Summer Fruits

As summer approaches we are loathing the fact that the ramps are yellowing, that we are saying goodbye to green garlic, and leaving every heavy dish behind. I would have to say spring is our favorite season because it is the first ramp, the first fiddle head, and succulent morel. Secretly I am just getting excited for the next season, the warm raspberries on the market table, the first tomatoes drenched in olive oil sprinkled with salt. When technical ablity goes by the way side because food is so extrodinary on its own, with no manipulation.

I think the most magical moments in my life are spent in the sun with my toes in the dirt picking peas from the garden ( it helps that it is my mothers garden, and she does all the weeding). I was raised in a place where the quote "Food is love" is replaced with "Food is love, and life". On the farm there is a respect for the land, for the plants, for the animals, that can never be paralled.

So cooking in the summer is the reward for a winter filled with tropical fruits, and overpriced underripe berries. It becomes a treat, a break in the day, to "run over to the farmers market" and just inhale the summer. Summer savory, basil, and tyhme, extrodinary.



My Suggestion; order the special.

Vacation and Renovation

We all had to take a break this week because of the Monday Club Bar renovations. Technically not all of us since Deborah is overseeing the design and she has to be there a lot and Dina and Eliza are there a lot too, and Marci...Ok, so I had to take a break, a whole week away from my restaurant friends.
The first few days of my break I spent on Martha's Vineyard, where I fished for fluke and bluefish. By the way, Fluke is a kind of flounder, the main difference is that it's right eye travels to the left side of the fish. See I learned something too! We only brought back one or two at a time and we ate it the same day, so it was really fresh. I went to see a jazz trio at one of my old haunts in Edgartown, my old guitar teacher was playing bass, it was kind of cool.
Then we went to Emily's farm and that was just amazing! To experience nature like we did in the farm, and to understand that Emily grew up there transcends her cooking to a new level.
After the farm we visited Mary Catherine and Reid at their Westport Cottage. That was another amazing experience. We can all agree that Mary-Catherine is the quintessential hostess at the restaurant, so to be a guest at her summer home was truly fantastic. I did attempt to make frozen margaritas but we had a bit of a blender situation. As in it leaked and I made a mess in her kitchen, but she didn't mind and went on preparing salami and cheeses for an extraordinary antipasto platter and then slicing rib eye and dressing salads, and making you feel comfortable all the way. Talk about hospitality!
I'm happy to be back and looking forward to seeing some of my regulars at the bar. Deborah's design is stellar and we are all in a really good mood, really confident with our kitchen and just amped and ready to re-open the doors!