w/e July 27, 2013 Getting the most out of A La Carte Café

W/E July 27 2013

Getting the most out of A La Carte Café

Each week I post my ramblings in hopes that you’ll find something that motivates you to join us for lunch or dinner this week—or both. Beyond my intentions of feeding you and providing a livable wage for our staff and ourselves, I am hoping to give you the opportunity to experience opportunities to step outside of your daily norm and experience something exceptional. In our decision to operate this café, I made the choice to emphasize local sourcing and in-season produce. This requires a higher commitment to seek out what is fresh and available. We are now buying from as many as 10 local growers and food producers. Some of them are specifically seeking us out and wanting to know what specialty produce I am in search of.

We’ve come a long way in the three years we’ve been doing this. Initially, Mary and Skip Badiny with Maranatha Farm were our primary growers for locally sourced organic produce. We continue to buy much of our produce through them but have added in smaller producers who may only have a single specialty crop. (Mary and Skip have been and remain instrumental in helping to promote our café and in providing the most needed produce.) In addition to produce, we now are able to source local grass fed beef and lamb as well as free-range chicken eggs.

When I am planning the menu for the week I take several aspects into account. First, what is going to be available for this week only or for a very short time? This might be fresh produce, but it might also be an announcement that the Coho Salmon run out of Ketchikan, Alaska has just begun. Through Chef’s Collaborative and Sea-to-Table I am connected up with docks around the country that ship fresh-off-the-boat seafood overnight. The thrill is getting in the coolers of extremely fresh seafood, cooking it and serving it up. I could do it more often if we had just a smidgen more business on a regular basis. To make those fresh fish orders work we have to order 25 or more pounds from a particular dock. That’s a lot of fish! Or crab! Or shrimp! 

The daily lunch specials allow us to showcase in-season freshness while allowing individuals on our team to strut their creativity. For the first couple of years this fell mostly to me with a few notable exceptions like Bruce’s tamales. Since early this year we have had in place an exceptional team of gifted and creative cooks. They are now responsible for the specials on Monday, Wednesday and Friday while I continue to produce the Tuesday and Thursday specials. As I am cooking the dinners on Tuesday through Friday, I am still making those decisions.  Often, the quantity of a given ingredient is limited and rather than skip it entirely I am content to make it only available in a small batch. This flexibility would never be allowed in a chain restaurant.  Over time, our customers have learned that if they want the scarce items it behooves them to call in and have it reserved for them.  We are happy to do so. I am not apologetic that we don’t make enough to feed everyone the specials. We can try to make more when there is a known favorite, but I would rather make too little than too much. It is all about sustainability, and that includes reducing waste. We even compost much of our vegetable waste or make flavorful broths during the winter months.  

Creating exceptional food is an on-going goal. It starts with quality, fresh ingredients. I like to expand beyond the expected to include multicultural cuisines and ad hoc improvisations. Generally, this provides that opportunity for you to step outside your safe box of flavors and expand your palate in a new direction. In the somewhat insular locale in which we reside, many people have not experienced other cuisines beyond local fried stuff, Tex-Mex or American-Chinese. Our customers who seem to appreciate us the most are those who have traveled extensively and know what the world has to offer. To them we create a whiff of the world at large.

This week we’ll be venturing all over the world in a whirlwind tour of flavors. On Monday, Vincent reprises his portabella tacquito. Vincent is great at presenting Latin inspired dishes. Tuesday we’ll have Chicken Pad Thai. Wednesday Amy will remind of us why this region is famous for cashew chicken. Thursday we’ll celebrate the first of the local tomatoes with a panzanella salad, and Friday Amy delights us with Bangkok shrimp. That is just the lunches. Of course, our daily menu is always available for more predictable fare.

For dinner we’ll head back to Italy for Cioppino, (pronounced chuh-pee’-no) a hearty seafood stew made with rockfish, shrimp, octopus, calamari, clams and scallops.  The broth alone is worth the visit. This special will include a special side salad and lots of freshly made bread to sop up the juices.

I’ll also do an Italian beef roulade. That is made with local grass fed beef flank steak filled with fresh herbs, cream cheese and rolled up, then cooked and sliced. We’ll serve it with summer stir-fry and garlic potatoes.

Were you aware that we cater small events? Private dinner parties, board meetings, staff meetings, recruitment dinners. Our annex is available for private events. Ask me about availability and costs.

We have not scheduled any musicians this week. Reservations are still recommended. It allows us to stagger your visit so that you have the shortest wait for your food.

So here’s the actual line-up in a simplified form~~

Lunches—

Monday~ Portabella Tacquito with chips and salsa $7.99

Tuesday~ Chicken Pad Thai $7.99

Wednesday~ Cashew chicken and rice $7.99

Thursday~ Panzanella salad $7.99

Friday~ Bangkok Shrimp $7.99

Dinners—

Flavor journey~ Italian beef Roulade with summer stir-fry and garlic potatoes $14.99

Seafood Entrée~ Cioppino—Italian Fish stew with salad $15.99

Pasta Amatriciana~ Pasta, pancetta, oven roasted tomatoes, pecorino cheese, parsley and basil. Served with  a side salad $14.99

I hope you find the time to visit us this week. You make our efforts a pleasure and rewarding. Between the rain showers it should be a comfortable week to enjoy dining al fresco.

 

~~Susan