Working on the Fall Menu, Here's version 1

Donovan’s Steak & Ale
Appetizers

Chicken Wings

Jumbo Shrimp Cocktail

Shrimp Corn Dogs
Roasted Garlic & Caper Aioli (or something?)

Clams Steamed in Beer

Crab Cakes
Cucumber Salad, Spicy Remoulade

Duck Pizza
Caramelized Onions, Roasted Apples (???), Smoked Gouda or Smoked Mozz or Smoked McCadam Cheddar, BBQ

Beer Battered Mozzarella
Puttanesca Sauce

Baked Brie
Seasonal Fruit Compote

French Onion Soup

Lobster Bisque with Madeira Cream

Salads

Grilled Sirloin Steak & Iceberg Wedge
Crumbled Bleu Cheese, Bacon, Red Onion,
And Balsamic Glaze

Caesar
Home-made Dressing, Croutons, and Tomatoes
With your Choice of Grilled Chicken or
Pepper Grilled Tuna

Seared Duck Salad (doesn’t sell much)
Roasted Apples, Pistachios, Bleu Cheese
Mixed Greens and Gorgonzola Vinaigrette
Steaks

Entrees Served with Seasonal Vegetables

Grilled Delmonico Steak
Steak Fries, Balsamic Glazed Mushrooms and Onions
Maple~Bourbon Sauce

Bacon~wrapped Gorgonzola Stuffed Filet of Beef
Roasted Garlic Whipped Potatoes, Red Wine Sauce,
Haystack Onions

Slow~Roasted Prime Rib
Herb Roasted Potatoes
Jus, Whole Grain Mustard & Horseradish Cream

Grilled Dry Aged New York Strip
Bacon, Cheddar and Scallion Baked Potato Pie,
Haystack Onions, Brandy~Mushroom Sauce

Grilled Hanger Steak
Steak Fries, Roasted Onion~Red Wine Sauce

Other Meats

Beef Short Ribs Braised in Beer
Roasted Garlic Whipped Potatoes

Grilled Cider Brined Pork Chop
Fried Mac & Cheese, Ubu Demi

Venison Pot Pie
Leg of Venison Stewed with Rosemary, Juniper
And Root Vegetables under a Puff Pastry Lid

Pan~Roasted Half Chicken
Corn Bread Stuffing, Tarragon Pan Sauce

Sautéed Chicken Marsala
Herb Roasted Potatoes, Mushroom Marsala Sauce

Chicken Pot Pie
Chicken Stewed with Sage and Root Vegetables
Under a Puff Pastry Lid

Seared Duck Breast
Fried Mac & Cheese, Cider Glaze







Seafood

Pan Roasted Chilean Sea Bass
Sam Adams Oktoberfest & Crab “Beernaise”, Herb Roasted Potatoes

Sautéed Crab Cakes
Vegetable Couscous, Spicy Remoulade

Pan~Roasted Atlantic Salmon
Vegetable Couscous, Warm Bacon Vinaigrette

Grilled Yellowfin Tuna (shall we change this too?)
Herb Roasted Potatoes, Tomato~Caper Sauce


Pastas

Seafood Bake
Shrimp & Crab, Penne, and English Peas,
Baked in a Marsala & McCadam Cheddar Sauce

Shrimp Scampi with Linguine

Pumpkin~Sage Ravioli
Mushroom & Caramelized Pearl Onion Marsala Pan Sauce
(if we’re getting duck confit, that would be kick ass in this, except for the vegetarians)

Grilled Eggplant & Mozzarella Stack (I hate this)
Grilled Peppers, Portabella Mushroom
Tomato~Pepper Coulis

And now for something completely different...

Yes, I occasionally let the geek flag fly. Two geek posts in one day.

Do you have a hadron for particle physics?

Worried that the LHC has destroyed the world and we just don't know it? Check this out to find out. I wish I had taken Physics in school and not been so intimidated by math because of a sucky 6th grade math teacher that I never followed up on my interest in this kind of thing because it's cool stuff. Last year I saw a documentary on the building and implications of the CERN collider and got excited about the project. Besides if it does create a black hole big enough to swallow the world maybe we'll be spared the possibility of having another republican administration. Instantaneous annihilation doesn't seem so bad anymore does it? But most of the physicists agree that that isn't a credible possibility. Just in case though, I recommend checking the above link periodically to make sure.

Mostly though, I just saw a T-shirt on Wil Wheaton's blog saying something to the effect of "Particle Physics gives me a Hadron" and have been trying to figure out a way to work it into my blog somehow. Amy gave me the perfect method when she found the collider update link. By the way, St. Lawrence county, my home area, was in the running for either CERN or another super-collider back in the developmental stages but the NIMBY's won out.

If Barack can sing this well...

He should be president, right? The final, conclusive proof that Barack deserves to be the prez. The grumpy old coot sure doesn't despite being a slightly less repugnant, repulsive, embarrassing and oafish republican than our current one.



And in case you need more real reasons to not vote for Palin/McCain check this out.

OK, gotta stop now. I feel a rant coming on and I need to get all my facts right and ducks in a row so that at least it will be an informed rant.

First Review for Donovan's Steak & Ale

We've been visited by two of our regional newspapers in the past few weeks and our first review appeared in the Watertown Daily Times this Sunday. Overall, very positive; 4.5 forks out of 5 is a good place to start. Everyone deserves a lot of credit for our success the first two months out of the gate. Donovan, Dana, Art, Marilyn and all the Reyome family have all put a crazy amount of time, effort, thought, and more into getting the place looking great and the waitstaff trained properly. It's great to be somewhere that everyone is on the same page and the owners are intimately involved in the daily operation of the restaurant and not simply absentee distractions. The servers, Laurie, Chelsea, Meagan, Paula, Erica, Natalie and Trevor have done a great job and exceeded my expectations in a short amount of time. Jeremy, with whom I worked at Maxfields, has been great; a terrific worker and good complement to my style and attitude. We've pretty much lost Chris to soccer and his senior year at high school unfortunately; but he's still a big help on Sunday nights. Trevor (the same one who is a server) is obviously good at multi-tasking and has come a really long way in just 2 months. Sean, another Maxfields transplant, is finally on board on the weekends and is a great addition to the kitchen. He managed to jump on the grill his first night (a Friday) and put out 100+ dinners with no problem. And, no restaurant could function for more than about an hour without a good dishwasher. John, our dishwasher keeps us loaded pretty well with plates and saute pans and does it without a complaint despite obviously being way too smart for such a repetitive boring and unpleasant job. We're planning on phasing him into cooking a little at a time to get him off dish a couple nights a week.

Anyway, things have gone really well so far thanks to the great team effort and good leadership. We're expecting another piece October 4 in the Plattsburgh Press Republican from their reviewer who dropped in for dinner and was so impressed that he decided to profile us. I'll try not to let it go to my head. We still have to get that last half a fork next time around. Thanks for the review Wally! This'll be a busy week. Time to work on the fall menu and try to figure out a Beer Dinner. I really want to have an opportunity to do some more upscale and intimidating stuff and a Beer Dinner seems a good venue for that.