This Weekend’s Biscuit Special

Rue de Soleil

Biscuit sandwich with black forest ham, brie cheese, arugula, honey-ginger pickled apples, and a basted egg, topped with a honey-ginger glaze.

Recipe Testing

Allow me to introduce Sadie Sayre. She’s our kitchen manager – we’re not so fancy where we have an executive chef or a sous chef or really any chefs at all – we’re just cooks and bakers. But, someday, when she’s working in a fancier place I’m sure there will be cooks yelling “yes chef” at her all day. Anyway, Sadie’s in charge of keeping everything on the rails, and has grabbed the wheel with gusto.

A huge part of Sadie’s job is coming up with our weekend breakfast specials and weekday lunch specials. Martin and I are so very thankful for her palate, her sensible approach to cooking tasty food, and her ability to keep everyone organized and motivated.

A couple months ago she was all excited about making Spam from scratch. I heard it through the grapevine, of course (thankfully, I’m the last to hear about lots of things). I was skeptical. Don’t get me wrong – I love Spam, grew up eating it, know I shouldn’t like it but hey. Who can resist pure Americana, childhood nostalgia, plus lots of salt? Well, plenty of our customers can probably do just that.

I was mentally preparing my re-styling of the idea when Sadie came up to me, all fired up about Spam and all of a sudden I stopped. Her enthusiasm meant WAY more than my concerns that people wouldn’t get it. She had researched a bunch of formulas, had ideas about which ones might work and which ones might not, and we agreed she would do some rounds of testing and come up with the best.

And man, she did just that. It was very much fun to be surprised – the formula we all thought was going to be the best (we were suckered by the emulsifying, complex spices and multiple cooking processes) was terrible. The simplest one was perfect, and the beauty of putting an idea through the paces was once again made apparent. Amen sister!

Martin and I are so fortunate to have staff members like Sadie (and we have more than our fair share), researching the heck out of every idea, critiquing each other’s micro foam, and correcting baguette-shaping techniques. Please know that everything you eat comes from a bunch of people who really do care, a LOT, more than any of us deserve. And know that every item on your plate or in your bag goes through a serious amount of thinking, testing and tweaking. And for all of this we are grateful.

- Solveig

PS. Look for this Spamazingness at our upcoming Pizza Nights starting soon!

This weekend’s biscuit special

MOON OVER MY SPAMMY

House made spam (yes, really), warmed pineapple ring, crispy fried red onions, egg over medium, on a buttermilk biscuit