On a mission of flavor

This week celebrates two full years that we have been playing this strange game of being restaurant owners. Our first three months found us operating out of a food trailer on Broadway. It gave us a chance to test out our concept before making major financial committments. Fortunately, you and your friends found that what we were doing was worth continuing. So we did. A big part of our concept was that we would work to expand the palates of those who live in this area. We wanted to be able to serve the foods we would be looking for if were in a large city. Another major aspect was the desire to be a part of the local sourcing movement. We really like the idea of a smaller carbon footprint and being an active part of that. There is a food revolution going on in this country that is fed by people rediscovering how much better foods are when prepared with ingredients grown and raised locally. This is a revolution even my mother would be proud of my participating in. I really like the idea that most of the monies you pay us stay in this immediate community. Thank you for being a part of the revolution.

When I make selections for our menu each week, the choices often come via recent wanderings through the pages of cooking magazines. I am constantly searching for dishes that will give your tongues an adventure but not be so strange it scares you. The Bahn Mi sandwich we recently added as a regular feature is just such an item. There are enough flavor elements that are familiar to give you the courage to try the elements that are a bit less familiar.

This week we are introducing several new flavor journeys. The meal I am most excited to present is a seafood paella from Valencia, Spain. While made all over Spain, each locale that serves this dish adds their own local specialty. We'll be including squid, octopus, clams and shrimp as well as some chicken and turkey sausage.  If all you read about was the seafood you might be startled if you had not already enjoyed some of those seafoods. But it is presented in a very familiar rice base made with ingredients you already know and love—garlic, onions, tomatoes, red and green peppers. As to the special flavors in this dish, we'll include saffron—the single most expensive herb on the planet! I have yet to be able to detect a definite saffron flavor. We'll use the recommended pinch—but that alone is about $10. The color of the dish overall will come from the saffron as well as a bit of tumeric or annatto. Annatto is the colorant in yellow rice. It also has basically no flavor of its own that is prominent. Together they meld to create a cohesive flavor richness. So give yourself a late summer flavor vacation in Valencia, Spain! This dish will be available Wednesday through Friday. $14.99

The response to our recent dessert—grilled pound cake with grilled fresh peaches, vanilla ice cream, caramel and almonds has been pretty spectacular. Another decadent dessert we've made is chocolate almond torte with chocolate raspberry glaze and in-house raspberry sherbet. We're having some fun playing with the various ice creams and sauces. We get to play—you get to indulge. Works for me!

Tuesday night as family pasta night has not gotten the reception we had hoped it would. I'll try it one more week with a classic tuna casserole. We know that our "crowd" doesn't seem to fit the typical family profile. Perhaps a fast dinner solution mid-week isn't what is needed. That's okay. We'll keep trying things out until we get a good fit. It is one of the aspects of having one's own business that is beneficial—versatility and speed of change. The downside is not having corporate marketing gurus doing upteen zillion polls. We do a few polls and seek your feedback, always, but not in the formal setting and broad scale that a nationwide polling might do. So what we do is specific to you, our local client base.  Your input is vital to the directions we take.

Tuesday at lunch we'll revisit the Pulled Turkey Dip Sandwich we introduced last week. It was well received at the time and we hope a new audience will get to experience it on a Tuesday. Rick brought this sandwich to our attention and we added our special aspects—like the cranberry horseradish sauce. It is served with a lovely dipping au jus sauce and is served on the French bread we are getting made to our specifications by Jason. Served with a side for $6.99

The "flavor journey" this week that is NOT seafood is ginger stir-fried beef with mung beans, shitakes, squash and green onions. That same flank steak we wood-fired for the Costa Rican Steak Sandwich will show up first in this dish. I'll serve it with jasmine rice. $10.99 with a side salad. It'll be available starting Tuesday night. There is a limited amount of it.

Wednesday Rick shines again with a Costa Rican Steak Sandwich. We wood-fired flank steak to rare to give it a smokey flavor. We'll slice it thin; saute it with yellow onions; melt cotija cheese over the top and stack it on a French baguette that has been slathered in black beans. On the side you will be served an in-house salsa typical of the region. Get ready to get excited! $7.50 with a side.

Thursday gets another dose of the wood-fired steak served as Oriental Steak Salad. This is the original salad we made the Oriental sesame dressing for. Romaine, steak, ripe tomatoes, red onion, cilantro, feta. $7.50

Friday we'll bring out the Panzanella Salad again. With so many gorgeous tomatoes right now, it would be a crime not to do so. This salad has lots of heft and is quite filling while being made with no meat. The bread is sourdough that has been drizzled in olive oil, salt and pepper and crisped. You'll find cucumber, fennel leaf, kalamata olives, fresh basil, fresh shaved Parmesan, red onion and lots of tomato and peppers. The BEST way to eat your veggies!!!! $6.99

Well, that's it, kids! We'll be busy here prepping for your next meal. Your being here allows me to do a job I find quite joyful. I am able to stretch my creative muscles fairly often and that keeps things going in a forward direction. Thank you for allowing us to play this game and be winning! Have another glorious week!~~~

~~Susan



                       

Forsythias, redbuds and dogwoods! Oh my!



redbuds in our yard

 Oh, I love this time of year. Everywhere you turn there is a delight for the eyes. I especially get a thrill of returning flowers from trees and perennials. They are like old friends dropping by to add a touch of joy to your day. All too fleetingly they will go away. But while here, these raise your soul a touch, swell your nostrils with a glorious scent  and add color to a landscape that has been well...colorless.

It is also the start of a season of flavor explorations using as many local sources as we can get our hands on. I love finding new sources, new flavors, new textures and sizzles to the tongue.

We are having a blast! We started this adventure quite scared. It's not like we had never started a business before. We have. Several. But we have never done so where it was so vital that we make it pay from the very beginning. You ask most people and you will hear that the restaurant business is not a low risk game. So we have been VERY cautious. We have not used credit lines. We have paid for everything as we went along. That is why we still have plastic tables. But there have been a few upgrades as we have moved forward. The most recent upgreades were to the music system. Phil Orlikowski generously donated a PA system and older speakers. We traded the speakers in to get new smaller ones more appropriate to our venue size. We hope to have them properly hung by next weekend.

We recently added new blackboards for our specials. Thanks again to Bill O. for his efforts. If I can get a quiet moment I'll be able to fill out the new larger blackboards to fill the wall above the kitchen—easy to read, yet changeable as our menu chages during the seasons.

Our next upgrade will likely be new tables. We plan to replace the round outdoor ones with smaller 2-top ones that can be moved together or apart, as needed. This will allow us to seat more parties during the lunch hour and give us more flexibility. Plus we'll be wanting to move the round tables outside so you can dine al fresco.

I am tweaking the desserts. I got a bit of feedback and here is what I learned—during lunch you want simple tasty desserts but at dinner you want lavish ones that make breaking your rules worthwhile. I'll see what I can do about that. We've already planned tiramisu and panna cotta with pinola brittle for Friday night. Lunch will be more pedestrian—like the apple pie or strawberries, whipped cream and angelfood cake. So, I am not committing yet for the weekday desserts. But you'll LOVE the Friday night ones.

Here's this week's flavor journeys—

Monday~ trout ceviche served over a slaw with chips; also Reuben sandwiches
Tuesday~wood-fired tilapia and shrimp tamales with pineapple salsa and blackbeans; also egg salad sandwiches
Wednesday~Grilled Veggie Sandwiches~Zucchini, Red peppers and red onions grilled and served on our Roman bun with feta and a mayo based lemon dressing. Watch out!!!!
Thursday~ Curried chicken crepes with a side of fruit; also 1905 salad from the Columbia Restaurant in Tampa
Friday~Baby Artichoke salad; also stir-fried veggies over brown rice
Dinner~Entree #1 Linguine with white clam sauce. Served with a side salad and garlic bread
Entree #2 Macadamia Nut crusted trout with stir-fried veggies and rice
Friday desserts~ Tiramisu and Panna cotta with pinola brittle

Friday nights are becoming such a joy. We look forward to each one—even though it means a 14 hour day for us. The trout seems to be a hit and I am changing the way I serve it each week. I don't want you getting bored. Plus my pasta is usually the second entree and I am changing it each week as well. I know I can count on your feedback to give me direction.

New "comeback treat" this week. It's a secret.

Importance of local sourcing



morels as they are found

Do you sometimes feel that your choices in food options are controlled by large food congolomerates? Unless you are sourcing your food locally, you are! Wish there were fresher ingredients? Shop locally! As the gardening season shapes up, you can make those choices now for what you want to see in your garden and on your table. If you grow your own plants from seed you can go so far as to enjoy heirloom varieties. Ever wonder why you don't see some of the more exotic varieties on the grocery shelves? It is primarily because those varieties are more tender. That translates to shorter shelf life and more loss due to shipping long distances. Therefore, you will most likely see the tender varieties in your own garden or the farmers' market. One of my first experiences with that was while living in Florida. While south Florida can grow cantaloupes year around, the variety "ambrosia" is not shipped. It has very deep ribs and a tender skin and bruises easily. But the flavor!!!! Wow! The flavor was significantly sweeter and MUCH juicier. The same thing happens here with tomatoes, peppers, peaches, melons, etc. 
By sourcing locally FIRST, you are investing in the local economy and keeping the money in the region. We are slowly building our local sources and hope to have a dedicated group of local suppliers who can, together, keep us in a fresh supply. Do you know any local chemical free growers? Will you be participating in the community garden? If so, please let me know when you have a bumper crop!  I'll be looking for fresh peas, spring onions, carrots, lettuces, spinach, herbs, peppers, squashes, melons, corn, etc. Many of those come later in the year and from many sources simultaneously. I am first supporting Maranatha Farm's organic produce. Mary and Skip have done much to help promote our business and I am delighted to use their produce as much as we can. They have many long-time customers who get their orders as a first priority. I totally understand that and realize we'll have to look beyond them as a supplier, at times. That's where you might help. Please keep your eyes open for such.

Right now I would love to get my hands on local fiddleheads (fern fronds just as they come out of the ground), local morels and other edible mushrooms (must be clearly edible varieties), pea shoots (the new plants' fresh sprouts) and other wild local foods and herbs. Foragers? START!!!!

As we move into the salad seasons and away from the soup seasons, we'll be expanding your salad options and phasing out the hot soups. Last week we served real Caesar salads. If you think Caesar dressing is creamy and comes from a bottle, you haven't experienced the real deal. In actual fact, the real Caesar dressing contains fresh egg, worchestershire, mustard, wine vinegar and lemon juice and very little else. The croutons are made fresh from the oil the garlic is toasted in. To that are added anchovies and capers. Shaved parmesan  and garlic chips top it all. We are adding it to our everyday menu. It will be available alone, or with wood-fired chicken, wood-fired wild caught Alaskan salmon, wood-fired gulf shrimp or even wood-fired fresh Rockbridge trout.

We are also putting the spinach salad back on the menu. Maranatha Farm's organic spinach is the best place to start. To that we are adding hard-boiled local free-range eggs, red onion, roasted red peppers (we do our own), cajun seasoned pecans and feta. The dressing is a sesame vinaigrette or choose another favorite from our in-house made dressings. Like on the Caesar salad, you can add wood-fired chicken, wood-fired salmon, wood-fired trout or wood-fired shrimp. Holy Moly! We are having fun now!

The Roman Sandwich I added a couple of weeks ago has been well received. We have increased the volume of meat and added a larger size. The larger one gets 1.5 times the meat of the smaller one. In case you missed it, we are making a Roman bun that has chopped onion baked into it. We toast it, add coarse mustard, cheddar, Monterray jack, ham, hard salami and genoa salami. That goes into the toaster oven. When it comes out we add chopped black olives, tomato and spicy sprouts. They are served with a bag of potato chips. I think you will like it. Several people have told me it is their new favorite.

I am truly excited to add Rockbridge Trout Ranch to our list of local suppliers. Often, farm-raised means serious compromises are made in the rearing of the fish. Not so at Rockbridge. Each egg is hand fertilized and the fish are hand fed with high quality feed. The trout ranchers really brag about the quality of the feed they provide. As the fry grow, their home then becomes Spring Creek where they are getting fresh water constantly. We got our first order in time to serve it Friday night. Eight orders sold out by 6:15. I missed out getting to eat some of  the first batch. We cooked more at home. The trout was the most tender I have ever had. We took the rest of our order of 20 fillets and wood-fired them with the salmon, chicken, tilapia and shrimp. I think you will be over-joyed to add this taste sensation to your palate.

Okay—now we are OVER THE TOP!!! How about that wood-fired trout on the Roman bun with wasabi mayonnaise, tomato and spicy sprouts. Yeowza!  $7.50 with choice of chips or fruit.

Vegetarians take note!! We are going to add a dish of brown rice and wood-fired portabellas with stir fried fresh veggies to the menu. The only salt will be that in the rice. We'll provide raw soy sauce, too. You can add tofu for a bit more protein. Meat-eaters may wish to add the wood-fired options—chicken, salmon, trout or shrimp. $5.99/ tofu add .75/chicken add 2.50/shrimp or salmon add 3.50/trout add 4.00

This week's flavor journeys—
Monday~ stir-fried chicken with pineapple, pine nuts and mung sprouts over brown rice.$6.25 Soup: chicken noodle 3.49/4.99/5.59 Salad: Spinach and Caesar (see above)

Tuesday~ It's Mardi Gras!!!!! Shrimp and grits plus side of fruit $6.25   Also Caribbean tamales $6.25 Soup~Red Beans and rice with boudin sausage(of course) 3.49/4.99/5.59  Salad: Spinach and Caesar (see above)

Wednesday~Egg Salad Sandwich—local free-range eggs star in this mixture. We add tomato and sprouts and a side of fresh fruit. $6.25 Soup~Red beans and rice.Salad: Spinach and Caesar (see above)

Thursday~Vegetable quiche—onion, zucchini, tomato, red pepper w/side of fruit 6.25 Soup~Portabella/Brie 3.49/4.99/5.59 Salad: Spinach and Caesar (see above)

Friday~Lunch—Wood-fired trout & marscapone omelet with side of fruit $6.75 Salad: Spinach and Caesar (see above) Dinner—Entree#1 Pan-fried trout and oven-roasted potatoes with side salad $12.00; Entree # 2 Chicken Pasta Alfredo with side salad and bread  $10.00

Desserts this week—
            Angel food cake with fresh strawberries and whipped cream   $4
            Key Lime Pie $4
            Pavlova with fresh fruit and whipped cream $4
Have a lovely week. We look forward to seeing you in our space.