A new era—lunch AND dinner

If you were looking for this post on Monday morning, there is a reason it is just now coming out Monday afternoon. As of this week we are no longer open Mondays for lunch. In fact, when we are open it is now for both lunch and dinner service. You would think that putting together a dinner menu would be a piece of cake after doing the lunch menu for over a year. But it isn't.

Sure, it would be fairly easy to just come up with a menu that features only fancy dishes. But I have to keep reminding myself of who our existing customers are and build the menu with that in mind. We are hoping to attract you for lunch for yourself and also dinner for your family. To that end we are presenting a menu that offers many of the items you have clamored for, as well as a few items that take things up a notch. Realistically, we know that feeding you during the week requires a menu that is within the bounds of what most of us can afford. Hopefully we will have hit that mark. I have no doubt that our menu will have some major tweaking in the next few weeks.  We are listening to your feedback as well as watching what moves and what doesn't. This is your chance to have an impact on what your dinner options are. So speak up!!!!

• Through the month of February you can try us out at dinner with a BUY ONE; GET ONE FREE on your first visit. This is only good Tuesday through Thursday and only on your first visit.

Last Friday was our first chance to enjoy the fresh fish. We got in several pounds of fresh Pacific cod. It had a very bright fresh flavor. It was beautiful! Feedback told me I could have boosted the additional flavors a bit. I am learning. This week we have Amberjack. This lovely fish comes from the Gulf and the Atlantic. It is in the jack family and has a very mild flavor, white flesh, a firm texture and very low fat. I'll kick up those flavors by first blackening the fillets (which involves lots of flavorful spices!) and cooking them on the griddle. They'll be topped with a sauce made from parsley, tarragon, capers, lemon juice and olive oil.  On the side I'll serve grape tomatoes and shallots sautéed with wine and capers. We'll have extra sides of garlic mashed potatoes, a fresh green vegetable or buttered egg noodles. The fresh fish will be available Wednesday through Friday at dinner.

We'll make sure there is a copy of our dinner menu for you to look at on the tables this week. In the meantime I'll address the lunches this week~~

• First of all, because of the cod I'll make a New England fish chowder for Tuesday and probably Tuesday only. Bruce will have French onion soup. Later in the week I'll do a Tom Ka Kai— that is the Thai chicken soup that includes coconut milk, ginger, and cilantro as its strong flavor components.
• Tuesday at lunch Bruce will have his Cashew Chicken Tamales. As strange as this sounds, they are really terrific. It has all the flavors you expect in cashew chicken; produced in a tamale. It will have a rice side with it.
• Wednesday I'll have the Tom Ka Kai soup ready, and it will be perfect to serve with a Pork Lo Mein. This dish features a linguini-type noodle topped with stir-fried ground pork and shitake mushrooms. The prominent flavors are ginger, sweet red chili peppers and sesame and tatsoi. Tatsoi is an Asian green grown organically locally that has a mild flavor and a gentle crunch.
• Thursday I'll do a Chicken Cordon Bleu crepe. Thinly sliced ham and grilled chicken with melted Swiss cheese and alfredo sauce stuffed in a crepe and topped with melted swiss cheese and alfredo sauce. Served over a bed of sautéed baby spinach.
• Friday we'll have a pulled pork sandwich served on a ciabatta bun and accompanied by our Cajun home fries.
• This week's dinner menu will be kept simply to the new menu with the only announced special being the fresh fish Wednesday through Friday nights. Next week I'll get more bold and plan specials for both lunch and dinner.

The music Friday night will be Open Mic. We have a few people lined up to play a few tunes each, so plan on coming in to enjoy a tasty meal and support the musicians. After this month, Open Mic will probably be on Thursday evenings. Tuesday and Wednesday evenings will have no scheduled music. Please note: From now on you will be ordering from the menu on Friday nights. You are still encouraged to make reservations and you CAN reserve a menu item. There will be wait staff to take your order and serve your meal as at a normal restaurant.

We hope you'll join us on this next leg of our adventure. Adding the evening meals has been a plan for a while, but the execution took longer than I had hoped. We are looking forward to the 4-day work week but are a bit leery about the long days.  Can these older bodies handle the extra workload? Stay tuned and find out. Most of all~ thank you for being a part of this adventure.

~~Susan

Happy Lunar New Year- Year of the Dragon!

I love the Chinese New Year. It isn't in the middle of numerous other celebrations and besides, it reminds me of my father. He was into it. The date flucuates because it follows the lunar calendar. Monday, the 23rd is the date. So if you didn't make a grand entrance into 2012, you have another chance to get those priorities aligned for the year and you can celebrate 4710 instead.

This is the year of the dragon. In seafaring cultures that often translates to lobster or the logustino family. At the cafe we'll celebrate by offering Crawfish Etouffee over white rice. Recently, Zabar's, that internationally, highly rated New York restaurant was "outed" for using crawfish and calling it lobster in their lobster salad. Thouands of pounds of it had been sold for years at $16.95/ pound, before a New Orleans reporter read the label and called them out. We're telling you up-front. It is crawfish! It is the most local of dragons we could locate in order to properly celebrate.

The photo in this issue is of a piece I did several years ago entitled "Full Moon—Low Ceiling." I am including it because it is one of my pieces that celebrates the full moon. The title comes from the color of the sky at night when it is cloudy under a full moon. Sadly, this piece was stolen right off the wall while being displayed at the Gillioz Theater in Springfield a couple of years ago.

If you were lucky enough to be here last Friday evening, you watched some wonderful magic happen. Jon joined forces with Greg Kwalume, and together they played some awesome jazz. We have some other talent coming up, so watch for the updates.

This will be our last week that we'll be open on Mondays. Starting NEXT week (the 31st) we'll be open Tuesday - Friday for lunch AND DINNER! I am working on a dinner menu that includes many of your lunch favorites, plus several new entrées and appetizers. While the Tavern permit is yet to come through, we didn't want you to have to wait to catch us for dinner. This is a whole new ballgame for me and I am gearing up. Fear, once again, rears its ugly head and, once again I march forth, quaking in my boots but optomistic we can pull it off. Learning curves can be a struggle.  It is always nice to be on the other side of them...and helpful to have a customer base that wants this as much as we do.

This week begins our new alliance with a local grocer who is bringing in fresh seafood weekly. This week we have access to FRESH Pacific cod. I'll prepare it Friday night as the seafood entrée. I try to make sustainable choices when planning the menu and Pacific cod is currently one of the best choices. So say several of the fishery watchlists like Seafood Watch (from the Monterey Bay Aquarium), SeaChoice and Fishwise. Flavorwise, cod have a lean, mild flavor profile with large flakes and a medium texture. I'll be baking it in Italian seasonings and serving it on a pasta coated with a pesto of
sun-dried tomato and roasted red peppers.

• All week we'll have the Romans on sale at 50 cents off.  
• Soups: we'll start the week off with a hearty chicken and vegetable as well as roasted garnet potato bisque. Later in the week I'll add lentil soup with polish sausage.
• Desserts~We start the week with blueberry tart and carrot cake. I'll add gingerbread with whipped cream and a coconut almond cream sauce.
• Monday~ Crawfish Etoufée served over white rice $6.75
• Tuesday~ Cumin-rubbed pork tamales with cheddar rojas sauce and
  buttered rice $6.75
• Wednesday~Creamy chicken enchiladas plus a black bean tostada topped with a citrus slaw $6.75
• Thursday~Pesto pizza with wood-fired chicken, shitake mushrooms, kalamata olives, mozzarella and Roma tomatoes with side salad $7
• Friday~Chicken LoMein with ginger and mushrooms served with stir-fried bok choy and tatsoi $6.75
• This is the last week for our usual Friday night format.
• Seafood entrée~ Italian baked FRESH cod served with sun-dried tomato and roasted red pepper pasta. Starts with side salad and garlic bread. $13
• Meat Entrée~ Beef and Italian Sausage Lasagna served with side salad and garlic bread $13
• Vegetarian Entrée~Spinach and Mushroom Lasagna served with side salad and garlic bread. $11

We appreciate you being here with us for the ride. Each time a Lunch Bunch card is cashed in we count that as a pat on our backs. Hopefully, it means we are doing more right than wrong. From the strong personal feedback we are getting, you like most of what we do. Fortunately, our customers have also learned that we listen when they want us to know where we could do better. Thanks for being here this week. Next week watch for special buy one/get one type deals at dinner.

~~Susan

Developments

After reviewing how long it looks like the tavern license is likely to take we decided to jump into the dinner game a bit earlier. So, starting Tuesday January 31st we will serve dinner 4 nights a week. Here's the general game plan—we will close out Mondays (sorry gang we only have SO much energy) and be open for both lunch and dinner Tuesday —Friday. Initially, we will probably close between meal services. After we get that darn license we will probably remain open from 11a.m—8p.m. I say probably because you are the ones who will eventually dictate that.

I am currently designing the dinner menu. It will include many of your favorites plus regular entrée type dishes. We have worked out an alliance with a local grocer to have access to fresh, never frozen seafood weekly. We also will add wait staff to take your orders and provide your table service. In other words, we will be like most other restaurants instead of the hybrid we've been cobbling together for Friday nights. You will no longer be limited to three entrées. Live music will continue on Friday nights and Thursday will allow for Open Mic. Tuesday and Wednesday we will have our usual light background jazz.

We have been hearing for a year now how we need to be open at night to expand our customer base. The trick has been doing it without wearing ourselves out. We THINK we have a grasp on how to make it work and I know there will be a learning curve. I expect it will actually be much easier for me in that I won't be rushing to get all the meals ready at once for Friday nights.

We are also working to expand our marketing through social media and the first benefit of that for you will be to give you a "buy one, get one free" dinner. This only applies to dinners and only in the month of February. This way you can give us a try and save money at the same time. It will be available to those who receive our weekly email updates. So if you haven't signed up, please do so. Also, if you will "like" us on our Facebook page you will know when we offer these great deals. Sometimes they may include free desserts or reward you for bringing in new customers. We are very aware that you are our greatest asset for marketing. We would not be here today had it not been for your warm response and willingness to help spread the word. Thank you.

Before I get into the flavor journeys this week, let me remind you that Jon Lumsden will be the  music this Friday night—with a new twist. Jon has just joined forces with guitarist Greg Kwalume, who will join him on lead guitar this Friday! They've just begun to work on some tunes together, including learning some new songs. Their gentle laid-back jazzy style will carry you along. The mellow 7-string rythym guitar creates a warm foundation, and Jon's sweet vocal tones will take you on a very gentle journey through the Great American Songbook. His own tunes shine a quiet light into his soul. You'll enjoy the ride. Reservations strongly encouraged.

Here's information about this week's Flavor Journeys—

• All Week~ Winter Salad will be on sale; 50 cents off @ $5.99. Made with spinach or arugula, red onion slivers, chunks of tomato, red grapefruit, avocado and feta cheese and topped with pomegranate and almonds. Honey mustard dressing made to accompany.
• Soups~ we'll start the week off with French Onion—the soup that made Bruce famous; I'll add in Creamy Bisque of Roasted Garnet Yams made from organic Garnet Yams—like a sweet potato but sweeter and creamier; Bruce will finish the week with Beef and Vegatable soup.
• Desserts~We'll start off with White Chocolate Cheesecake. I plan to make a Carrot Cake and a gluten free Walnut/ Blueberry Tart.
• Monday~Pimento Cheese Quesadillas. A crowd favorite made in-house with fire roasted red peppers, cheddar, cream cheese plus a touch of jalapeno and spices. Served with trio of sides~salsa, sour cream and guacamole plus tortilla chips. $6.75
• Tuesday~Bruce's tamales go Italian with chicken florentine~ that translates to chicken and spinach filled tamales with a spinach sauce and mushroom risotto. $6.75
• Wednesday~Herbed crepes with wood-fired chicken in a tarragon cream sauce with mushrooms, broccoli and shredded parmesan. Served with a side salad. $6.75
• Thursday~Molletes Pizzas. In Mexico they are made on small rolls. We'll use a pizza blank as a base. I'll add black bean frijoles, grilled onions and peppers plus a few jalapenos and top with monterey jack cheese. All this gets melty and gooey in the broiler. Accompanied by a side salad. $7.00
• Friday~Wood-fired Elk Burgers. They are back by popular demand. Served cooked-to-order on a Roman bun with melted gruyere and sauteed mushrooms and onions. Accompanied by spicy oven roasted potatoes. $8.00
• Remember: The new dinners don't start until January 31st. This week is the usual Friday format.
• Seafood Entrée~Pan-seared, wild-caught Pacific salmon with an Asian-influenced sauce and mango salsa served with sesame sautéed noodles. Starts with a side salad  $13
• Meat Entrée~Chicken O'Brien. Grilled chicken topped with basil, sun-dried tomatoes and Fontina cheese. Served over buttered noodles. Starts with  side salad  $13
• Vegetarian Entrée~Stir-fried broccoli, onions and shitaki mushrooms in a teri-yaki sauce served over sesame sautéed noodles. Starts with a side salad. $11
• If you prefer not to eat one of the above entree offerings on Friday night, you may call in before 1pm Friday and request one of our signature salads. The servings will be larger with more meat and be accompanied by a biscuit. The cost is $10.     

As we start this new year we are made very aware of just how fortunate we have been to share your business, your warmth, encouragement and support. We strongly feel that you are what shapes what we become. We not only enjoy your input, we relish it and rely upon it. Thank you~~

~~Susan

And we are off!...to a fast start, that is

After 2 luxurious weeks off, we are back in the saddle. Jon and I talked our way across Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida discussing our upcoming plans for the café. First, we decided that we should close for two weeks every year. Then we wrestled how to add more meal sessions without killing ourselves while doing so. The first change will come AFTER we are firmly holding our new tavern permit. The delays came about because we also changed the type of establishment to being an LLC. That took over a month. Now we can apply for the actual permit which will allow us to serve beers and wines. It is a 2-step process that begins with a city application and ends with a state one after the city one is permitted. We are guesstimating the final date being somewhere in mid February. Once that occurs we'll serve both beer and wine at both lunch and dinner. At that point we'll expect to eliminate Mondays and be open Tuesday through Fridays for lunches and dinners. We can't say yet if we'll remain open in the afternoons between sessions. We plan to add waitstaff for dinners with a regular dinner menu. There will be specials in limited quantities and reservations encouraged for Friday nights. We plan to continue music on Friday nights and add an open mic on Thursday evenings. Otherwise we'll have the usual background music of jazz and light pop.

We have yet to meet with the various reps in the beverage industry but plan to serve primarily regional beers and wines plus a few California wines. That, in itself, will be a learning experience. So hang on and bear with us. It'll happen.

Menu changes will mostly be the addition of a couple of interesting quesadillas, new soups and a few new surprises. I'll introduce them as specials first to make sure you really like them. The response to my Winter Salad was sufficient to add it seasonally to the menu. So that is available immediately.

After traveling across the country and going into sticker shock in each restaurant we walked into, we saw what a bargain we are for most items. We plan to keep our prices as low as we can while adding on some more profitable items, too. You will note that most of our menu went up about 25 cents.

After managing to navigate the dangerous waters of a restaurant's first year, we want to tighten our operation and gradually become a bit more professional and upscale. To that end, we have finally painted the bathroom. It'll get a fancier glaze coat later but the base is down and it definitely looks better.  If you have any currently unused framed mirrors you could part with, I am collecting several to add to the wall of the bathroom.

With the aim of a more upscale feel, I am putting more attention on my plating in hopes of creating dishes that are more appealing to the eye and thus even more tasty the rest of the way. I know it may seem trivial to some but it can make a big difference in how well a dish is perceived. We'll keep the fresh, made-from-scratch aspect.

We're adding a couple of additional seasonal sides. I may not have them all ready on Monday but I'll have them by mid-week. They will include a black bean and corn salad and an Asian sesame noodle salad. Also, I am introducing oven-roasted potatoes as a warm side.

Monday's special will simply be fish tacos at 50 cents off. We will be scrambling to get all the prep finished before we open so I am keeping it simple to keep me sane(er).

Tuesday Bruce will have his wood-fired chicken and black bean tamales with avocado and salsa verde. He'll serve it with Spanish rice. $6.75

Wednesday I have an Asian Taco plate. It'll have 4 mini tacos made from wonton skins stuffed with chicken in a peanut sauce and topped with an Asian slaw. It'll be served with a side of the Asian sesame noodle salad.    $6.75

Thursday I'll introduce a chorizo quesadilla. I'll use the usual pair of 8" flour tortillas filled with sauteéd Mexican chorizo (Mexican pork sausage), grilled onions and bell peppers and Monterey Jack cheese. It'll come with the usual sides of guacamole, sour cream, salsa and tortilla chips. $6.75

Friday we'll have a pizza with wood-fired chicken, grilled onions and bell peppers and optional mushrooms. The sauce will be basil pesto and the cheese a combination of Monterey jack and mozzarella. It'll come with a side salad or choice of seasonal sides $7.25

Friday night we have Reneé Wood Trio. Reneé, Tom and David will delight you with their jazzy style. Saxophone, guitar and drums will fill the air with classic jazz. We are open from 5 until 8 but the music starts about 6:15. If you come in closer to 5pm you'll have time to enjoy an appetizer before dinner is served shortly after 6:15. In keeping it simple this first week, I am going with known crowd pleasers.
Seafood~ shrimp pad Thai. Served with a side salad and summer roll. $12
Meat~ Grilled pork chop glazed with strawberry chipotle chutney and served with a side salad, cheese biscuit and garlic mashed potatoes. $12
Vegetarian~Grilled winter veggies and ricotta fill a pair of herbed crepes and topped with a creamy garlic sauce. Served with a side salad and pilaf stuffed pepper. $10

If you don't wish to eat one of the above selections, you may order a larger version of one of our specialty salads AS LONG AS YOU PLACE THE ORDER BEFORE 2PM FRIDAY! The Navajo, the Greek, the Oriental chicken, the Fuji or the Winter Salad can be ordered. It will be larger with more meat, served with a cheese biscuit and the cost will be $10.

The desserts will be a surprise. I will arive on Monday armed with 6 Granny Smith apples...

We very much hope to see you this week~~

Susan