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!

UpStairs: The Blog Begins ...

Over the hill, down the rabbit hole and onto the internet, welcome to the UpStairs On The Square blog.

There was an advertisement from years ago that stated, "you've come a long way, baby!" Who would have thought that after 25 years in business, UpStairs on the Square would be producing its very own web log?

The intention behind our blog is simple: UpStairs has always prided itself on its commitment to completely honest, no holds barred food (and drinks). Furthermore, our front-of-the-house knows no boundaries, as chefs are just as likely to be out and about the dining rooms as servers. To that end, we seek to use this blog as an opportunity to elongate the conversations that often get cut off in the restaurant industry. To elaborate upon an explanation that we just couldn't finish because we were pulled away by another engagement. In other words, the UpStairs blog is a dialogue between guest and restaurant. We hope that you take the time to explore the multiple facets of our blog, and participate either through your comments or simply telling us when you come in.

Stone Color Cocktails

We had a cocktail party for Tiffany & Co. not too long ago to celebrate (and sell) some of their new line of jewelry, and as part of the contract we had to serve three "jewel colored" cocktails. When creating a cocktail I usually keep in mind that the appearance of the final product should be a reflection of its taste, and I prefer the honest looking cocktail to the deceiving one. For instance, we stir our gin martinis because they look silky and dangerously clear. A "Jackie O", on the other hand looks composed until you float some champagne on top, when it opens up in a smile. Nothing irritates me more than a cocktail that looks great and disappoints when sipped (anything made with generic green liqueurs and puckers will always taste like chemicals). I certainly didn't feel like irritating people shopping for seven-figure necklaces so I set to work on the perfect balance between jewel color and great flavor.

For pink, I brought back a spring favourite, the Fellini. It has fresh squeezed blood-orange juice, house-made pomegranate liqueur and good old dry Champagne. We served it on a champagne flute, garnished with a rose petal and called it the Pink Diamond.

One down, two to go. Next I went for blue. The reason I did that is because Blue Curacao is a legitimate substitute for triple sec and any orange liqueur based sour is good by me. I used lime juice to balance it and the twist came from apple-flavored vodka (no we didn't make this one here, but we used Citadelle which is a great brand). We served that with a sugared rim and called it the Sapphire Cocktail. So far so good.

The last one was the trickiest one. The bartenders and I had come up with a green drink (emerald ?) but the Tiffany's people wanted something purple. Purple is easy. We carry an excellent Creme de Cassis and I have a new-found respect for Chambord, I can do purple! So I thought. "It needs to be jewel-color" said Mary Catherine examining a cocktail that, I swear, was my best rendition of the color. To make matters worse, Tiffany's was promised a lavender flavored cocktail. That sounds great but I was kind of stuck at the last minute. Along comes Emily, and her genial syrups: from the pastry area on the 3rd floor, came down a syrup that tasted very much of lavender, with a good amount of sweetness and the color was perfect. I had about three minutes to create a drink with that syrup before the menus got printed. For a quick second my eyes rested on a bottle of Luxardo maraschino liqueur and I felt the Jerry Thomas in me, I was struck with inspiration. "Lino, we're printing the menus now". I snapped back. Mr. Thomas, we'll have to try that maraschino, gin and lavender later, for now I played safe: I used vodka for the base, lavender syrup for sweet, lemon juice for sour. Easy as lemonade. We named it the Amethyst cocktail and it was of course the best-seller of the night. When people asked me how I got the color to be so perfect, all I could tell them was that I used a magical syrup that came from upstairs.

More than a mixer

Tara Feely, brand ambassador for Chambord was at the bar last night, having a nice salad and a glass of wine when our beloved bartender Daisy Crowder dropped what he was doing and started to write down a recipe Tara was giving him, a drink recipe he's been trying to get for a while. Daisy first tasted the cocktail at a discussion group he participated with other local bartenders to use Chambord as an ingredient in Cocktails.

Every bartender knows Chambord, the blackberry and raspberry liqueur made in France. We know the bottle, designed to look like it just rolled off the time-machine from Charlemagne's hands (or like a Christmas-tree ornament), always on the back-bar (because it doesn't fit most wells). And we sure know to reach for the purple and gold ball with a cross on top to make a French Martini. To most bartenders, Chambord is thought of as a mixer. The key word on the discussion Daisy joined is "ingredient". When the word "mixer" is used to describe bar ingredients, the overall respect for the craft goes down immediately, and the underlying idea is that you have some cheap booze that needs to be cut with anything you can find.

Chambord's sweet berry taste can cut many strong tasting booze but it is as a piece of a well-balanced act that the liqueur really shines. I admit when Daisy showed me the recipe I was skeptical. I never thought the delicate taste of green tea could live up to basil or a powerhouse like lime juice, and a vodka base doesn't attract many a respectable mixologist's attention, but in the right proportion, everything comes together very gracefully. "I couldn't think of something better to drink in the summer" Daisy said, and the drink surely is refreshing. I have a feeling he'll be making lots of these.

Recipe adapted from the original by bartender Chris Lamb from Proof on Main:

1 oz vodka


1 1/2 oz green tea


4 leaves of basil


1/2 oz lime juice


1 oz Chambord



Bruise the basil, mix all ingredients except for the Chambord in a cocktail shaker full of ice, shake it and strain into a highball full of ice. Pour the Chambord on top.