It’s been a long road since we started the process of developing our new Spring and Summer menu, and while there have certainly been a few bumps and turns along the way, we are excited to launch this new menu and can’t wait to share a host of new ingredients, flavors, and dishes!
After our first brainstorming session all the way back in January, we had a lot of ideas and concepts for what we wanted to see this spring, and the next step was to get to testing, tasting, and narrowing down our choices. Inevitably some of these ideas fall short during this phase of development — flavors dont always meld just as you would hope, or in the case of off site catering, certain dishes just don’t hold well in catering settings. It’s a unique challenge and consideration that goes into planning recipes for catering, and particularly for a delivery setting. We cannot rely on all the same tools and the immediate presentation of a restaurant setting, so we have to test not only for the flavor and cooking techniques of the dish, but also must consider questions such as “How will this dish hold over during transport?” “Is this something a guest could pick up and easily reheat later?” “How can we work in batch cooking for this item in order to bring down labor costs and present a better price for our customers?” Taste and appearance are certainly of a prime importance but these secondary questions are the make and break of a drop off catering menu.
Luckily a few of our early concepts passed the rigors of these tests, and when coupled with an injection of fresh ideas from our new executive chef Chris Hechanova, produced an exciting new menu with a host of brand new items. Here’s a few we can’t wait to share:
Grilled Vegetable Farro Salad (v)
Highlighting some of our favorite summer vegetables and herbs, this hearty grain salad combined grilled eggplant, zucchini and radicchio, with a bright and robust roasted garlic lemon vinaigrette, with a surprising acidic bite from bright red sweetie drop peppers. Perfect as a side or meal in and of itself.
Zucchini Noodle Salad (vg, gf)
A fresh take on pasta salad replacing the noodles with fresh spiralized zucchini creating a unique ‘pasta’ base to which we have combined fresh herbs, white beans, parmesan cheese and a balsamic glaze. With a little bit of heat from the calabrese chili, this salad may just make you forget all about those old macaroni pasta salads!
Sloppy Joe Casserole (gf)
Our take on an American classic. Ground beef, fresh herbs, spices, tomatoes, and peppers stew together beneath a fresh baked cornbread crust, creating a unique casserole version of the beloved sandwich. Perfect for your summertime BBQ or office picnic!
And we would be absolutely remiss if we didn’t mention all the delicious new offerings coming from our bakery! Housemade blueberry and cinnamon sugar donuts, inventive new cupcakes– S’mores, Peanut Butter and Jelly, and Coconut Lime– and a brand new Biscotti Platter are sure to satisfy your sweet tooth this spring and summer!
Check out the full 2018 Drop Off Spring Summer menu and place your next order today!