Restaurant owner Santiago Orosco has always taken a hands-on approach to running Under the Moon Café, his restaurant in Bordentown, NJ. The food is a unique combination of rich comfort food and South American flair with fresh ingredients, rich sauces, and enormous desserts hand made by his mother Estella. Santiago believes that the surroundings in a restaurant are just as important as the food in creating an environment where people feel at home, where they want to linger a little, sit back or lean in, and get comfortable.
In his Bordentown restaurant, Santiago created a decidedly warm, homey, vintage vibe. Where the wood pallet boards covering the walls are the backdrop for a collection of vintage radios, dishes, photos, suitcases, and silver platters. Where everything from the tables and chairs, to the plates, wine glasses, and pepper shakers are a mismatched collection of everything your mother or grandmother once owned. One day not long after he purchased his second location in Lambertville, NJ Santi dropped by our shop, sat down, and chatted with us about his vision. This new location would be heavily influenced by his background growing up in Argentina. He told us that his vision was to create the feeling of old Brazil, or Cuba, or San Juan. This new restaurant is small, so he wanted it to feel warm, intimate and cozy. He wanted it to feel like a place where families, couples, and friends have been gathering for generations to relax, to celebrate, to linger deep in conversation, and to fall in love. He wanted it to be colorful, comfortable, and aged to perfection. It All Started with that Ceiling photo by Clayre Saxon About once a week, Santiago would stop into our shop to buy Chalk Paint® by Annie Sloan. Over the course of a couple of months, he created a personal collection of just about every color in the Annie Sloan palette. Santi explained to us that he would be installing a new ceiling in the restaurant but before the installation, he wanted to apply the paint. So, he spent weeks hand painting 151 brand new 20” x 20” embossed plastic ceiling tiles until each one was a unique, colorful, hand painted work of art. Then Came the Floor photo by Clayre Saxon When Santiago’s paint buying slowed down, we knew he was nearing completion on the ceiling. Soon, he was coming into the shop for Annie Sloan’s Soft Wax. The restaurant needed a new floor, so he purchased new, unused pallet boards, sanded each one smooth, then applied Annie Sloan’s Dark and Black waxes to add dimension, depth, and age. Finally, it was Time to Think About the WallsOne afternoon Santi stopped in and instead of looking for paint or wax, he was looking for ideas. For the walls of his restaurant, he wanted color, but not bright color…he wanted it to look deep and rich. Santi explained that he wanted the color to be layered, and textured, and deepened with aged. He and Paul looked through the piles of samples boards we keep in our shop until one caught Santi’s eye. Paul explained the process then took out a large piece of plywood and demonstrated for Santi how the finish was created while I wrote down the step-by-step instructions. Santiago left with his supplies, instructions, and his sample board. A few days later he called Paul in a panic. Santi said that he finished painting the base coat and started applying the random colors and he panicked, afraid that he wasn’t doing it right. He searched for his sample board only to find that one of the contractors working in the restaurant had thrown it out! Santiago asked if we would be able to stop by reassure him, and provide him with a new sample. Paul offered something else – how about the two of us join him in the restaurant and between the three of us, it’ll make the job a little less overwhelming.
Santi took Paul up on our offer. Over the course of three days Paul, Santiago and I painted, scraped, waxed and buffed the walls of Under the Moon Café. The days were filled with work and music, meals and laughter, deep conversation and visits from friends and family. Santiago had achieved his vision, and the restaurant wasn’t even open yet. Annie Sloan, Clayre Saxon, and a Pair of CoincidencesOn a whim, many months after Under the Moon opened in Lambertville, NJ, I shared a few blurry photos of the restaurant on the private Facebook group of Annie Sloan stockists. Annie saw my post and asked if I could get better quality images as she was interested in featuring it in the next issue of The Colourist bookazine. I reached out to Santiago to ask if he had any professional photos that he could share. He explained that coincidentally just a few days earlier a professional photographer named Clayre Saxon happened to stop into the restaurant for a late lunch and asked permission to take some photos. He told me the photos are beautiful and they were posted on Clayre's Instagram.
Clayre's photos were indeed beautiful.
Clayre kindly agreed to allow Annie Sloan use of her photos. During our text conversation Clayre (a Brit, like Annie) mentioned yet another coincidence – as it turns out she is connected to Annie as they share a mutual acquaintance.
Every day that goes by in this life we've created, Paul and have the opportunity to meet amazingly talented people, share experiences, and realize that the world isn't that big after all. Talk soon, Johanna and Paul
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