September 13-17 Fish Tacos are back!

What a crazy week last week was. Holidays and non-stop rain do not a busy week make. What, to many, may have seemed a depressingly slow week turned out to be a week where we had time to really look down the road at our goals. We were able to put some things into perspective and prioritize some actions. I can give you more details later. But right now, let's move on to what you really care about-- this week's specials.

our courtyard before we got the umbrellas for the bigger tables

They may each seem familiar as we have featured them at different times over the last few weeks.

One of our most popular specials were the fish tacos. Well, they are back this week. To those who haven't tried them, they are on soft corn torillas and you get 2. We wood-fire tilapia and finish it with creole seasoning. Kicky! Then we top it with a slaw that has lime, chili, and cilantro as major flavor contributors. We sold out each day we made them. So if you know you want them, get your call in early in the day ...or even a day ahead to reserve your serving.

The soup is Tom Ka Kai. You may know this as Thai coconut chicken soup. This fairly light weight soup, by that I mean it isn't thick and heavy, has a (home made) chicken broth plus lots of shredded chicken, ginger, cilantro, onion, carrot, bell pepper & lemon along with coconut milk which gives it a distinctly Asian slant. We trotted this out our first week when it was 100F. It was sadly overlooked as NO ONE was thinking soup that week. Hopefully there are a few of you ready to think soup again. If I judge by last week, as slow as it was, you are definitely thinking soup.

The third special is a return of the Anti-pasto salad. This is a very dense salad that will fill you right up. Beginning with chopped Romaine, we add provolone, woodfired chicken, cabicola and pancetta (seasoned Italian hams), Kalamata olives, roasted red peppers, bell pepper, red onion, tomato, artichoke hearts, mushrooms, pasta, basil and parlsey. It is tossed with a dressing based on a lemon juice/ olive oil mixture seasoned with oregano, mustard and worchestershire. This is almost an extreme salad and it generated lots of positve comments the week we introduced it. I will serve the tapenade with it as well along with a few crackers.

Now back to long term plans and priorities--

Many of you asked us what we plan to do come winter. Judging by how many of you stayed inside during the non-stop rain last week, this is a valid question. We have very mixed feelings about this. You do know that there are food wagons operating all winter in Chicago and Boston and NYC. Of course, those guys are always bragging about not being weather wimps. Over the years I have, myself, become a weather wimp. Gone are the days when  I am willing to battle the elements-- especially if it risks my life. So that means, if it is icy we will not be there. We live 25 miles down US 63 and parts are quite hilly.

We would like to move to a permanent inside location but we are not in the position to further stick our necks out on much higher rent. We figure we have until the beginning of November to build our customer base as quickly as we can. Hopefully, we'll have you hooked by then and willing to face the elements for  a lunch that really satisfies. If you can tough it out with us through the winter months, we think we can be in a better position by spring to make changes.  That's the plan as of this week, anyway.

We've always been dreamers. Both of us are active artists; me-fiber, Jon- jazz guitar, so dreaming is a foundation of our beingness. But we've become much more realists in the last few years, too. This tends to soften our momentum but not determination toward our goals. We are far more cautious that we used to be.
Aah, age!