"During the day, we've got lots of windows, lots of natural light coming in," Moore explains. "Then, at night -- we're real picky about lighting -- so it's going to pretty, sultry. But yeah, during the day there's so much good light coming in. We've got to work on paint schemes, wood, because we are doing a lot of dark wood in there. But, also the paint is going to be light. Always, ever-important is lighting and we've been scrutinizing that like crazy."
Burrow is consulting with the cocktail menu, and according to Moore, he is "going to crack the whip" with his training program. He will educate all of the bartenders on how to create the classic drinks, but with an influence from New Orleans.
"So, basically the cocktail menu is going to be divided into two different categories," Mitchell says. "There's the New Orleans classics that are going to be a lot of stirred drinks, and some really great stuff like a classic Hurricane, or a classic daiquiri, and then the original drink portion of the menu will be featuring dessert cocktails, and that's coming from the... I can't think of a creative way to talk about Justin Burrow's brain... Justin is a fantastic resource that we have to tap for creativity."
"In a bearded, surly kind of way," Toomey adds.
Mitchell also notes that The Honeymoon will have a wider selection of wines and bubbles -- another thing downtown currently lacks.
As far as the coffee program is concerned, Mitchell and Toomey explain that the focus is a simplified and classic approach. The menu will include several coffee drinks found at Boomtown, and Boomtown's roasting facility will be relocated to The Honeymoon, giving them more opportunities to use a variety of fresh coffees each day. They also purchased a "bad ass" espresso machine, called The Slayer.
"Our focus, I think, is to not overdo ourselves and to just focus on what's inherently good in all of these ingredients we are using, and to, in a sense, to educate the masses, because, let's face it, we are going to get a lot of volume here, but we want to bring that kind of subculture specialty to downtown," Toomey says. "And across the board, not just with the coffee, but with the cocktails, too. You'll notice that there will be continuity between the simplicity of those drinks as well. And, of course, we'll combine the two and have coffee cocktails that are some in-house originals, [and] some traditional, expected drinks."
In a way, Boomtown Coffee has come full-circle after starting downtown just a block away from 97 Franklin, moving to its current location on West 19th Street in the Heights, and re-establishing its roasting facility downtown at The Honeymoon.
To accompany the coffee and cocktail menus, The Honeymoon will serve breakfast and lunch, and small plates throughout the evening. Amanda McGraw, formerly of Brasserie 19, is consulting on the food menu. The partners want to keep her around for as long as they can, but McGraw won't be the full-time chef.
"We are going to do mainly a breakfast and lunch menu," Mitchell says. "Just focus on high-quality ingredients for sandwiches and salads, and some other type of small plates, and then not really transition into a dinner menu; it's going to be more of a small bites, cheese plates, and we're going to do some plated desserts to try and capture the theater crowd. Say people are going to a 7:00 show, and they have to go somewhere to wolf down dinner really fast and they don't have time for dessert. We want to be the place that people finish their night."
There's no official opening date for The Honeymoon yet, but the partners are shooting for a spring opening. Mitchell says her fiancé and his peers who work downtown can't wait for The Honeymoon to open so they can leave their desks in the afternoon for a cup of coffee.
"We want to be a part of the revitalization of downtown, but also bring in the people who have always worked here and the theater crowd," Moore says.