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Delancey: A Man, a Woman, a Restaurant, a Marriage
Goodreads Choice Award
Nominee for Readers' Favorite Food & Cookbooks (2014)In this funny, frank, tender memoir and New York Times bestseller, the author of A Homemade Life and the blog Orangette recounts how opening a restaurant sparked the first crisis of her young marriage.
When Molly Wizenberg married Brandon Pettit, he was a trained composer with a handful of offbeat interests: espresso machines, wooden boats, violin-building, and ice cream–making. So when Brandon decided to open a pizza restaurant, Molly was supportive—not because she wanted him to do it, but because the idea was so far-fetched that she didn’t think he would. Before she knew it, he’d signed a lease on a space. The restaurant, Delancey, was going to be a reality, and all of Molly’s assumptions about her marriage were about to change.
Together they built Delancey: gutting and renovating the space on a cobbled-together budget, developing a menu, hiring staff, and passing inspections. Delancey became a success, and Molly tried to convince herself that she was happy in their new life until—in the heat and pressure of the restaurant kitchen—she realized that she hadn’t been honest with herself or Brandon.
With evocative photos by Molly and twenty new recipes for the kind of simple, delicious food that chefs eat at home, Delancey is a moving and honest account of two young people learning to give in and let go in order to grow together.
When Molly Wizenberg married Brandon Pettit, he was a trained composer with a handful of offbeat interests: espresso machines, wooden boats, violin-building, and ice cream–making. So when Brandon decided to open a pizza restaurant, Molly was supportive—not because she wanted him to do it, but because the idea was so far-fetched that she didn’t think he would. Before she knew it, he’d signed a lease on a space. The restaurant, Delancey, was going to be a reality, and all of Molly’s assumptions about her marriage were about to change.
Together they built Delancey: gutting and renovating the space on a cobbled-together budget, developing a menu, hiring staff, and passing inspections. Delancey became a success, and Molly tried to convince herself that she was happy in their new life until—in the heat and pressure of the restaurant kitchen—she realized that she hadn’t been honest with herself or Brandon.
With evocative photos by Molly and twenty new recipes for the kind of simple, delicious food that chefs eat at home, Delancey is a moving and honest account of two young people learning to give in and let go in order to grow together.
241 pages, Hardcover
First published May 1, 2014
164 people are currently reading
10053 people want to read
About the author
Molly Wizenberg
5 books538 followersI started out as a food writer focused on home cooking, using food as a lens for peering into everyday life and relationships. I was interested in people, in how we find and make meaning for ourselves. I still am. My latest book, The Fixed Stars, is a memoir about sexuality, divorce, and motherhood. I wrote it because, in my mid-thirties, nearly a decade into marriage and newly a mother, I lost track of who I was. I wrote because I wanted an answer; in the process, I came to find that I liked the company of questions. The Fixed Stars will be published by Abrams Press on May 12, 2020.
I am also the author of A Homemade Life (Simon & Schuster, 2009) and Delancey (Simon & Schuster, 2014). Both were New York Times bestsellers. Before all that, I got my start in 2004 with a blog called Orangette, which won a number of awards, including a James Beard Foundation Journalism Award in 2015. The blog is now dormant-ish. Can’t decide what to do with it. I have written for Bon Appétit, The Washington Post, and Saveur, and in a previous lifetime, I co-founded (with chef Brandon Pettit) the award-winning Seattle restaurants Delancey and Essex. Last but not at all least: I co-host (with my friend Matthew Amster-Burton) the food-and-comedy podcast Spilled Milk, specializing in dumb jokes and chewing noises since 2010.
I am also the author of A Homemade Life (Simon & Schuster, 2009) and Delancey (Simon & Schuster, 2014). Both were New York Times bestsellers. Before all that, I got my start in 2004 with a blog called Orangette, which won a number of awards, including a James Beard Foundation Journalism Award in 2015. The blog is now dormant-ish. Can’t decide what to do with it. I have written for Bon Appétit, The Washington Post, and Saveur, and in a previous lifetime, I co-founded (with chef Brandon Pettit) the award-winning Seattle restaurants Delancey and Essex. Last but not at all least: I co-host (with my friend Matthew Amster-Burton) the food-and-comedy podcast Spilled Milk, specializing in dumb jokes and chewing noises since 2010.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 923 reviews
May 12, 2014
After loving Molly Wizenberg's A Homemade Life, I opened to the first page of Delancey with high expectations. Yet about halfway through the memoir, disappointment crept in. Wizenberg's writing style had not changed, nor had the format of her memoir (short story followed by a recipe)--two elements that I enjoyed in A Homemade Life. Yet the depth of feeling had. While A Homemade Life is about food, yes, it's more about her relationships with other people--her parents, boyfriends, friends, and, eventually, Brandon, the man who would become her husband--and how those relationships helped her evolve into her grown-up self. Delancey, on the other hand, is about opening a restaurant. There are brief moments detailing her relationship with Brandon (mostly the strained, tense ones), their friends, and the staff of Delancey, but to me it felt that what I loved so much about A Homemade Life was largely gone.
I know that it is not fair to rate Delancey in comparison to its predecessor, but I cannot separate the two in my mind. Delancey is still a worthwhile read, and there are several recipes from the memoir that I am eager to try. But will I reread it, cover to cover, again? Probably not.
I know that it is not fair to rate Delancey in comparison to its predecessor, but I cannot separate the two in my mind. Delancey is still a worthwhile read, and there are several recipes from the memoir that I am eager to try. But will I reread it, cover to cover, again? Probably not.
September 9, 2014
When my husband and I are not dreaming about living off the land on some kind of homestead, we're dreaming about having our own restaurant. As I dawdle around my kitchen on a Saturday morning, I'll think, "If we had a restaurant that served brunch, people would get totally addicted to my savory corn pancakes with chives and corn." My husband will talk about offering his home-brewed sour cherry beer in our brew pub. But it's all a pipe dream. Sometimes, just getting dinner on the table for one vegetarian teenager, a picky 10-year-old and my husband and me makes me despair at the hard work. Reading this book made me deeply grateful that we never even came close.
You know Molly Wizenberg, right? From the Orangette food blog, the Spilled Milk podcast, and articles in magazines like Bon Appetit? She's that nice 30-something friend you hang out with in the kitchen while she tells you stories, and then she shares recipes, many of them upstanding and vegetable-loving, but then she's always getting you to make different tasty banana breads. In her first book, A Homemade Life, she talked about growing up in the kitchen, the loss of her father, and how she found her food-enthusiast husband. In this one, she talks about how she and her husband wound up opening their artisanal pizza restaurant in Seattle. I liked it-- but then I like her-- and she's a good storyteller. It was interesting seeing what goes into a restaurant from someone who was inside that world. The recipes seem a little wedged into this book. She admits that she wasn't cooking much during this time except for when she was at work, but that's her schtick, the stories, the recipes. But I'm quibbling. The recipes are good. I definitely plan to make that slow-roasted pork and the chilled peaches in wine. And I'm approximately twice as glad as I was before I read it that my husband and I never opened the restaurant of our dreams.
You know Molly Wizenberg, right? From the Orangette food blog, the Spilled Milk podcast, and articles in magazines like Bon Appetit? She's that nice 30-something friend you hang out with in the kitchen while she tells you stories, and then she shares recipes, many of them upstanding and vegetable-loving, but then she's always getting you to make different tasty banana breads. In her first book, A Homemade Life, she talked about growing up in the kitchen, the loss of her father, and how she found her food-enthusiast husband. In this one, she talks about how she and her husband wound up opening their artisanal pizza restaurant in Seattle. I liked it-- but then I like her-- and she's a good storyteller. It was interesting seeing what goes into a restaurant from someone who was inside that world. The recipes seem a little wedged into this book. She admits that she wasn't cooking much during this time except for when she was at work, but that's her schtick, the stories, the recipes. But I'm quibbling. The recipes are good. I definitely plan to make that slow-roasted pork and the chilled peaches in wine. And I'm approximately twice as glad as I was before I read it that my husband and I never opened the restaurant of our dreams.
January 25, 2020
Like its predecessor, A Homemade Life, Delancey contains some amazing-sounding recipes and is heartfelt without being sappy. The book mostly concerns the restaurant Wizenberg opens with her husband in Seattle; it was fascinating to read about, and I admire Wizenberg's honesty about the toll the business took on her and her marriage. She can really write. I'm already looking forward to her next book.
May 8, 2016
I always love Wizenberg's writing; it's intimate and lovely, and I want to eat every single thing she mentions. Loved this story of opening a restaurant with her husband, and the difficulties that ensued. I will say, having eaten there - you'd never know what a HUGE labour of love it was to open. Anyway, lots of fun and recommended to anyone thinking of opening a restaurant and fans of her blog or the first book.
June 18, 2024
What is the best pizza place in your city? that is the question that came to mind and also what is the story behind that place.
Their story doesn't end with this book, maybe better said their story takes a different turn in a couple of years after this book was published. I enjoyed the memoir nontheless.
Their story doesn't end with this book, maybe better said their story takes a different turn in a couple of years after this book was published. I enjoyed the memoir nontheless.
July 30, 2015
Really a 3.5-star book. I enjoyed reading about most of what Molly and her husband went through in order to open up their Seattle-based pizza restaurant, Delancey. One part I wasn't really interested in was the building of the special oven; it was kind of slow to me so I ended up skipping most of it. I loved hearing about the food, though, and there are some delicious-sounding recipes included, one at the end of each chapter. I ended up feeling hungry while reading and now have a big craving for pizza.
August 19, 2016
3 stars - It was good.
Interesting memoir with some very yummy recipes included that I intend to try.
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Favorite Quote: I knew what it was like to be staring down a future that you don’t want and to decide to veer hard away from it, even if you’re not entirely sure where you hope to go instead.
First Sentence: I dug out my wedding vows the other night.
Interesting memoir with some very yummy recipes included that I intend to try.
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Favorite Quote: I knew what it was like to be staring down a future that you don’t want and to decide to veer hard away from it, even if you’re not entirely sure where you hope to go instead.
First Sentence: I dug out my wedding vows the other night.
May 19, 2014
I absolutely loved My Korean Deli: Risking It All for a Convenience Store by Ben Ryder Howe. So I was looking forward to this read that promised a similar, riveting story about a young couple whose marriage is stretched (almost to the breaking point) when they decide to open a pizzeria.
But, sadly, the narrative is bland and gets bogged down in details. It starts out great, as the author sketches out her personality and that of her hobby-loving (but usually hobby-abandoning) husband. But soon after her husband announces his intention to open a pizzeria, the book descends into long passages about learning to make pizza, scouting for a location and opening and running a restaurant. The author, obviously a blogger, includes very few viewpoints from anyone else, including her husband. She talks about her husband, but scenes and dialog including him are sparse, almost nonexistent, except for one dramatic moment when he wants to back out.
I was hoping for more of these moments, but like many blogs turned books, the book has little narrative drive and no story arc. Editors should have had her turn some of the narrative into scenes and dialog, to give the story energy: the old adage "show, don't tell" should be every storyteller's goal. The author does describe the train wreck the restaurant almost made of her life, but it's buried in all the verbiage about restaurant ownership. If you're interested in what it's like to open a restaurant, go for it. But if you're looking for a compelling story of the twists and turns of a young marriage, this isn't it. I would like to read the author's first book, though, the bestselling A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table, which got great reviews.
But, sadly, the narrative is bland and gets bogged down in details. It starts out great, as the author sketches out her personality and that of her hobby-loving (but usually hobby-abandoning) husband. But soon after her husband announces his intention to open a pizzeria, the book descends into long passages about learning to make pizza, scouting for a location and opening and running a restaurant. The author, obviously a blogger, includes very few viewpoints from anyone else, including her husband. She talks about her husband, but scenes and dialog including him are sparse, almost nonexistent, except for one dramatic moment when he wants to back out.
I was hoping for more of these moments, but like many blogs turned books, the book has little narrative drive and no story arc. Editors should have had her turn some of the narrative into scenes and dialog, to give the story energy: the old adage "show, don't tell" should be every storyteller's goal. The author does describe the train wreck the restaurant almost made of her life, but it's buried in all the verbiage about restaurant ownership. If you're interested in what it's like to open a restaurant, go for it. But if you're looking for a compelling story of the twists and turns of a young marriage, this isn't it. I would like to read the author's first book, though, the bestselling A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table, which got great reviews.
July 4, 2014
What a delightful read. This made me wish I could go grab a pizza at Delancey, or get invited to a dinner party at Molly Wizenberg’s place – if only both weren’t way out in Seattle. There’s such warmth and humor to her food writing. Here she immerses you in the minutiae of setting up and running a new restaurant (in the midst of a recession, no less) but makes everything interesting, from tiling a pizza oven and plating salads to learning how to do payroll. Of course, there were many mishaps along the way – not least of which was their pizza chef doing a runner the day before opening. But two facts speak to the success of their venture: Delancey is still open, and Wizenberg and her husband, Brandon Pettit, are still together.
Wizenberg grew up in Oklahoma City with foodie parents. I like her use of particular foods as markers of region and class in this passage about her family’s tastes: “My parents met in Baltimore and courted over oysters and panfried shad roe, and though they had lived in the land of waving wheat and chicken-fried steak since a few years before I was born, they took pleasure in introducing me to lobster, croissants, and Dover sole.”
She moved to Seattle for graduate studies in anthropology but soon dropped school in favor of developing her blog, Orangette, which the London Times once named THE BEST food blog), and writing a cookbook/memoir reflecting on the loss of her father. Brandon Pettit was a budding composer in NYC who happened to comment on her blog...and things went from there. Wizenberg depicts her husband as charismatic and impulsive, someone whose passions were intense if sometimes short-lived. He tried violin-making and boat-building and considered opening an ice cream parlor before the idea for Delancey came around.
So you can’t blame her for thinking that the pizza place plan would be just another fad. To begin with, Wizenberg was detached from the whole process. She had a book to finish writing and market, so she just let her husband get on with it. (Except when his “research” involved touring the country’s best pizza joints – then she was happy to tag along.) “Most of our conversations around that time went approximately like this: Molly: [Blah blah blah] the book. Brandon: [Blah blah blah] the restaurant.”
It wasn’t until Brandon was deep into construction of the property that she realized just how much work would be involved in running a restaurant, and started to panic. As opening day came closer, Wizenberg took on more and more responsibility, helping out with renovating, decorating and preparing the initial menu. She even worked as Delancey’s prep cook for the first four months, but when she got a dozen starter orders at once on Halloween night and started crying over the salads, she knew she wasn’t cut out for this. Brandon had his dream and she had her work; although those met in their love of food, she accepted that they could still be separate.
I enjoyed this as a foodie memoir (her recipes all sound amazing: simple but with lots of flavor) but also as a portrait of a marriage – of how you support each other’s endeavors, even when they sound downright crazy; of how you pick yourselves up from frequent mistakes and just keep going. (My hubby and I are coming up on seven years of marriage this Monday, so I guess we must be doing something right.)
Wizenberg grew up in Oklahoma City with foodie parents. I like her use of particular foods as markers of region and class in this passage about her family’s tastes: “My parents met in Baltimore and courted over oysters and panfried shad roe, and though they had lived in the land of waving wheat and chicken-fried steak since a few years before I was born, they took pleasure in introducing me to lobster, croissants, and Dover sole.”
She moved to Seattle for graduate studies in anthropology but soon dropped school in favor of developing her blog, Orangette, which the London Times once named THE BEST food blog), and writing a cookbook/memoir reflecting on the loss of her father. Brandon Pettit was a budding composer in NYC who happened to comment on her blog...and things went from there. Wizenberg depicts her husband as charismatic and impulsive, someone whose passions were intense if sometimes short-lived. He tried violin-making and boat-building and considered opening an ice cream parlor before the idea for Delancey came around.
So you can’t blame her for thinking that the pizza place plan would be just another fad. To begin with, Wizenberg was detached from the whole process. She had a book to finish writing and market, so she just let her husband get on with it. (Except when his “research” involved touring the country’s best pizza joints – then she was happy to tag along.) “Most of our conversations around that time went approximately like this: Molly: [Blah blah blah] the book. Brandon: [Blah blah blah] the restaurant.”
It wasn’t until Brandon was deep into construction of the property that she realized just how much work would be involved in running a restaurant, and started to panic. As opening day came closer, Wizenberg took on more and more responsibility, helping out with renovating, decorating and preparing the initial menu. She even worked as Delancey’s prep cook for the first four months, but when she got a dozen starter orders at once on Halloween night and started crying over the salads, she knew she wasn’t cut out for this. Brandon had his dream and she had her work; although those met in their love of food, she accepted that they could still be separate.
I enjoyed this as a foodie memoir (her recipes all sound amazing: simple but with lots of flavor) but also as a portrait of a marriage – of how you support each other’s endeavors, even when they sound downright crazy; of how you pick yourselves up from frequent mistakes and just keep going. (My hubby and I are coming up on seven years of marriage this Monday, so I guess we must be doing something right.)
April 22, 2014
I love love loved A Homemade Life by Molly Wizenberg, so of course I requested Delancey. I was not disappointed!
The short of it: Wizenberg has a way of writing that makes me feel like we’d totally be friends. I’d love to hang out with her, and I could completely relate to how this all went down.
All the rest: You know how sometimes you really want to encourage someone, even when you think that they might not succeed at what they are attempting? Or really even follow through on trying? And so you do that pat-pat go-for-it you’ll-be-great thing? Well that’s pretty much what happens here. Molly and her husband are going along being newlyweds. Molly is writing a book, Brandon is in grad school. It’s all good. Sure, Brandon occasionally gets a wild hair to build a boat or something, but that never actually happens. So when he decides to open a pizza restaurant, Molly is encouraging. She’s neck deep in her first book, and not really paying attention and one day she wakes up to discover that Brandon really is opening a restaurant, that it wasn’t just something he’s going to lose interest in. Molly realizes that this really isn’t something she wants, but it’s too late to do anything but jump in with both feet.
This isn’t really a book about life in a restaurant, and it isn’t really a book about food (Even tho there is plenty recipes in the book). This is really a book about a marriage and about diverging dreams and what that can do to a marriage. It's about waking up one morning and realizing that the life you have is nothing like the one you imagined that you would have, and then learning to embrace that one instead.
It's really hard for me to put my finger on exactly what it is that I like about Wizenberg's writing, but I really do. I would read everything she writes. She really captures the details of how her relationship changes without really giving up too much privacy. She's funny, open, honest. I really like her. i didn't finish the book thinking that she left big holes in the story, so if she left anything out she did so seamlessly. Life isn't perfect, and she didn't shy away from admitting her part in the struggle. I would happily recommend this book (or A Homemade Life) to anyone who enjoys a memoir or a foodie book or even just a well written story.
Delancy will be released on May 6th.
The short of it: Wizenberg has a way of writing that makes me feel like we’d totally be friends. I’d love to hang out with her, and I could completely relate to how this all went down.
All the rest: You know how sometimes you really want to encourage someone, even when you think that they might not succeed at what they are attempting? Or really even follow through on trying? And so you do that pat-pat go-for-it you’ll-be-great thing? Well that’s pretty much what happens here. Molly and her husband are going along being newlyweds. Molly is writing a book, Brandon is in grad school. It’s all good. Sure, Brandon occasionally gets a wild hair to build a boat or something, but that never actually happens. So when he decides to open a pizza restaurant, Molly is encouraging. She’s neck deep in her first book, and not really paying attention and one day she wakes up to discover that Brandon really is opening a restaurant, that it wasn’t just something he’s going to lose interest in. Molly realizes that this really isn’t something she wants, but it’s too late to do anything but jump in with both feet.
This isn’t really a book about life in a restaurant, and it isn’t really a book about food (Even tho there is plenty recipes in the book). This is really a book about a marriage and about diverging dreams and what that can do to a marriage. It's about waking up one morning and realizing that the life you have is nothing like the one you imagined that you would have, and then learning to embrace that one instead.
It's really hard for me to put my finger on exactly what it is that I like about Wizenberg's writing, but I really do. I would read everything she writes. She really captures the details of how her relationship changes without really giving up too much privacy. She's funny, open, honest. I really like her. i didn't finish the book thinking that she left big holes in the story, so if she left anything out she did so seamlessly. Life isn't perfect, and she didn't shy away from admitting her part in the struggle. I would happily recommend this book (or A Homemade Life) to anyone who enjoys a memoir or a foodie book or even just a well written story.
Delancy will be released on May 6th.
August 10, 2016
(The Goodreads app ate the original version of this review. That'll teach me to not work from my computer.)
I personally find it difficult to review memoirs because, regardless of the story being told or the knowledge imparted, so much of my enjoyment as a reader comes from whether or not I like the author, as he or she reveals himself through the book. While Delancey is an interesting account of the opening of a small business and its toll on a marriage, the book was ultimately marred for me by my increasing irritation with Molly Wizenberg. The way she blamed her pursuit of "excellence" for why she couldn't handle being a restaurant chef was the last straw for me. I'm probably biased as a former restaurant worker, but her socialist utopian idea of what she wanted her restaurant--a restaurant she didn't even want in the first place--to be, coupled with a neurotic inability to do much except, seemingly, agonize about why it wasn't happening was immensely off-putting to me. It could have been worse: fretting is, after all, much better than whining. But it was still hard to read, and I almost gave up altogether when she pulled out the extended reference to Singles (that could have just as easily applied to Cheers, as well as to a number of other TV shows/movies with a regular watering hole.) I loved Singles, too, but come on.
I think part of the problem is that she paints her husband as the hero of the piece, placing herself at a comparative disadvantage. She isn't quite the villain, but her self-depiction is unflattering and, ultimately, hard to sympathize with.
I really enjoyed the chapters where she focused on the food, though. Her descriptions of pizza, especially, were sublime, and I quite appreciated her visceral reaction to the nettle salad near the end. I only wish that the recipes appended to the end of each chapter had been selected with a tighter theme in mind: they seemed to grow more and more tangential to the contents of each chapter as the book progressed.
I received this book gratis as part of ELLE Magazine's ELLE's Lettres Jurors' Prize program.
I personally find it difficult to review memoirs because, regardless of the story being told or the knowledge imparted, so much of my enjoyment as a reader comes from whether or not I like the author, as he or she reveals himself through the book. While Delancey is an interesting account of the opening of a small business and its toll on a marriage, the book was ultimately marred for me by my increasing irritation with Molly Wizenberg. The way she blamed her pursuit of "excellence" for why she couldn't handle being a restaurant chef was the last straw for me. I'm probably biased as a former restaurant worker, but her socialist utopian idea of what she wanted her restaurant--a restaurant she didn't even want in the first place--to be, coupled with a neurotic inability to do much except, seemingly, agonize about why it wasn't happening was immensely off-putting to me. It could have been worse: fretting is, after all, much better than whining. But it was still hard to read, and I almost gave up altogether when she pulled out the extended reference to Singles (that could have just as easily applied to Cheers, as well as to a number of other TV shows/movies with a regular watering hole.) I loved Singles, too, but come on.
I think part of the problem is that she paints her husband as the hero of the piece, placing herself at a comparative disadvantage. She isn't quite the villain, but her self-depiction is unflattering and, ultimately, hard to sympathize with.
I really enjoyed the chapters where she focused on the food, though. Her descriptions of pizza, especially, were sublime, and I quite appreciated her visceral reaction to the nettle salad near the end. I only wish that the recipes appended to the end of each chapter had been selected with a tighter theme in mind: they seemed to grow more and more tangential to the contents of each chapter as the book progressed.
I received this book gratis as part of ELLE Magazine's ELLE's Lettres Jurors' Prize program.
October 27, 2013
I read this in front of my fireplace over a chilly fall weekend. Just perfect. This has a great narrative (sometimes food memoirs can feel a bit disjointed, but this one has a distinct through line, a clear beginning, middle, end) and feels honest. I want to cook a bunch of the recipes, and, frankly, now I want to work at Delancey or Essex (probably Essex, honestly, because I love that they make their own bitters and mustard and all those delicious pickles). I've had the privilege of dining at both, and it makes me happy to get the between-the-lines story from the posts I remember reading on Orangette while both Delancey and Essex were coming together. Molly's voice is authentic, funny without trying too hard to make you laugh, and pretty without being baroque. Much like the food at her restaurants, her books take good ingredients and don't mess around with them too much, allowing them to sing for themselves.
October 31, 2014
This was an ok read. It was nice to read about starting up a restaurant but I think it would have been more interesting if the story was written by the person that was actually setting up the restaurant, her husband. Also at times I found Molly complaining a bit too much. All in all an ok foodie-read.
February 18, 2024
Molly is a good writer. This was an enjoyable book about the love of food and the perseverance to start a pizzeria. I think I should have read the book instead of listening to the audiobook. I want to see the recipes not hear them. :) Recommended to those that like to cook or own/want to open a restaurant.
June 25, 2017
I read this in one day because I was on an odyssey to the JFK airport and then in the airport for a long time. I obviously haven't had the chance to try any of the recipes in this book, but there are many that sound delicious (and approachable!) for when I get back to my kitchen. I really love Molly Wizenberg's writing because she feels like an old friend--she's your pal who is a bit reserved, calming for you, and always has the best snacks on hand. She further proved that we should be buds with her writing when she mentioned how she likes to Vincent D'Onofrio-Law-and-Order style investigate things (uh, yeah, the best way to investigate something is always to make yourself horizontal from the hips up), wishing to wake up in bed with Born to Run Bruce Springsteen, eating TJ Joe-Joe's while marathoning bad TV, and talking about David Byrne and Animal from the Muppets. While I'm not an Orangette reader (I probably should be!), I love her other book, A Homemade Life, so I knew I'd like this one. She easily makes you feel like you're part of her inner circle, offers several good laughs, and charms you with a great story, and about pizza on top of it. How could it go wrong? It can't. Read this while enjoying a good meal so you don't get too hungry.
No dogs barking in the background, because that wouldn't make sense. But, lastly, I'd just like to say that Wizenberg must have a good husband on her hands because he's a Jersey Boy. Ahhhh yeah, son.
No dogs barking in the background, because that wouldn't make sense. But, lastly, I'd just like to say that Wizenberg must have a good husband on her hands because he's a Jersey Boy. Ahhhh yeah, son.
May 29, 2014
This book had everything in it for me to love: recipes, food-oriented stories, family/friends pulling together to create a new business that struggles to succeed and find its place in the neighborhood, and hard won life lessons learned along the way. Except. Except, the lovely author, who is really our heroine whether she accepts it gracefully or not, never actually accepts the premise of the book herself. Namely, that a young newly married couple who both love to cook at home and share food with each other and their close friends and family will open a pizza restaurant and the husband will work the hours of a chef while the wife will raise their child, essentially, in normal hours alone. The author/wife tries to create humor and pathos around this essential issue but it never gets resolved, except perhaps to note that the husband built his restaurant model around a one month vacation in the summer like Europeans do. By the end of the book, the couple have a cute daughter and a second small restaurant. I'm sadly guessing they will get another restaurant, another child and then realize they cannot abide by the marriage they have created. By then we will have been treated, no doubt, to a couple more books while our heroine tries to figure this out. I'm sorry for her. She seems like a great person and a great writer.
March 12, 2016
Finally bought a copy of Delancey and made the penne alla vodka (it was great). Glad to have my own copy! Still a big fan.
ORIGNAL REVIEW, JULY 14, 2014! I like Molly Wizenberg's Orangette blog, and I was delighted to see this book in the Ridgefield Library. I might buy it, because I like a lot of the recipes--both for weird experiments (gin with ground pepper and garlic?) and for plain ol' "that sounds great!" meals (penne alla vodka). The story of the ins and outs of starting the restaurant was engrossing, too, and the progress of her relationship with and understanding of her husband caught my attention as well, though Julie did not find the book interesting at all. One aspect I noted with respect was that she discussed various people who entered their lives through the restaurant process, and it was really hard to tell if they would be friends, foes, betrayers, or loyal supporters: her tone was always level and respectful, an approach that I find difficult in my own life and in much public discourse today.
Recommended (though Julie disagrees!) as an interesting resource and a good story, though I am surprised that it's a NYT bestseller. Doesn't seem jazzy enough. Maybe a lot of people want to open restaurants and find this book, as I do, a good replacement!
ORIGNAL REVIEW, JULY 14, 2014! I like Molly Wizenberg's Orangette blog, and I was delighted to see this book in the Ridgefield Library. I might buy it, because I like a lot of the recipes--both for weird experiments (gin with ground pepper and garlic?) and for plain ol' "that sounds great!" meals (penne alla vodka). The story of the ins and outs of starting the restaurant was engrossing, too, and the progress of her relationship with and understanding of her husband caught my attention as well, though Julie did not find the book interesting at all. One aspect I noted with respect was that she discussed various people who entered their lives through the restaurant process, and it was really hard to tell if they would be friends, foes, betrayers, or loyal supporters: her tone was always level and respectful, an approach that I find difficult in my own life and in much public discourse today.
Recommended (though Julie disagrees!) as an interesting resource and a good story, though I am surprised that it's a NYT bestseller. Doesn't seem jazzy enough. Maybe a lot of people want to open restaurants and find this book, as I do, a good replacement!
November 18, 2014
There are a lot of restaurant books out there, and ,oat of them are alright. This one is different because the author is not a chef, nor was it ever her desire or dream to open a restaurant, and yet somehow she found herself pretty much building one from scratch with her husband. The reason this book was such a treat is because Wizenberg is a)hilarious b) a very self aware, very good writer and c) a foodie with a blog.
The opening chapters of this book were so funny, like laugh out loud-realize that that the others in the room think you are nuts- loud. Then both the story and the restaurant get real. Interspersed with the story of the rest are recipes and the stories behind each of them. This book made the reality of running a resto seem both wonderful and horrible, as it was for the author. Nonetheless if I am ever in Seattle I would love to eat at Delancey!
The opening chapters of this book were so funny, like laugh out loud-realize that that the others in the room think you are nuts- loud. Then both the story and the restaurant get real. Interspersed with the story of the rest are recipes and the stories behind each of them. This book made the reality of running a resto seem both wonderful and horrible, as it was for the author. Nonetheless if I am ever in Seattle I would love to eat at Delancey!
July 11, 2014
What I learned after reading Delancey is that opening a restaurant is hard work. It is very hard work, and the author can be a little bit whiney about it. I can appreciate all of the details that go in to opening and running a restaurant, but sometimes it felt like too much information. Just as I felt I was drowning in the minutiae, I would turn the page and thank goodness, that was the end of that chapter. And then it would happen again. . . and again. I would recommend A Homemade Life, but skip this one.
March 15, 2015
This last week I've been in a reading slump, every book I picked up I put back down before the 50th page, but this book broke that. Delancey was a wonderful book about a couple building a restaurant. Equally parts hilarious and serious, this book was a great book that I'd recommend.
March 24, 2019
This is the kind of food memoir we look for: honest, funny, a peek into a fascinating life. With the opening of her and her husband’s Seattle pizzeria as the backdrop, Wizenberg reflects on her life, marriage and food. Her thoughts are honest about herself and marriage and how the restaurant impacted both. Without really naming it, I saw a lot of parallels between having a child and opening a restaurant, the difficulties and triumphs.
The recipes included after a handful of chapters look doable and fun, definitely will be on my list to try. All the food descriptions were mouth watering and vivid. As all food memoirs should, it inspired me to get into the kitchen and share what I come up with.
The recipes included after a handful of chapters look doable and fun, definitely will be on my list to try. All the food descriptions were mouth watering and vivid. As all food memoirs should, it inspired me to get into the kitchen and share what I come up with.
September 29, 2024
Molly Wizenberg has a knack for writing and I enjoyed reading about starting a restaurant from the ground up. It still felt very surface level and I think that was because she wrote a memoir from her point of view that, in actuality, was her husband’s story to tell. Sure, she was involved but it was his dream.
July 7, 2017
If only there was a pizza recipe...
May 17, 2015
It was time for a dip into non-fiction and I often wonder how/why restaurants manage to survive, die quickly, or become not very good old institutions.
I'd been a server in a few places during my college years; I'd never been to Seattle, and the excerpt I read had style and humor. So I got a library copy and settled in on the porch swing.
The author never wanted to be a part of a restaurant, but her seeker husband had not found his niche in life yet, and since his wife was a food writer, they'd travel around, eat, and were always on the look out for perfect pizza. He got it into his head to start a great pizza place, as opposed to the not so great ones one can find......everywhere. She wanted to support his dream.
This memoir follows the adventure, hard work, risk taking, marital stresses, outside help and great friends that made the dream real. The writer's voice is both light and strong, funny in parts, and shows the difficulties of creating the right space, the right work/life balance, and the incredibly tense leaps of faith people make to make a dream real.
Just building the wood oven was overwhelming, never mind all the experiments with the carb based blank palette. You'd need a dozen gourmet Goldilocks to find what you were looking for.
Now, I want pizza all the time and would have eaten it three nights in a row as I was reading had I not been thwarted. Fortunately, just two miles away is a recently found wood oven pizza place that does amazing things with eggplant topping.
According to the book, Delancey is still there, expanding, and the marriage is intact.
I'd been a server in a few places during my college years; I'd never been to Seattle, and the excerpt I read had style and humor. So I got a library copy and settled in on the porch swing.
The author never wanted to be a part of a restaurant, but her seeker husband had not found his niche in life yet, and since his wife was a food writer, they'd travel around, eat, and were always on the look out for perfect pizza. He got it into his head to start a great pizza place, as opposed to the not so great ones one can find......everywhere. She wanted to support his dream.
This memoir follows the adventure, hard work, risk taking, marital stresses, outside help and great friends that made the dream real. The writer's voice is both light and strong, funny in parts, and shows the difficulties of creating the right space, the right work/life balance, and the incredibly tense leaps of faith people make to make a dream real.
Just building the wood oven was overwhelming, never mind all the experiments with the carb based blank palette. You'd need a dozen gourmet Goldilocks to find what you were looking for.
Now, I want pizza all the time and would have eaten it three nights in a row as I was reading had I not been thwarted. Fortunately, just two miles away is a recently found wood oven pizza place that does amazing things with eggplant topping.
According to the book, Delancey is still there, expanding, and the marriage is intact.
May 24, 2014
Wizenberg's first book was lovely, and it was with some trepidation that I picked up her sophomore effort. I needn't have fretted, this was as engrossing and as engaging as A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table though it didn't make me cry.
I didn't want to operate a restaurant before I read this book. I want to even less now, but I feel much more informed about the process. More than that, of course, is the window Wizenberg provides into her emotional life. Her vulnerability is endearing and her faith in Brandon is inspiring, perhaps most inspiring in the moments of doubt and anger.
Highly recommended. Especially if you are someone who wants to have successful long-term relationship.
I hope Wizenberg is working on a book about having a baby whilst running a restaurant and a writing career next.
I didn't want to operate a restaurant before I read this book. I want to even less now, but I feel much more informed about the process. More than that, of course, is the window Wizenberg provides into her emotional life. Her vulnerability is endearing and her faith in Brandon is inspiring, perhaps most inspiring in the moments of doubt and anger.
Highly recommended. Especially if you are someone who wants to have successful long-term relationship.
I hope Wizenberg is working on a book about having a baby whilst running a restaurant and a writing career next.
February 8, 2015
I actually enjoyed this one more than the last one, perhaps because I have so recently been somewhat involved in someone else opening their restaurant and am myself starting a somewhat new and demanding endeavor, but there's more. The whole second half of A Homemade Life was about Molly meeting Brandon and falling in love and their marriage. And it was frankly a little too perfect for me. Delancey allows us a look at a committed relationship that is much more familiar to me. It's scarey and difficult and sometimes you think, "I'm actually not able to do this anymore." Sometimes you look back and see how you just barely survived as an intact couple. And yet Molly and Brandon do survive and learn and, you know, do great things.
I flew through this book. As a restaurant person, or maybe former restaurant person (but aren't you always a little bit of a restaurant person), I loved reading this account and thinking, almost maniacally, that IS what it's like. And as a person working every day to be in a relationship and sometimes really sucking at it, I also thought, that IS what it's like. And I love the place where the book leaves you, not all tied up in a bow but in a good spot.
Thanks for sharing this with us, Molly.
I flew through this book. As a restaurant person, or maybe former restaurant person (but aren't you always a little bit of a restaurant person), I loved reading this account and thinking, almost maniacally, that IS what it's like. And as a person working every day to be in a relationship and sometimes really sucking at it, I also thought, that IS what it's like. And I love the place where the book leaves you, not all tied up in a bow but in a good spot.
Thanks for sharing this with us, Molly.
May 21, 2014
Baseball is to Field of Dreams as food is to Molly Wizenberg's latest book--Delancey. Sure, baseball figures prominently in Field of Dreams, but it is really the story of a young father's relationship with his own father. Likewise, Molly writes about food, and so much more. She writes about making something new (a new self, a new life, a new relationship) at the intersection of the opening of a restaurant and a young marriage. Cozy read. Makes me want to cook--for friends.
And I must say, it was worth every moment of the journey from Springfield, Ohio, to Wayzata, Minnesota, to be with Molly at The Bookcase for her reading there.
For the bucket list: a trip to Seattle that includes a stop at Essex and dinner at Delancey.
And I must say, it was worth every moment of the journey from Springfield, Ohio, to Wayzata, Minnesota, to be with Molly at The Bookcase for her reading there.
For the bucket list: a trip to Seattle that includes a stop at Essex and dinner at Delancey.
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September 30, 2017ugh, didn't get far. I was excited to get into a restaurant industry book written by a woman but it's like at least 80% about her husband so far and I am very very tired. she is playing a supporting role in her own fucking book. I cannot deal with the whole 'somewhat eccentric man is good at food' trope. so he fucking loves pizza. great. he's not worthy of a biography, hon.
March 16, 2015
The book seems to be more about Brandon than Molly. She comes across as secondary to her husband and it's about his interests, his passions, his goals. I feel like we don't get to know her well at all. This reads as a vanity project for her husband. Disappointing.
November 23, 2015
wow. elegant writing, about life and food. with a spice of philosophy stirred gently in. well worth the time, its as good as their pizza is .
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