Weekly UpDate

That was quite a monsoon on Tuesday night.

***Speaking of which - if you were in on Tuesday night and wore a blue rain parka, can you check to make sure that you came home with the same jacket you arrived with?  Another customer's coat went missing - an army green parka - and with it his car keys, which were in the pocket.  There is a blue LLBean parka left hanging on the coat rack...***

Anyway,  yes, we had quite a flood in the back parking lot from the rain Tuesday night.  Luckily, one of the dishwashers  noticed that staff cars were beginning to sit in a bit of a flood plain, and alerted everyone to the fact that perhaps they should be moved.  Good he did - before it was over there was no longer any visible line between the holding pond and the parking lot, with the water lapping at the stairs of the loading dock. 

The rain didn't stop the guests from coming in, thank goodness.  When the lights flickered once or twice, there was a collective groan throughout the dining room, but lucky there too, they stayed on.  

You should be able to see the parking curbs in front of that tree...  The good thing about the overflowing holding pond is that all of the accumulated green scum went drifting out.  Plus, our parking lot - especially that grungy spot in front of the dumpster? - got a thorough washing.

We all thought this scene in the foyer was worth a photo - umbrellas scattered willy nilly.  We do have an umbrella holder in the restaurant, but some just didn't make it that far.  And their owners were still slightly damp.

Last night's menu was an especially good one, particularly the first course.  I was again on the bar - Tuesdays and Wednesdays will be my regular gig, for the foreseeable future - so I wasn't able to get a lot of feedback, aside from what I heard from my customers at the bar.  And from one DR guest, who made a point to come to the bar to tell me how good it was. 

Kevin had just gotten in a bushel of fresh picked Redman's green beans, so he hand selected some of the leaner ones to make the salad you see above.  The blanched beans were tossed in shallot vinaigrette, then a roasted pepper stuffed with a roasted plum tomato - all, of course, from Redman - was perched on top, followed by a slice of fresh made mozzarella.  The lily was gilded with a drizzle of balsamic glaze and dots of yellow pepper puree.  A first course fit for any menu any summer. 

Roasted Langenfelder pork was the centerpiece of the entree.  The chunks of juicy meat were served on a ring of soft polenta, seasoned with fresh rosemary.  How do I know the meat was juicy?  I only have the photos to tell me, but what do you think?

Looks pretty appealing in the close up!

Dessert was a classic example of making lemonade.  The almond cake that Kevin worked on Wednesday morning failed to come out of the pan in one piece.  Damn, I hate when that happens.  However, since he planned to serve it with a sabayon anyway, he just decided to combine the two ahead of time and make the whole thing into parfait.  Turned out fine, and was a very adult tasting dessert, with its hint of Frangelica in the cake and the heady flavor of Marsala in the sabayon.  Perfectly delicious, if not totally beautiful in appearance.  Can you tell that the whipped cream is a bit over-whipped?  That is a real battle, to get that right.  

 Pickles were on the schedule this week.  We have a pair of pickling cucumber plants at home in our garden, and one is actually thriving!  We managed to accumulate enough cukes to make a batch of our sweet pickle slices, and it turned out to be one of the best ever.  I guess keeping the raw slices in their salty ice water bath for four times longer than the recipe suggested was the trick!  This batch is so crunchy, you can almost hear them being eaten from across the room!

Another batch of garlic chile sauce made.  Eventually we are going to jar this stuff up and offer it for retail.  It is so good.  Tonight they are mixing it with mayonnaise to put on the burger for Burger Mania.  That is going to be good.

Yes, green beans are here.  I am looking forward to seeing them roasted and on my plate.

When one of the ladies room toilets stopped flushing properly on Tuesday night, we thought maybe it was something to do with the monsoon?  Of course why only one we didn't speculate.  So, who is the mystery plumber?  Typically, you know, for these sort of bathroom repairs, we call Pinder.  But this seemed to be a relatively simple fix - it worked fine if you fussed around with it.  Jay and Kevin looked over the inner workings and came to a conclusion that it could be repaired by our in-house plumber.  We are very happy with the results, and happy that the Landlord doesn't have a Pinder bill to contend with.  Who knew Kevin could be so handy?  Of course, this does not mean that Pinder's Brian has to worry about job security...

Peace out!