Wednesday Morning Musings

Our Reliable salesman came around last week to tell us that our account remains the biggest purchaser of St. Germain within his territory, and with this honor came a huge box of St. Germain paraphernalia...spoons and carafes, napkin caddies and coasters. WeeOhh! Of course his territory is of the Eastern Shore Variety, but still, it goes to show that a popular signature drink - in our instance, the Pear Cosmopolitan, made with the above liquor - is an important component for a bar. Oh, and the postcard above, a print of which we received from a Pear Cosmo fan, is entitled "Bottoms Up!" Who knew?

This past weekend was a classic for us here at BT, especially Saturday night. An 8PM curtain call at the Prince Theater was pretty much responsible for filling us up, with a 30 minute wait by 6:30. We were hopping busy, with every table and bar stool filled, and more people waiting for their chance to sit. It was an hour and a half of pure (controlled) chaos, and just as suddenly as it began, it was over. By 7:45, the dining room was half empty and anyone who showed up then could walk right in and sit right down. That 8PM slow-down is a very common feature of our weekend business, frankly, especially on Saturday nights. Fridays, with their later start, tend to have a later finish as well. The highlight of the evening on Saturday was when one of our swinging kitchen doors fell off it's top hinge!! In a panic, I called Roy to "Come Fix This!!". Poor Roy - he managed to bring me back to reality; in the end we simply put one of our old curtains up over the opening and carried on. It was a classic glitch in the machine, and made a "challenging" night that much more challenging.

Shad Roe, arriving from the Carolinas, is always a welcome harbinger of spring. Kevin has been preparing it classically, with bacon and onion, served on a bed of fresh spinach. It's a sell-out, every time. On another note, some of you may have noticed the absence of the locally produced Marvesta Shrimp from our specials. The company is revamping their equipment to meet the requirements of the Monterey Bay Aquarium sustainable seafood program. We hope to be back on their customer list in the future; meanwhile on April 4th you can watch them on Emeril Green:Planet Green (on the Discovery channel), where the shrimp will be featured with the Food Network giant Emeril Lagasse, cooking at Whole Foods a few months ago.

We lost a good employee this week - Joy left suddenly, for greener pastures. After coming on board at the end of July in 2007, she became a strong presence in the BT dining room, with her co-worker Ashley as the perfect partner. With a busser and a bartender to round out the team, the two of them have been handling the weeknight dining room with professionalism and competency. It is always bad to lose good help - for whatever reason - and we are sorry to see Joy move on. We wish her a bright future; her manic energy and bold personality will always be force to be reckoned with, wherever she goes!

The new bar menu is finally ready - it has been weeks since we have been able to offer that supplemental selection to our bar diners. While the BT burger has remained an option, one of the new choices may give it a run: Korean Fried Chicken Legs. Yes, straight from NYC, Korean style fried chicken is hot! hot! hot! And I don't mean simply popular, I mean hot and spicy. We have been practicing our version - a conglomeration of several techniques we have studied from the 'net and magazines - at home for a couple of weeks, and finally we are ready for our debut. KFC is double fried, after being lightly dusted with seasoned cornstarch and flour, and then tossed in a spicy sauce - sort of like true Buffalo wings are tossed in Tabasco - and served with slaw and, traditionally, pickles. The sauce recipe varies from source to source, but one constant, besides rice wine vinegar and sesame oil, is Korean red pepper paste: gochujang. We tried making the sauce using the more readily available garlic chile sauce, but it was not the same. The frying technique and the accompanying sauce result - or should, anyway - in a very crispy, grease-free, tongue tingling experience for the fried chicken lover, of which we are two. We'll see how our customers feel!

On that note, I think I'll go see if there are any "free samples" to be had in the kitchen...