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