On the watch list for January: Fresh snow, more minutes of daylight, and the newly expanded
Zingerman's Deli.
The two-story, 10,200 sq. ft. addition is close to complete. Workers are digging a new section of basement between the existing deli and the new building and connecting the two buildings on the basement and first floor levels. Zingerman's Deli Managing Partner Grace Singleton expects to open the addition to the public by mid-to-late January.
Zingerman's is targeting LEED Silver, or possibly LEED Gold, certification for the project. Among the eco-friendly features are a parallel rack system for the refrigerator units; instead of 25 separate compressors, there are four.
"Refrigeration makes waste heat, and so we're capturing that waste heat and using it to preheat water for the hot water tanks," Singleton says. The building also has a white roof. "They've done a lot of studies to prove that actually the most energy-efficient roof is a really light-colored roof that reflects the sun in the summer, because you use more energy to cool than you do to heat."
The expansion will add another 140 seats plus a second-floor deck with seating for 60 during warm weather to the 100 seats at Zingerman's Next Door, which will keep the same dining capacity, albeit more reminiscent of its original roots.
"Because it's always been our overflow seating, it kind of had almost two personalities," Singleton says, adding, "We're probably going to bring the bulk of coffee and tea over there, add some more of the sweets and confections and chocolate display we have...It'll still be open the whole time, but we'll be able to really focus on it as more of the coffee shop versus the coffee shop / overflow seating for the Deli."
Zingerman's forecasted adding another 60 jobs within five years of opening the new space, which has amenities such as a bathroom for the staff with a shower to encourage staff biking to work, Singleton says.
"We were working in the confines of the building we had, so we're very excited to have a much better workplace for our staff, where we have a break room and more restrooms, and we have an elevator to move freight around. And the flow of the work becomes much easier versus all the logistical hoops we had to jump through when we were in the older cramped kitchen...It was one of the main motivators for doing our project."
Source: Grace Singleton, managing partner of Zingerman's Deli
Writer: Tanya Muzumdar
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