The Americana Dream

One of the few guarantees is life is that things inevitably change. Fortunately, sometimes that change is for the better.

Over the past month or so I have been in negotiations with my business partners, Gary and Stacey, to buy them out, making me sole owner and operator of the restaurant and now we are in the home stretch to make that happen. As of November 1st the place will be mine!

What will be different? Not that much. While I'm planning to make some minor cosmetic changes to better solidify the style and brand of the restaurant, the one thing that I won't change (and the biggest concern of our regulars) is the menu. I still plan on offering the same great food for brunch and dinner, only changing what I would've made anyways with a few nice additions.

Unfortunately, the one thing that will change for the worse is this blog. Since I will be taking on the additional duties that two other have been doing I won't have time to continue writing the beautiful descriptions like I have been. I will continue uploading my weekly specials to Facebook and Twitter (and hopefully to a new website for the restaurant) as well as a weekly e-mailing list that I will be setting up soon. So it's a loss for some and a gain for others; I hope!!

In the meantime I still have a special to introduce.....

Since the temperature is falling suite with the time of the season I felt it right to begin offering specials with flavors more reminiscent of what we taste when we think of autumn. 

I've been wanting to have a dish with roasted figs for a long time and there's few better meats that pair well with fruit than pork, so while I slowly sear thick cuts of pork loin that I tied with butcher's twine in order to maintain a circular shape I roasted fresh mission fig halves to concentrate their sugars and to create a more robust flavor.

For the sauce I didn't have pork stock on hand so I combined beef and chicken stock instead and reduced them down with an equal portion of red wine along with a blend of spices called Garam Masala which is an Indian spice blend containing cinnamon, black pepper, fennel, cloves and other autumn favorable spices, to which I enhanced with a cinnamon stick, fresh thyme, fresh rosemary and whole allspice berries. 

Another great ingredient and pairing for this season is braised cabbage, which is available locally this time of year. I cooked it in onions, garlic and a little fresh thyme that, for some unknown reason, tastes like fall to me.



Even though I offered a gin drink last week I couldn't resist this one, especially with the flavors of the entree special above.

Since October is synonymous with fall to most of us I intentionally poached pears with sugar, cinnamon sticks and allspice berries for last weekend's French toast topping so that I would have the remaining cooking liquid for this week's drink special. Clever, eh?

I felt that the autumn spices of the pear poaching liquid would make a really interesting combination with the complex flavors of a dry gin, so I made a twist on the classic gin fizz by shaking the pear liquid with Gordon's gin and egg white powder and topping it off with club soda for that classic feel. 

Only a few more week's to go!

With Love,

Cheffrey