I’m talking to Homemade Pie Kitchen owner Adam Burckle He is smiling and gesturing but I lost him at “..,going to be incredible!” His voice cannot compete with the drill and hammers on the roof above. His excitement can.
Standing with one shoe on hardwood floor and another on raw concrete base, Adam is surrounded by sawdust, dangling cords and buckets of paint.
Yet….
If they bake it we will come. Right?
Opening is planned by Friday this week. Me? I’ll wait patiently for a slab of their famous Dutch Apple w/Caramel. By a fireplace and with a shot of Bailey’s in my coffee if need be.
This is not the only positive chaos I see. Just a fork’s throw from the soon-to-be 10th Homemade Ice Cream & Pie Kitchen in Louisville, the low autumn afternoon sun hits a pink wall and turret of the two buildings that will corral The Comfy Cow Handcrafted Ice Cream & Desserts. I can only hope they will have my Banana Nana Fofana ready for the big bash.
I spot a tall gentleman hoisting a terra-cotta pot of Hardy Mums. While nature could not possibly match the rosy shade of the ice-cream parlor, it will be mauve mums that greet visitors to the opening of a third store.
Power washers spray the sidewalks to a brain-surgery clean as workers and trucks simply roll and trounce over it again in the race to beat the clock for a scheduled 11:00 a.m. -1o p.m. grand opening.
In this normally laid back block of the Clifton neighborhood, orange cones, scaffolding, delivery trucks, men in suits, men in paint-spattered britches are all moving toward one goal – to create an upbeat, neighborhood real-estate buzz that will Keep Louisville Weird. And quite sweet!
The fresh pink paint of Comfy Cow reminds us that a percentage of proceeds from tomorrow’s opening will go to the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. The battles of Frank Farris are in the past and should not be repeated. The fresh construction at Homemade Ice Cream & Pie Kitchen is in check with the historic design and for those of you who patronized the Longshot Bar, the signature plant in the window, Charlie, has been placed in fertile soil in Shelby County.
Early talk of “ice cream wars” have melted and I’m sure we’ll make welcome two – count ’em – TWO local business successes to the Frankfort Avenue corridor by, well, let’s see, by this weekend! In counting our blessings, plan to include proprietors Tim and Roy Koons-McGee and Adam and Mary Lee Burckle. There’s room for everybody.
Stay tuned for updates, photos and late breaking chocolate at The Pulse of the City. And don’t forget that DESSERTS is STRESSED spelled backwards.
