Hi Friends,

Well.  I’m so proud to be able to say – on this, the first weekend of our second year of cooking this crazy dinner that comes straight from the farm to you, by way of our kitchen – July was our busiest month to date by a factor of almost 20%.  Frankly, I’m just amazed.  People are traveling to cooler climes as fast as they can get out of town.  The economic news hasn’t exactly been all May sunshine and pony rides.  But we’re been building up steam here and getting busier it seems every week.  If it’s this good in July – we can’t wait until the fall.  What can we say – thanks so much for your support.

DINNER THIS WEEKEND

OK – It’s August, and with the weather pattern staying hot and hot.  On the bright side, we getting a bunch of cool stuff in for dinner regardless:  Squash blossoms continue to be quite popular.  Stuffed with local chevre from Water Oak Farm in Bryan, and sautéed in Ben’s special top-secret blossom batter made with Perrier.   Hey it’s got warm goat cheese and it gets sauteed in olive oil – how bad can it be?

Cool cool cool.  Chilled cucumber soup – I know, it sounds kind of funky, but it’s really, really good.  The cucumbers are an Armenian variety grown locally at Boggy Creek Farm in east Austin.  The ceviche which made it to last Saturday’s menu, but didn’t actually set up in time for service, is really finally ready now.  It’s made with gulf black drum, red onions from Boggy Creek, and lots of fresh herbs.  Also we’re going to keep the gulf shrimp salad on the menu – this week we’re going to add a little avocado.

A couple of thoughts on main courses as well – we’ve found a great source for tomatoes even this late in the summer. They’re coming in from McCall Creek Farm in Blanco.  They are beautiful red and ripe.  This makes a certain amount of sense to me, as I drove through there on my way to meet JC (uhmm, that’s JC who’s art currently hangs in the bakery, not JC we all grew up hearing about on Sundays) in Balmorea last Monday, and I have to say – the further west I got, the cooler it seemed (especially at night) and the greener everything was.  They’ve clearly been getting a lot more rain west of us than we have here in town.  Anyway – we’re putting their wonderful tomatoes with some fresh fettucini that Stephanie is making as I write

(that’s Steph, giving me the business – oh hell, that’s not Steph, that’s Nigella Lawson – wonder how in the world that could have happened???)

Oh well – the pasta is also going to get roasted garlic and big handfuls of fresh herbs.  Should be great.  Finally – those of you who we’re in last Saturday may remember we had a brined pork chop from Burgundy Farms on the menu.  It rocked – it’s back – we can only get a few this week, so ask Hall Sheriff if you want one because it won’t be visible on the menu (it’s only visible to those of you who read my emails and are really committed.  For the rest of you – read my emails, no new pork chops).

JUDY IS BACK (AND SO ARE HER TARTS)

Judy is back from (a month in) Maine (yes were jealous – wouldn’t you be?)  She spent this afternoon making her world famous bittersweet Scharffen Berger chocolate tart, plus a really nice lemon tart as well.  We’ve tried our best in her absence, but just couldn’t get it right – maybe it’s just that none of us love sugar as much as she does – who can know… (This means you CW)

TANGO DANCING W/ GLOVER GILL ON TUESDAYS VERY SOON

Great news.  Our friend Claudio – an avid member of the local tango dancing community – approached Glover Gill about doing a regular evening of tango dancing here at TFB.  We met with Glover – he’s aweseome – and he thinks he can make Kara’s grandmother’s old piano sing.  The gameplan to start doing Tuesday nights here at the end of the month, or at the latest, in early September.  I think you can actually get a lesson at the events – if you need one (how hard can it be, long, long, short, short, long – hell anybody can do that) – but I know you can get dinner.  Dancing should start about 8pm.  We’re staffing up and we’ll be open 5 nights a week this fall.

Check the DINNER MENU on our site for a more complete listing of our plans this week.  And seriously – we’re so excited this is working – I’m litterally knocking on wood and pinching myself every 5 minutes – thanks to all of you.

Come Eat,

Murph