Thursday, March 27, 2014

Weekly UpDate

We are rapidly getting back into the swing of things - I think the hardest is getting the ordering down!  I was borderline completely out of craft beer prior to my (large) delivery from Legends yesterday, and we had to go to Walgreen's twice yesterday for eggs!  Pretty funny. 

Last night's weekly Prix-Fixe menu was the first since we returned from vacation.  The first course was a small spinach salad with feta cheese and lamb meatballs:

This was followed by what promises to be a trend:

A skewer of catfish and ham, glistening under a mustard seed glaze.  We might see some rockfish this weekend under a similar presentation.  

Dessert didn't present too well on the plate - because it was very difficult to cut - but the chocolate roulade melted deliciously in your mouth, so hopefully it was apparent that beauty is only skin deep.  (For the record, Kevin begged me to remove this picture of the roulade from the Blog, but I felt that this was a classic "it is what it is" moment.)

It was a pretty quiet Wednesday, overall, but luckily we had a *late* rush, which helped bring the cover count up to speed.  We are hoping very much that we will begin to see more guests come in toward the last half of the dinner hour, now that evenings are getting lighter, and perhaps even more once the frigging weather begins to be more seasonal.  

Here's the view out the back door at around 5:30, during Tuesday nights snow fall -

We don't like to admit it, not on March 25th, but it was a really pretty snow.  And if it had been December 25th, we might have been really excited.  As it were, well, bah, humbug.

Anyway, more interesting news.  One of our, let's see, how shall we say this.  Oldest?  No, that's wrong.  Most historic?  Still wrong.  How about favorite?  Yeah, there you go - one of our favorite ex-employees celebrated a birthday here at Brooks Tavern on Saturday night, and we have the pictures to prove it.  

Leigh Daniels Crooks began her long reign with us as a 14 year old busgirl at the Ironstone Cafe.  She went on to become a server, eventually working as the Dining Room Manager at the Kennedyville Inn.  I am not sure I would have survived without her by my side during that period, especially when I was on the bar and she was controlling the hordes at the door.  We had some pretty crazy times, between work and personal lives, and have managed to stay in touch ever since.  BTW, Leigh''s mom, Lisa George, another Ironstone ex-pat, works the BT floor with me now.

Here's the celebratory crew.  Second to the right is Grace nee Kelly, who was also a member of our Kennedyville team.  

Look at these awesome girls from those days - Leigh, Amy DeProspo, Grace with her natural do, and Wayles Wilson, party server extraordinaire. 

And here is another of Leigh and Grace joined by Molly nee Herr.  What a trio!  These pictures belong on FaceBook!

While we are on Nostalgia Row, let's go one more.  Hi Mom!

Anyway, I've got a few more recent pictures to share - food as it is now at BT.

 Shad roe "ramen style" has been a hit this week.  

This is the current look of the pork chop - sauce going over the pork and not over the cheese, which eliminates that monotone of brown on the plate.

Both of these are the SBF veal specials.  Above, the veal breast.  Below, the shoulder.  Similar preparations, identical fabulous flavor.  One of those dishes that don't get made a home too often.

And here is a sure sign of spring - one of the most exciting events of the week was the delivery of three rosés from the current 2013 vintage.  Earlier this year I took advantage of a pre-order from Country Vintner, where six new rosés were on offer.  Of course I wanted all six!  After I calmed down I selected three to begin our rosé season with:

From left to right you have - the A to Z Wineworks 2013 rosé from Oregon,  the Sangiovese/Grenache rosé from California's Stolpman Vineyards,  and one that got away last year, Barnard Griffin's 2013 offering, also a Sangiovese, from Washington State's Columbia Valley. The AtoZ and Barnard Griffin will make their way to the by-the-glass selections of our wine list, while the Stolpman will be available by the bottle. On the far right you see a 375 of Gruet included in this impressive lineup.  This New Mexican sparkler is also carried by Country Vintner, and this is their blanc de noir, bottled in a convenient split, which we will be offering in addition to our Lucien Albrecht Cremant, which is, naturally, a sparkling rosé!  I can't wait to get tasting!  And of course this is only the very beginning of the rosé season; there are more on deck to keep our palates tingling!  I just have to make more room in dry storage...

In my weekly email this week (where I spelled "roe" wrong! I know, I know), I couldn't refrain from whining about the construction work being scheduled for the round-about at our corner of High Street.  Much to my embarrassment, I received a response from Megan (Bramble) Owings, VIP at David Bramble Inc, who is the contractor performing the work on the road next week.  Ooops!  She "thanked" me for the shout out... I decided I didn't have anything to lose at this point, so I put in a request for a "Brooks Tavern Lane", since it is all about us.  And guess what!  Maybe we'll see a "Pear Cosmopolitan Lane" pop up for those very special Brooks Tavern drivers!  As we say - Ha! 

That's it for now!
Peace out!



2 comments:

  1. This post is just plain fun........I love the "look back"!!!! Shari

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  2. Kudos to this post too... creative as the fare you serve!

    ReplyDelete