Café des Architectes has a new menu in effect, featuring spring’s freshest ingredients. Enjoy Chef Greg Biggers’ dinner highlights including Sesame Sweetbreads with Maine lobster claw, wasabi tobiko and tangerine-miso emulsion; a Local Beet Salad with house made goat cheese, green garlic sorbet and frisee; and a Swan Creek Rabbit with carrot puree, mustard sabayon, fava beans and melted leeks. Pastry Chef Patrick Fahy has created an elegant Cherry Blossom Panna Cotta with Sakura, honey, matcha tea ice cream and candied cherry flowers. Enjoy al fresco dining on La Terrasse, Café des Architectes’ outdoor patio.

A whole week of piggy delights. From June 11th through June 16th, we will be serving a set menu praising the pig. It will start of with charcuterie, followed by family style salads (involving pork of course), and the entree will be changing throughout the week between belly, porchetta, and braised shoulder. The cost is $45 per person not including tax or gratuity and we will have optional beverage pairings for $20.

dinner at floriole

featuring

janine maclachlan

author of farmers’ markets of the heartland

monday, june 18 | 7pm | $75

For our June dinner, we are celebrating the farmers' market!

Our friend, Janine MacLachlan has recently published a beautiful book, Farmers' Markets of the Heartland, featuring the farmers, produce and chefs of the American Midwest. She explores not only the beauty of the market, but the communities that are formed through them and businesses, like Floriole, who started at the market and continue to showcase the bounty of our region.

Janine MacLachlan is a food writer and self-proclaimed farm groupie. Her writing and recipes have been featured in national magazines and 15 Tribune newspapers. An advocate for a delicious and nourishing food system, she has volunteered for Slow Food and Chicago's Green City Market, and blogs at RusticKitchen.com.

Please join Floriole and Janine for a five-course meal, featuring recipes from Farmers' Markets of the Heartland and lift a glass to our farming community. Books will be available for purchase and signing the night of the event.

MENU

green acres farm radish butter boards

floriole crackers & bread

ellis farm egg

crispy 3 sisters polenta & early summer relish

white fish en papillote

nichols farm summer leeks & carrots

braised gunthorp chicken thighs

farro & wild mushroom, spring pea ragout

growing power green salad

sprouts, herbs & edible flowers

baked alaska

klug strawberry sherbet, prairie fruits farm goat cheese ice cream, lemon pound cake

all recipes adapted from Janine’s book Farmers’ Markets of the Heartland

books available for purchase & signing the night of the dinner

Dietary restrictions will be accommodated, happily. Please notify us of such restrictions at the time of reservation.

At Vincent restaurant, The Rice Table will be creating a pop up authentic Rijsttafel dinner the first Sunday of every month this summer. It all begins June 3.  Rijsttafel, a Dutch, word that literally translates to "rice table". The meal is elaborate consisting of numerous side dishes, accompanied by a variety of different rice preparations. Immerse yourself in the flavors, colors and spices of Indonesia... Experience a night of authentic Indonesian culture and sumptuous cuisine. Chef Chris Reed of "The Rice Table" will prepare a menu of 13 dishes to showcase the intense flavors and spiciness of the cuisine.  Proprietor Jane Reed sets the mood of the dining room, describing dishes and ensuring all guests are having a great experience. This evening will be a ticketed event. Seatings begin at 5pm and every 15 minutes after until 6:30pm.  Tickets can be purchased @ Vincent (Tuesday through Sunday during regular business hours).  The price is $50.00 per person. Otherwise, tickets can be purchased through Paypal at our website www.thericetable.com for $50.00 per person. Gratuity is not included. Vincent has a full bar - beverages, including coffee, are not included in the ticket price.

When you take Mom to Big Bowl for dinner on Mother's Day, she'll receive a gift from us. Moms who dine at our Big Bowl locations in Lincolnshire, Schaumburg and in Chicago (60 E Ohio) will receive a potted herb plant as a complimentary "we think you're awesome" acknowlegement. Because we're an Asian inspired restaurant, the herb plant will be cilantro or Thai basil. Moms dining at our other Chicago location (6 E. Cedar)  will receive orchids.

So after the original nice weather we experienced, we hit the ground running with as many spring items as we could. Now with the local availablity of so many more items from our local farmers, we have made another big change to the dinner menu. Every day more and more products are around and it's a very exciting time of year here in the midwest, especially when we have a few days of 70's weather in a row! So take a look and come in and see our new menu!

Big Jones is excited to announce the next event in our whiskey dinner series, and will host special guest Harlen Wheatley, Master Distiller of Buffalo Trace Distillery for a special dinner with a selection of whiskeys from the Frankfort, KY house of bourbon. Whiskeys to be featured are White Dog Mash #1, Buffalo Trace, Eagle Rare 10 year single barrel, Blanton's single barrel, a Weller Special reserve. The menu is inspired by Executive Chef-owner Paul Fehribach's family roots on the old Buffalo Trace with the closely related regional cuisines of Kentucky. Dinner begins with salt rising bread, Kentucky beer cheese, heirloom radishes, and many home made relishes, followed by fried green tomatoes served with country ham and egg salad and green tomato relish, Henry Moore corn spoonbread with scrambled hog brains, then an intermezzo of a refreshing shot of buttermilk with pickled beets and early summer herbs. The main course will be a traditional Western Kentucky barbecued mutton plate with creamy potato salad, sliced onion, and kohlrabi slaw, followed by dessert which will be local strawberries with house-cultured cottage cheese and a shortcake of heirloom buckwheat and ham drippings.

The dinner is June 7 2012 at 7:30 p.m. following a 6:30 reception. Price is $50.00 per person which includes tax and gratuity. reservations are required and can be made by calling 773-275-5725.

Big Jones is presently offering a selection of three historic punches concocted by Beverage Director David Devaney, with roots in the great flowing bowls of the 18th and 19th century, including a barrel-aged punch, the American Orange Punch, aged in new American Oak barrels just as it was for Andrew Jackson's inauguration. Punches are available in individual servings and are priced $8-10.

St. Charles Punch, named not for the grand streetcar- and oak-lined avenue stretching from Canal Street to the Riverbend, but for the grand hotel which once existed there. Or one of them, at least. There have been three St Charles hotel all built in the same spot in New Orleans with this punch most likely being made at the third which was built in 1896, at a time when New Orleans was sealing its reputation as America's most hospitable city. It consists of rum, brandy, curacao, bitters, and a spritz of soda, with fresh pinapple and orange to garnish.

Spread Eagle Punch appears in Jerry Thomas bar tenders-guide, 1862. The name is derived from one of two meanings of the term. Either the spread eagle that is the icon of The United States, or the term that is used to buy stocks on margin. Since Jerry Thomas was an American trader in stocks it can be assumed that he knew these meanings. It consists of rye, scotch, lemon oleo-saccharum, and is topped with a spritz of champagne and a few wild bergamot leaves.

American Orange Punch dates back to a 1858 bordeaux wine and liquor guide. Andrew Jackson, just sworn in as president, served it at a reception at the White House that was rumored to have gotten so out of control that a newspaper reported that all the men were so drunk the party had to be moved outside and that wine and ice cream could not be brought out to the ladies. It consists of brandy, curacao, orange oleo-saccharum and is topped with porter.
 

With the makings of an annual affair, Chef Jonathon Sawyer will be preparing a vegetarian Earth to Table feast this year. Featuring the bounty of The Chef’s Garden, this dinner is sure to satisfy even the most carnivorous palate.
For The Table
Greenhouse Tavern Spreads, Smears & Breads
Noodlecat Tsukimono Platter
Appetizers
Greenhouse Tavern
Lettuce Soup with Spring Herbs
Beet and Sorrel with Radishes, Almonds and Poppy
Noodlecat
Togarashi Edamame
Tomato Miso Jam Rangoons with Cream Cheese
Carte Blanche
Greenhouse Tavern
Sauteed Ramps and Fiddleheads with Garlic Shoots and Bernaise
Spring Supple Quinotta with baby Fennel, Favas, Pecorino, Peas, Poached Egg, Fresh mint and Farmer's Cheese
Ramp Gnocchi with Morels and White Asparagus
Noodlecat
Mustard Greens Salad with Thai Basil, Apple Kimchee and Ponzu
Ramp Rice Cake with Spicy Peanut and Tofu Puree
Udon with Spring Onion Confit, Fiddlehead Ferns, Vin Braised Boomers, Garlic Scapes and Miso Pistou
Desserts
Coming Soon!

$75 per person plus tax and gratuity*

Reservations are required. Please call 419.499.7500 for more information or to reserve your table!**
 

Harvesters Chefs Classic
The 16th Chefs Classic will be held June 24, 2012 at 5:30pm at The American Restaurant in Kansas City, MO. Tickets are $250 per person

Since its inception in 1997, Chefs Classic has raised more than $850,000, enabling Harvesters to provide nearly 4.25 million meals to hungry families in our region.

Chefs Classic allows some of this country’s most talented chefs to dazzle you with unexpected new flavors and ingenious ingredient combinations while you enjoy the ambiance of The American Restaurant. Coupled with the elegant wine pairings slated for each course, Chefs Classic is a true gourmand’s dream! And best of all, proceeds from the dinner benefit Harvesters. For more information on Chefs Classic, please call Megan Hunter of Harvesters at 816.929.3016

The 2012 Chefs Classic will feature these chefs:

Carl Thorne-Thomsen, Story, Kansas City

William Bradley, Addison at the Grand Del Mar, San Diego

Frank Dominguez, Farmland Foods, Kansas City

Howard Hanna, The Rieger Hotel Grill & Exchange, Kansas City

Susur Lee, Lee and Susur Catering, Toronto

Matthias Merges, Yusho, Chicago

Danica Pollard, Lidia's, Kansas City

2012 Host Chef:
• Debbie Gold, The American Restaurant, Kansas City, Mo.