The Weight of a Spoon

When we moved into our temporary apartment in March, it came fully equipped with furniture, linens, and kitchen items. There are two sets of sheets and towels for each bed and bathroom and six sets of plates and silverware. It has been a great arrangement for our current “in-between” life, as we sell our MD home and search for our DE/PA home, but we’ve needed to make little adjustments along the way.

 

We had a few housing challenges at first… the dishwasher was missing two screws and tilted out of the cabinet when the door was fully open… the bathroom GFI tripped any time that light switch was used… we only had queen-size sheets for the king bed in our MBR… but all were handled quickly and efficiently.  The apartment complex in which we lived was incredibly responsive and personable – I would highly recommend The Towers at Greenville to anyone who is looking for housing in the Greenville/Wilmington Delaware area!

 

Rather than eating out every night, I really wanted to make as many dinners in the apartment as possible. Going from cooking with gas to electric was a challenge, but so was the fact that I had put most of my entire kitchen into storage. Thankfully, I had packed a “kitchen box” from our house that included necessities like a good knife set, my favorite cutting board, and a big non-stick skillet, so dinners weren’t as difficult to manage as they might have been. While I had forgotten to pack any bakeware or a pair of scissors, the apartment had a pair of scissors in the knife block… whew! The one thing that we quickly realized we needed, that we were going to need to supplement, was to get more silverware… specifically, more spoons.

 

Having six teaspoons (and six soup spoons) available was wonderful, but I had seriously underestimated how often we reach for a spoon during each day. I always used one for my coffee and breakfast in the morning… used another as I was mixing up the dressing for my salad… grabbed another as I was tasting the sauce for our dinner… reached for, yet another, to have some Halo Top at night. That’s four spoons… and that’s just *me*. These spoons were helpful but they were also incredibly light. They weren’t made of a durable metal, one that had heft as well as strength, that would allow them to be used for a long period of time. Let’s face it, we’re in temporary housing which, by definition, means the items here aren’t expected to be passed along from resident to resident. The silverware is meant to be replaceable, at a reasonable cost. Maybe that’s why, when we decided to purchase a few extra spoons, we selected something different.

 

 

Note: The left photo is the light “apartment” spoon… second is one of the spoons we purchased, which is almost identical to the ones at Legal Grounds Cafe, mentioned below.

I hadn’t realized how much comfort I derived from the weight of a spoon. Say what you will, but there’s a feeling of permanence, of staying-power, that comes through when holding a heavier spoon. It’s not the decoration on the handle that gets me… it’s the weight itself… the fit in my hand. I’ve noticed that I look for this in restaurants we frequent… as if a restaurant that skimps on their silverware may skimp in other areas as well. Our favorite local coffee shop, Legal Grounds Cafe in Elsmere DE, told me that they were as deliberate when they made their silverware selections as they were with everything else in this cafe. To me, it projects the feeling that they expect to be around for a long time and they want everything else to be able to “go the distance”.

 

I like to frequent places that recognize the importance of the weight of their silverware. It makes me happy to feel that I’m contributing to something with “staying power”. We were looking for a unique breakfast spot while visiting San Diego in October and found Snooze, an AM eatery in La Jolla. Their beautiful silverware selection drove home the idea of permanence. They have a potter who makes all their coffee mugs and pottery and they use a brand of silverware that feels heavy while still having a comfortable strength to the lines. It all contributes to that feeling of permanence, which is missing in so many places.

 

 

It’s amazing, in this day and age, when you see a restaurant with this sort of vision. Both places have placed so much intention behind the selection of their silverware that I can’t help but believe in their expectations for excellence. Each, in their own way, projects the intent to offer the best possible experience and each, for us, fulfilled and exceeded this expectation.

 

I have no doubt that we’ll return to @snoozeameatery in La Jolla the next time we travel back to California… and we continue to return to @legalgroundscafedelaware every chance we get. Frequenting such unique and personable businesses, especially those that place a tangible premium on their own future, is a fantastic way to help shape a world in which we can all be proud. Feel free to look up both of these places on social media… or search my own instagram account (@alisportshots) for drool-worthy photos of delectable foods and gorgeous lattes!