This Week at the Herdic House
The most important thing on this week’s email agenda is to remind everyone that our Blue Plate Special isn’t happening until tomorrow (Thursday) this week! We’ve got a large group in our main dining room this evening, and there just wasn’t enough room for both events tonight. But the Blue will be delightful: an eggplant and zucchini parmesan, layered with fresh mozzarella and finished with a knot of roasted sweet Carmen peppers and extra parmesan, of course. 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.
But after the Blue Plate train rumbles through on Thursday, the heirloom train will be pulling into the station on Friday evening, in the form of an heirloom tomato drop from our friends Johnny and Leah at Tewksbury Grace Farm. We treasure the arrival of our orders from Tewksburys, because they don’t just arrive with spectacular produce, but also with the extraordinary goodwill of Leah Tewksbury, who definitely qualifies as one of those “rays of sunshine” that you often read about. She beams her way into the kitchen, regales us with tales of how delicious the tomatoes are this week, and invariably deposits some little gift in passing—last week two perfect, and wonderfully sweet, bubblegum peaches that were the first tiny harvest off the Tewks’ newest plum tree.
We have built a rich community of wonderful farming friends and acquaintances over our 41 years in business here at the Herdic, but the Tewksburys are true standouts in their passion for their work and their product, and we count ourselves better people for having known them…and for having eaten their tomatoes. Come in and sample some of the wonderful goodness this Friday evening, as Liz puts together a luscious heirloom and specialty tomato menu, full of the best flavors of the season…
- Sungold tomato zinger
- White tomato gazpacho finished with a lemony zucchini carpaccio and a drizzle of harissa
- Brandywine tomato pie, southern-style (Liz made this for a Derby party this spring and it was so good, we swore we’d put it on a menu someday)
- Heirloom tomato caprese salad with fresh basil, spicy oil and a balsamic drizzle
- Grilled rosemary-rubbed, double-cut lamb chops with Striped Roman tomato agrodolce, crumbled feta and crispy potatoes
- Sungold tomato and nectarine buckle served warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream
P.S. Your correspondent will be sending her outpost from Italy, of all places, this coming week, so look out for a particularly loquacious, possibly bilingual and perhaps disconnected epistle this coming Wednesday. But the kitchen will be the same old tight ship, as Hunter, Andrew and Sam concoct delicious specials with awesome local produce, and have some fun while the queen bee is abroad…
P.P.S. If you happen to run into Linden and Anaïs around the Herdic this week, be sure to congratulate them on their start in kindergarten at Cochran this week. Time sure does move fast around here….