05.04.08
Posted in First Blog at 9:08 pm by Erik
Beginning tomorrow, Evangeline will be open on Monday nights! We will be doing a set 3 to 5 course menu in the price range of $25 to $30 per guest. Rustic supper style. The menu is planned on Saturday night, and will be set, no options.
Krista Kern from Bresca will be with me in the kitchen, just the two of us, along with my trusty Chef de Plongeur, Scott. The diningroom will be run by either Joe or Sean (tomorrow, both of them). One server will round it out.
We will have 2 carafes available at a special Monday Night price of $15 each, but the wine list and full bar will be available as well.
The first Monday Night Supper menu will consist of:
Whole roast fish (TBD tomorrow)
~
Slow Baked Four Story Hill Farm “Cochon de Lait” (milk fed 3 week old piggies…see below) with bean cassoulet, and stuffed with riesling soaked apricots
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Cluizel Chocolate Pot-de-Creme and Creme Chantilly (Michel Cluizel is a GENIUS…..And to do a Pot-de Creme with Cluizel chocolate is just plain insane.)
This will be a chance for Krista and I to hang out in the kitchen together, and for Evangeline to offer a huge meal for very little cabbage out of your pocket. Plus I get to give the staff a night off and still be open for business!
Look forward to a different menu each Monday night. No reservations.
Erik
here is Mortimer
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04.20.08
Posted in First Blog at 5:32 pm by Erik
thank you to all of the guests who made the first few nights of evangeline a success!! Notes have been taken to reflect on how we can make it better every day. Thanks again!
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Posted in First Blog at 1:00 am by Erik
Please, if anyone has a comment, use a “real” email…. (suzy) i cant answer any anonymous comments if you create an email address that doesnt exist. People who create a fake email addy to post their opinions anonymously have too much fucking time on their hands. Don’t waste my time. Grow a sack.
Comments with fake email addys will not be posted here. If you can’t post with your real name, dont bother. Contact me at erikdesjarlais@mac.com
erik
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04.09.08
Posted in First Blog at 12:20 am by Erik
Paintings are hung. Stephen Backus is the talented guy behind them. Pork products are brining.. Decanters being polished off for our wine program. Veal stock is reducing to a mahogany, luscious glaze of clear veal essence. The foie gras is being cured and ready to be a terrine, the window sign is up, and the Duck Press is bolted down.
Milk fed poularde are getting fatter by the minute, and a handful of hogs and rabbits are happily bouncing around, and eating well. So we can eat them…..
Luke is choosing my fish, the scallops and frogs legs are being harvested as we speak. (There is a cow up north who is doing her best to lactate for our table butter, and there are a handful of heavy hens who will heave-ho a bunch of huevos for my special egg dishes.)
There is a guy who walks round in Lake Okechobee and stabs the frogs with a sort of pitchfork. The grenouille we will serve will actually have flavor. The ducks we receive have their heads and feet on them.
(UNNECESSARY CONTENT OMITTED>MY APOLOGIES TO ALL)
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04.05.08
Posted in First Blog at 8:04 am by Erik
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Posted in First Blog at 7:58 am by Erik
Due to new City Compliances, the floor in Ladle needed to be fixed. It is a sealed concrete floor. But, they are the City, and what they say, goes. And I needed a hood exhaust over my steam table. Their little “Book of Rules” seems to be open to interpretation (actually stated by a City Officer……)
Ladle didn’t have the $20,000.00 to install a hood or a new concrete floor over the old concrete floor, so we decided to vacate the premise.
I am actively searching out a new space for lil’ ol’ Ladle. Have to get Evangeline launched first!
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03.28.08
Posted in First Blog at 10:21 pm by Erik
So, friends….Evangeline has made more progress this week than we have in 6 months. We are CLOSE. The equipment is in, the paint is done, tile is shiny, fire suppression system is installed. The door we had to demolish to get the low-boy 93″ long cooler with 6 drawers in, is now replaced. The Evangeline Pig is on the window, awaiting the rest of the acrylic to be installed.
Joe and Sean are building a KILLER wine program. Mitch is building everything. He just wants to cook, but has successfully installed the door mentioned above, AND installed a phone. Two firsts for Mitch. More on that later.
We met with Rob Tod, owner and brewer of Allagash, here in Portland. Rob’s beers will be featured in our wine program. More on that later as well.
What really stuck with me today (aside from BACON IN A GLASS…..more on THAT later as well…thanks, Joe Ricchio), was an interaction with a gentleman in line at a coffee shop…..
GENT: “You’re the fella who ran Bandol……When is Evangeline opening?”
ME: “Soon! Thanks for asking!”
GENT: “Well, it had BETTER be CHEAP!”
ME: “How do you mean?”
GENT: “Will you have Steak Frites?”
ME: “Naturally!”
GENT: “How much?”
ME: “Well, a 12oz _______ steak plate for under $20 bucks.”
Gent: “What about Whole Roast Chicken???”
ME: “I think about $28 bucks for a whole fat chicken for two……served in three courses, good garniture, some sauce. Presented tableside…..”
GENT: “Escargot?”
ME: “Farm raised, fresh, tender snails….about 10 for $8 bucks, garlic butter, etc..not the canned leather globules….”
GENT: “I can buy a fucking steak at Hannafords for $12 bucks. Fuck you. I can buy a whole chicken for $12 bucks. I can get a can of escargot for $16 bucks. Fucking CRIMINAL!”
??????????????????????????
He proceeded to yell at the young lady behind the counter for “watering down the goddam coffee…..I can brew a cup of coffee for 30 cents at home!!!” and walked off.
Now, my point…….
There isn’t a great profit margin in restaurants, or any foodservice business. In fact, most independent restaurant owners wont be driving a Maserati any time soon. For every plate we put out, and every beverage we pour, we have to pay a certain percentage to various expenses. Cooks, dishwashers, managers, gas, electricity, insurance, servers (yes, they dont survive only on tips), bank loans, flowers, linens, investors, capital expenses, payroll liabilities, POS machines, leaky faucets, broken plates, stemware, cleaning products, licenses, trash disposal, security systems, paint, accountants, CREDIT CARD COSTS, taxes, printing…
…those are only the tip of the iceberg.
In order for us to source QUALITY products, we actually may LOSE money. All of the above expenses get paid before any owner gets a paycheck. Remember, it is a business. Not a hobby. I have sacrificed an entire months worth of pay so a half dozen folks could enjoy Alba White Truffles until they almost overdosed….or a party of four could gorge on a quarter pound of Gold Asetra caviar. The look on their faces was worth it at the moment.
Have you ever served a Foie Gras Entier? I have. I didn’t eat for a week. I had to feed my dog ramen and frozen fish sticks from 1998.
There is really no overpriced high end restaurant in Portland. I know what the product costs, and, although I don’t know exactly how other restaurateurs I run their businesses, I think they are all in it to please the guest. Really.
All of the best digs in town (Rob & Nancy, Steve & Michelle, Guy & Stella, Sam & Dana, Larry, Miyake, Krista) are here to make the diner happy, and to run a business. Not to rape the guests for their hard earned cash. The next time you buy a coffee at Starbucks for fourbucks, think about the local chef who sits in his/her basement office worried about the fact that they have to pay a plumber for a pipe that burst, while their salaried sous chef is being paid for doing no work while the restaurant is closed for 2 weeks because business is slow….While the CEO of Starbucks drives the Maserati most chefs will never own.
Really, we are all here to please. Not to buy Maseratis. If you want to buy your steak at Hannaford’s, go for it. Buying a plate of food at a local restaurant is a little bit different than cooking up a WFM steak on your home range. Support small business. The gesture spreads far and wide. The young cook who will toil in front of a hot range and stand on her/his feet for 16 hours (and get screamed at by me) has to pay bills too. If we charged what the steak costs us, there wouldn’t be a restaurant. Where would you get Canard Presse?
(my apologies to any chef in town who doesn’t agree……)
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03.23.08
Posted in First Blog at 12:20 pm by Erik
Our friends Don and Sam of Rabelais Books are featured in this month’s Saveur, amongst the Heavy Hitters of the book world. Glad we have them all to ourselves! Check out the store and shoot them a congrats!
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03.20.08
Posted in First Blog at 9:22 pm by Erik
A friend of a friend had some rabbits they needed “harvested”. Beautiful, soft, Rex rabbits. Delicious.
Myself and an associate (Mitch) picked them up from their home. A fresh litter, the same bloodline that we will be using at Evangeline.
Six wonderful little critters with perfect pelts and unctuous flesh to be roasted, braised and sauteed. Nothing wasted.
These were for personal consumption. When we receive them at the restaurant they come slaughtered, eviscerated and skinned….passed through the hands and watchful eye of a USDA inspector. Today, a select few of us had the chance to come full circle with the rabbits.
These rabbits were a little bigger than the ones I have slaughtered in the past. Rex rabbits are a little stronger than most, and usually bred for their pelts. Fortunately, Rex rabbits are more delicious than other commercially and farm raised rabbits. Unfortunately….they are stronger. I mean, REALLY strong. I won’t get into detail, but the process of stunning a normal rabbit takes minimal strength. A quick twist of the neck and vertebrae and you’re halfway there. Stun, bleed, skin, eat. These were a different story, but once I got the hang of it, stunning and bleeding was relatively quick. Next time you stun and bleed a Rex Rabbit, use a little more force and strength when you snap the neck. Just my humble opinion.
The stunning merely renders them…well….stunned. The heart is still pumping, and it is the perfect time to cut the jugular to bleed them. The heart does its job, and pumps the remaining blood out. Preferably in to a bucket to save and include in to a sauce.
Skin them when they are warm.
It is a simple process, requiring you to slip your hand between the skin and body, separating them, then rolling the pelt off like a stocking. Cutting around the feet helps. When you eviscerate, do it like any other animal. (see the deer evisceration below). Pull out the livers first, cut the intestine and the trachea, and allow gravity to pull out the inedibles.
Reserve the heart, kidneys and lungs. (lungs are delicious, quickly sauteed. They fill with air and poof to twice their size.) The sweetbreads are toward the throat….keep them, dredge them in flour and fry. Better than any sweetbread you have tasted.
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03.19.08
Posted in First Blog at 2:22 pm by Erik
Hey all. Just kidding about April 4th. Obstacles. You know how it is……..but soon after!
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