to take this picture of her washing beets.

Combining the beets, potatoes, and onions.

Robbie presses the mixture into a heart-shaped cookie cutter.

Ready to bake!

Fun with focaccia

Andrea presses the focaccia dough into the pans.

Topped with sundried tomatoes, artichokes and oregano, these babies are ready for the oven.

Baked focaccia goodness!

Woah truffles!

Joel presses the truffles into heart shapes. Truffles=vegan chocolate, cashew cream, and raspberry preserves.

Chocolate-dipped strawberries

Joel preps the white wine sangria.

THE MAIN EVENT!

Sorry, folks, I FORGOT TO TAKE PICTURES… until the end.

Thank goodness Lunch Room guest Lisa Nauman sent a few shots! The rest you have to fill in yourself.

THE PLATE

Clockwise from top left: beet-potato-heart rosti, sundried-tomato artichoke focaccia, chocolate raspberry truffle with chocolate-dipped raspberry, Joel’s special spinach salad, stuffed pasta shells with marinara sauce.

Acoustic jazz was provided by Ryan Shea on guitar and Leif Gearhart-Hall on trumpet.

HAPPY PEOPLE

Here are some shots I took at the end of the evening:

Luckily, there were still a few hearty partying souls.

Other better-late-than-ever end-of-evening photos:

See you next time!

year-off:

The Lunch Room served nearly 50 hearty souls who braved several inches of snow and came to Workantile Exchange for DOWNTOWN TAPAS on Saturday night. The scene was beautiful, the music inspiring, and the food … well… devoured!

Thanks to the wonderful ANDY SELL for taking all the following pictures.

THE FOOD

Top left, clockwise: crostini with olive tapenade, patatas bravas, sesame tea cookies, paella de verduras, ensalada campesina.

THE STAFF

Joel and Phillis

and Celibeth

and Robbie

THE BAND

The Appleseed Collective with Ryan Shea

Click here for a recording of one of their songs at the event.

Ryan Shea

Brandon Smith of The Appleseed Collective, looking happy about his food.

THE GUESTS, THE SCENE

year-off:

Saturday night The Lunch Room held a Tapas Dinner at Workantile Exchange. Here is a recap of the pre-game show.

Celibeth displays the olive oil.

Joel wrestles with pans of roasting potatoes; Celibeth gives moral support.

Robbie with a parsely bouquet

Joel’s beautiful no-knead bread, fresh out of the oven.

Sesame tea cookies

Paella!

Soon to come: photos from the main event.

year-off:

The Lunch Room brunch this past Sunday featured delicious food, wonderful friends, and a special guest chef: Joel’s sister Jen Van Beek, from Benton Harbor. Jen developed the menu, provided recipes, and brought the special ingredients for the granola — plus she rustled up five waffle irons from friends. Yay Jen!

Prep began Friday when Joel and Phillis started the coconut milk yogurt. We heated the liquid, reduced the temperature, mixed in the starter plus maple syrup and pectin, and poured the mixture into sterilized glass jars. We then wrapped our “babies” in an electric blanket and kept them at a balmy 105 degrees for 25 hours. After all that, voila, we had yogurt!

The Saturday prep team:

Phillis, Joel, Andy & Jen.

BISCOTTI!

Mixing the batter.

Forming the loaves.

Mixing the chocolate and coating the biscotti.

GRANOLA!

Making the blueberry syrup

Poached pears with cranberry sauce

ACTION!

THE STAR OF THE SHOW: THE PLATE

Clockwise from top left: biscotti, poached pear with cranberry sauce, yogurt & granola, waffles with bananas and blueberry sauce, roasted potatoes with red peppers.

Jen & Joel

OUR GUESTS

NEXT UP: TAPAS DINNER ON FEBRUARY 5TH