This Week at the Herdic House
Well that happened fast! In just under a week, we cycled from spring to nearly summer, and the world quite literally burst into bloom around us. The grass is purpled with violets on every street corner, the weeping cherries are waterfalls in bloom and the daffodils and tulips are an absolute riot of color everywhere you turn. Here at the Herdic, we’ve got our crop of pansies and violas planted on the patio, and our bar foyer has been taken down for the season…which means that tonight, we’ll be happy to serve dinner on the porch and patio, for those who want to get out in this suddenly hot spring weather!
At the growers’ market this past week they loaded us up with basil and cilantro, and Liz and the kids were out picking ramps this past weekend, so our Blue Plate this evening will reflect the season too: organic fettuccine with Landis Farm chicken, asparagus and wilted spinach, served a wild leek and basil pesto cream. The Blue Plate, as always, is $18 at our House and $20 to go. Our soup tonight will be a comforting Misty Mountain ham and lentil, and the appetizer will be simplicity itself: local arugula, goat cheese, pine nuts, radish and cucumber in a lemon vinaigrette…
Come join us for our Thursday happy hours at the bar, from 5-7 pm, with $1 off all beers and $2 off wines by the glass. Plus we’ll be serving our latest Thursday night feature: a lump crabcake sandwich with crispy slaw, horseradish dill mayo, with Hunter’s tasty sweet potato chips…
And if you haven’t caught the spring fever that’s raging around town these past few weeks, then you must not be getting outside enough. Whether it’s the birds, the bees, the school students or the regular old humans, it seems everyone has caught this malaise characterized by occasional allergic sniffles, coupled with vibrant joy and unusual amounts of energy. And it’s hard to blame them when the world is such a wonderland of sunshine and blossoms and warm breezes.
Of course, here at the Herdic, we’re determined to make the most of the season, coupled with our desire to also make the most of good food in general. So on Friday this week, we’ve settled on to pursuing a decidedly French bent, based on Liz’s desire to make beef tartare our tableside feature for the week. So we pulled out some old favorite Julia Child recipes, and tweaked them to feature some of the week’s excellent local ingredients, like the wild leeks, flower blossoms and greens that are suddenly in abundance…and did we mention the eggs? The chickens are laying like crazy, so we’ll be finishing that tartare with a perfectly orange spring egg yolk…
- Kir royale with lilac jam, chambord and fresh blossoms
- Warm wild leek and potato soup (yes, we made this last week, but damn, it was good, so we’re making it again…)
- Beef tartare prepared tableside, served with toast points, arugula and olive oil
- Sole bonne femme, stuffed with sauteed Ten Mile mushrooms and shallot, served over wilted spinach and potatoes Anna in a chablis cream
- Iles flottantes: poached meringues served in a pool of lavender creme anglaise and drizzled with magnolia syrup and candied violets
P.S. Please note, in the sidebar, that we’ve postponed our annual Shad Smoke by one week this year, so that we can focus on a memorial we’ll be hosting that weekend at the Herd, and Liz can make it to her 25th college reunion at least briefly…the Shad Smoke boys are looking forward to smoking you out on May 29 this year!