To Everything

there is a season. Except for this year that is.Things have been completely out of whack. Yesterday we cut our first salmon. For a spring/summer fish that's crazy. True, I could have brought in salmon sooner but I wanted to wait until our local fisherfolk had a crack at making a living. With the season opening 2 days ago close enough by that our guys are out and bringing them into to the harbor it was finally time.

We just had some really nice beets from a local farmer and they'll be in steady supply. We did a special of roasted beets, goat cheese, arugula and wildflower honey vinaigrette (are you listening Michael Bauer?). Talking about menu changes with one of the cooks he brought up beets and putting them on and while they're clearly in season here, since the farmer is not far from us, the idea of beets on an August menu just doesn't seem right.

But we need to change some things. There's an asparagus salad still on, an onion tart that seems too heavy for the weather we've been having, still can't sell the sturgeon/succotash to save my life and the scallop ceviche has been a giant bomb.

We're thinking about switching the sturgeon to white sea bass, maybe the scallops with tomato garlic confit. We're wanting to put sardines on but I know what will happen. The kitchen crew will eat the hell out of sardines for a few weeks until we give up. It's these damned summer people. I love 'em and hate 'em. I love that we're so busy and can pay some bills and knock our winter lines of credit down but I hate that they're approaching the lowest common palate possible. Sorry for the sweeping generalization, there are many summer diners who love what we do and appreciate a good meal but it sure seems the obnoxious fucks outweigh them by a good many.

The end result which isn't good for me or the restaurant, is timidity. We don't get the sardines because we're sure they won't sell. The owner in me is constantly editing the chef in me and both of them look helplessly to the nearly non-existent marketer in me for help. If any of you out there can sell ice to Eskimos (actually with global warming this is seeming a less impossible task) drop me a line and let's see if you've got good ideas for selling some of our unsellable dishes.

Comments

[Dr. Biggles]

Well, if you're selling to summer idjets? There's only a few ways to get them to buy. Offer free beer or put a grill out front and cook the food there. Grilled fish, what could possibly go wrong?
Other than no access, fire codes and 2nd degree burns.
Maybe put the ceviche in a wrap, lummoxes (see Ren & Stimpy episode) won't each ceviche. They know it's too close to sushi and know even better citric acid doesn't really cook meat. But if you put it in a browned flour tortilla, it's just like KFC !!! Something every good lummox knows about. Or put chipotle chilies in it, something they're familiar with from Wendy's.

Biggles

[H.Alexander Talbot]

actually, there is a point to be made. Offer a special menu. And this can go two ways. Make one simple for the summer folks with all the stuff they want to eat in a nice pretty package or put together a market menu for the folks who love food and want what you create. Just grow the bottle on the fruit rather than trying to stuff the whole fruit in the bottle.

[Kudzu]

First, let me congratulate you on getting your mind (and tired body) back into the kitchen so quickly after the arrival of the boy in your life.

That menu dichotomy again, huh? How I would love to have scallop seviche tonight; yours must be perfect. Do you think the resistance is because most diners think of shrimp there, instead? I think you're wise to nix the sturgeon and the sardines since you know they don't go out of the kitchen. Perhaps H. Alexander isn't too far off the mark: a small exclusive menu-within-the-menu might have appeal. You would have to buy fewer of those ingredients but you would have the pleasure of cooking them and serving them to people who would appreciate them. Just keep remembering that it's already August and Labor Day isn't that far away -- make the tourists happy while you can.

[Amy]

Couldn't you just call them "super mini-fish" or something?

[haddock]

H. Alex- good answer. Perhaps what we will is offer a prix fixe, either with the safe summer items, or the more outre offerings.

Amy-we tried doing "mini fish and chips", smelt with fries. Let me tell how well whole fried smelt went down with the fish and chips crowd. Harrumph!

[johng]

I think this issue will get better as more people discover the lovely winegrowing valley not too far from you, but that your freedom to cook what you want will always be limited by your town, its attractions, and the visitors they draw. You find just the reverse in Napa Valley and even in Sonoma - the visitors who come our way tend to be well-traveled, well-heeled folks who head this way because they know they can get fried smelt, sweetbreads, and other stuff that chefs back home don't cook.

And then there's the whole CIA thing. As more grads spread out into the world there are more restaurants in the hinterland serving more than just the same-old-same-old, so folks tastes and expectations are slowly being raised.

[Joe Fish]

haddock,
The prix-fixe doesn't need to be segragated. If you do a four or five course menu, it's easy to slip in something a little challenging. Sure, people in the US are always going to think that one course is the "main" course, so if you slip them some ceviche in course two or three, you're farming potentially more adventurous consumers, while still delivering the meat-and-potatoes goods. I do this all the time. People try the sweetbreads and razor clams I put in front of them because they know the pork roast is on the way.

[Anne]

Sardine pops?

Sardine sorbet?

It is getting to be state fair season. Maybe sardines on a stick is the trick.

Too much, huh?

[thebizofknowledge]

I stumbled across your blog while I was doing some online research.
I had never liked beets but had only had the canned or bottled varieties. Then a friend shared some fresh beets with me, and they were wonderful! The juice stains like anything, but it was worth the mess!

[Garrett]

Make something eccentric and sassy, then describe it simply as that. People who want to be eccentric and sassy will order and eat it, and they'll love it specifically for that reason.

EGO - Making consumers since time began!

P.S. Why don't people like sardines? I don't get it? I guess you just have to grow up with them.
*le sigh*

[benk]

sardines don't sell because people think of them in cans. same with mackeral. however, calling mackeral 'saba' works wonders. perhaps there is a nice spanish name for sardines...