Walt Cissel: This Project was Custom Made for Me - The LaVelle Wine Bar Remodel
The remodel, or rebirth, renaissance, or whatever you want to call it of the transformation of the LaVelle TapWe had the concept...let's bring the winery to the wine bar. We needed help. This article is about that help...his name is Walt.
Room into the LaVelle Wine Bar & Grille has been in the que for a while.
Walt Cissel is many things. He loves children. He loves his wife Muriel. He also loves woodworking and design. He and I share a love for design. I had the pleasure of interviewing Walt this week. I wanted this interview a few weeks ago but was forced to wait until today. Walt has been hard at work and I didn't want to interrupt him until now. I learned a lot about where he came from, the design process that went into this LaVelle Wine Bar & Grille project, and what he plans to do in the future. Read on as I share...
When I first met Walt he was down at our bridge on the easement road that leads to our winery and tasting room in Elmira. Walt is a big man in physical presence and in personality. He has a big, booming voice that speaks the kindest, most positive words of encouragement. We have only encountered each other a handful of times, but during those times I've grown fond of him. What struck me at first about Walt was the fact that when you talk to him he actually listens. He remembers our conversation. Then, the next time he talks he comments about thoughts that he's had in reference to the last conversation. He wants to know about my family. My kids. My work. He's really interested. Not only that, but he's also a very positive person. He's so kind and genuine in his well thought out comments. So, the second time I came across Walt I let him know how I felt. Since then, it's been a mutually beneficial series of conversations, culminating with this interview.
Walt came to Oregon from Idaho back in 1978. He graduated high school and then went to University of Idaho. He left there feeling burned out on school. He wanted to learn a trade and get to work. He was hired by Mountain Bell and ended up working for them and later Pacific West Bell for 37 years. He met Muriel while working at the phone company and married her in 1998. His mother was a nutritionist and his father was a nuclear engineer...what a pair I bet! Anyway, Walt decided back in the early 2000's that he was ready to set out on his own and do projects that involved woodworking and design.
Walt was first approached by our last LaVelle Tap Room Manager, Carly Howe. She started with the idea of attaching corrugated steel on the front of the bar. Walt told me that he wasn't super excited about the projects within our space until he spoke with my Dad. Once the entire concept of taking the industrial, organic feeling of the winery and bringing it to the wine bar was explained he got really excited.
Walt says he was told "we need a new coffee table. About the same size as the current one". He loves
working within an open artistic environment so it seemed like a great challenge. He knew he wanted the theme to be that the table was made entirely of wine barrels, so he started disassembling them. As he turned the boards, or staves over and started planing them he found the more beautiful red and purple colors. He also really enjoyed the cooper marks on our Radoux barrel heads. He descided to ruen some of the boards inside out and take the barrel markers and implant them into the top of the table. The rings of the barrels would then be stacked one on top of each other and welded together to form most of the base. He used a few additional staves to give the finished product balance and weight distribution. The image above is
taken from above the table. I really like what Walt did by recreating the curvature of the barrel stave in the
sides of the table. This one is taken from a seated position so you can see the barrel rings underneath it along with our brand new leather couch behind it. The final picture shows the entire seating area as we have it right in the middle of the Wine Bar.
This was one of my favorites pieces that Walt planned and executed, but the biggest project he worked on in size and time was the stave wall. Walt says that he doesn't think there are many of these things out there. We found the idea on Pinterest, showed it to Walt, and he said "I can do that!" We ended up using the North wall of the Wine Bar for this sizable project. The trick to building a stave wall is ti figure out the widths of the staves that you're dealing with and try to line up one row at a time of staves that are close to the same width. Cooper's make staves in varying widths. This is no doubt because of the long (usually 36 months) seasoning process that
French and Hungarian oak goes through. Walt found staves that were 2 and 3/4 inch thick, and 1/4 inch increments going all the way up to 5 inches thick. Once the staves of 15 barrels were all lined up he started putting up the wall one row at a time. This took a long time, but he thinks future walls won't take as long as he now knows the trick. Every project that Walt worked on for us ended up having a beneficial side effect or two. For the stave wall we've discovered a huge amount of sound baffling. That's something we've been battling since day one in our new space. The stave wall absorbs a huge amount of sound. Another unexpected benefit of the stave wall has been the smell. The smell of freshly planed wood in our space has added to the comfortable transition of the place. Visually, the wall makes our space seem more small and comfortable without actually
sacrificing more than a few inches of space. The overwhelming presence of the stave wall makes it a visitor's favorite piece. All in all the stave wall changes the space by affecting our sight, sound, and smell!
When we first opened our doors as the LaVelle Tap Room back in 2013 one of our major investments was in a tap system that could keep 30 bottles of wine fresh with inert gas for a month! The problem was that our back bar left a lot to be desired. The bottles were at the wrong hieight and Walt stepped in to fix that. He built an open faced cabinet with circular slots in it to display our bottles at the appropriate height. When finished the wood of the bin underneath clashed with the new wood. Walt decided to recover the lower wine bins to make everything match up. He also build on an adjacent cabinet to hold our inert gas bottle. Aesthetically pleasing now, we feel like this was a big piece of the entire remodel.
What's Next?
Walt is still working on a few additional projects including a constellation of barrel heads with a brandished logo. We've had a lot of help from other woodworkers on other project including Jim Ayers and Wayne Pompei. As we hone in on the completed redevelopment of our space we're also going to be expanding our menu and wine list as well. Walt has been a huge part of this remodel, and we're certainly thankful for all that he's put into this project. His craftsmanship and artistry has led to a very successful project. If you like these pictures you need to come in and see the completed project over at 400 International Way in North Springfield. We're open from 2-9p Monday through Saturday.
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| 400 International Way in North Springfield |
Walt Cissel is many things. He loves children. He loves his wife Muriel. He also loves woodworking and design. He and I share a love for design. I had the pleasure of interviewing Walt this week. I wanted this interview a few weeks ago but was forced to wait until today. Walt has been hard at work and I didn't want to interrupt him until now. I learned a lot about where he came from, the design process that went into this LaVelle Wine Bar & Grille project, and what he plans to do in the future. Read on as I share...
When I first met Walt he was down at our bridge on the easement road that leads to our winery and tasting room in Elmira. Walt is a big man in physical presence and in personality. He has a big, booming voice that speaks the kindest, most positive words of encouragement. We have only encountered each other a handful of times, but during those times I've grown fond of him. What struck me at first about Walt was the fact that when you talk to him he actually listens. He remembers our conversation. Then, the next time he talks he comments about thoughts that he's had in reference to the last conversation. He wants to know about my family. My kids. My work. He's really interested. Not only that, but he's also a very positive person. He's so kind and genuine in his well thought out comments. So, the second time I came across Walt I let him know how I felt. Since then, it's been a mutually beneficial series of conversations, culminating with this interview.
Walt came to Oregon from Idaho back in 1978. He graduated high school and then went to University of Idaho. He left there feeling burned out on school. He wanted to learn a trade and get to work. He was hired by Mountain Bell and ended up working for them and later Pacific West Bell for 37 years. He met Muriel while working at the phone company and married her in 1998. His mother was a nutritionist and his father was a nuclear engineer...what a pair I bet! Anyway, Walt decided back in the early 2000's that he was ready to set out on his own and do projects that involved woodworking and design.Walt was first approached by our last LaVelle Tap Room Manager, Carly Howe. She started with the idea of attaching corrugated steel on the front of the bar. Walt told me that he wasn't super excited about the projects within our space until he spoke with my Dad. Once the entire concept of taking the industrial, organic feeling of the winery and bringing it to the wine bar was explained he got really excited.
Walt says he was told "we need a new coffee table. About the same size as the current one". He loves
taken from above the table. I really like what Walt did by recreating the curvature of the barrel stave in the
This was one of my favorites pieces that Walt planned and executed, but the biggest project he worked on in size and time was the stave wall. Walt says that he doesn't think there are many of these things out there. We found the idea on Pinterest, showed it to Walt, and he said "I can do that!" We ended up using the North wall of the Wine Bar for this sizable project. The trick to building a stave wall is ti figure out the widths of the staves that you're dealing with and try to line up one row at a time of staves that are close to the same width. Cooper's make staves in varying widths. This is no doubt because of the long (usually 36 months) seasoning process that
When we first opened our doors as the LaVelle Tap Room back in 2013 one of our major investments was in a tap system that could keep 30 bottles of wine fresh with inert gas for a month! The problem was that our back bar left a lot to be desired. The bottles were at the wrong hieight and Walt stepped in to fix that. He built an open faced cabinet with circular slots in it to display our bottles at the appropriate height. When finished the wood of the bin underneath clashed with the new wood. Walt decided to recover the lower wine bins to make everything match up. He also build on an adjacent cabinet to hold our inert gas bottle. Aesthetically pleasing now, we feel like this was a big piece of the entire remodel.
What's Next?
Walt is still working on a few additional projects including a constellation of barrel heads with a brandished logo. We've had a lot of help from other woodworkers on other project including Jim Ayers and Wayne Pompei. As we hone in on the completed redevelopment of our space we're also going to be expanding our menu and wine list as well. Walt has been a huge part of this remodel, and we're certainly thankful for all that he's put into this project. His craftsmanship and artistry has led to a very successful project. If you like these pictures you need to come in and see the completed project over at 400 International Way in North Springfield. We're open from 2-9p Monday through Saturday.
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