about
elysian is housed in the former home of the Glendale Mold Shop, a small manufacturing business that made resin molds for porcelain products. The current owners purchased the building in 2002, when the proprietor of the Glendale Mold Shop retired. From 2002 to 2009, it was a private residence. Since 2010, the location has operated as an event venue, and from 2013 to 2017, a sometimes full-time restaurant named “elysian.” In addition to housing elysian, the space is home to Clockshop.
Chef
chef david’s culinary journey
began at the age of 7 in the summer of ’67
when unsupervised by an adult
he made a batch of snickerdoodles and
some lemonade and set up a sidewalk stand
with the name “little lord fauntleroy’s”
some neighborhood toughs knocked it all down
took the snickerdoodles and 45¢ in nickels
spilled the lemonade pushed the tow-headed
entreprenuer’s face into the ground
that was the end of his culinary journey
he has just been cooking ever since and
every dish he makes is in some mildly psychotic way
a jubilant and undeterred attempt to recapture
the lost snickerdoodles the sad spilled lemonade
the shredded dignity and to heal
a class-induced childhood trauma
each dish in fact seeks closure despite
its acute selfie-awareness that closure is
neither possible nor desired and so each dish
ends up always merely already another
in a long menu of historical repetitions
in which the lemonade is
irretrievably spilled once again
he has now forgotten all about this incident
and cooks happily at elysian 86 lemonade