Message for a quiet week

This is my favorite week of the year. It is a week where the social and familial expectations are behind us and one can take a moment to reflect on what went well this year and what changes should be made for the future. For myself, it has been a year of transition. As our café begins its bricks-and-mortar life, my fiber art assumes a smaller role. Were it not for the fact that I find creativity in the kitchen as well as the studio, I would mourn the loss. I expect that I'll always have an itch to work in fiber, but my current focus is to make A La Carte Café a favorite destination for local lunchers.

Admittedly, most restaurants are the manifestation of a strong vision of the head chef—an extension of their egos, if you will. No doubt A La Carte Café will follow that same path. But I wanted to share with you some of my personal philosophy in creating this venture. So bear with me.

About 20 years ago I swore off taking on jobs by default—jobs that others weren't stepping up to but that I knew I could probably do—simply because it needed doing. Unless it directly moved me forward in my personal goals, it was not a job I for which I was going to volunteeer. I've taken too many detours along my path for that. So the decision to open our cafe came after a LONG personal search of my goals.

When we moved to the Ozarks 11 years ago, after living our lives in medium and large cities, we expected to find our dining options somewhat limited. Like you, we anticipated each new restaurant opening hoping to experience some of the dining diversity we'd experienced in the larger cities. Sadly, most just seemed to be more of the same ol', same ol'. Some didn't even seem to care whether our dining experience was worthwhile. Most used already-prepped provisioner ingredients. Freshness and local sourcing were foreign concepts. Seemed like nobody was stepping up to the plate to provide what we were hungering for— literally.

I've never been one to play it safe. However, the last several years have beaten some of the maverick out of me with its tight finances and looming social security balances. Suddenly, the room to stretch and expand was limited by a demand for money that MUST be met. While I was younger I would have jumped in whole hog and simply expected a positive outcome. Now the downside consequences are heavier and the upside rewards less guaranteed. But we still find there is this niche that is not being filled and I think I have the skills, along with Jon and now Bruce, to pull it off. We are, quite literally, betting on ourselves and even the community.

We believe there is a community-wide demand

• To eat closer to the soil 
• To eat REAL food from sources that have faces and names
• To avoid the GMO, MSG world of fast food  
• To eat food that takes us on flavor journeys
• To demand that food be made from really fresh ingredients 
• To seek sustainable solutions to growing our food

To that end we are building our café. We'll do it bit by bit while learning along the way. If you agree with our mission, please tell your friends and co-workers.

We are fortunate that Bruce Carr is available currently to assist in steering us. He has many, many years experience in food service management. He also is an adventurous cook and we've worked together in various ways over the years. Most of all he is a very dear friend. The three of us, together, hope to present a lunch time solution that inspires you to come back regularly.

This week we are bringing back a favorite and adding a new thing or two. I would love to keep the popular dishes on the menu full-time but we simply can't if we wish to keep the batches small and fresh. So we will rotate through some favorites while adding flavor journeys along the way.



Portabellas from Bob and Wendy Semyck at Willow Mountain Mushroom Farm in Tecumseh

 This week's favorite is the Portabella Brie Bisque. I'll have it ready for lunch on Monday and make it fresh throughout the week. This is the weekly soup and it is $3.49/cup and $4.99/bowl.

This week's Flavor Journey is a hot lunch of Carnitas served with pintos and rice. Carnitas are a slow cooked pork, seasoned with Hatch peppers (mild but warm) that is pulled (shredded) and served as a taco on soft flour tortillas. You'll get 2 plus rice and beans for $6.25. We make it all from scratch. The pork starts with a dry rub and then 10 hours in the slow cooker. The beans soak overnight before being cooked with a smoked hock. The rice is my Spanish rice cooked with onions, tomatoes and bell pepper. You'll get salsa, too.

This week's salad journey is a Winter Spinach Salad—Organic Spinach from Maranatha Farm, red onion, grapefruit slices, avocado slices, pomegranate and Jon's wood-fired chicken. The dressing is a sweet/sour one that is Bruce's personal recipe. $6.25

We hope the week finds you inspired to reflect back as well as excited about the future. We believe strongly in this land of ours and are betting that scarcity will be replaced by ingenuity, abundance and growth. We have much to be grateful for— you are part of that. Thank you.

Happy Holidays

 First of all--specials this week will evolve as the week progresses. My starting soup will be one I have been developing "Caldo con queso y pollo". I'll start with russet potatoes, add mild Hatch chilis, fresh chicken breasts (shredded), Cheddar cheese, and a bit of cream. While it is a creamy soup, it is not a dense cheesy one. The chicken and potatoes will add enough substance to stick to your ribs. The Hatch chilis will add a glowing warmth without being "hot". I have ordered portabellas for the soup for week between Christmas and New Years.

I will have Antipasto Salad on Monday and Tuesday. Later we will have a spinach salad as Mary Badiny's spinach is finally ready.

I'll have some cranberry nut muffins and a lemon bread as the breakfast breads.

We will be closed on Friday the 24th as well as the 31st. It looks like those may be the last 3-day weekends we get for a while.

We have once again re-instituted the "cameback treat." This little tidbit of a treat is for those who make it in more than once in the week. It is a dessert only available as a freebie to those who qualify as a "thank you." If we somehow didn't notice, on our own, that your visit is a repeat that week-- feel free to remind us. The treat changes by my whim and is seldom the same from week to week. This week--white chocolate tamales.

We are finally getting settled in our new space and we LOVE it! We are getting the lines grooved in. Those who call in orders seldom have to wait more than a minute or two for their orders. We've discovered that parking is fairly easy on the back side of the block--between us and the Quill.

We now have gift certificates available. They make terrifc employee incentive or thank you gifts. You can pay via any method-- cash, check, debit or credit card.

Did you know we have free WI-FI? Check your email, update your facebook status or download an ebook- while enjoying a cup of Starbucks French Roast coffee.

Gleeful Greetings!

Wow! We had such fun last week saying howdy once again to our loyal customers. While we had quite few new faces in the door, we had far more of our old friends stop by. We were delighted with your reactions and even more pleased to be able to serve you in our new environment.


Here's our new service kitchen. It is right out front so I can be a part of things and cooking is done right in front of you.

We really wore ourselves out pushing so hard to get open quickly. But now that part is over and we are slowly regaining some energy and perspective. One big factor that is helping is that Bruce Carr has joined our team. His extensive knowledge of the management end of the food business as well as his can do/ will do attitude make him a joy to work with. He also brings a personal flair for exploratory cooking. We look forward to adding his creations to the mix as time goes along.

I have a new soup recipe that I am using as our main soup this week. It is Italian Sausage Minestrone. I found it in the New England Soup Factory Cookbook. They are the same guys who had the recipe for the Butternut  with Cannelloni Soup we had last week. It is full of fresh veggies including carrots, celery, onion, zucchini and yellow squash, tomatoes plus three kinds of beans in a light tomato based broth. Both sweet and hot Italian sausage are in abundance.

Starting Tuesday we'll have Antipasto Salad for the rest of the week. I have received several requests for this. Thank you for letting me know what you want. I'm listening.

Did you realise we are now open at 8AM? We are serving coffee, tea, orange juice and breakfast breads~muffins, etc. 

Did you know we now have WI-FI? Yep. It is free. So enjoy your coffee while surfing the web.




This is the view from the stage.

In the front corner of the dining area we have added a stage. During the week you may dine in the elevated area. But come Friday night (beginning in January) we'll be open for a Tapas menu (appetizer sized portions) and will feature various acoustic artists. I doubt we'll be open very late--probably closed by about 10pm. It should be the kind of environment where you could bring your mother, your daughter or your business partner while being able to relax and be comfrtable while listening to good music and dining on good food. Much more on that later.

We're Back!!!!

Well it took longer than we hoped and more than every penny from selling the trailer, but we got it done. We are indoors in what I think is a most beautiful building on a prime location.The kitchen was totally designed so that I can be a part of things-- not stuck in the back room. I'll tell you more in a minute. But first-- here are this week's specials--

• Soup~~White chicken chili    cup $3.49  bowl $4.99
• Sushi~~THURSDAY AND FRIDAY ONLY~~spicy shrimp rolls, Philly rolls (smoked salmon, cream cheese and green onion), miso soup     Choice of roll plus miso soup $6.25
• Breakfast Breads~~Yep! Bran Muffins, Cranberry Walnut Muffins, Pumpkin Walnut Bread  $1.50 

Gosh! It feels nice to say that!



Here's an view looking at our new service counter.

Friday morning, yes I said morning, we opened at 8am. We are now open for coffee, tea and breakfast breads until 11am when we begin serving lunch. Several friends dropped by for their free coffee and muffins and to scope the place out. (This week the coffee and muffins are NOT free) I was very pleased with the results. Everything went fairly smoothly. The orders came in at a nice pace and everyone seemed happy with the result. We served 38 meals-- a number that took us being open several weeks to achieve while in the trailer. I love having a commercial range with 6 burners and an oven. The cold prep table has taken the scrambling for ingredients in salads and sandwiches and made it all like a painter's palette. All ingredients within reach. This should translate to quite a bit faster service and easier for me. Jon gets to work from his new granite counter taking your orders, providing your beverages and delivering your order.

It is Sunday night and we are still exhausted. So I am going to keep this short and sweet and skip the details til later.
We look forward to seeing you again-- in our nice warm location on the Square, immediately to the right ( north) of Bank of America.