Late Winter Menu

Here's how the menu thing shook out. After talking with the cooks we decided to do the mussels with ancho puree, garlic and lime; the tuna with fingerling potato/grilled asparagus salad, red wine vinaigrette, red wine syrup and sieved egg (kind of a Nicoise riff with a good dose of Ital-American thrown in with a garlicky vinaigrette); ling cod with paprika marinated leeks and rosemary aioli; lamb sirloin with morel jus, Tuscan kale and sweet potato fries; chicken pot pie; short ribs with grated horseradish and potato croquettes; fettuccine with peas, paprika, onions and cream; bucatini with asparagus, house cured bacon and Parmesan; and since one of mainstays, rock shrimp, are not available due to the continuing aftermath of hurricanes in the Gulf, spaghetti with Dungeness crab, fennel, lemon and butter. Oh yeah, I decided to go with scallops, tuna tartare and lemon-pepper gelee. I'll let you know how it sells.

Dead night and tomorrow will be slow as well. The local winegrower's are having a cioppino feed and the local college is having its big fundraiser tomorrow so that knocks out a good chunk of our local business. We're still regarded a little warily by out-of-towners, they prefer to stick to the better known places, although we are more and more falling into that category. I suppose if we have to be slow it might as well be during a menu change. Also when the GM has to make an emergency trip to pick up one of our young bussers who will be returning from San Bernardino where she will be attending college this fall.