[How do they do that? (the bonbon thread)]

Debating if this is a photo filter or real and if real, how.

[Starting a high profile new restaurant (after closing another)]

17 minutes ago, heidih said:

 

So a user friendly car eating kit is on deck?  I mean what ya keep in the car.  I read it somewhere in a Marlena de Blasi book.

I think we'll have a lot of refining to do, but a tray that is solid, comfortable, but not so wide that you can't have it on your lap behind a steering wheel. A high quality disposable dishes (mostly palm leaf and bamboo). Stainless cups that are beveled to fit in cup holders. That's our starting point.

 

[Starting a high profile new restaurant (after closing another)]

38 minutes ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

I have to note you discriminate against those of us who have neither cars nor cellphones.  Though perhaps we are not your target demographic.

That's what the delivery option is for. As I said to a friend earlier - we've eliminated pretty much every excuse, but most importantly, we've done it on our terms instead of being a victim to circumstance.

[Starting a high profile new restaurant (after closing another)]

Here's the slide set we're using on social media in the sequence below. One fun addition that my FOH manager came up with is ... well, here let me show you the sequence that we've worked out - it'll be easier than explaining:

 

1. Arrival - text to let us know who they are.

2. Welcome video sent that explains how things will work, what to do if they need the bathroom, ways to communicate with staff, clarify drinks for the night.

3. First course sent out. QRC code attached to tray and link sent to phones for those who don't know how to use a QRC. Link opens the first video of me describing the course and the history. Near the end of the video I'll clickbait a section of our Pantry menu to encourage them to go shopping while dining - sorta like we used to do on airplanes back in the day. Likely the take-home drink section of the Pantry menu will be presented here.

4. They text us for pickup of empty tray.

5. 2nd course sent out with same system; this time the teaser/link will focus on our hot sauces and vinegars on the Pantry menu. 

6. Text for dirty pickup.

7. 3rd course - same as above with cookbook or other stuff.

8. Text for dirty pickup.

9. Final course. On this one we'll tease the breakfast items on the menu so they can enjoy Bulrush/Squatters Cafe food in the morning.

10. Text for dirt pickup - and this time we also deliver any purchased Pantry items. Pantry is purchased through our delivery app so they'll enter a credit card which means no payment will be necessary.

11. Final video - thank you, solicit feedback, stay safe.

12. Final complete detailed menu sent via email.

 

 

[Starting a high profile new restaurant (after closing another)]

3 hours ago, donk79 said:

This looks great, Rob!  Ian Boden is doing something very similar (less the in-car dining) at his restaurant, The Shack, near me.  I have greatly enjoyed being able to get a taste of his cooking right now, as well as picking up Edwards bacon and Anson Mills rice grits.  I hope it works well for you!

The car is critical to the plan. It provides a sheltered environment that allows the guest to feel safe, protected from the elements, and controlling the environment so we can interact through video and zoom.

7 hours ago, gfweb said:

Scary times to be in business. I hope you thrive through all this.

Are you doing outdoor service for now?

Only car. No outdoor is available near us.

[Cinnamon flavor extract]

9 hours ago, paulraphael said:

 

That's interesting. What about cinnamon stick? 

 

And ... might it like tree bark because it IS tree bark?

That was the joke...at least I thought it was funny.

 

Cinnamon sticks are different, but only for steeping, not for grating. And depending on the stick sometimes I'll give it a good rinse before I start using it.

[Starting a high profile new restaurant (after closing another)]

13 hours ago, MokaPot said:

Sounds good, @gfron1. What kinds of items are you planning to have in your "Pantry Essentials"?

Here's our current list. The idea is primarily the things we make in house for the restaurant. We debated eggs and flours since we're completely locally sourced, but I don't think that's how people will use us so we're not adding that to our list.

Grocery:

Breakfast

Biscuits & Gravy (You bake ‘em) $16

Yogurt & granola (House made yogurt) $6.50

Quiche, vegetarian (9”) $15

 

Dessert - these have same descriptions as current

Ice cream pt or qt $6 $10 (note that we won’t offer sundae kit anymore)

Cookie survival pack (4) $12

 

Pantry 

Beet bbq sauce, 12oz $8

Fermented hot sauce, 4oz $6

Foraged sweet and tart BBQ rub, 4oz $5

Rhubarb ketchup, 12oz $8

Strawberry vinegar, 4oz $6

Pawpaw vinegar, 4oz $6

 

Bar

Cocktails 

• ‘Curse of Gin’ Cocktail, (Stinging Nettle Cordial, 1220 Origin Gin, dry vermouth, serves 4 $35

• ‘Turkey in the Straw’ Cocktail, (Ezra Brooks Bourbon, honey syrup, fabricated lemon, rhubarb shrub) serves 4 $40

• Bourbon/Peach Cocktail, serves 4 $35

• Tequila Cocktail, serves 4 $30

Wine

• Red Wine of the Day, $20 or $45 for Premium bottle

• White Wine of the Day, $20 or $45 for Premium bottle

• Rosé of the Day, $25

 

Beer

• Six Mile Bridge Bavarian Hefeweizen Wheat Ale, 16 oz can $8

• UCBC Nomadic Chai Stout, 16oz can $10

• 4 Hands ‘Passion Fruit Prussia’ Berliner Weisse, 12oz can $8

• Six Mile Bridge Double Berry Berliner Weisse with blackberries and raspberries, 16 oz can $8

Shrubs - individual or 3-pack for $15, cocktail recipes included 

• Rhubarb Shrub, 4oz $6

• Peach x Basil Shrub, 4oz $6

• Berry x Mint Shrub, 40z $6

[Starting a high profile new restaurant (after closing another)]

After tonight's dinner service we're making a big change.  I don't see entertaining guests safely indoors until late spring early summer of next year. And I'm tired of doing Plan B. So I've created a new Plan A - something unique and fun, and that allows me to do what I do best - the stories. I'll post more details later, but thought I'd give you all the advanced peek.

[Cinnamon flavor extract]

On 7/29/2020 at 2:54 PM, shain said:

 

Would you describe it as tasting different than cinnamon powder? And when will you choose it over powder in baked goods? Or do you use both together?

Thanks!

I DESPISE cinnamon powder. If any of my cooks use cinnamon powder it's a fast track to the back door! Maybe a tad overdramatic, but seriously, it's not allowed in my kitchen. It takes like tree bark in any applications - even steeped - to me. And there's a good reason why it tastes like that I suppose. And yes, I've explored Mexican cinnamon, Indian cinnamon, Sri Lankan cinnamon...they vary in quality, but the overall impact on my mouth is the same.

[Cinnamon flavor extract]

I only use cinnamon oil when I want to add cinnamon flavor to baked goods or confections. I buy mine at my local Indian market.

[Starting a high profile new restaurant (after closing another)]

5 hours ago, MokaPot said:

@gfron1 , why can't you tell stories through a mask? I agree it's harder b/c you can't see people's mouths. Even through the mask, I think it might be enjoyable for your customers & servers as well.

I talk to most guests at the end but its the safety of masks - they become compromised as the condensation builds up. I will say that my dry sense of humor has been hitting on all notes now that people can't see my mouth. The eyes have become their only clue.

 

4 hours ago, kayb said:

This is an interesting thread. Down here, there's a currently under way dust-up centering around John T. Edge, director of the Southern Foodways Alliance, a private non-profit dedicated to chronicling

Been following this very closely. In fact, I have people who want to pitch a story to them about Bulrush but thought it best to sit on it until things are calmer.

 

4 hours ago, Yiannos said:

@gfron1 I understand your point of view too! I meant no offense at all, I hope you didn't take it that way.

None taken at all. I find this whole topic fascinating, challenging and frustrating all at the same time. And my language when talking about the topic itself has matured greatly in the past few months mostly as I respond to others, like you, who engage me in the conversation. I've learned to never talk about it when I'm tired because one careless word could cause irreparable damage even to well-intended people.

[Starting a high profile new restaurant (after closing another)]

6 minutes ago, Yiannos said:

 

I am Greek. Ask me about baklava. Now find a Turk, and ask them about baklava. I am as open-minded and liberal as they come, but these kinds of things drive me nuts. If I like the taste of something, I don't care where it comes from, I will eat it and incorporate elements of it into what I cook, just like every other cook before me for countless generations. Every single thing we experience in life is built on what comes before, cuisines are not created in a vacuum suddenly in an ultra-specific time/place historically. People do this with music too, this style belongs to x or is specifically for y. Am I supposed to call out modern musicians for using the same chord progressions that Beethoven used hundreds of years before them? To say that an American pop artist today should not be able to speak this language because they lack the Germanic heritage or whatever? Or to deprive myself of playing Debussy because I'm not French? Or French enough? I find this all insane... Eat what you like, drink what you like, listen to what you like, fill your being and all it's senses with the things that speak to you regardless of where they come from! This is what unites us as humans, a person from Japan and an American enjoying the same hamburger are connected, they understand each other, they are in that moment in some kind of union with their taste buds as a catalyst. We are one people on this Earth and yet we keep finding these over-thought ways to distance ourselves from one another. Sorry for the rant, back to my baklava.

I understand what you are saying. The argument has to do with me, a person of a privileged class, profiting off of a culture, where in many instances a systemically oppressed class doesn't have the same opportunities. It's not that I can't make a food that is directly from or inspired from the Osage or the enslaved, but rather, how do I give credit? Giving credit can mean many many things from simple acknowledgement to money to an internship program for youth from that community to...on and on. I don't need to answer the question today, but I do need to have through through why I get to serve this food  for money when they may not get to have the same opportunity. And I often feel overwhelmed with the PC speak related to all of this, but when I do I try to think how I would feel if I were from the culture that has a prominent white man making money off of my culture. And we all know this isn't a new discussion - Rick Bayless has been through the ringer many times, normally coming out okay. Richter has dealt with it...and wasn't it Zimmern who got kicked in the butt for appropriation?

[Starting a high profile new restaurant (after closing another)]

Here's the latest...been thinking about what was worth sharing for weeks and weeks now

 

COVID

Well, PPP funds have come and gone. I had to furlough my hourly staff. It's just my sous, my FOH manager and myself. We're doing tasting dinners on Fri and Sat only (about to add Thurs), and continuing carryout Wed-Sat. We rolled the dice and decided to up the price for the meals and ensure smaller crowds. Most states told restaurants that they had to be at ##% capacity. Capacity is set by overall usable space and not seats, so for us our Fire Marshall occupancy is 99. Pre-Covid we only served 24 a night in the dining room on a regular night. But for the 6' stipulation we decided to limit the crowd to 6 groups per night, and seat them all at the same time. We give instructions on how to walk to the restroom to minimize passing by other guests, and every guest gets their own sanitizer bottle. Because we are offering something more akin to a private dining experience we upped the price to $150 (tax and tip included), and upped the courses to 11. We haven't had any issues filling the seats, but this next surge on the first wave isn't slowing. The biggest challenge to this is that we only seat 6 groups per night which more often than not is only 12 people...we allow up to 4 per group. So we're getting the bare minimum of bookings most nights.

 

Many restaurants in town are already shutting down again. These are higher volume restaurants with a turn n burn strategy. Our hope is that by having each seat be dedicated to one guest and managing how people interact with each other, we're offering a far safer experience than most. 

 

One of the hardest aspects is that we can no longer tell stories because of our masks. But we've tried to add a novel element which is that we text each guest the course description right as they're receiving the course. Here's an example of what we're sending:

 

Seed Project

Our historic seed project is going well and crops are starting to come in. Some of the crops are not working, which is part of the experience - asking why are these no longer grown in the region. We had one turnip crop that all rotted even though the farmer had two other types of turnip right next to them that worked just fine. The project is gaining a bit of traction with the media, and Seed Savers Exchange is writing a story for their fall newsletter.

 

Political Sensitivities

One of the more sensitive things I'm dealing with right now is our research has really been drawn toward the story of the enslaved of the Ozarks. The Ozarks already have a long standing problem with racism (remember the first article I found when I started researching HERE). I'm well aware the of the risk of cultural appropriation, and I've been very upfront with my research partners, the media and anyone who asks. I also have not used any of the info I've gathered so far related to the Osage Nation or the enslaved because I'm not quite sure yet what an appropriate use of the information might look like. Right now I have been digging into a farm that used to be near my family cabin that I've learned was one of the largest slave holders in the state. I've been able to get some of the names of the enslaved and their descendants, so my hope is to do genealogical research to find living descendants. Then I would love to know their family traditions around food to see how it might relate to what I've found in the research. If you'll remember my goal is ultimately to define Ozark Cuisine, and to my way of thinking, the best way of doing that is looking at the point in time when the Osage, the immigrant and settler, and the enslaved cultures all interacted for the first time. You can see why that has such potential to be messy. First off, by picking that time period I seemingly dismiss thousands of years of indigenous people's lives in the Ozarks. Second, the enslaved were not given a choice in the matter. But, by picking this particular time I'm trying to capture the synergy where all three cultures mix, which ultimately paints the picture of what food in the Ozarks became. You can't look at any one culture's contributions without the others because that's not what Ozark cuisine became. All three are absolutely necessary, and acknowledging the pain and harm that was done is a terrible, but real part of the story. A whole essay can be written on just the mess that reveals itself by having the conversation, so I'm trying to handle it the best I can and be as transparent as I can. When I start to use the information in my cooking, then I'll need to figure out how to use it responsibly. My family has been in the area since the 1850s and so the cultural mashup would have been fresh.

 

 

Lastly, in April there was a response above that I chose to not respond to. Partially because I was too emotionally raw and didn't trust myself to respond appropriately, and partly because the comment was just incorrect. I had mentioned that I had only served a few dogs throughout the past year. That phrase was too ambiguous. To me a dog is something that didn't go over well with the guests. That doesn't mean its a bad course, in fact, each of the three was good, and each had a common issue - savory gelatinous texture. Unlike Asian countries where savory gelatinous foods are common, in America they are hard, really hard, to get the crowd to like. I've tried many times over the years and it's just hard. The comment I chose to ignore was the the fact that I would serve dogs is why I'm not a top tier restaurant. There's a lot of reasons I could identify that would explain that - almost all tied to money and budget and maybe even skill and experience. However, the idea that the top tier restaurants don't have mistakes or serve dogs is just plain wrong. I'll never forget the mouthful of glass shards (sugar) that Alinea served me in their second year of operation. It was just plain painful and bad. I could list numerous dishes at top tier restaurants that fell flat with me. So again, there is food that is bad or poorly constructed, and then there is food that might not match your taste. I'll leave that there.

 

Anyway, I hope everyone is hanging in there. I am nervously optimistic that we'll make it out the other side and am already planning our strategic response if a new wave of closures happens. Thanks for continuing to be interested in what I'm doing and you know I love questions because I never know what to post here.

[Your Daily Sweets: What Are You Making and Baking? (2017 – )]

42 minutes ago, Chris Hennes said:

Are you using a Finnish dark syrup, or molasses? Or something else? And malted rye?

Finnish dark syrup - the hardest ingredient for me to get. And yes, malted rye.

[Your Daily Sweets: What Are You Making and Baking? (2017 – )]

41 minutes ago, Kim Shook said:

I had to look it up, too.  Gorgeous loaves and the descriptions I read sounded delicious.

 

Also called archipelago bread I believe. 

[Your Daily Sweets: What Are You Making and Baking? (2017 – )]

I've been fixating on kustavilainen saaristolaisleipä lately, and once I got all the correct ingredients I can't bake or eat enough of this stuff!

[Colored Cocoa Butter: The Topic]

Is anyone mixing mettalic or shimmer colors? I'm doing all of my own colors but I haven't dabbled in the shiny stuff yet. I'm wondering percentages and what is being added and is it added before or after the filtering.

[Breville's Espresso Line]

FWIW I ponied up for the Breville Barista Express BES870XL last November and really like it. I'm not an espresso aficionado but was spending far too much at coffee shops. Between that machine regular watching of James Hoffman and Sprometheus on YouTube, I feel like I'm getting good coffees and milk. I think all of those guys would have people switch to the Niche Zero Grinder but by the time I knew that it was too late - the investment had been made.

[A 2020 eG Gathering in STL? (Bulrush + ?)]

12 hours ago, Chris Hennes said:

So you're saying I should come twice?  

In all seriousness - who knows! The menu will certainly change as it always does for us. Last year we did over 100 new or evolved courses and with our larder of misos, kombuchas, kefirs and cures constantly growing, I don't expect that to change. But as far as price...once we're at regular price again I am leaning toward going back to normal simply for the math of it all.

[A 2020 eG Gathering in STL? (Bulrush + ?)]

Don't take anything as rule right now. The price is temporary while we're at low quantity seating. I don't expect it to stick once we're back at full capacity because to balance the price we've upped the courses, but by upping the courses we've take the dinner to just beyond 2 hours which means we can't turn the tables at all.

 

Late July will be a whole new world I suspect. I know the city has announced that we can be at full capacity by July 1. 

[Confections! What did we make? (2017 – )]

Huckleberry & buttermilk

[Acquiring or making Black Cocoa Butter]

I'm curious why you found it time consuming? I make enough (normally 250ml) and it takes less than 5 minutes. For black I do a 5% and a 10% colorant to cocoa butter. Microwave. Stick blend. Strain through panty hose with a gloved hand. Voila!

[Koji Alchemy]

20 hours ago, Vapre said:

Just got my copy today. I am hoping to get into more complex fermentations and black fruits/veg this year. This, combined with the Noma guide to fermentation (as well as both of Sandor Katz's books) will provide a good starting base. Anyone else get a copy yet?

Jeremy and I have been friends for quite some time and watching his knowledge expand has been so inspiring. My kitchen's goal, too, is veg charcuterie, and so we're delving into the book full steam.

[Ganache: Tips, Techniques & Troubleshooting]

I've gone the route of fluid gels for many of mines, which is very similar to what Kerry said except using agar as the setting agent. But ultimately it gets hit with a stick blender and piped.

[Chocolate & Confections Packaging 2020 & beyond]

18 minutes ago, JeanneCake said:

There's a FB eG Chocolate page?!

🤣 Oops...yeah we were hiding it from you. Seriously though, it was set up to expedite some of the planning for our annual chocolate gathering: HERE