Ch-ch-changes, five years and events
Hello everyone who still largely enjoys long format writing, and for those of you who really enjoy it, forgive me for my lack of practice. Maybe I’ll get there. For now, forgive my rambling sentences, thoughts, and heavy use of commas.
There’s a handful of shifts and changes I’d like to touch on, and a few exciting events happening within the next few days and helpful information on all the things.
First and foremost, EVENTS!
7/25 Friday, closed 7:45 onwards inside and out to celebrate a guests birthday
7/26 LTD Sushi X Off Alley Izakaya take over, details to get in, to follow
8/1 Off Alley 5 year anniversary, 3pm onwards
Saturday 7/26 Keiji from LTD Sushi will be in our kitchen Saturday 7/26, many of you already know that, and made reservations through our little secret newsletter link. So many in fact, we sold out of reservations within 48 hours. In the vein of never being exclusive, we only took reservations for half our capacity for the night. That means, walk ins will be be encouraged, and first come first served. We’ll open our doors at 4pm for drinks outside, which is when we’ll start the waitlist (which normally starts at 5, so if you’re reading this, you get an extra chance before everyone else) We have over 40 spots for our waitlist, but we predict they’ll go fast. We’ll be cooking late, until we run out of food.
Friday 8/1 Will be our five year anniversary, to the day. I cannot express how excited I am to celebrate with everyone, so you’ll need to show up and experience my joy in person. 3 pm start time, no reservations, no chairs inside, bar/finger food and magnums of wine. For those of you who attended our one year and three year parties, think similar vibes. If you’ve just discovered us or missed the first few parties? Show up, you’ll have fun.
However, this time we’ll be having Christopher Gay tattooing Alley Cats for anyone who wants to permanently remember our little restaurant, and I’m still trying to figure out some late night live music. We’ll be spilling into the streets, and hope you decide to celebrate with us. Five years is an incredible milestone for any restaurant, and we cannot wait to celebrate you and all your support for five whole years. This is not a party to be missed, that I promise.
As for the changes, the largest shift in change has been quietly happening in the background for months. As our frequent regulars may have noticed, Meghna Prakash has not been seen at the restaurant with an apron on for some time.
Meghna, while many of you know, built the restaurant with myself, and was here every day for the first several years we were open. Even if you didn’t see her on the rare chance, she was hard at work in the background.
Meghna and I were thrilled with how well we worked together as a married couple, and there’s absolutely no way Off Alley would have survived COVID, or any of the many hurdles thrown at us without her constant support and hard work. Late nights cleaning down the restaurant with just the two of us, or staying up late shucking fava beans or english peas in front of the television eating cold left overs at 2 am. Meghna did, well a lot of everything, including all the joyless computer work and administrative tasks it takes to run a business.
Meghna has moved on from the restaurant, and is no longer the “mom” in the “mom and pop” operation we have been since we opened. This is an amicable separation on our parts, we’re still very much friends and share custody of our two furry family members. She’s landed a great new job, is flourishing, and we wish her the absolute best on her new role as a vice president of operations, a title she very much deserves. You’ll still see her around, rather just as a patron enjoying the space the same as you all reading this, she’s as excited as we are to celebrate our upcoming five year anniversary.
So the first of many changes, is that I (Evan) will be the sole voice of Off Alley now. Newsletters, social media, business and kitchen are all now being run by myself, with support from our wonderful team.
Karel is now back, to take over Meghna’s role of buying wine (However, that change won’t be as perceptible, we’re keeping our original wine buying philosophies in tact. Along with Evan is getting more and more involved again after years away)
The next large change, will happen August 1st onwards. We’re getting rid of our tasting menu’s, and going back to our original, shared plates style of service. We know a lot of people very much enjoy the tasting menus, however, for us this change is a necessary one. With the rising costs of food/labor, (our offal prices across the board recently went up by 50%) we don’t just think raising prices is a solution. We also want to recreate and capture the feelings of spontaneity and curiosity the tasting menus didn’t provide. So for us, this change is a happy one.
While we’ve really enjoyed the structure a tasting menu allows us to play with cooking certain large formats dishes, such as whole pigs feet, pithiviers, and baked to order desserts with high levels of execution..
The structure has also taken away our ability to be as nimble on our feet as we would like. Farmers markets visits have become more shopping lists written, and less chances for myself to simply grab what looked good in that moment to me and create four or five portions of a dish, never to be seen again.
So, we’re leaning into our small, chalkboard style menu that gets dishes crossed out through the night. Changing the menu with more regularity, and leaning into creativity. A little more chaos, a little less structure, a little more fun. These are the things that provide us joy, and we hope that our joy is infectious, and you find it infecting you as well.
A little less fine dining, a little more punk rock, and as always, pretty fine food.
For all of those of you reading this, from the bottom of my heart I offer a sincere thank you, for all the years of support. I opened this restaurant almost five years ago never knowing if anyone would like it, other than me and a few cooks. It has turned into something so much bigger than I ever could have imagined, and the stories you all share with me have touched me and changed my life.
So thank you, everyone, for an incredible (albeit hard) five years.
Always searching for that joie de vivre,
Evan Leichtling
Chef / Owner Off Alley