One Block West Newsletter -- June 2008

Welcome to summer: hot and muggy with loads of thunderstorms. At least there’s a great compensation for the nasty weather: squashes, peppers, eggplants, green beans, tomatoes, and stone fruits galore! Now’s the time that I kick into vegetarian mode and eat mainly vegetables for the next two months while the getting is good. Come see what I can do with our local produce on our dinner menu.

Our third annual Garlic Dinner is coming up next week. Sadly and unlike years past when this dinner was a rampant sell out, we are woefully undersubscribed for this dinner. I know times are rough for everyone, but you won’t regret giving yourself a night out. We really have a lot of fun at this oh-so-unserious dinner. But we can’t have the dinner if nobody’s going to attend. We need sixteen more people to sign up by this weekend and we have room for 30.

Something new for us: we’re competing in Warrenton for the title of Hot Chef on the 10^th of August. Come cheer us on!

All my best,

Ed Matthews, Chef/Owner

Events Calendar back to top

Thursday

July 24, 2008

Annual Garlic Dinner

Calling all garlic lovers! If past years are any indication, this is probably our rowdiest wine dinner of the year. While most dinners are focused around the wines, this dinner is focused on garlic in all its manifestations. $65 per person, not including taxes or gratuity. Reserve by credit card at 540-662-1455. We start receiving guests after 6:30; the dinner starts promptly at 7:00pm.

Sunday

August 10, 2008

Hot Chef Competition

The crew and I are participating in the Hot Chef competition, a fundraiser for The Mosby Museum in Warrenton from 4-9pm. We’ll be competing with 9 other area restaurants in presenting a 3-course dinner based on 19^th century ingredients. Tickets are $125 which includes food, open bar, and dancing. 540-351-1600. Come cheer us on!

Tues, August 19 – Sat, August 23

Summer Holiday

Chef Ed and the crew are taking our annual summer break. See you when we return.

Thursday

August 28, 2008

Annual Harvest Dinner

Each year, we celebrate the hard work and great produce of Gene and Beth Nowak at Mayfair Farm with a 5-course vegetarian farm-to-table dinner using only their produce, paired with wines. Come experience Chef Ed at his most creative. $65 per person, not including taxes or gratuity. Reserve by credit card at 540-662-1455. We start receiving guests after 6:30; the dinner starts promptly at 7:00pm.

What’s New @ One Blog West back to top

Most of my writing I have moved from this newsletter to my blog. Here’s a thumbnail sketch of some of the new articles on One Blog West:

§ Recipes, it’s a love-hate relationship

§ Discineration, to Coin a Term, battles with my wife

§ On Crossing Your Ts, pedantry meets the chicken egg

§ Cooking in an Alien Kitchen, my home kitchen might as well be on Mars

§ Biodiesel: Sorry We Can't Help Much, on not having a deep fryer

§ A Good Cup of Coffee is a beautiful thing

§ A Sharp Knife is a Beautiful Thing, indeed

§ New PBS Shows, fun filming outdoors in the heat

§ Pupusas, who doesn’t love these stuffed tortillas?

§ Grumpy People should stay at home

§ Kurobuta Pork—The Other White Meat. NOT!, more than you wanted to know

§ Caul Fat—The Chef's Friend, an indispensable item in my kitchen

§ June Bounty, finally some vegetables with which to work

§ Wow!, sometimes I impress even my jaded palate

§ It's 93 Degrees. What to Eat?, who orders venison Stroganoff in the summer?

§ Garlic Scapes, another edible part of the garlic plant

There are also other articles below in Recipes, How To, and Something to Wine About.

Taylor Bay Scallops back to top

Every now and then, we buy a sack of Taylor Bay Scallops to feature on the menu. These small live bay scallops are incredibly sweet after just having been steamed open. Their incredible sweetness is a nice contrast to the large sea scallops that we serve daily. These bay scallops taste so much better than those that I used to catch in Panama City Bay, Florida as a teenager. And that is no doubt due to the cold water where they are grown.

Many customers ask where Taylor Bay is located. There is no Taylor Bay: the Taylor is Rod Taylor of the Taylor Seafood Company and the bay in question is Cape Cod Bay, Massachusetts. The scallops are raised in nets, suspended from a system of buoys and ropes. It takes about a year to get to market size.

Besides their wonderful flavor, these scallops present very well on a plate. We steam them live in their beautiful shells which have all shades of tans, browns, oranges, and purples. We usually serve them on the halfshell so that customers can see the gorgeous shells.

To Go Orders back to top

For some reason, many customers believe that we don’t do to go orders. We always have.

We accept orders via phone, fax (540-662-1665), and email (info@oneblockwest.com). We have a to go lunch menu with a tear off faxable order sheet for your convenience. Pick up some for your office next time you’re in. And, our menus are always posted to the web site so you have a ready reference.

In addition to our standard lunch menu, we provide a lot of high-quality box lunches to offices around town. We don’t deliver, but we’ll have it all boxed up and waiting for you. We’ve done everything from smoked beef tenderloin for four people to 250 upscale sandwich and salad combos for the Governor’s reception.

Tired after a hard day and want to pick something up for dinner on the way home? We do that too. We even retail wine too (at the same prices as the wine shops) for one stop convenience.

Going to the Bluemont concerts at the Old Court House and need a boxed dinner? Call us.

Need 500 hors d’oeuvres for a reception? We have a repertoire of thousands of hors d’oeuvres and tapas.

Having a dinner party at home, but are too swamped to cook? We do a lot of these dinners beautifully arranged on platters, ready for your guests.

If you need food, we can help.

Recipes back to top

Here are some new recipes, from my kitchen to yours:

§ A Mojito Spring, gorgeous mint and what to do with it

§ Boletes Anyone?, fresh porcini mushrooms, expensive but worth it

§ Customers Who "Get It!", not everyone understands seasonality; morels & asparagus

§ Portabella Mushrooms, wondering just how portabella is spelled

§ A Forbidding Recipe, some vegetarians got very lucky with this dish; you can too

§ Veal Brisket and Grits, a new look at grillades and grits

§ Eggs One Block West, breakfast in bed for my wife

§ Green Garlic, a mild spring garlic

§ Grilled Tuna, Asparagus, and Tomato Salad, easy, easy, easy

How To back to top

You’ll want to see the following how-to photo essays this month:

§ Softshell Crabs, how to prepare them

§ Preserved Lemons, they’re so easy to make and here’s how

By all means, if there is a cooking technique that you need help with, please let me know.

Something to Wine About back to top

Tasting wine is a regular and very necessary part of my job. It is, however, not as much fun as many of you think. Tasting through 100 or more wines at one time and trying to make buying decisions about them is nothing short of work, very hard work. The work, however hard, is necessary to keep informing my taste memory so that I can more readily pair food with wine.

Despite the work, my job does have its compensations. I get to meet and taste wines with winemakers from all over the world, most recently with Luca Currado of Vietti, top of the line Piemontese house. The most interesting part of the tasting for me was being able to ask Luca specific questions about the vineyard management and vinification of the wines, to see what makes him tick.

In addition, I got to taste through the entire line up including Dolcetto, Barbera d’Asti, Barbera d’Alba, Nebbiolo di Langhe, Barolo, Barbaresco, and the outstanding Barolo Riserva “Villero” 2001, which like vintage port, is made only in the rarest of years.

But the star of the show in the Vietti line up was the 2005 Barbera d’Alba “Scarrone” Vigne Vecchie. Barbera hasn’t always been my favorite grape, but I do love old school mushroomy Barbera with Porcini Risotto. The Scarrone, however, is very new school and the best Italian red I have had in a year. I bought a case for the restaurant. Like all world class wines, however, it is not inexpensive, especially with the dollar getting hammered by the Euro.

I’m slowly beefing up the restaurant wine list when I find exceptional wines at solid prices. I’ve added Barbaresco from Angelo Gaja, a new Côte-Rôtie, an exceptional St. Joseph, a huge Malbec from Argentina, and for the first time ever, Sauvignon Blanc Avenius from Linden. The Avenius vineyard produces amazing Sauvignon Blanc.

For more on wine, see the following articles on One Blog West:

§ Magic in a Bottle, reminiscing about my first great bottle of wine

§ What Grapes are in Prosecco?, a trick question

§ Patio Wine, why is rosé so ignored in this country?

§ June Wine Dinner: Linden Vineyards, wine pairing notes from our June dinner

Mystery Shoppers back to top

At random times throughout the year, I ask various people to mystery shop the restaurant, to provide us with feedback that we can use to improve the business.

If you would like to volunteer for this, please send me an email.

Customer Satisfaction Survey back to top

I cannot always be in the dining room to assess how the food and service are being received by customers, so I have put a very brief customer satisfaction survey on the web site. I would be grateful for your feedback.

Also, I would be grateful if you have something nice to say about the restaurant, that you could post it to one of the restaurant review sites such as wincfood.com, yelp.com, tripadvisor.com, fodors.com, or chowhound.com. It is from these sites that out of town visitors select where they are going to eat.

Last Words back to top

Thank you very much for your business.

Come on down and let the crew and me cook for you!

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