Monthly Archives: August 2021

In the middle of the room, an old plum jam-colored Mercedes-Benz. The counter was draped in American flags and decorated with tchotchkes: ceramic chef figures, model Viking ships, miniature cars and framed objects. One menu advertised American and Korean breakfasts: egg sandwiches, Philly cheese steaks, burgers and burritos with Spam and pineapple. And then, what I really came to see: the walls and the ceiling, a living collage. Almost every inch of both surfaces was covered with brilliant photographs of smiling people.

One of the best parts of writing about restaurants is learning what they mean: for their communities, for the cuisine in general, and for the people who spend their lives there. Restaurants can be a lot of things: craftsmanship, luxury, nostalgia, home – whatever qualities the owner wants to add to the world. In the case of this little Santa Clara cafe, it’s a man’s desire to connect with others. To meet their needs and feel needed in return.

Kenny Kim, the owner of the cafe, says he’s taken from 20,000 photos of its customers during its nine years of activity. While her niece helps on rare occasions, Kim is usually the only person working in the restaurant, always entering and leaving the kitchen. The place was more crowded before the pandemic, especially since Kim, from Seoul’s Yongsan District, regularly offered free food to members of the US military. But anyway, he always takes the time to chat with people. He takes pictures of them with his phone, speaking to general contractors, soldiers and employees at the San Jose airport who enter with the glee of a tourist taking photos from a cable car in San Francisco.

While I waited for Kim to cook me a burrito, I paced the room, circling the car to look at the photos. Some older spots were faded, the images fading into a sea foam haze from age and sunlight. You could tell which areas were the most recent by the way they showed subjects pulling face masks to smile. Some smile broadly, others seem almost shy. In a few, Kim was able to convince someone else to take the photo while he stood in the center of a group, crouching and flashing peace signs.

When I called him later to talk about his restaurant, he said, “I was thinking, why do people come here? No one tells me my food is good. He’s laughing. “I think they like me, not the food.” Service has always been his main calling, he said. Before the restaurant, he sold cars for 25 years, although he didn’t know anything about cars. Instead, he won the favor of customers by making them smile. While I think he knows a bit more about food than cars, it’s easy to tell where his heart is.

“At home, I can make people happy, even for a minute or two. Because, me, I never had this kind of feeling.

Twelve years ago, shortly before Kenny’s Cafe opened, Kim and his late wife, also a Korean immigrant, divorced. During his stint as a car salesman, he said, he spent every night drunk, the stress also causing him to regularly stay awake after midnight smoking cigarettes and working. . After the divorce, he said, his son, feeling smothered by his strict parenting style, cut off contact. “Honestly,” Kim said, “I wasn’t a happy guy.” Drifting away from her family, Kim cashed in her retirement fund to open the cafe.

Every customer smile he captured sustained him, brought him through loneliness. “I try to get everyone to make faces, so every 20,000 photos, all happy too.”

There is something undeniably powerful about the torrent of documentary photography on display here. We rarely see customers from the point of view of restaurant workers: the whole premise of restaurants dictates that they put their talents and personalities in the spotlight for consumption by the former. On the contrary, it’s only the most famous customers, Barack Obamas and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnsons, who get their pictures on restaurant walls. But Kim treats every human who walks into her restaurant as special. A great example of what art critics would call vernacular photography, his work lacks self-awareness or pretense, but remains a fascinating glimpse into the community that has formed around his restaurant.

I’m sorry to say I kindly declined when he asked to take my picture. Being critical has its drawbacks.

What I had at Kenny’s that day was a bulgogi burrito ($ 12), which seemed to be the most popular item on the handwritten menu. Other variations of the burrito come with ingredients kimchi and bacon, spicy pork, and vegetarian bibimbap. It’s not as long as a Mission-style burrito, but what it lacks in length, it makes up for in girth. The bulgogi burrito features sweet and savory minced beef, scrambled eggs, hash browns, sautéed peppers and onions, and melted cheese. It is accompanied by a red salsa with hints of spicy Pace sauce. Half the high protein wrap is enough to fill a belly, so I finished half and sat outside for a while, watching van after van drive to the restaurant and imagining people walking out smiling for their breakfast.

Kim insisted her menu is primarily functional, designed to appeal to blue collar workers who need something warm and portable to eat. But I would say it’s a category of food that has brought the world so many wonderful things: Tiffin Indian breakfasts, Cornish pasties, and San Francisco sourdough among them. Care – what gourmets would also call “finesse” – counts for a lot in this kind of cuisine. It is important that he breaks each egg himself; take the time to sear each burrito on the flat grill just long enough for the cheese to melt and bind it all together.

Kim’s son came back into her life a few months ago after years of casual contact. Philip, now a psychology student and ROTC cadet at the University of Santa Clara, said he was still hesitant but optimistic about their relationship. “I’ve never had a father before,” he said. The incredibly strict and troubled man he grew up with was long gone, softened into the 65-year-old beaming cook that thousands of people in Santa Clara now know.

Even though Philip insists that he can complete his education on his own, his father is dedicated to helping him pay for his education. Although the pandemic has seriously damaged business and made it difficult for Kim to make ends meet, he hopes to keep his lease at least as long as Philip is in school. “I am very happy to continue working. I want to help my son. It’s my dream, ”Kim said. The man who smiled every day to make others happy cried as he spoke.

To be there – to be necessary – was all he had ever wanted.

Soleil Ho is the food critic for the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @hooleil

A Cornish cafe owner said a ‘vindictive’ customer tried to shut down the small business over a dispute over gluten allergies – rallying a Facebook crowd to a ‘threatening witch hunt’ and even by calling Trading Standards.

Emma Price, co-owner of The Lighthouse cafe in Mevagissey, said the argument started when she told the woman she couldn’t guarantee her ingredients were completely gluten-free to be safe enough for a celiac – one person. allergic to wheat protein. .

While being honest about the loophole – to put “customer safety above their bottom line” – Ms Price says the “disgruntled” visitor was so enraged that she turned to a Facebook group for celiacs to beg the 26,500 other members not to visit the cafe.

Read: Waitress in tears after customer kick-off because Newquay pub was full

The 48-year-old was alerted to the post on August 19 by another business owner and discovered the abusive comments, claiming that a user threatened to hit staff around the head with a frying pan.

The client even reported the lighthouse to the Cornwall council, prompting a stressful visit from its business standards managers during a busy lunch service.

Inspection found the cafe was not breaking any rules or regulations, and the owner admitted she had been “extremely upset” and felt “vulnerable” by the incident.

She said she wanted to encourage others to think about the impact they can have on a small business before posting “vindictive” and “bogus” reviews or comments online.

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Ms Price said: “I was very upset when I saw those comments. The problem with Facebook is that people can say whatever they want and then there’s this huge bunch of people who have never visited our coffee, never looked at our products and never spoke to us but threatened us with physical violence.

“It makes you feel pretty vulnerable and you know it’s not just us who work in the cafe.

“My partner and I own the business, but we have other employees and especially during the summer months we have students and young people working in our cafe and I really wouldn’t want them. face someone threatening to hit you on the head with a frying pan.

“I think the fact that there are 26,500 people in this group is really a sobering thought, to think that if those 26,500 believed what they read, it could have been disastrous.

“She obviously wanted us to shut down and there are six people who depend on this business for their wages. Not to mention all of our suppliers, customers. It’s such a profound impact of someone making this false statement on a Facebook group. [that we could not reply in]. “

After reading the customer’s scathing review, Lighthouse Cafe posted two Facebook posts giving their side of the story and urging people to think twice before posting “bogus” claims.

Since its posts went live, the client’s original post appears to have been removed from the group it was posted to.

The client originally wrote: “Please don’t go here!

“I went there for a gluten free breakfast, they said they had [sic] gluten free toast, it wasn’t until I sat down while waiting for my food that the lady told the other lady that she knew it was cooked in the same pan, and it wasn’t the case [sic] don’t tell me anything.

“So I pulled the lady up and asked her if it was cooked separately and she said no I said what about gluten free toast she said it was done in the same toaster as normal bread.

“I told them that your [sic] is going to make someone seriously ill with your lack of knowledge and just because something is labeled gluten free doesn’t mean it’s going to be okay, it is also about the cooking and preparation. I just got a funny look! “

However, Ms Price pointed out that the cafe is always very upfront with what it can safely respond to.

Mrs Price said of the comments: “We spoke to the lady in question and she wanted breakfast, we explained that we have a lot of gluten free ingredients but we cannot guarantee that it is not the case. [completely free of gluten] [as gluten is] an airborne allergen and she was obviously upset by that.

“Our allergy poster is directly visible in the cafe. You know all we could do, we did it and the only thing we did that she didn’t like was not serve her a meal. But the alternatives would have been terrible, if we had served her and she wasn’t feeling well then I could see what her complaint would be about, but we just kept her safe.

“We have a lot of people who come here who are gluten intolerant, which is obviously very different from being celiac, which is a suitable allergy. We always talk to clients to find out exactly how widespread their allergy is.”

She added that customers normally leave her there and understand that her kitchen is not completely sterile.

“What kitchen can be?” Mrs. Price continued. “Unless it’s in a completely protective atmosphere. And we talk to them about how we minimize risks, like using extra utensils, washing things.

“Our deep fryers don’t contain any gluten-containing products, so we really try, but obviously you can’t be 100% and most customers would totally agree with that.

“And if these are customers who react very badly to gluten and they are celiac, they appreciate that we tell them that and I always say” maybe our little cafe is not for you “.

“We would never put someone’s health above our profits, we could, but we don’t. So I really don’t know what she was complaining about, I think it was more the fact. that we couldn’t serve her rather than what we were doing wrong.

“The vast majority of our customers are really lovely, we have a lot of loyal customers and a lot of positive support. It’s one customer in a summer of thousands, it’s been a very stressful week.”

After being alerted to the customer’s scathing attack, the cafe released its own public message.

He said, “It was brought to my attention today that there is a very concerning message circulating today on a certain Celiac Group Facebook page regarding our gluten free offering.

“This original post leaves an unfair, damaging and false portrayal of our business.

“This is then followed by several comments ranging from threats to report us to environmental health; to say that our five-star rating should be removed; personal threats and physical attacks against our people and our business. […]

“For those of you who acknowledged this was turning into a witch hunt or gave favorable comments, thank you. We are very grateful and would love to see you.

“For those who contributed to this witch hunt without ever having set foot in our cafe, please stay away and perhaps think about how your reckless actions might affect the livelihoods of six people and the reputation of an honest company.

“Finally, we are tiny. We cannot fit additional equipment into our kitchen. We have maintained our business through the most difficult times and we are only trying to keep our customers safe.

“Messages like these could destroy our business through no fault of our own and it is extremely upsetting. We are doing our best and I hope the vast majority of our customers will recognize it.”

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A Cornwall Council spokesperson said: “A client with a food allergy has contacted Cornwall’s Trading Standards to raise concerns about his experience in this business.

“A trade standards officer visited the premises and found that the appropriate information regarding food allergens was displayed. The officer discussed the matter with the business owner and provided advice.

“We always encourage businesses and their customers to have conversations about allergies and if they have any concerns or questions, to contact their local Environmental Health or Business Standards team.”

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We all give ourselves that shine and post-containment refreshment. But a popular Aberdeenshire cafe not only reopened with a new look, it also created more space for patrons.

Barn in Foveran has been a must visit for breakfast, lunch, coffee, and cake since it opened in 2018. But with its new look (and additional dog-friendly space), more and more people are discovering what period it’s awesome.

Dog friendly cafe area

For owner Chrissy Graham, her husband Mark and daughter Georgia, The Barn is a family business they work on together. Initially, the space was also home to Chrissy’s spa and beauty treatment business, but as this expanded to its new location, it allowed the cafe to expand.

Chrissy explained, “I used to do beauty treatments at home, but then moved into the spa, which worked well next to the cafe, as you would invite clients for coffee or a meal and their treatments.

“But now that we are moving to the Granite Spa, we had a space where the therapy rooms were.

“During the lockdown between January and April, we turned this area into a dog friendly cafe lounge.”

Tasty food and drinks

The more casual lounge allows people to relax and enjoy a coffee and one of the café’s ‘good parts’ – all fresh and homemade by The Barn’s head baker – as well as for small groups who meet.

“You go through a short walkway to get to the coffee lounge, so you feel a little more private and hidden away.”

It’s already proven itself to customers, many adding to the rafts of five-star reviews The Barn has online.

“We used to have to turn people away, but that gives people who don’t want a full meal another option.”

Feel welcome

Above all, Chrissy and her family aim to create a space where everyone feels at home.

Chrissy said: “My husband and I are both Geordies so we want everyone to feel welcome and there to be a friendly atmosphere.

“It sounds like a cliché, but we really are a big family and we are fortunate to have such a passionate team as we are.”

Comfort food

This welcoming feeling is also reflected in The Barn’s menu, which features high-quality comfort food and well-prepared ‘old favorites’, including afternoon tea.

“Our chic butty fish is definitely something people keep coming back to. We get our fish fresh every day.

She added, “I think after the second lockdown people crave good comfort food, which we have been doing for years. They also need that interaction they get at The Barn – all socially distant, of course!

The Barn’s team of chefs can cook for a variety of diets – just ask and they’ll help you.

The great outdoors

Outside, The Barn offers not only seating, but also a play park for children.

The Barn also supports local designers, with a retail space for small gifts and locally made goods.

Find out more and reserve a table at The barn site.

One of Donegal’s most famous cafes is closing for the last time on Saturday night after serving Donegal audiences for over an incredible 70 years.

The Baskins Cafe in Dunkineely has been a stopping point for generations of Donegal families who have always been guaranteed a great meal.

Now owners Thomas and Frances Baskin decided to call it a day after Thomas’s parents set up the cafe in Rathmullan in the 1950s before moving to Dunkineely in 1958 and then Thomas and Frances took over the cafe in 1978. .

The last orders will be taken at the café just before 10 p.m. when it closes its doors this Saturday evening, August 28.

With Thomas and Frances now 70, the couple have decided to close the doors of the famous café as they prepare for a well-deserved retirement.

“Thomas and Frances have worked so hard over the years since the café was founded here in 1978.

“They are very grateful to all the great employees they say they have had the chance to work with over the years and also to the thousands of loyal customers.

“They can’t wait to rest now so they have decided to close the cafe doors for now. But I hope they won’t stay closed for too long,” a family spokesperson said.

Famous Donegal Cafe Closes After More Than 70 Years was last modified: 23 Aug 2021 through Editor-in-chief

A bakery opens in an east-east Dallas mall that’s dying for something like this. Called Lubella’s pastry shop, it’s a new boutique at 10323 Ferguson Rd. from pastry chef Maria Becerra, and it’s opening at Casa View Center, a newly renovated 1950s mall at the intersection of Gus Thomasson Road.

Becerra has baked for fine dining restaurants such as Bullion and Flora St. Cafe. She opens it with her husband Ismael Trejo Gonzalez, a full-fledged food and drink veteran.

“We’ve been in the restaurant business for years, but this is our first store,” Becerra says. “A few years ago we moved to Casa View so our kids could go to school there and we drove by near the center. We saw they were updating it and decided to see if they had space available. They had another proposal, but they gave us the space because they liked what we had planned. “

The Casa View shopping center makeover has been initiated in 2018 and included the restoration of storefront canopies, lighting and signage improvements, a redesign of the central plaza and the planting of new trees.

Lubella’s, named after her two daughters, Luciana and Isabella, will be a bakery with a cafe component and will face Ferguson Road, a few doors down from Pet Supplies Plus.

“When COVID-19 shut things down, I was going crazy at home and started baking, including personalized wedding cakes,” she says. “It started to work out well. We had been thinking about making our own bakery and we thought maybe it was about time.”

“We’re going to start with the desserts, including the slice cake, and then slowly expand the menu,” she says. “I would like to suggest breakfast items like a quiche, frittata, avocado toast, and then maybe add lunch, depending on what the neighborhood wants.”

The space is still under construction, with a goal of opening up in mid to late fall, in time for the holidays.

She will also bake pan dulce and tres leches cakes, which are on the menu at Restaurant Jose on Lovers Lane. But Casa View has a lot of Mexican bakeries, and it wants to do more.

“I can make croissants, Danish, and I want Lubella to have a variety,” she says. “I’m doing everything from scratch, and I want it to be fresh.”

A few months turned into two years, plagued by a maze of municipal permit issues, construction delays, the pandemic and a nagging labor shortage. Run by Cappy’s son Trevor Lawton and a family with the will and the capital to make it happen, Mama’s reopened in May, becoming a solid country-style cafe without all the dusty baggage that came with it.

The clean, bright space of Nacogdoches Road, just outside of Loop 410 on the northeast side, looks like a Texas Mayfly museum selling chicken fried steak. One room is a depository of signed cowboy hats on the ceiling, overlooking long shelves of cowboy boots and a wall of branding irons from working ranches.

The bar is home to iconic neon signs from the long-gone Hipp’s Bubble Room bar and a portrait of Willie Nelson rendered in thousands of bottle caps by Bradford Lawton, a famous designer and brother of Cappy. Reclaimed wood runs in weathered stripes throughout the restaurant, there is a shaded courtyard at the back with a waterfall and a cork ceiling decorates the bathroom hallway.

On ExpressNews.com: Fred’s Fish Fry vs. Sea Island Shrimp House: Who Will Win This Showdown With The San Antonio Seafood Institution?

It’s a feast for the eyes, however. The real work takes place in a decidedly modern kitchen, producing well-executed dinner classics and a few quirky surprises: you can get a large plate of liver and onions with all the iron fist flavor in a velvet glove that you can get. love. You can also get a grilled steak with a bottle of Caymus.

But the dinner part is where the fun is.

Cornbread sets the “c” in the country, and two large slices served as an appetizer with a side of guajillo honey were grainy and sweet and chewy at the same time. It’s a start and an end, a dessert as good as the coffee’s huge apple strudel, as American as apple pie and as German as the euphoric sense of freude it conjures up.

Stay in the cheerful German mentality long enough to enjoy a schnitzel sandwich, complete with a pork loin finely pounded and fried until cracking, amplified by apple butter, braised cabbage, and funky cambozola. Cabbage also ranked as the best of over a dozen sides, a glossy dark purple punctuated with an afterglow of smoked pork.

The pork receives the American treatment like a plate of reasonably good grilled pork chops. They’ve been thinly sliced ​​and well seasoned, with pops of color on the sides of rich creamed spinach and wild rice pilau topped with veggies.

For maximum color, try something that makes a lot more sense in the bowl than on the page: McQueeney’s Special. They call it a salad, but it’s really more like chili with an entourage of shredded iceberg, corn chips, cheese, and spicy chipotle ranch. But it was good chili, with slices of beef wrapped in a mahogany blend of rowdy red spices.

If you’ve been a fan of Mama for a long time, you’re probably already waiting for me to talk about fried mushrooms. Fine. It was like earthy gold-plated nuggets, crunchy blonde fries, with curls of batter to spice up the magic of the cream sauce and homemade ranch dressing good enough to eat like cold soup. The. Are you happy? Because I was.

This cream sauce energized everything she touched including creamy mashed potatoes and a chicken fried steak that filled its crispy shell from side to side with tender beef but not beaten to death. He cut with a fork and passed the Goldilocks test: not too hard but not too soft.

Also from the deep fryer, a chicken sandwich that did a lot more than deliver crunch and a pickle. At Mama’s, it glistened with macha chili oil and a dusting of queso fresco, with a wide palette of grilled cacti doing the work of southwestern flavor that no pickle could ever do.

On ExpressNews.com: 5 San Antonio area restaurants for great chicken fried steak

The catfish got the clean, crispy fry treatment at Mama’s, maybe even too clean, if you’re craving the silty undertones and cornmeal breading you’re more used to. And some of the original experimentation fell flat, like a toasted peanut butter and jelly sandwich that has nothing to do with this adult menu. It was a wet mess of PB&J, sliced ​​pears and melted cheese between greasy slices of Texan toast. These are small things.

More important thing is what happened to the stuffed eggs in the deep fryer to make the egg whites hard and chewy, giving a bad Easter egg vibe to what is usually at the top of the list of reliable watches in a Texas cafe.

Second on this list is a good burger, but it was tossed at Mama’s house by a thick sledge of iceberg lettuce and wilted tomatoes that took away the well-done beef patty at the base. The third would be the meatloaf, but at Mama, I would have done everything for more meat and less bread.

These are things to work on in a country cafe where almost everything else works. This is not surprising, as this is a family that knows the business inside and out, from a strong branding to the training of a service staff who exudes a sense of belonging on down the line.

If Mama’s were just a country cafe, it could fall victim to the same things that led to its decline in the first place. It’s not. It’s a nod and a nod to country café culture, with respect for nostalgia but a lucid look at the present.

[email protected] | Twitter: @fedmanwalking | Instagram: @fedmanwalking

Cafe owner Bob Barbar has experienced six closures, and now two of his family businesses have been listed as exhibition sites during the latest COVID-19 outbreak in Melbourne.

It is getting too hard.

Mr. Barbar runs the Jolly Miller Cafe in Melton, part of a family-owned chain of 14 restaurants across Victoria.

His cafe was listed as a Level 2 weekend show site. Her cousin runs another cafe The Jolly Miller in the Caroline Springs Square mall, which has been declared a Level 1 site.

“Yesterday we had our worst trading day, ”he said.

“We have lost a lot.

“We threw bread… a lot of our candy, our fruits and vegetables were thrown away.”

To complicate matters, some of her staff had to isolate themselves as they visited the Caroline Springs Square Mall, forcing her business to shut down for longer.

On Thursday, Employment Minister Martin Pakula announced an additional $ 367 million in support for businesses affected by the extended Melbourne lockdown, jointly funded by the Commonwealth and Victoria governments.

But Mr Barbar said there had been long delays before previous foreclosure payments arrived.

“Lockdown number two… it was in July of last year. I only received [the money] during the last week of lockdown number four, which was in June of this year. “

Mr Barbar said he was just getting by with the help of the community, his owner and his staff.

“None of the bills are paid,” he said.

“We’re just breaking even with wages… and when I bounce back from foreclosure, I’ll pay my suppliers, the owner.”

Melbourne West has become a COVID-19 hotspot, with several emerging exposure sites in the region.

The Jolly Miller was listed as a Level 2 exposure site on August 8 after a visit from a COVID-positive person on August 4.

“The person came for a takeout sandwich,” Mr. Barbar said.

“They were in the store for less than three and a half minutes, then we got a call on Sunday night. [telling us what happened]. “

“Make a very fine line”

Normally the cafe can seat just under 100 people, but with density limits in place, there was only room for 65 people, including those dining outside.

Now only open for take-out, Mr Barbar said some days it wasn’t even worth opening the business.

“When you come for take out, you buy coffee for $ 4,” he said.

“If you dine there, you buy a plate of food, you might get a muffin from the fridge.”

Mr Barbar said it was scary to be part of a COVID hotspot.

“Every day I wait for a phone call from DHHS (the Department of Health and Human Services) to see if we [have been listed] as an exhibition site, just to know if I close… do I order for the next day, “he said.

“We have a very fine order line with our orders right now. If you order it and stop, [there is a] a lot of waste. “

“It was difficult. It was difficult, but I am very grateful because we have a lot of support from the community.”

Money to reach more than 100,000 companies, according to the Minister of Employment

Mr Pakula said the additional support of $ 367 million is expected to reach more than 100,000 businesses in Melbourne.

“We are very grateful for the spirit of continued cooperation in which the Commonwealth approaches the issue of business and income support,” he said.

Mr Pakula said the money, which would mainly be distributed automatically to companies that had already qualified for support under existing funds, fell into the following three categories:

• The Commonwealth’s COVID-19 Disaster Payment, which is open to eligible workers across the state who are losing hours due to the lockdown, as well as individual businesses who lose their jobs and are not eligible for Victorian government support
• The Small Business COVID Hardship Fund, which will provide grants of $ 10,000 to small and medium-sized businesses across the state. It will be administered by Business Victoria and will focus on companies legally authorized to operate but subject to severe restrictions.
• Automatic payments of $ 2,800 to over 95,000 businesses in Metropolitan Melbourne through the Business Cost Assistance Program and automatic payments of up to $ 20,000 to eligible businesses under the Licensed Hospitality Venue Fund

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Let’s go for True BBQ and Whiskey Bar in downtown Griffith.

The modern barbecue restaurant, which opened in Munster in 2014 and expanded into downtown Crown Point last year, plans to move into the former Twincade space at 106 N. Broad St. in Griffith town center. The popular arcade bar on the prominent corner of Main and Broad streets in downtown Griffith has closed for good after falling victim to the coronavirus pandemic last year.

Progressive Dining Group, which owns True BBQ, Bullpen Luxury Bar & Grill, Gino’s Steakhouse and The Links in Schererville, plans to open a 100-seat barbecue restaurant in downtown Griffith. He will employ about twenty of them.

“We’ve really seen the benefits of Crown Point’s downtown footprint,” said partner Matt Doran. “There’s the foot traffic and the feeling of community. If there’s a wait, people don’t mind going to another facility until they’re called. It’s convenient for us and for them.”

The restaurant group sees downtown Griffith as a destination.

“It’s good to be downtown with all the festivals,” Doran said. “This is a good location in downtown Griffith. I feel that what the city center needs is more restaurants. But we have found that people are traveling to get to the center. -ville and make it a night out. “

Griffith True BBQ will have the same menu as other locations, including back ribs, St. Louis-style ribs, smoked turkey breast, smoked rib tips, smoked pork shoulder, smoked half-chicken, smoked andouille, smoked corned beef, smoked brisket and smoked pork belly.

It will also feature appetizers, salads, steaks, and entrees including andouille and shrimp penne, fried chicken, and cedar plank grilled salmon with whiskey.

“It’s a good concept,” Doran said. “We are trying to mix more vegan options and specialties so that vegans and vegetarians feel welcome in our establishments and do not have to order sides.”

True BBQ will offer craft beer, as well as a wide range of domestic and imported whiskeys. It will also serve handcrafted cocktails like Nakatomi Plaza, which blends Japanese whiskey Suntory Toki with San Pellegrino Limonata and Sage Against The Machine, which combines Copper & Kings American Gin, simple homemade sage syrup, blackberry and lime.

Griffith’s location will host occasional special events like those at Crown Point, which recently had a tiki pop-up bar serving specialty cocktails.

The goal is to open the True BBQ and Whiskey Bar in Griffith in early 2022.

A roadside cafe on the A46 may not seem like the place to be for authentic Italian cuisine, but for the past nine years, Six Hills Cafe has been wowing patrons with its food, from pizzas to pastry shops.

The cafe, run by owner and chef Carmelo Percolla, was named “Best Coffee” at the 2019 Italian Awards, when Carmelo also reached the final for the “Cuoco (Chef) of the Year” category at the award ceremony. price.

Six Hills, near Seagrave, was also a finalist in the ‘Best Coffee’ category in 2016, 2017 and 2018.

I visited the cafe a few years ago and really enjoyed a pizza night there, so with Six Hills now offering a monthly Sicilian Sunday lunch, I couldn’t wait to come back and try it.

With seats available for the August event, I booked a table for myself and my mom.

Place

Without wanting to be rude, the Six Hills Cafe is nothing special from the outside. Just off the A46 you might think it’s a standard bog transport cafe. However, this is definitely not the case.

Enter and you will be sure to be impressed by the newly renovated surroundings, the warm welcome and the aromas that emanate from the cuisine.

The cafe was taken over in 2012 by Carmelo, who aimed to build on its strong Sicilian heritage and decades of working in gourmet restaurants to provide diners with an impressive experience.

The cafe was renovated last year during the lockdown and is very different from before. The previously dark color scheme and furnishings have been replaced with light, bright colors and contemporary details.

With pictures of Sicily on the walls and traditional music in the background, the atmosphere is pleasant.

An outdoor dining area was also added during last year’s renovation. Unfortunately, it was not warm enough to sit outside when we visited, but we were happy enough to enjoy the surroundings inside.

Food

The cafe serves breakfast and lunch Monday through Saturday, as well as pizza nights on Fridays and Saturdays. In addition, since the end of 2019 (with the exception of lockdown periods), it opens on the first Sunday of the month to serve a Sicilian Sunday lunch, with the menu changing each month.

The idea is that diners can share a hearty and traditional tasting menu (at £ 35 per person), using family recipes from Carmelo and Sicilian products, such as peppers and eggplants, mutton ricotta and pistachios ( which have a Protected Designation of Origin) from Bronte, a small village on Mount Etna.

You can check the menu online before booking, so you know exactly what you’re getting. You can also choose between two sessions – at 12:30 p.m. and 3 p.m. – and we’ve chosen the first one.

After being warmly greeted and shown to our table, we ordered our drinks – opting for a few Sicilian soft drinks (a blood orange and a lemon) which were fruity and refreshing.

For those who love alcohol, there are Sicilian craft beers that are shipped exclusively for Six Hill by a brewer in the hometown of Carmelo, Catania, as well as wines from vineyards on the south coast of the island and around the volcano.

A basket of homemade bread appeared on our table and started the meal well. The bread, made from 100% Sicilian durum wheat, had a nice chewy center and a crispy crust, and I liked dipping it in extra virgin olive oil – bottles of which can be found on each of the tables.

An impressive selection of starters soon followed. This was composed of a Pammiciana di mulinciani (aubergines parmigiana) I pipi ammuddicati (peppers, capers and breadcrumbs) I rocculi affucati (broccoli in red wine) cavuluciuri n’pastedda (cauliflower paste) and an aranci nsalata (orange and onion salad).

My mother and I really enjoyed the hearty baked eggplant parmigiana, which included layers of potatoes, eggs and eggplant in passata, and I was especially won over by the dish of peppers, with slices of Grilled peppers mixed with breadcrumbs, salted capers, garlic and a drizzle of delicious olive oil.

Broccoli and cauliflower, those Sunday lunch favorites, have made an appearance – but cooked very differently than they would be for an English roast dinner! Here we had broccoli cooked (or rather drowned according to the name of the dish) in a rich red wine, and breaded cauliflower florets – the latter being our favorite of the two.

I don’t think I’ve ever eaten orange and onion in one bite, but the orange and onion salad, which also included raisins, provided a refreshing contrast to the heavier dishes.

The selection of starters was followed by a beef cannelloni pasta dish – which was my favorite part of the meal. The pasta was cooked beautifully, retaining a bit of bite, the slowly cooked pieces of beef were wonderfully succulent, and the stew (made from Carmelo’s grandmother’s recipe) had a delicious flavor – perhaps in part to because of the pinch of brandy that I discovered it later contained! According to the chef, this was historically used to keep meat fresh, before the invention of refrigerators.

We then had a main course of I cutuletti di pollo (chicken straw marinated in vinegar and breadcrumbs). After being marinated in white wine vinegar for 24 hours, the chicken had been coated in breadcrumbs, parsley, garlic and pecorino cheese – giving it a delicious flavor.

The side salad was delicious and fresh, consisting of lettuce leaves, cucumber, tomato and red onion, seasoned with olive oil and oregano.

The dessert was a nguantera (an array of miniature desserts). This included cannoncini – crispy and buttery puff pastry horns filled with pistachio cream, cannoli – tubes of fried dough, filled with sweet ricotta, and rum baba – cupcakes soaked in syrup of rum and garnished with cream and a piece of strawberry.

We also had a surprise addition of homemade Sicilian ice cream, in vanilla and pistachio varieties.

While we weren’t quick enough to eat it all before it melted (due to a lack of additives, we were told), the bite we tried was good – especially vanilla, we thought.

I really enjoyed the rum soaked wet rum baba, and mom was impressed with the cannoncini, but at this point we were too full to eat more.

This was not a problem though, as we were able to get the remaining boxed desserts to take home. A few hours later I enjoyed the sweet ricotta-filled cannoli and my boys finished the rest!

Verdict
It was a lovely way to spend a few hours on a Sunday and eat some delicious food – of which there was certainly a lot!

As much as I love a roast dinner, this Sicilian feast made a nice change.

The owners and other staff were all very friendly and efficient and it was good that the chef came and talked to all of his customers.

While you can’t completely forget the cars passing along the busy A46, once you are inside this roadside cafe there is a lovely relaxing environment.

The price is the bit that I struggled with, as £ 35 per person for food alone is quite a lot to spend – although I appreciate that there was a generous amount of good quality food, including one much of it came from Sicily.

One thing to note is that you can only pay in cash or by bank transfer. My advice would be to be hungry and go with a lot of money!

Our rating: 4/5

Food hygiene score: 5/5

NORTH MUSKEGON, MI – Nine months after a North Muskegon cafe closed, the renowned restaurant opens with an artisan menu and a robust wine list.

Owner Tresha Kidder closed 4 Corners Café in November 2020 when bars and restaurants were ordered for the second time to close restaurants indoors to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

After months of reimagining, renovating and getting a liquor license, the restaurant will once again welcome diners as The Valkyrie on Friday August 6.

“The North Muskegon region has always been very united and supportive of us – and this throughout the pandemic – so I just wanted to give back to the community and offer something different to the region,” Kidder said.

Related: Local Eats: 4 Corners Cafe owner “bursts into tears” for community support amid pandemic

While the 4 Corners Café focuses on coffee and sandwiches, the Valkyrie offers a relaxed dining experience with quality service. Its new Nordic concept is inspired by the Scandinavian roots of North Muskegon Norsemen and Kidder.

“I think it’s going well with the town of North Muskegon,” Kidder said. “It’s a wealthy community but also very down-to-earth people.

Kidder partnered with Devin Hekkema, a certified sommelier and restaurant manager from Muskegon, to develop the restaurant.

“We know we are different, but we try to be,” Hekkema said. “We want to give people a taste of the big city without having to leave Muskegon. “

A farm-to-table menu using fresh, seasonal ingredients has been created by Chef Zachery Skiver. It offers items like walleye with pickled elderberry, wild rice and blueberry sauce or smoked beets with wild mushrooms, rice, lemon dressing and pickled red onion.

A fully stocked bar serves cocktails, beer, and over 100 wines with bottles sold at retail plus a $ 10 corkage fee.

“We want people to be able to have good wine at a fair price and have it in our garden here,” Hekkema said.

On weekends, performances will take place at The Valkyrie, a restaurant Hekkema envisions as a gathering place where the community can come “in costume or in t-shirt.”

The building, at the corner of Ruddiman Drive and Center Street, previously housed the Keefe Pharmacy. It now has a chic dining room, a brand new kitchen and a covered patio decorated with bistro lights.

A large-scale mural painted three years ago by Muskegon artist Jimmy Cobb lights up the patio and peeks through the dining room windows. Cobb also left his mark on the updated space: a new mural of orange and purple Valkyrie wings.

Kidder said that after nine months of “long days”, she was delighted to see people filling the restaurant again.

The Valkyrie, 1900 Ruddiman Drive, is open Tuesday through Thursday from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. and Friday through Saturday from 3 p.m. to midnight.

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