Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Spring veggies are on!

Hopefully, we are turning the corner in many ways. We've got tasty Bloomsdale spinach from Nash's, also some rutabaga. We tried a new Polenta Royale last night which was carmelized onions, Shitake mushrooms, spinach and Queso Fresco. It was super yummy! One issue, we use lots of butter and wine to cook for ourselves. At the shop we only use olive and canola oil on the Polenta Royale. Then there's cooking with wine. Virtually every restaurant does, but you don't see it in the average closed kitchen. I can just imagine the fuss from certain people if they saw wine being splashed on their food. So we're working on a lemon verbena splash instead.
We're also thinking about menu tweaks. Tommy brought us a beautiful and inspiring book called 'Wichcraft all about sandwiches. We'd love to make some fancy pants sandwiches, but given the quality and cost of our ingredients, we'd have to sell $12 sandwiches. Maybe people want that. Which brings us back to the question we always ask, "Are we just setting ourselves up for failure by refusing to compromise on the integrity of our ingredients?" "Should we just sell industrial food and make a big profit like everyone else?" Or maybe just serve a couple really good things and serve the rest "Donkey in a Tutu". Neighborhood places serving dressed up crap are always busy, and we're barely making it.

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