Wine Grotto in CT

Recently the Faux Forum’s Pat Ganino and “The Faux Dr” Mike Sundell of Creative Evolution booked an interesting job for a restaurant where they had to build a grotto behind a bar out of concrete. They enlisted the design help of “Fauxho” Bruce Thalman of Thalman Designs. As a group we start from a plywood base and create a unique fixture for this new establishment using the new product e crete.

I again asked allot of questions of Nathan as this job took shape. He answered the phone every time and was a great comfort.
Thalman Designs had only one previous installation prior to the grotto so going from three 20ft beams to a 14 x 30ft grotto with wine barrels and beams was quite a jump. I went from using 3 bags of cement to 40!
One of the other factors involved in this job was the fact that we were going overhead with about 350 to 400lbs of concrete…over a bar with workers and patrons under it. (Fun to design but a B*^%$ to do)If there is one thing I have learned as a finisher and designer is that “You are only as good as your support” that includes not only walls but colleagues and tech support (Thank you Nathan)

We used stamps from Flex-c-ment, homemade ones and lots of tools. I bought a pneumatic 2” staple gun, new jig saw, grinder, trowels, drills it was quite an undertaking. But the one thing I can say is it looks “impressive” and we are very proud of it …and the client loves it!

Thank you Nathan and Vertical Artisans for helping make me a better finisher and expanding my portfolio.

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Permalink Reply by Arthur on March 25, 2009 at 4:31pm

Great Job Bruce,
Alot of work goes into every aspect from design to finish and to have the commeraderie(sp) is a huge help You all should be congratulated.....