This Week at the Herdic House
Well, we’re back to Wednesday Blue Plate this week, then we’ll switch things up again next week, mind you. And Hunter is on tap to prepare this evening’s Blue, so expect a fair proportion of protein—he wasn’t named Hunter for nothing! And it’s a great one: Coq au Vin. Expect chicken from Landis Farm, pulled into a sauce of red wine, Ten Mile mushrooms, onion and bacon and served over Deb Allison’s organic fettuccine. It’s $18 at our House, and $20 to go, like always—but, per usual, our number of to-go orders will be very limited.
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 Thursday night feature that feigns healthiness, all while loaded with the tangy umami of ranch dressing: house favorite Herdic Pittsburgh salad, this week served with grilled spicy shrimp, fresh-cut fries, grated cheddar and parmesan ranch. Plus, Hannah will be shaking up fresh plum cocktails at the bar..
You’ll pardon any errors, idiocies or accidental bits of other languages that may fall into this week’s email blast. Your correspondent is still suffering a bit of jet lag, and some culture lag as well, and she’s fallen hard in love again, with the beautiful, vibrant and gritty città di Bologna. But how can you not go head over heels for a town that greets you with a Renaissance-caliber sunset before you’ve even had time to cross the train tracks and descend into the pulsing heart of the city?
She’s currently perched in a skylight-lit attic, penning her weekly missive to the city of Williamsport from a flowered table (and she’s happy to report that the wifi in Italy has significantly improved since her last visit). And this often loquacious email would probably prattle on much longer, except that she’s got to get herself ready for a fancy dinner in Modena—so you’ll be spared truly Italian levels of excess until next week, we suspect.
But, in traipsing across Bologna over the past 24 hours, she can already observe a few differences that she wishes she could pack up in her suitcase and carry back home to Williamsport. She’s been striding past entire stores dedicated to handmade pasta, to cuts of meat, to gelato, to just mortadella, for heaven’s sake, each of them shoehorned into a space barely bigger than an American parking spot, and, furthermore, there are no parking spots in sight. In fact, the centro storico in Bologna is populated with very few cars…and they seem, delightfully, to have been replaced by people: on foot, on bicycles, on motorini. But more than that, the people are also gathered at tables in every piazza, under every portico (and with 38 kilometers of portici in central Bologna, that’s a lot of sidewalk dining) and on every street corner…and by and large they’re talking (Italians, after all) and by and large they’re talking to each other. Sure, they’ve got smart phones, but they’re not glued to them. It’s a delightful phenomenon to watch.
But to get off a rather high horse for a woman currently moving back and forth between her mac and her iphone, we’re hosting an equally delightful phenomenon at the Herdic House this weekend: a First Friday with the inimitable Elli Groninger, whose fabulous metal sculptures currently adorn the houses of almost every past and present Herdic employee, because Elli comes once a year to show with us, and her things are so beautiful, so unusual, so fanciful, that it seems we all have to buy yet another piece every time she makes an appearance—and quick, before our customers snap them up!
Elli’s work is well-suited to any environment, but particularly well-suited to the out of doors, so, if you stop in to check out her fantastic pieces (and you should) be sure to look not just in the lounge but also on the patio. And, if you happen to also be a bit hungry and thirsty, you should enjoy the delectable menu of greatest hits that our fabulous kitchen staff will be concocting while Liz, our overlord, is off eating too much and practicing her lackluster language skills in Italy…
- Where the wild things are: Hannah’s bespoke cocktail of plum, lemongrass and nasturtium, invented to pair well with Elli’s zany works of art
- Hunter’s Italian wedding soup, complete with lots of local greens, parmesan, pasta and Landis Farm chicken meatballs
- Roasted white peach stuffed with gorgonzola and wrapped in prosciutto, served with lemon-dressed arugula
- Grilled T-bone steak from Misty Mountain Farm served over sliced Tewksbury heirloom tomatoes and finished with a gorgonzola butter and baby Borderless Flavor arugula
- Sam’s justly famed tres leches cake, served with macerated peaches and nectarines