The Canning House
When it comes to The Canning house, I just don’t know where the story really starts.
Sometimes I think it begins when I was two years old (and every other year after) preparing dinner with my mom in her kitchen. Sometimes I think it starts when I was little and finding fun in making concoctions any chance I got, with anything I could get my hands on (Barbie hair included). Other times I am SURE it begins with bagging clams at my grandparents’ yearly community Clam Bake.
But then I remember how effected I was at an early age by the understanding of what the Holocaust was-and the reality that my grandparents survived it. I don’t remember a time that I wasn’t aware of how special the opportunity of my life was...is. It has always seemed so unlikely to me that I’m me, that I’ve gotten this amazing chance at existing right here and right now with all of you. For as long as I can remember my own thoughts, I’ve taken life very seriously.
There are so many stories that are the story of The Canning House, but it only seems right that I start by telling The One With The Kombucha.
As you may know by now, the Kombucha and I - we have this thing. It wasn’t planned and it just *poof*-happened-. I didn’t grow up wanting to start and run a Kombucha business, but I did always want to make people happy. I wanted to make things, and make people happy with them. The making was a half of the whole, incomplete without sharing.
I found something I loved, and did it. And kept doing it. Throughout the past 5 1/2 years, it has brought so much good into my life, more than I can explain. It’s brought me, one year to the next, into a life that continually challenges me to reach for everything I want. To do anything and everything to get it. To look past every inconvenient, difficult, and extra large bump in the road, and to do it anyways.
The Kombucha has challenged me to be who I always have been, and to shake off ALL of the rest. No stone has been unturned with this karmic connection that the Booch and I have. I’ve often said that I make the Booch and the Booch makes me, and I mean it. We seem to be a mirror for one another, existing in so many places all at once-yet somewhere together, just us.
The first year of The Booch was the year that a lot of dreams were built for me. I started to dream of it becoming my REAL job, of it being available in REAL stores, of one day-having a place that this #boochfam could come and drink Kombucha, so I could properly look you all in the eyes and say a REAL thank you.
And now here I am, 6 weeks into The Canning House, finally wrapping something so big and so challenging and so exciting and so wild, into words that make it all a really REAL thing. My boyfriend and I opened a restaurant. A RESTAURANT!
Connor, my partner in business and life, comes from a family that has owned and operated restaurants for over 40 years. It has been humbling and incredible to team up with him, as he has a true wealth of knowledge in this field to the max. Opening a restaurant involves more moving parts than I could have ever known, but he knew! From the time that the first conversation happened about this exciting opportunity, to then opening the doors-it was two months.
From the floor to the ceiling, we renovated. We spent weeks painting chairs and tables, designing the kitchen and finding/moving in equipment, hiring and building menus, trying products and meeting with purveyors. It was morning, noon and night there for a solid two months.
It felt like we were living, front and center, in a reality show called “Build a restaurant in 60 days: Mission Impossible?”. It was putting into practice everything I’ve learned over the past 5 1/2 years with the Kombucha. All at once, everyday. Every part of me that wanted to save the brave for later was given no choice. I had to suddenly make big decisions every day, be decisive everyday, and above all-believe in myself everyday. Opportunity knocked, and ready or not-we signed up.
It has taken me a really long time to be able to take this post from a book to well, a post. In part because working every single day running a business and building a business for months is mentally exhausting, and also-just so many feelings. I’ve stood in the doorway and cried tears of pure joy, happiness that my body couldn’t even contain. I’ve stood in the doorway and cried tears of pure system overload, feelings of fear and overwhelm that I’ve never felt so deeply. I even got lucky enough to stand in the doorway and cry watching one of my best friends head back to Los Angeles after flying in to paint his beautiful elephants for the restaurant, in the restaurant, on its first days.
It’s been everything, so much so that words have just not cut it. I’ve started writing this at least 10 times. I’ve told myself !tomorrow! most days. What it has meant to me, what it all is, it has been so hard to put to words.
I remember being in the wrong relationship and having the wrong job, feeling stuck in both at once, wondering which unmarked path would bring me to where I wanted to be. Small steps turned into big leaps, and I became less and less afraid to jump as high as I could.
You have all been my sunshine’s since the very beginning, #boochfam. You have supported me on a level that I didn’t even know existed. You have been my people, my cheerleaders, my friends, my family-the people that I make for. I get to do life with amazing businesses and entrepreneurs who support the product of my heart, and who allow me to share and spread it to the very best people. You’ve helped me be brave when I’ve needed to be, to believe in myself when it felt so darn hard, and to just-keep-going.
With this new journey underway, it has become even easier to see just how incredibly fortunate I have been to have you. Whether you have been around since the days of meeting at my car for your Kombucha, you’ve cheered me on from afar or you’ve allows my product to be a part of your business -you have made all the difference. Because of you I wake up everyday and work harder than the day before, because my why is ever growing. Your love, support, generous words and hearts drive me to do what I’m made to do more and more everyday.
My heart is as swollen as I thought it would be writing this. As you can probably tell, the Kombucha is so much more to me than a business-it’s my heart out in the world. To have a place to pour you a glass or a flight (A FLIGHT!🙆🏻♀️) and thank you for your love, I mean, it’s the dream. It’s the actual dream I’ve had in mind and soul.
I hope to see and meet so many of you there, in the newest extension of my heart. It’s full of pinks and greens, homemade and thoughtfully made food, #boochfam art hanging and painted on the walls (more to come on that), the love of my life as my partner and an amazing team, a Kombucha Bar and even our very own freshly made Brioche Doughnuts for Sunday Brunch.
I have so much more to say, and so much that I want to share with you about The Canning House. There will be many posts to follow and all kinds of details about the food, the art, the many people that helped us get here...but there is Kombucha to be made.
Thank you #boochfam, for giving me everything that is most sacred in this life, all of the most important and valuable gifts-your love and support never ever go unnoticed by this mushy heart of mine. You are the story of my life, the collective great big love that I’ve been lucky enough to have.