# Friday, June 19, 2009

Summer time, and the palate is easy
     There is a seasonal aspect to comfort food.  I don’t know about you, but I find that I appreciate a hearty stew a lot more in the dead of winter than I do in the dog days of summer.  Which is why we are loading up our Summer Buzz menu with some special salads, cold soups (hang in there with me)…and something you might not think of as typical summer fare.

    Whether your motivation is fitting into that little black dress for a summer soiree, or simply avoiding the lethargy that follows a heavy meal on a hot day, we have a number of summer entrees that will leave you wondering why you don’t opt for salad as the main course on a more regular basis.  We’ll be serving a Club Salad (think of the Bistro Club without the bread) chock full of bacon, turkey, mushrooms and other delectables.  We’ll also be promoting our culinary ambrosia, Calico Bean and Pasta Salad, from sidekick to leading man, serving it with a supporting cast of spring greens.  

    Did I mention cold soups?  Of course I did.  For the uninitiated, cold soup might seem as jarring a culinary concept as hot ice cream (never mind Baked Alaska).  If you are in this camp, I have one word for you: gazpacho.  If you’ve never tried this famous chilled, spicy Spanish soup based on tomato juice and brimming with chopped raw vegetables, you don’t know what you’re missing.  Now…just imagine adding shrimp!

    We’re also featuring a minted green pea soup, a chilled tomato-tarragon, and that standard of Francophiles the world over, vichyssoise, a creamy soup made from leeks and potatoes.  Add some fresh baked bread and the appropriate wine pairing, and you may not light another burner on the stove until fall.

    Finally, that unexpected summer special I mentioned earlier: due to popular demand, we are putting our Kobe beef and cheese loaf into our summer lineup.  With all the hype over Kobe beef, it may seem a sacrilege to press it into duty as a humble meatloaf; but why shouldn’t an American comfort food classic be elevated into the gourmet pantheon?  Served with mashed potatoes, baby carrots, fresh baked bread, and a side of our equally famous burgundy mushroom gravy, you’ll never think of comfort food the same way again.  

    Which is, after all, what our culinary mission is all about!



Friday, June 19, 2009 1:36:59 PM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)  #  Comments [0] 
# Monday, June 08, 2009

Catch a Summer Buzz!



Catch Boise's Summer Buzz...and share it with us!

    It’s Saturday morning, and you’ve drained the last drop of caffeinated goodness from your French press.  Time to mount the cruiser bike and pedal your way along the Greenbelt to ground zero for Boise’s Summer Buzz: the Center on the Grove.  There’s still a cool breeze blowing, even as the sun begins to warm your skin.  

    You stroll languidly past stalls of local artisans at the Public Market as you head toward the produce stands.  Along the way you sample locally grown fruits, elk sausages, handcrafted cheeses, Idaho wines, jams, mustards, pastries…all the while listening to the stories behind each food from the people who grew/raised/harvested/prepared them.  

    You share a secret smile with the shopper next to you when you catch yourselves unconsciously humming along to a street musician’s acoustic rendition of "Wish You Were Here".  Eventually, you make it to the market’s Bannock Street terminus, where you celebrate with a bag of kettle corn and an armload of fresh cut flowers before retracing your steps.  

    Along the return trip, you pick up some handmade ravioli stuffed with pumpkin squash and a bag of chanterelle mushrooms that you’ll sauté in olive oil and garlic to accompany them.  You just might have to walk back a few yards and pick up that chardonnay you sampled a while ago.

    Before collecting your bike, you stop at The Brick Oven Bistro for a hummus sandwich and a cold Stella Artois, which you savor as you watch children splashing in the fountain to the sounds of a string band covering a Grateful Dead tune.

    On behalf of The Brick Oven Bistro, we welcome you to Summer 2009! 

Follow us on Twitter (www.twitter.com/brickovenbistro) and share your favorite SummerBuzz stories (#SummerBuzz) with us!  We'll publish them on our blog site and Facebook page.  Just complete this sentence (in 140 characters for Twitter, or elborate through a link): "Nothing says summer in Boise like..."  We anxiously await your inspirations! 




Monday, June 08, 2009 1:15:21 PM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)  #  Comments [0] 
# Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Welcome to Adventures in Comfort Food!
Welcome to the Brick Oven Bistro blog site!  For those of you who are long time fans of our restaurant, we hope our blogs will be a way to further connect you with our culinary mission.  For those of you who aren't familiar with us...where the heck have you been all these years?

If you listen to KBSU Radio, you've probably heard our tag line, "home style cooking for those who can't be home cooking".  It's a slogan that has served us well over the years, and one that certainly describes part of our appeal as a downtown restaurant icon.  But as we head into our 25th year of warming hearts and filling tummies, we are introducing a new tagline that we think goes even further in explaining our niche: "New Adventures In Comfort Food".  Part of the purpose of this blog is to share just what those adventures are -- and we hope you'll share yours with us in return.

We look forward to the conversation, and to sharing the things we most love about food, wine, art...and  the community that has contributed so much to our success over all these years!




Tuesday, May 12, 2009 5:18:34 PM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)  #  Comments [0] 

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