SALUT! Jonathan’s Ristorante (15 Wall Street,
631-549-0055) was one of 44 restaurants on Long Island awarded
a 2007 Wine Spectator’s Award of Excellence. To be awarded,
the restaurants must offer a well chosen selection of quality
producers, along with a thematic match to the menu in both
price and style; and typically these lists offer at least
100 selections. In honor of this year’s award, Jonathan’s
will celebrate by offering two special wines by the glass
at the bar. “Blange Arnies Cerretto 2005” and
“Dolcetto d’ Alba Vina Del Mandorlo Cogno 2005”
both come from an outstanding producer from the Piemonte region
and are very food friendly and delicious.
MUY CALOR! Ay Caramba (441 East Main Street,
Centerport, 631-261-2828) has more than adequately filled
the void left by Viva Juan which it has replaced. New owners
Mark and Marti Weiner have redone the place and the menu,
and are likely to leave their mark on the local culinary scene.
We’ll see you there.
LUNCH: You may no longer want to make two
stops to get lunch and coffee to bring back to the office
when you taste the new line of salads available at Starbucks.
The Fiesta Salad ($5.25) contains a fire-roasted corn and
black bean salad topped with grilled chicken, complemented
by salsa and avocado and spiced with smoked sweet paprika,
olive oil, cilantro and cumin. If you prefer Italy over Spain,
try the Tomato Mozzarella Insalatam ($5.25) with pearls of
fresh mozzarella, grape tomatoes, basil and imported extra
virgin olive oil, garlic and seasonings. There’s also
a vegan option — an Asian Sesame salad with lo mein
noodles, toasted sesame ginger dressing, broccoli, cucumber
and carrots topped with pickled ginger. Its only 150 calories!
MENU ENGINEER: Conde Nast’s Portfolio
had an interesting foodie profile recently. It opens, “Great
chefs may construct delicious dishes, but it’s up to
menu engineer Gregg Rapp to build a restaurant’s profit.”
Gregg Rapp doesn’t go to restaurants to savor the food,
he goes to pore over menus. He travels the world to discover
what wording, foods, and designs are most likely to tempt
diners and fatten a restaurant’s bottom line. He begins
with scouring the financials, sales goals, and clientele,
then identifies star menu items that are high in profit
and popularity, like crab cakes and filet mignon, downplaying
burgers and other inexpensive items. He lists prices at the
end of detailed entrée descriptions rather than in
a separate column to lessen sticker shock. Menu placement
and many other tricks await you in this yummy Portfolio profile.
KICK ALE: Southampton Brewery boasts its
newest introduction, Triple Abbey-Style Ale with “bold
and complex” flavor with “spicy overtones.”
A well-made Triple is deceptively smooth and easy to drink
despite its high alcohol content (typically 7-9%). Triples
generally have spicy/fruity overtones with notes of pepper,
cloves, bananas and citrus flavors against a sweet, bready
malt background, and pairs well with seafood and summer fare.
The brewery’s Belgian-style ale appears rather dark
in the 22 oz bottle, but exhibits its true color – a
hazy golden hue – after being poured into a glass. Better
sipped than chugged, each drink initially fills the mouth
with a pleasant taste of grain and fruit.
RATE OF LAY: Someone must have built a better
chicken because according to the Department of Agriculture,
egg production on New York farms is up over last year. More
than 4 million New York chickens laid 100 million eggs in
May 2007, an increase of 9 percent over May 2006. While the
number of hens of laying age was also greater, their “rate
of lay,” as USDA calls it, increased by 1 percent to
24.52 eggs per chicken per month. If you’re thinking
you can use these figures to calculate the actual length of
a New York minute… Fageddaboutit! The New York average
matched an efficiency rate increase among the nation’s
341-million egg-laying chickens.
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