The Making of Zahav

Back from Israel, the partners got some good news and some bad.

First the good news: The stone floor and wall tiles, put up in their absence, look amazing. (You're looking at The Quarter, the fancier room, through an archway. In the center of the photo is one entrance to the restaurant, the one from the courtyard of Society Hill Towers. At right is the wood stove.)

The metalwork above the kitchen counter, which you can see in the bottom photo (and which is to the right of the wood stove), is a beautiful touch, and gives the appearance of window frames.

Now for the bad news, starting with the projected opening, pushed from April 1 to sometime in May.

The tiles took a week longer to install than expected because of the difficulty of the pattern. Time is money.

Speaking of money... The partners also learned that if you're going to burn raw materials (e.g. wood or charcoal), you need to have a separate kitchen hood -- that gleaming fixture that every restaurants has above the stove to exhaust the fumes from the cooking area.

The 30-foot hood that came with the restaurant will not legally work with both the gas stove and the partners' shiny, new $6,000 charcoal grill. The bill for new hoods: $36,000.

The partners have decided to bag the idea of stitching together lovely Oriental rugs for the flooring in The Quarter. Wall-to-wall carpet will do just fine. "Our budget is threadbare," says Steven Cook.

In this photo, you can barely see the old hood tucked behind the newly framed "windows" over the kitchen counter. Yes, this is a job and a half. Workers will have to remove the old hood in sections and then carefully place the new hoods.