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Hello My Friends,
Summer is finally here. It's been a cold and damp start to the season. This year's local strawberry crop was really pathetic. We had very little in the fields and what we had was, for the most part, watery and insipid. But that's the thing with nature, it's not always going to be a banner year.
On the up-side, we just took our first delivery of delicious local strawberries yesterday. They came from upstate New York and we're pretty excited. Yes!
The bad news is that it's the end of strawberry season and this first delivery might also well be our last of 2013. Boo!
We're using them in Catherine Lombardi in Strawberry, Balsamic & Tomato Sauce with Spaghetti. Don't laugh. It's awesome and it only works with local ripe strawberries, not California Frankenberries. At the bar in Catherine Lombardi, you'll find our local Strawberry Daiquiri. Quite different than your standard slushie daiquiri.
There is one other food arrival that is annually anticipated. While we love to source local wherever possible, there is no such thing as a delicious local truffle here in NJ. The best truffles historically have come from Piedmont, Italy (white) and Perigord, France (black) and only in the cold months of the year.
For the last few years however, we've been getting amazing black truffles from Australia. They are really as delicious as Perigord and having them in the summer allows us to put them with a whole range of different foodstuffs.
You can have them shaved on just about anything (even directly into your mouth if you like) in either restaurant. In Catherine Lombardi, they go remarkably in Truffles on Anson Mills Polenta Studded with Lobster and a Suydam Farm Egg Yolk ($35). In Stage Left we've made a Lobster and Truffle Lasagna with Burnt Orange Béchamel ($55).
So there's lot's of great new stuff coming out of the kitchens and over the bars. The wine tasting is on Saturday. The sidewalk cafe is lovely when it's not raining and you've got some friends on Livingston Avenue in New Brunswick who would love to see you!
Making the experience of super-luxury spirits crazily affordable and accessible!
Read more about the Spirits project.
Initiale Extra is a limited bottling of extremely old cognacs from the Grande Champagne and Borderies regions of Cognac. The different spirits used in the blend were aged for 30 to 50 years in oak barrels. The resulting blend is technically an Hors d'Age cognac. At 40% ABV, it's not cask-strength, but a mellow cognac that is rich, ripe and lush. Tasting notes include "old port" and "Christmas fruitcake" as well as truffle and vanilla. The theme here is decadence. That's one of my favorite themes!
We will open one bottle at 6:30 precisely. When it's gone, it's gone.
Next Week in The Spirits Project: Springbank "Amontillado Sherry Cask" 16 Year (Cask Strength)
We call our summer Sunday events "Pig Toast" rather than "Pig Roast" because we always raise a glass of something special when the pig comes off the coals.
This Sunday, June 30th, we'll be celebrating with Philadelphia Distilling Company. We would like to take this opportunity to introduce to you Bluecoat American Gin and Vieux Carré American Absinthe. Both of these excellent spirits have been behind our bar for some time, but they'll come front and center Sunday afternoon.
Sounds like a lovely day for pig.
Now you never can be exact with a whole pig under charcoal, but we can assume he'll be ready to go around about 4:30 PM. At that time we'll remove him from his box, give him a parade fitting his noble sacrifice and all present shall Toast The Pig.
Our regular Stage Left Menu is available and Catherine Lombardi is open as well. Pig will be offered in both restaurants at $19 for 1/2 pound and $29 for a pound.
Seating from 3 - 9 PM.
Making the experience of super-luxury spirits crazily affordable and accessible!
Read more about the Spirits project.
A very special whisky from Glenrothes, named for their outgoing malt master John Ramsay, who selected the barrels for this benchmark whisky. John selected 20-second-fill American oak casks and vatted them into sherry butts. Two were selected from there to provide this bottling.
Glenrothes uses an unusually slow distillation process. The Glenrothes Distillery lies on a tributary of the river Spey. The distilleries of the small Speyside town of Rothes produce quite a lot of whisky. Most of it is destined for blending. The individual Glenrothes bottlings are the finest of the village. Built in 1878 and arguably the best kept secret on Speyside, The Glenrothes has been distilled here since 1879, This John Ramsay bottling will go down as one of the best whiskies made here in all her long history.
We will open one bottle at 6:30 precisely. When it's gone, it's gone.
Next Week in The Spirits Project: Courvosier Cognac "Initial Extra"
Making the experience of super-luxury spirits crazily affordable and accessible!
Read more about the Spirits project.
Obviously, this rum gets its name from the Old English word for 'pirate.' The stout bottle of the XO Reserve is also meant to be a tribute to this heritage. The rums are a blend of select pot still rums sourced throughout the Caribbean, some are created in a miraculously long-living wood still that has been running rum for many generations. Once blended, the rum is matured further in French Limousin and toasted American oak barrels. Pyrat's "Cask 1623" is a blend of rums that run between 20 and 40 years of barrel time. This is a long time to spend in barrel in a warm place. I've not yet tried it but the notes read that it drinks as much like a Cognac as it does a rum. I am so looking forward to having a dram with you Thursday.
We will open one bottle at 6:30 precisely. When it's gone, it's gone.
Next Week in The Spirits Project: Glenrothes "John Ramsay Legacy" 38 Year
PLEASE NOTE: Prices for the Spirits Project apply only on that particular night.