Let Them Eat Brioche

Spring Ahead

Continuing with my "seasonal drinking" rampage, may I just say that I dig spring? Not too hot, not too cold, just right.


Anyway, I was in New York last week and found myself with some time to kill before dinner with friends from the old Library, so I stopped by to say hi to yet another friend. Ryan Smith, with whom I worked behind the bar years ago is now at Puck Fair where I tasted some great seasonal beers and the one I liked the best was Dogfish Head's Aprihop. As the name suggests it taste of apricots and hops. It is a little tart (my favourite flavor profile) and very refreshing. Another sign of spring is the Weihenstephaner Hefe Weiss that I added to our beer list recently. Weihenstephaner claims to be the oldest brewery still around and I believe them. Their Hefe Weiss is a little sweet, a little yeasty, just right for the season (this is it's third consecutive Spring on our beer list).

We are just about to open the sidewalk tables on Winthrop Street, which, despite being hundreds of years old, I think was really intended for outdoor dinning and beer drinking (with moderation of course). It may just be that our wise ancestors knew that the marketplace where farmers traded (Winthrop Park) would be outgrown by the city it created and that the little side street would have not other use except for sitting in the sun and enjoying cold beer. I may even suggest that we serve the coldest beer in Cambridge, I just can't prove it.

'Tis the season to drink...

Strawberries are not in season right now. Blood oranges are. Blood oranges, kumquats and pomegranates. Running a bar that reflects our chef's local and seasonal inclinations is not the easiest task I've undertaken. Most people who come to the bar in February and order Mojitos never thought of the idea of drinking seasonally, but if you ever did stop to think about how much better and fresher blood oranges are right now in new England than any bunch of mint or strawberry you could pick up at the supermarket, you know what I mean. I drank seasonally even before I knew chef Steve's seasonal menus. I used to indulge in Gin in the spring, specially when I lived on Martha's Vineyard, and saved my Whiskey for the cold winter months, specially when I lived in New York. Above 30º C, there is nothing quite like rum.
Beer drinkers are aware of the difference that it makes to have the right drink in the right season, mostly because beer does not have the shelf life of spirits and it has to be consumed shortly after it's bottled. Wine lovers and their object d'amour are almost always connected by the general environment in which wine is consumed. Opening a bottle of still rosé in the winter is like wearing a fur coat to the beach...or like Mojitos in the snow. To that end we have replaced the beloved (but summery) Lolita with a cocktail created by our bartender Chris O'Neil called "Siren". It has our house-made meyer-lemon Limoncello, combined with Spanish Licor 43 and fresh squeezed blood orange juice. It hits the same tart-sweet notes in the palate that the strawberry liqueur and Champagne hit with the Lolita but the aromatics are more winter citrus/vanilla-caramel.
Meanwhile, my lemon-basil plant has dried (and probably died), and my thyme is just hibernating (I hope). The concord grapevine outside my window was covered in snow this morning but somehow, someone is going to walk into to the bar today and have the audacity to order a Mojito.

for those who wait, Armagnac

Check out this awesome article on the New York Times. Then come by the bar and get up close and personal with a snifter of the real deal. We currently have a Cerbois X.O., and two Darrozes, a 1985 and a 1986, from different distillers.

New Year's Resolution

As each new year begins, a sea of poorly planned and half-hearted resolutions are made across the country. Gyms that have been nearly vacant for the last few months are instantly booming with lines for new and renewed memberships. Refrigerators are emptied of the soda, chocolate, and ice cream that reside there and are restocked with soy milk, grapes, and cottage cheese. All this in hopes that this year will be different from the last.
But we all know the perils of quick decision-making. Without a calculated and earnest commitment to bonafide change, an inevitable relapse results in the resolution-making process becoming as cyclical as the earth's rotation around the sun.
To that end, I have decided for myself that 2008 will be my year to educate myself more fully. It has been nearly two years since I've graduated from college and I can't seem to understand why I don't know everything in life yet (sic). Similarly, I can't get that catchy NBC jingle for "The More You Know" out of my head so I figure I'll just play along.
In order to more mightily utilize this blog as well as to stretch my literary muscle, I propose to examine a word a week that focuses upon the etymology, history, and common usages of food-related words. I think this will help me help other people appreciate the beauty with which I'm constantly surrounded working at UpStairs.

So, this week's entry is comes the book I'm currently reading (sweetly and thoughtfully given to me by Deborah Hughes this holiday season). The author is Phoebe Damrosch and the title of her book is Service Included: Four-Star Secrets of an Eavesdropping Waiter. It affectionately and unabashedly details her experience as an opening waitperson at Thomas Keller's now landmark New York eatery, Per Se. Though her curriculum vitae prior to working at the restaurant would have made one wonder how she ever became involved with such a heralded culinary establishment, it is her passion for food and service that make it believable and ring true.
In one of opening chapters of the book, "Mosquitoes on Toast," Damrosch describes the etymology behind the word canapé:

"The word can be traced by an alternate route to the Greek konops, meaning 'mosquito.' Having yet discovered the joys of DDT, the Greeks hung netting called konopion around their beds and couches to protect themselves from the konops, a technique that wsa later adopted by the Romans. They called the curtains conopeum, which became the Latin canopeum, the Middle English canope, and eventually 'canopy.' How the French came to use canapé to refer to a couch instead of a curtain is beyond the limits of my steepability, but we have stolen the word for use in Modern English and retained its Middle English meaning.'

Oh, the French! How they do love to mess with our heads.

These little tidbits are, for me, another layer of the education on all things edible I resolve to improve upon this coming year. Here's to a great new year filled with fun conversation and delectable meals with friends. Cheers!

ImprovBoston and UpStairs team up!

Put it on your calendar, folks! More information to come, but my old friends at ImprovBoston in Inman Square are making the big move to a beautiful new location in Central Square. To help them out, we're going to offer our Monday Club Bar for them to convert into a new stage for an evening of Improv and improvisational cuisine. The basics are as follows:

When: Sunday, November 18th, 2007
Time: Donors and Groaners show at 7:00 p.m. followed by the 8:15 p.m. showing of the IB Touring Company. Dinner will start being served all night long at 5:00 p.m.
What: A $50 Prix Fixe menu will be offered all evening ($15 of each Prix Fixe will be donated to IB towards their move; this, of course, excludes tax and gratuity). If you're looking to come just for the 8:00 p.m. show, that's great! Cost of admission for the show without dinner will be $15. There will be lots of great aptly named funny/funky cocktails to be had, and a great laugh all night long.

For more information, please write me at operations@upstairsonthesquare.com and I'll give you more details as things develop.

Trick or treat