|
|
One Block West Sensational Seasonal Cuisine
25 South Indian Alley Winchester VA, 22601 540-662-1455
Newsletter for August 2003 Your source for what’s cooking at OBW |
||
|
Bison and Venison Very Popular |
Please feel free to forward this newsletter to your friends.
To subscribe to this newsletter, send us a note. To unsubscribe to this newsletter, send us a note.
Privacy Policy. We never disclose your email address to any outside party and we send out the newsletter in such a way that others cannot see your email address (nor can you see theirs). |
||
|
In the last month, I have put up the beginning of a web site. On the site you can request reservations, find directions to the restaurant (especially handy if you are meeting out of town guests at OBW), look at menus and the wine list, check the calendar of events, and read various features that I have written. I am in the process of putting together a dynamic web site with feature articles that will be fun to read.
Closing for Summer Holiday August 17th to August 25th
After non-stop hundred-hour weeks since the first of December, I’ve got to take a break to recharge, play with my kids, and hopefully eat in somebody else’s restaurant for a change! OBW food may be great, but eating it every day gets old!
You can always check our schedule on the web site in the calendar of events.
Bison and Venison Very Popular
It took me a while, but I finally got hooked up with the best meat supplier in the DC area and I am now able to purchase almost any manner of poultry, game, and meat. You may have noticed quail, poussin, duck, venison, and bison on the menu in recent weeks. In particular, the venison and the bison are selling wildly.
Bison in particular is a crowd favorite especially for those on high protein diets, with a flavor and texture akin to beef (but slightly different) but with a small fraction of the fat of beef. Bison has less fat than chicken breast. We have been selling hanger steaks (“onglet”) at lunch and NY strips for dinner. Bison is a lot more expensive than beef and comparable cuts are smaller than beef. We have noticed that bison shrinks a lot on the grill – about half the size it started at for meat cooked medium. I do not recommend that you order bison more than medium and I think it tastes best at medium rare.
We’ve been selling venison strip loin medallions and rack chops in recent weeks. The Bourbon-flambéed medallions were simply incredible and I am particularly fond of the grilled rack chops that we are doing with a fresh blueberry coulis (a sauce).
Ever Expanding Wine and Beverage Program
I am determined to have the best wine restaurant in the area, if I don’t already. My challenge is finding great wines at great prices. I found a killer Pinot Noir in the Kimball California 2001 and you responded immediately. It outsells all our other red wines 3 to 1.
We are now running daily or weekly wine features, in which we offer one of our less well known wines at a discount. We are trying to get people to try something new. So far, it’s working and people are being pleasantly surprised.
It’s hard to find time in our busy schedules to taste wines, but I am working with the service staff and distributors to increase the wine literacy of our servers so that they can help guests with wine choices. If you ever have a question about wine, feel free to ask for me. I will be glad to help, or if I am busy, send a response back via your server.
In recent weeks we have added several sherries to our roster, Linden Late Harvest dessert wine, Poppiano Vin Santo, and Joliesse Shiraz Rosé. I am currently tasting South American reds to add to the list. There are so many outstanding wines from South American that my challenge is to narrow it down to 3 or 4 of the best at the best prices. I have found some extraordinary Rieslings and a killer Albariño that should find their way onto the list in the near future.
The Euro is killing the dollar right now and price increases are coming in from my distributors. Some prices are going up through the fall and I am dropping some wines that no longer represent great values. I am looking to other parts of the world, too, such as Australia and South Africa. California wines are still largely grossly overpriced.
On the bar, we now have Oban 14-year old single malt. Response has been great and I am glad to know that others besides me like a good whisky. Keep drinking and I will keep adding selections. We now carry The Dalmore, Isle of Jura, and Oban in malts as well as several blends.
I am pleased to let you know that we have replaced Perrier with San Benedetto, a top quality barely sparkling (“frizzante”) mineral water from Italy. I love it.
Yes, I know that the bread that we have had since opening hasn’t been all that great. But I had larger problems to deal with until recently. We just switched to artisanal baguettes from La Brea Bakery. Now we have a loaf on the table that I can be proud of. Not as good as my own, but I can’t bake and run a restaurant at the same time. Come taste the difference!
This is the first of what should be many feature articles on the web site. If you are a wine lover, I hope that you will take a few minutes to read it.
Call it the Rodney Dangerfield of wine grapes. Although one of the most successfully grown grape varieties in the Eastern US, Ontario, and the UK today, Seyval Blanc is a grape that commands little respect, even among wine cognoscenti. Part of the issue is that it is a hybrid grape, a cross between an Old World wine grape (Vitis vinifera) and a native American grape (V. labrusca). V. labrusca rarely makes good wine and its hybrids are held in contempt by a large part of the wine growing and consuming world. Moreover, because it contains non-vinifera genes, Seyval Blanc does not meet the European Union standards for "quality wine", and therefore cannot be marketed in Europe proper. (Read the rest of the article)
Here are a couple of quick recipes that you can do at home quite easily.
Fried Goat Cheese
So easy, so good, and a big hit on our menu.
1 log of fresh goat cheese, cut into 3/8” thick rounds 1 egg, beaten bread crumbs olive oil
Slice the cold goat cheese into 3/8” thick rounds. Beat an egg. Heat a sauté pan and film the hot pan with olive oil. Dip the goat cheese into the egg and then into the bread crumbs to coat. Fry until golden and flip and cook until golden on the other side. Serve immediately.
Tips: the breading adheres better if you put the breaded goat cheese in the fridge to firm up before frying it. You might try cutting the goat cheese with a piece of dental floss.
Serving suggestion: at the restaurant, we serve three rounds over a bed of bitter greens such as baby arugula dressed with olive oil, lemon juice, and salt. For garnish we add edible nasturtium blossoms.
Sautéed Pesto Squash
Thomas Orme of Grandale Farm over next to Breaux Vineyard in Loudoun County brings us the most beautiful baby pattypan (cymling) squashes and blooms. We slice the squash into rounds (not exactly the right word for pattypans, but you get the idea) and sauté them very quickly on both sides in olive oil, so that they are just cooked and still crunchy and sweet. We then add pesto to taste (we like a lot) and serve piping hot. I cooked this in a demo at the City Market in Winchester and people liked it a lot.
Most of you know that I like to talk and I try to greet every table in person, which I cannot do on weekends or when we are slammed busy. I find myself answering the same questions over and over, so I thought that I would try a preemptive strike by putting the answers on the web site. I’m sure it won’t work, but it never hurts to try! ;) (Read the article)
About the first of July, we launched our new summer lunch menu. A lot of people were afraid that we would remove their favorite dishes. We didn’t. We merely expanded our spring lunch menu. We’ve added some new salads (Mediterranean Orange Salad and Four-Cheese Tortellini Pasta Salad with Fresh Tomatoes and Genoa Salami), more meats (lamb rack, grilled pork rib chops, and grilled duck breast), and lots of pasta options. (View the menu)
|
|||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Copyright © 2003 Shenandoah Food and Beverage Holdings, LLC