We will be closed the evening of July the fourth.  We're all having a barbeque and going camping, like pretty much the rest of Portland.  See you in the woods.

After much toil, we have finally got some wine up in this piece!  Thanks to goodness.  Anyway, we're serving up some great vegan wines from a local winery in SE, the woman owned Hip Chicks Do Wine.  I really love what they're doing.  We are carrying their Wine Bunny Rouge, Whole Berry Cab, Vin Nombril, and Muscat.  We also are tinkering with some Italian Sangiovese, and Spanish Macabeo.  Tomorrow we should be getting some sulfite free wines from Frey, including their Natural Red, Natural White, Zinfandel, and Sauvignon Blanc. 

Our wine list will grow slowly as we stock up our inventory over the next few weeks.  We will also be adding some great NW beers.  We have our eye on Roots, New Belgium, and Monkeyface.  We are checking to see if Hair of the Dog is vegan.

If anyone has a suggestion of a wine or beer we should offer, let us know.

Thanks!

Aaron

Well...we are entering week 4.  It feels like a million years since we opened.  Long hours in the kitchen will do that.
There's been a lot of great feedback online so far.  I was reading some of the reviews from yelp, ppk, and what not.  While most everybody seemed stoked, there were some criticisms that I feel were really valid, and we all talked about them to make the place better.
First off, the osso buco I was so excited about quickly dissapeared off the menu.  I was serving it in the traditional milanese style, with saffron rissotto and gremolata.  The first batch was lovely, but the second batch wasn't as good.  I quickly became disenchanted with it, and don't feel like I want too much seitan on the menu, anyway.
Secondly, someone wrote about how they felt the pumpkin cappellacci didn't need hazelnuts in it.  What with the plate being sprinkled with hazelnuts, afterall...I think that's a great idea.  Hazelnuts are out.  Just a sprinkling on top.
What else?  Oh yes...the tira misu.  This is a hard one.  While I knew when we opened that this wasn't like grandma's tira misu, people have really come to love it.  People's co-op even wants to sell it in their cold case.  But, it's been scratching at the back of my mind that I wanted it to be more like the real deal.  To that end, I worked on it a bunch the past few days, and tira misu ver2.0 est arrive!  It's a little fluffier, a little more stable, has more cookie, better, darker 82% chocolate inside, and a dusting of this super awesome cocoa powder from a local company sprinkled on top.  To the person wondering about the base of the cream, but didn't receive an answer back, the "mascarpone" is mostly made of the tofutti non-hydrogenated cream cheese.
Anyway, I am really happy with all the positive feedback we've been getting.  I am happy to see repeat customers coming back 5 or more times in three weeks!  That's amazing.  The place has a great range of cutomers, too.  Sometimes we're packed with the Portland hip-vegan crowd, but we have also been serving families with babies and older folks, as well.  We've been getting a lot of omnivores who happen to live in the neighrhood coming back again and again.  That' super...that's what this is about...getting omnivores to come in and see that veganism is a viable choice.  and feed my vegan friends, of course...
Well, thanks once again.  Come on in and enjoy some of the new tira misu, the pumpkin cappellacci, and our new antispasti, including our new cheese plate, the white truffle pate, and the beet tartare.

Take care,
Aaron Adams

So, I was feeling like the menu was little heavy on first courses.  I was talking with Brian and Jon from Scapegoat (who are masters of fake meatery BTW) after their meal the other night.  they were talking about some amazing meaty dishes they had in some fancy restaurants.  It really got my wheels turning, so I went into the kitchen today and fooled around with some gluten flour.
I mixed some gluten with some special herbs n' spices, added some veg stock, and kneaded the dough, leaving it a bit on the wet side.  I stretched it out an ripped it and shredded it with a fork.  Then I pounded it very thin on the wooden table.
Meanwhile, I slowly sweated thinly sliced onions and garlic.  When they began to caramelize, I pulled them out and spreaded them out over the seitan.  Then, I rolled it all up into a roulade, making sure to season it well.  After that, I tied it with twine like a roast. 
I got my rondeau out seared the "roast" after dusting with flour.  When it was totally browned, I removed it and  sweated some mirepoix in the same pan.  I added some crushed garlic cloves, rosemary, thyme, and bay.  When the mirepoix was translucent and glazed, I added some tomato paste and cranked the heat a bit.  The tomato paste got nice and caramelized.  I added the roast back into the pan, coated it a bit with the mirepoix, then added about half a bottle of red wine.  I deglazed the pan with my wooden spoon to get all the tasty bits, then added some roast vegetable stock I made previously.  I brought it up to a boil, then brought it down to a simmer.  I skimmed the scum off the top, and slowly braised it for a couple of hours.
I removed the pot roast from the pan and strained the jus through a chinois.  After letting the seitan chill out for a bit, I removed the twine, and sliced it into portions.  I then coated the "osso buco's" with the glazy jus.  It was sort of scary how muh it reminded me of meat.  Of course, it's been a long time since I've eaten meat...but it was tasty nonetheless.
So, I am putting the Vegan Osso Buco on the menu. We're serving it Milanese style, with a saffron risotto and topped with gremolata- a mixture of lemon zest, garlic, and parsley.
Anyway, I hope ya'all enjoy it.  See ya'!
Aaron

Alrighty!  So we've had a great start.  Everything has been really well received.  We're very happy with how the food is coming out.  It's a little slow, as there is only one of us doing food, but otherwise everything is wunder-bar!
We've scrapped the whole Primi and Secondi thing.  It seemed way too confusing for our customers.  We've gone with a far simpler menu.  We're offering antipasti, vegetable sides, and the principal plates.  People seemed hip to the small and large plates, and most people got two or more courses...which made it super fun.
Anyway, thanks to everyone who came.  We unfortunatley had to turn away 20 or so people.  Maybe one day we'll have a larger space...one can dream!
Thanks again!
Aaron, Dinae, Emily, and Diego

So we're here...we're opening this week!  It's been a steady, slow climb, and I for one am glad to be so close.
So, the menu is pretty nice.  For those of you not familiar with an Italian menu, we're trying our best to do something on the traditional side of dining.  We're offering Antipasti, Contorni, Primi, Secondi, and Dolci.
Antipasti are those small little pre-meal bites that you can share with the table...or hoard to yourself!  We're stoked to offer my friend David Barber's awesome pickled veggies frorm Picklopolis.  We have some gardinere, cauliflower, green beans, and green tomatoes to name a few.  We also have Tim Heala's  amazing foccaccia and baguette from Little T American Bakery.  Super!  Some other bites will be crostini and herb marinated olives.
Contorni are the night's seasonal vegetable sides.  They're simply prepared dishes to share also.  Some of this week's sides are braised fennel with oranges, herb roasted potatoes, and garlicky brocollini.
Primi and Secondi are the first and second courses.  Primi are all soups in Italy.  However, soups take on all sorts of forms...broths, potage, and thick-ass soups.  Plus, there's "dry soups."  That would be pasta, risotto, and the like.  We have some homemade gnocchi, ravioli, and strozapretti to name a few.
Secondi are more what we'd expect as main courses, like roasts and what not.  We're offering portobello skewers, a vegan version of saltimboca, and some Field Roast Italian sausages.  plus some other stuff I can't remember in my crazed, sleep-dep state.
Are dolci, or desserts, are all house made.  We may be offering some Temptation ice cream later, but right now the house made rule is in effect.  We have tira misu, panna cotta, torta rustica, poached pear, and chocolate ganache tart.  They're all good and yummy.  Yeah!
Anyway, all the first and second courses come in small and large plates, so you can either get a big ole plate of one thing, or mix it up some.  I encourage friends to come, get some antipasti, order a first and second course each, and get some sides to share.  You'll get to taste a lot that way.
A note on beverages:  we don't have wine yet.  We will soon, but we have to wait for the OLCC to do their thing.  Don't yell at us, please.
Thanks to everyone who helped out so much.  We will see you there!

Well, I'm beginning to see a light at the end of the tunnel.  I tell you, if you're planning on opening a small cafe, make sure you have a ton of cash!  We don't have any, and investors aren't busting down the door to help open a vegan place.  It just makes everything go so damn slow.  From looking for cheap gear, to selling your stuff to buy other stuff...it's a bit frustrating.  the recent snow didn't help much, either.

All that aside, it's been a lot of fun getting everything together.  Right now, we've gotten the dining room pretty much together, the menu's written, and kitchen is in good shape.  We just have to finish up some recipe testing and we'll open up.  We're looking at Jan. 7th as the opening date.

I hope to see everyone there when we open.  thanks to everyone's encouraging words and support.  And thanks to those who helped out with their trucks and cars.  Moving refrigeration with a bike isn't my idea of fun.

See you soon.

 

...well, I think they're rather special anyhow.

I love potato gnocchi.  Little, fluffy potato dumplings smothered in creamy sauce, pesto, or a quick tomato sauce are always a treat.  When I worked at Park Avenue Cafe in NYC, we used to make hundreds of dumplings every day and I think I got quite good at making them. 

At Park Ave., we would make a good 20 pounds of dough a night with eggs, flour, potato, chives, salt, and nutmeg.  We'd roll them out, cut the rolls on a bias rather large and par-boil them.  Then, we would pan-fry them a la minute and finish them in a beurre monte with diamond cut veggies and wild mushrooms to perch atop a giant veal chop.  Totally not vegan.

My fondest memory of gnocchi making was actually a night I wasn't making them at all.  I was saucier at Park Aveue, and had just finished a twelve hour day of making chicken stock, veal reduction sauces, foie gras terrines, and other meaty monstosities.  I came out of my sauce walk-in, after an hour of my nightly scrubbing and re-organization, to find my buddy Gavin wearing a make-shift space helmet, made out of foil and plastic wrap.

"What's up with the helmet?"

"Dude," he replied, "these gnocchi are out of this world!"

Yay Gavin!  Anyway, those gnocchi were great, but the recipe didn't really translate well to a vegan recipe.  On my first attempt at vegan gnocchi, I followed the old Park Ave method of baking russets, scooping the potato out of the skins into a food mill, and mixing them with a ton of eggs, yolks, flour and seasonings.  Unfortunately, when I tried the recipe with Ener-G egg replacer, the gnocchis jut sort of disintegrated almost immediatley after hitting the water.  They weren't gnocchi at all.  They were a mushy, nasty, whitish paste.  I made glue.

Back to the drawing board, I searched the web for some vegan recipes.  After collecting enough data, I made a second attempt unlike anything I've tried before.  I peeled, rough chopped, and steamed the potatoes and then mashed them instead of using a food mill.  Also, I mashed the potato with the rest of the ingredients all at once.  As per my buddy Alan's suggestion, I used a bit hotter water when mixing the egg replacer, as well.

It made a fine, firm dough.  It was smooth and not sticky at all.  It rolled out beautifully and cut into plump little beauties.  I tried them boiled freshly made, refrigerated, and from frozen...they all came out great.

The bonus of this method is clear: not having to clean a food mill AND not having to scoop out crazy hot potato meat while handling a crazy hot potato!  Also, when you mash everything together at once, you needn't get your hands so caked with gnocchi gooh as you do in the other method.  Yipee!

I ate some gnocchi with a little pumpkin sauce I made earlier.  I only wish I had some sage and pumpkin oil handy...that'd would've hit the spot.

Awww yeah!  We got a wonderful deal on a new (to us) 6-burner range and cooler last night.  My new buddy and pal, Alex, deals with used equipment and hooked us up with a great gas stove/range in great shape.

I've always loved Wolf...they make great gear.  There's no way we could afford a new stove, however.  When I saw this on Craig's List, I jumped on it.  Alex totally detailed the stove...it's super clean...and he installed new burners and gas lines.  He also gave Dinae and I a tutorial on adjusting pilots and general maintainence.

Our new produce cooler is pretty choice, too.  It's an old Coca-Cola merchandiser.  It holds temp, is super clean, and features Coca-Cola graphics and a Coke bottle shaped handle.  A little creepy, but somehow I couldn't seem to resist it.

Anyway, I'm off to the space to clean out the basement some and try to plan a re-org of the kitchen space.  Wheee!