As Promised, the Butler Has Returned, to the Pantry

Back in July of 2022 I mused that pantries were making a comeback and that I was thinking of installing one in the addition to our 1900-era Crocus Hill area home. Well, true to my word, I did install one.

What I’ve found is that it’s highly versatile, and makes grocery runs easier because you can see all your food staples on the shelves. This past year we hosted Christmas Eve, a tradition we’ve taken on after my wife’s parents passed a few years ago.

My wife won the discussion and got a wine fridge, which I tend to use as well for beer, sparkling water, and milk for my coffee, so a win-win.

But what we noticed at the Christmas party was that- while the center isle in the kitchen is perfect for holding the food- the pantry, because it has a sink and a fridge, is great for a wet bar. It’s a nice, private little alcove for folks to make a drink or have a quiet conversation. We filled the sink with ice and bottles of white and rosé and n/a beverages so that people could help themselves.

Since the kitchen already has a built-in microwave and oven, we put the toaster oven in the pantry, and that is where we make our toast, coffee, tea and frothed drinks.

The pantry is also nice when we have smaller gatherings. Since people just can’t seem to get out of the kitchen when you’re entertaining, the pantry is a great place to do food prep and wine and water service. You can disappear for a few moments to collect yourself, look up some factoid on Google and pretend you knew it all along, or put together a last-minute dish. A pocket door offers extra privacy and doesn’t take up space.

The pantry shelves are designed to hold sundries in a visible way—  thus each shelf is only 7.5” deep. This way we won’t be able to store too much on one shelf and obstruct our clear view of what’s there, a depth I’m hoping is “fool proof.”

The small wine fridge has slide out horizontal bottle racks and can hold 10 or more bottles of wine, which will come in handy once my wife is done with Dry January. And no she hasn’t mentioned it at all but as of this writing there are nineteen days, ten hours and 42 minutes left of her self-imposed sobriety.