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!

Where's August?

Hello August, I want my heat back.  I realize that we are saving on AC bills and what not, but I like summer to be hot, the way it is supposed to be.  It's only for a month or two; the rest of the year can be temperate or even cold.  I suffered through the chill, so I don't think a few weeks of nice hot weather is too much to ask.  But it doesn't look like it's going to get above the mid-80's for the foreseeable future, and if you ask me, that is not August.  That's a very pleasant September.

It hasn't stopped the corn from growing though, has it?

We are between Bar Tenders at the BT this week, so that duty has fallen upon me.  It means scheduling a host to cover my shifts on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.  On Wednesday night that was Mallory's job, which also meant she covered the photography for the Wednesday Menu report.  Here's her results.

Starter was a smoked fish cake:

Or, I guess, a faux crab cake...

Entree - not a very popular menu BTW - was St.Brigid's Farm calves liver with sauteed onions and a honey balsamic reduction.  Calves liver is not everyone's first choice for dinner.  Many of our Wednesday regulars opted out this week, it is true.   

They missed the brownie sundae dessert:

Mallory took a nice shot of Kevin's roasted plum tomatoes, which were what garnished the fish cake at lunch on Thursday.  (If you want a really great snack, take one of those roasted romas, lay a slice of fresh mozzarella on top and drizzle with a little balsamic vinaigrette.  Snackers paradise.)

And she got a great shot of the sausage platter:

But when I downloaded the pictures, there were 20 photographs on there.  I was going, what? 20 pictures?  What the heck is on here??  I should have figured - selfies!

Here's the crazy girl crew, with Mallory at the front, her broad smile shining brightly:

My girls, having fun with the camera on Wednesday night - Jenn, Leah, Ashley, Kaitlyn and of course Mallory.  They sure look like they are having a grand time!  Hey girls, who's left out in the dining room taking care of the customers???

Here is what you want for lunch today - the BT BLT which = Bacon, Lettuce and some of those roasted plum Tomatoes plus a few slices of mozzarella.  Take a bite of goodness!

Most of yesterday - at least until about 1:00 - was taken up by QuickBooks.  Or rather, taken up by trying to get QuickBooks to come to work.  With the help of Maureen from next door I was able to reach out to a QuickBooks tech, who, with the help of a $250 annual membership in their "Quix" support system, was able to repair the damage that supposedly a virus had done to shut down our check writing software.  But that is not the interesting part.  In paying online for the tech support, I inadvertently entered the wrong expiration date for the business credit card I was using, which denied the funds.  After correcting my mistake, the order went through fine and the tech remotely worked on our computer until the repair was completed.  Soon after he got off line, I checked our email.  There was one from our business banking account regarding a questionable charge made on our card, so I checked our account, wondering if it was that mess up with Quix.  Nothing there except for those recent transactions which I expected to see.  Thinking perhaps that the email itself was fraudulent, I called Chase.  Yes, there had been a bad charge, which they had denied.   They had recognized it as a fraudulent charge because the expiration date was incorrect.  And the incorrect date was the same one I had used at my first attempt to pay for my Quix account.  In that flash of time, someone had breached someone's security and gotten our correct credit card number, along with the incorrect expiration date and made a charge.  Wow.  I called the Quix tech line to tell them that perhaps the weak link was on their end, but who knows.  It is a crazy Internet world out there.  Everyday you hear stories of peoples cards being stolen.  I read somewhere that part of the problem with the security issues on the web is that the Internet was initially built for sharing, not for privacy, with patches being applied later to try to keep the fox out of the hen house.  Maybe a little too late.

We would have been home in a relatively timely fashion last night, after another very busy burger night, except for a major catastrophe that occurred in the mop closet at the end of the night.  One of the two dishwashers - who shall remain nameless at this point - somehow managed to knock over the 5 gallon bucket of Dawn dish detergent.  This wouldn't have been a problem if the top had been securely in place.  It wasn't.  And even this wouldn't have been so bad - a big mess of Dawn to scoop up - if he hadn't then proceeded to knock over the full mop bucket in his haste to try to correct the fallen Dawn.  Oh. My. God.   What a frigging mess.  It took a solid 45 minutes for Kevin and the DW to get the floor cleaned up and dry. 

And here is where we have fun with boxes.  I am now the queen of the box tower, since there has never been one to stand taller or last longer.  All the way to the ceiling!  Unfortunately my competitor Tiffany is out today, so she has not been witness to my success.

Our condolences to Frank Mattes and his family at Mattes Seafood.  Their eldest son died on Wednesday from complications after surgery.  We know they are thoroughly broken by this tragic event and our hearts go out to them.  There's no better guy than Frank Sr.  

Peace out!  Enjoy the great weather ahead for Pirates Weekend in Rock Hall and don't forget to support the local restaurant scene while you are at it!

Weekly UpDate

Welcome to Friday!  I am thinking that everyone on our crew who worked last night slept very well when they went to bed.  It was a crazy busy Burger Mania, made even busier by being somewhat understaffed in the dining room.  It began when Ashley texted out sick.  I was at home feeding the dog when I got the notice, so I called Kevin to see if anyone was off who could come in to run trays.  He says that Jesse had just phoned to see if he was working, and he wasn't on the schedule so Kevin called him back to come in to work; meanwhile I texted Kaitlyn to see if she could come in earlier than scheduled and be the tray runner.  She could.  All set for burger night.  Except at 6:30 when we are almost full I'm wondering where the 6:00 busser is.  Jesse is way too inexperienced to be on his own on a busy night and I was worried about Mallory who is generally very punctual and reliable.  I texted her.  Bad news - she shouldn't have been scheduled because she has a regular gig at the softball diamond on Thursday nights, which I forgot about and put her our roster inadvertently.  Oh c**p!  (Don't ask me why she hadn't seen the schedule when it was first posted two weeks earlier and given me the chance to correct my mistake...)  Anyway, it appeared that Jesse would be on his own, newbie or not.  And he actually did a pretty good job of it, albeit with a lot of extra help from Kaitlyn and Jenn and the dishwashers.  It was screaming busy and while we never actually got into the weeds, we were constantly one mishap away from it.  All it would have taken would have been for an order to be screwed up or a tray of dishes to crash to the floor to send the whole thing spiraling down into a dark pit of madness.  Whew.  We got off lucky.  And hopefully the guests didn't have any major issues that I will read about later on Trip Advisor...

Business has definitely been strange this summer.  At the end of the second quarter, our sales are down almost 20% from last year.  Prior to this, we've enjoyed annual steady growth.  And it seems to be the weekends that are off the most.  Lunches have been normal. Weeknights have been either average or extremely busy - see the paragraph above - but Friday and Saturday nights have been embarrassingly slow, for the most part.  The extra business on the weekends is mostly due to tourists and other non-locals, so you have to wonder, is it the rumors of our closing frightening away this transient crowd that we depend on?  Some have come in, surprised to find we are open, because that is not what they heard out on the street, at the marina, in the gift shop.  I don't know.  Charlie's theory is that it is due to the fact that every weekend this summer the weather has been phenomenal, which sends people out side to their boat or the porch or Waterman's deck, rather than into our dining room.  That has some merit,  although I find it hard to believe that it would have that dramatic affect.  We'll find out this weekend perhaps, with rainy days predicted for the next several.  What ever the reason, the kitchen has no complaints - their work is reduced while their pay is unchanged.  The dining room staff, however, that is another story.  They have taken a hit that the week day business cannot really cover.  

Food is more fun to talk about.

This salad of sunny tomatoes, fresh mozzarella and bright green parsley oil began the Wednesday night prix-fixe menu.  A plate of summer.

This was followed by a new sausage Kevin has been working on - veal and pork, lightly cured and seasoned with smoked paprika, coriander, black pepper and nutmeg.  The meal invoked a classic conflict of responses, at least from two customers.  First report came from Table 7, when Nicole told me that they did not like it at all, because it tasted like a hot dog.  They were very nice about it, they just didn't care for that flavor.  Later Table 17 called me over.  "Barbara!", she says, "This sausage is to die for!"  See what I mean?  After the first table complained, I had gone into the kitchen and told Kevin the remark, that they thought it tasted like a hot dog.  "Perfect!" he responded.  So, when the second opinion came in, I persuaded the guest to go into the kitchen and tell Kevin her feelings personally.  She was happy to oblige, and proceeded to rave ecstatically to Kevin and Jay.  So, what, you win some and lose some, right?

Dessert was a win-win:

A soft pavlova roll, filled with whipped cream and draped with blueberry sauce.  I am pretty sure we will see this light dessert again before the season is out.

More summer on a plate, with the classic watermelon feta salad.  I have been fulfilling my goal to eat Redman's sweet watermelon on a daily basis, which is made even easier when I can find it in these convenient chunks!

The picture above is not of something Kevin prepared for paying guests.  It is a member of the squid family being grilled on our fire pit.  A friend of ours went shopping at a Super H-Mart near her home in Virginia and brought us a big cuttlefish!  Kevin simply seasoned it with salt and pepper and cooked it just for a few minutes over hot coals.  It was very tasty - a lot more flavorful than your typical calamari but not as strong as octopus.  Shopping at an H-Mart is a fabulous adventure; if ever you find yourself near one you definitely need to check it out.  It is like no other grocery story experience.

We went shopping on Sunday to Mr. Harlan's peach orchard in Centreville.  Next time we will call first.  There were no ripe peaches, although plenty of beautiful specimens hanging from his numerous trees.  They would probably be ripe in a few sunny days, but not while we were there. 

 There were a lot that were just gorgeous, but hard as rocks.

Mr. Harlan must have at least a hundred peach trees on his White Marsh Farm.  We make the trek annually to wander through the orchard and generally pick a bushel or more of his tree-ripened fruit.  We were just too early this year.

 He also grows apples, which were coming along nicely.

And pears.  Plus nectarines and several variety of plums.  Some great scenery anyway, eh?

Well, I gotta go.  It's the first of the month and inventory is calling.  Have a great weekend, no matter the weather.  There is so much to eat do this time of year, from fairs to farmer's markets.  Celebrate the summer with food no matter where you find yourself!

The Weekly UpDate

Of course the big news here down at the end of High Street continues to be our fabulous round-a-bout.  Wow, is it ever making a difference to area commuters!  Those that understand the concept, that is.  There are still some losers drivers who think yield means stop and who also think you must stop to  let traffic onto the circle, but for the most part it is proving to be  a real glide-a-bout.  For the past two nights, the Bramble crew have been working late doing the paving, which is a lot better for our business than having that flagger control traffic during lunch time.  Overall it appears that the project will do what it is supposed to do and eventually I am sure the local populace will understand how to maneuver around it. 

As usual, summer in Kent County is moving right along.  We got our first Redman's watermelons this week and I will be enjoying a big slice everyday, as long as the supply lasts.  They were featured on this week's prix-fixe menu, as a salad with feta cheese, a classic pairing if there ever was one:

This was followed by a sort of "Salisbury Steak", made with ground St. Brigid's Farm veal with a shiitake mushroom sauce.  Had to be tasty, but I was only an onlooker.

Dessert was classic bread pudding with a fruity sauce of blueberries.  Overall a popularly seasonal menu received well by our dining public.

Kevin has been working exceptionally hard lately, covering Mandrell's shifts, who has been ill since last Friday.  He came in finally on Thursday, a little tired but mostly recovered and ready for work.  He kept saying "I'm back, I'm back", which was of course a great relief to Kevin, who'd been pretty much setting up the line alone for lunch service.  The most stressful day was Wednesday, when we had a party of 15 booked for 11:30.  Thank goodness Dashan - from the night crew - was able to come in and be here to help get that group fed in a timely fashion.   

Tiffany made her first up-side down cake this week, and it sold out that very night!  Peach!

The meat special this week has been St. Brigid's Farm veal.  One of the preparations was this cutlet with crab, Smithfield ham and sage, with a dash of lemon butter sauce.  It looked delicious, and apparently tasted so as well.

Ben Dize celebrated a birthday this week at the Brooks Tavern, and for his special dinner he wanted bison.  We tried to get some for him, but unless we bought practically a whole side, we couldn't get what he wanted, so we settled for a specially cut Pineland's steak:

Cooked perfectly medium rare with a mushroom sauce on top,  it was a meal fit for a carnivore's special day!

KCHS class of 1973 had a mini-reunion in the BT dining room on Saturday.  Stephanie Moore Pauling was in town visiting from her home in East Texas, and appeared for lunch with friends Cathy Wilson Coppol and Beth Simmons in tow.  A lot of laughs were had by all.

 

We got some very bad news this morning.  David Lippincott, who worked with us for several years at the Kennedyville when he was just a teenager, died at his home in Florida this week.  His mom sent us an email, telling us he succumbed in his fight against his alcohol addiction.  We are so stung by this sad news.  Dave was one of the good ones, a very special person who worked so hard for us as a true team mate in our quest for success.  We've never forgotten him, despite long years between sightings.  He loved music, and introduced us to a band we would never have heard of otherwise - Morphine.  Lately I've had one of their classics running through my head, "Cure For Pain", and now I know why.  We listened to their "Like Swimming" CD this morning in tribute to the late, great Dave Lipponcott.  He's found his cure for pain.

Peace out!

Weekly Report

I'm having a little trouble posting this week - too much office work mostly, that pesky stuff - and too many other things that are simply demanding my attention elsewhere.  For instance, when there are no daytime cooks in the kitchen by 10:30, it's time for me to come to the aid of our SuperChef and help prep for lunch service.

It's been such an odd summer, business-wise.  Up and down, busy and slow.  It has not been unusual for weeknight dinner service to be busier than the weekend which follows.   Lunch has been steady - despite the trepidation that our traffic circle brings - but dinner is totally unpredictable.  Last Thursday night was not so busy, which I blamed on the competing music in the park, but this Thursday: more music but very busy nonetheless.  There is definitely some confusion whether we are actually open or not, which may explain some of the lightness of the weekends.  I am fairly certain that we are open, otherwise why do we have so much to do here all day?

Wednesday prix-fixe featured a cold fruit soup and a hearty ragù, sort of a mixed signals kind of meal, given that we are pretty much smack dab in the middle of the summer.  Kevin has been serving several hearty dishes lately, mostly involving braised meats, but when combined with the seasonal vegetables served alongside, they seem to be acceptable to our dining clientele.

The soup was a cold cantaloupe soup - Redman's cantaloupe of course - with ginger and mint.  It was met with much success by those ordering the menu.  Cantaloupe is not my favorite melon - I'm holding out for some of Redman's seedless watermelon - but the combination was found to be a refreshing and light starter.

The main course was a veal ragù over eggplant and mozzarella cheese.  Not so light, this.  In any case, several diners mentioned that they typically do not like eggplant, but this was the exception.  We have been serving eggplant as a side veg too: roasted and mixed with honey, soy and hoisin sauce, garlic and ginger.  Eggplant haters - some of them anyway - have been seduced.

The dessert Wednesday night was a chocolate zucchini cake, but my picture makes it look pretty unappetizing, so I opted out of sharing it.

One of the aforementioned braised meats includes local lamb shoulder with Kevin's new favorite sauce, mint yogurt, as morphed from Bobby Flay.  

Burger mania last night featured these tomato cucumber slices, as being prepped in this photo by Sheronda.  The stacks were dressed with a sweet and hot pepper vinaigrette and then put on the burger with a slice of Jack cheese melted on top.  I like the idea of the cold/hot contrast; I just hope the tomato salad didn't slip out of the sandwich in a disconcerting way.

Bill is delivering corn several times a week from Redman's.  Everyone just loves seeing that bushel come in, because they just love husking it.

Yellow and green zucchini are coming in also, as seen here in this sheet pan full of sautéed summer color.

The piccolo frito includes some zucchini sticks these days, as well as the new garlic chile dipping sauce.

The latest batch of sausages are made with St. Brigid's Farm veal.  Kevin considers these his best effort yet, with both the right texture and flavor he is striving for.  They are served under a bridge of onion rings, which in themselves are a special treat.

Haddock last night was a fiesta of shrimp, tomatoes and capers.  In the background you can see some of that corn that gets cut off the cob for you and mixed with peppers and onions, and also the eggplant that has earned itself some new friends.

There seems to be a lot of local restaurant news in the works right now, which, if  all of it comes to pass, will add some new dining places to our already vibrant dining scene.  The most exciting is the future of the Betterton spot once dominated by Frank and Betty Bonass and known as the "Dublin Dock".  Barbara Edmonds, local hospitality industry professional, has taken over the lease of the building and will be opening the bay side spot sometime - she hopes - in September.  This is great news not only for Barbara but for Betterton as well, a town that would happily support her endeavor to bring some additional dining life to the Jewel.  We've been to all of the post-DD incarnations and none have made it more than a season or two, for reasons most likely beginning and ending with the food.  That being said, we used to love taking a Sunday drive with the dog to Still Pond Landing and then ending up on the deck of that restaurant with its amazing bay vista in the foreground.  We look forward to reviving that tradition!

In Chestertown, word on the street is that a very successful restaurateur from Rock Hall will be taking over the Front Room in what used to be the Imperial Hotel.  This also is great news, since the downtown dining scene always welcomes the arrival of a new popular spot which will bring more diners to support the dining scene downtown. 

At Molly's in Kenndyville, local chef Matt Whitehair is now at the helm, which is again really good news for us personally, since we are only a five minute drive for lunch on Mondays. We have not been in there much since Jeren's departure, but this recent development would be enough to spur us into revisiting.  

And, on the home front, we are encouraging Tony Wong of Cafe Sado to open a second spot here in this prime location in the Radcliffe Mill!  The fact is, Mr. Wong has long been looking into possible locations in Chestertown to add to his already successful business on Kent Island, but has yet to find a suitable spot.  He is considering being a tenant in the Mill, but so far he is not sure if it is too much kitchen and not enough dining room for his needs.  Still, a sushi restaurant in Chestertown gets a very strong "yes" vote from many people, no matter where it ends up being, so we are hoping he finds a place to land very soon.

Peace out!