# Wednesday, July 08, 2009

Wallets Have No Taste Buds


Not long ago we came across an interesting article in the The New York Times by Eric Asimov.  The article was “Wine’s Pleasures: Are They All in Your Head?”  What struck us about the article was that it confirmed something that we have long suspected: people have an unfortunate tendency to associate the quality of a wine with its price.  

Asimov cited a study done by the California Institute of Technology and the Stanford Business School that “demonstrated that the more expensive consumers think a wine is, the more pleasure they are apt to take in it.”  He then went on to note that, “the researchers scanned the brains of 21 volunteer wine novices as they administered tiny tastes of wine, measuring sensations in the medial orbitofrontal cortex, the part of the brain where flavor responses apparently register. The subjects were told only the price of the wines. Without their knowledge, they tasted one wine twice, and were given two different prices for that wine. Invariably they preferred the one they thought was more expensive.”

Now don’t get us wrong.  We are firm believers in the adage, “you get what you pay for.”  Our experience as wine lovers, however, has also taught us that where we too often set the price bar for a great wine a lot higher than our taste buds might suggest.  For that reason, we take a lot of pride in offering wines that taste like they should cost more than they do.  Case in point: our Italian pinot grigio and our German Riesling – both of which offer a perfect compliment to our lighter summer fare.





Wednesday, July 08, 2009 4:01:32 PM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)  #  Comments [0] 
# Thursday, July 02, 2009

One Man's Comfort Food...
Somebody recently asked us if the tag line "New Adventures In Comfort Food" wasn't something of an oxymoron.  Sure, the juxtaposition of "new adventures" and "comfort" may seem incongruous (I love that word!), but the only way I can explain it is, "you know it when you taste it".

Let's take today's special: our very own San Francisco Beef Salad Sandwich.  To understand this new menu item is to grasp the culinary zen of the Brick Oven Bistro.  We start with a familiar comfort food: strips of beef sirloin served on a homemade roll (your choice of Italian or Sunflower Wheat), then take it to the danger zone with a creamy oriental star anise dressing, and garnish with fresh tomato and lettuce.  We could tell you more about the ingredients, but then we'd have to kill you -- and we've learned over the years that this tends to dampen return visits from our customers.

To keep the "comfort" side of you balanced with the "living on the edge" side, we serve this sandwich with sides of coleslaw and our famous rum pot baked beans.  Oh...as to the name of this sandwich, we dedicated it to a city we love, and a place where we've experienced some wonderful Asian cuisine.  It's our way of giving props to Baghdad by the Bay.  

The bottom line is this: I don't have to give you a bunch of highfalutin' marketing hype about our new tagline.  Just order our San Francisco Beef Salad Sandwich, take a big ol' bite (please chew with your mouth closed, thank you), and let the enlightenment begin, Grasshopper.

Of course, you can always just stare at the picture and fantasize, but we really do recommend the real vs. virtual experience. 



Thursday, July 02, 2009 2:35:11 PM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)  #  Comments [0] 
# Thursday, June 25, 2009

Calling All Emerging Artists!
   Imagine being an aspiring artist and having the opportunity to display your art before thousands of people on a beautiful summer day. Sounds like something you’d cut off your ear for, right?  Imagine instead paying only a $10 fee for that opportunity ($8 of which is returned following your exhibit).

    If it sounds too good to be true, allow us to introduce you to the Emerging Artists Exhibit – a regular feature of the Capital City Public Market, running from April 19 through December 20.  That’s a lot of emerging art.   

    Of the many events and causes that the Brick Oven Bistro supports, the Emerging Artist Exhibit is one of our favorites.  Its mission pretty much says it all: To promote the arts by assisting & encouraging local artists with little or no show experience by providing weekly exhibit opportunities not otherwise available.

    Having had friends who were artists and always looking for affordable ways to display their art, we approached Karen Ellis of the Capital City Public Market, Sally Barnes of Boise Weekly, Terri Robinson of Boise Blue Art Supply, and then director of the City Arts Commission, Julie Numbers Smith, with the idea of creating a showcase for local artists.

    Terri and her staff sign up the artists and provide easels, Karen provides us with a great outdoor venue, Boise Weekly contributes media promotion, and the Brick Oven provides the tents and refreshments for the artists as well as all setup and tear down, while the City Arts commission blesses us and supports our efforts.  It’s a true labor of love for art for everyone involved.

    Artists who are interested in securing one of the three exhibit spaces available each week need to complete the Emerging Artist entry form and sign up at Boise Art Supply (820 West Jefferson).  Artists are chosen on a random selection basis, and 5 percent of any art they sell through the exhibit goes to the Emerging Artist fund to keep the good karma rolling.  

        So, what kind of difference can the Emerging Artists Exhibit make in the lives of its participants?  Recently, several of the artists who were displaying for the first time in a public venue not only made great sales, two were given commissions!    



Thursday, June 25, 2009 8:45:01 AM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)  #  Comments [0] 
# 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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