The Pressure Of A Name

Coming up with names for things has never been something that I have been good at. Unfortunately, I recently realized that I have to name lots of things from documents I create, to new drinks, to new food items, to new projects, and now to a new business. Luckily, my partner tends to have a natural affinity to the creative process of naming something. She has solicited people's input, researched words online, dreamt of new words to the English language, and even badgered me enough to cough up a couple attempts.

Since November, we have spent countless hours labouring over a name that we could mutually agree upon. Last count, we had close to a thousand possibilities. Tucker and I are really different. In many ways, I believe that any success of our business has come from our ability to combine our differences. Over the years, we have learned from each other and most days, working together seems to get easier and better. Sometimes, though, we still get stuck on how different our minds work.

Looking for something new, when you have something that is so great right in front of you, is never easy. Most of us are quite happy to keep what we have. Some have even asked, "Why fix something that's not broken?" So, why not just call our new cafe: Diesel Cafe? It's true that brand recognition plays a large role in the success of a business. And it is true that in the past eight years, we have worked hard to develop a name for Diesel Cafe. But what is maybe more true is that we never want to feel like a chain and technically it only takes two stores to become a chain. We want each location to feel unique on its own right and part of that comes from a name.

Opening a new store is not just opening a second location, but starting a new business from scratch. The creation of a new business is exciting because it is like a blank slate. We have more experience and more confidence, but we are getting another chance to give birth to and nurture something totally new. While George Foreman might be ok naming all of his kids the same name, we are hoping that our creations will be unique and stand on their own.

One of the concepts that Tucker and I continue(d) to overlap on was the idea of connection/ meeting spaces. So much of what we have done at Diesel revolves around the community that has been created within. We wanted a word that could reflect that. We both were attracted to the word "union" both for its relevance in geography but also in meaning. Unfortunately, Union Square is saturated with Union Fill-In-The-Blank businesses. So the objective became to up with a like word that was something other than "union." Surprisingly, we found common ground on the word "bloc." By definition, bloc means: "a combination of persons, groups, or nations forming a unit with a common interest or purpose." This seemed perfect in concept, so agreed. We also agreed that calling it simply Bloc Cafe sounded a little hard or lacking in some way, so we kept searching. We decided to add the word/number "Eleven/11" into the mix for several reasons. We thought it had a nice ring. It is also my favorite number. As luck would have it, 11 is our address on Bow Street. And lastly, it is the number of years that Tucker and I have known each other. From that, Bloc 11 was born.

We look forward to seeing what is in store for Bloc 11.

Sign On The Dotted Line

The signing of a lease only signifies the beginning of a journey laden with phone calls, messages, and more signatures. We signed a lease, signed a contract with our builder, signed documents for a bank loan, signed more papers for the city, signed waivers, signed agreements; Tucker even signed up for a cell phone. One of the last few remaining in the 21st century without a cell phone, she succumbed to the benefits of mobile communications. We mostly communicate via text messages, or "tex mexes" as she calls them.

Communication will be our biggest challenge with the new location. Communication amongst staff, owners, managers, customers, friends, and family. How do we maintain positive and meaningful communication when it feels as though we don't even have time to go to the bathroom some days? Anyhow, back to Bow Street.

Demolition has always been my favorite part. It's like opening a giant Christmas present. You sign a lease, only looking at the wrapping paper. Once you start the demo, though, you begin to peel away the layers of wrapping, hoping that you got what you asked for. This time, though, the beautiful wrapping paper had hidden an even more lovely gift. As the walls came down and the drop ceiling was torn out, and the fluorescent lighting laid aside, we had uncovered a real gem. Not the polished kind you might give to a lover, but the kind that you find as a kid and pretend is the most precious stone known to mankind. You may even give it a name and ascribe fictional history to it, but I wouldn't know. We could never have guessed or hoped for what lay before our eyes. Underneath the thin layer of white powder that coated everything, we had the most gorgeous space I had ever seen, and it was ours. But still, was it enough to make people come to Union Square, to come to Pallet?

This picture I posted reminds me that to make things happen, we must look up and forward, not necessarily at the perspective that seems most obvious or easy. It is easy for me to get stuck in cyclical obsessions of permitting, bills, rents, staffing, permitting, bills, rent, staffing. I try to remind myself that the challenge is to stay focused on what is going on right now and what we are hoping to achieve. These things will fall into place.

Coming Soon,

From the owners of Diesel Cafe in Davis Square. Sometimes, visions are carefully thought out and planned over the course of years. And sometimes, great things can happen fast. Such is the case of our newest location in Union Square. In late November of 2006, a week before Thanksgiving Thursday, we were approached by the proporietor of the Zeitgeist Gallery to consider a second location in Union Square. At first, we felt apprehensive and unprepared to take on such a large venture. The landlord wanted to sign a lease on December 1st, less than a week after the first conversation about a new store for us. Needless to say, we felt hurried and rushed to make a decision. Tucker and I had been talking about a second location for a while now, but nothing had pushed us to take that final leap. Our current location had been running quite smoothly for the past few years and taking a risk to put everything on the line again was proving a little bit easier said than done. Anyone in the business, or anyone who knows anything about the business will tell you not to fall in love with the space. I would tell anyone not to fall in love with the space. It's a lot like falling in love with another person, it's irrational, it's nonsensical and it can make you crazy. So, we fell in love with the space and we jumped.

We signed a lease in December 2006 and started demolition a week later.