This Week at the Herdic House
Oh, these long and bright days! This might be our absolute favorite part of the season, when the days seem to stretch forever and summer (and school break) lays out long and luxurious before us, as the solstice approaches. And yet, even though summer is just beginning, the vegetables are already in abundance, giving us so much delicious fodder for this week’s menus!
But tonight, our Blue Plate is a warm weather classic, in hopes of inspiring the temperatures to move into true summer territory (even though this week has been lovely so far, and the strawberries clearly appreciate a break in the heat): ropa vieja, made with Misty Mountain Farm beef brisket, garlic scapes, sweet peppers and olives, and served over black beans and rice. The Blue Plate, as always, is $18 at our House and $20 to go, and you can reach us at 570-322-0165 to book a table! We’ll also have broccoli-cheddar soup with Misty Mountain Farm bacon, and a delightful little salad with lemon-oregano vinaigrette, cherry tomatoes, cukes, olives and feta…oh, the delights of summer!
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 lump crab cake sandwiches with caper slaw and housemade potato chips…
And this Friday marks the third year for our Paella on the Patio, which this year comes awfully close to coinciding with the Summer Solstice—and does, in fact, coincide with Juneteenth, an awesome holiday in its own right. While paella may not be a traditional meal to celebrate Juneteenth or the Solstice, we’re hoping it will do this year…and we’ll try to have some daisies on hand for making daisy chains!
On Friday, we’ll feature several dishes from years’ past, but also a few newbies—and some twists on our paella recipes of yore. The party starts at 6:00 pm with cocktails and family-style tapas, as the paella simmers, then continues to the “meat” of the evening, as we sit for a paella feast! The patio is pretty well booked up for this party, but we still have a seat or two left—call down if you’d like to make a reservation! The prix fixe meal is $69/person, including a small welcome cocktail… Welcome sip: Tinto de Verano,
with sparkling limonada, red wine and orange slices
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A selection of Spanish tapas: Spanish-style egg tortilla with potato, roasted tomato and spinach Roasted cauliflower with romesco and toasted almons Calypso bean and seared calamares salad with tomato and olive Fried eggplant with honey Duck confit pintxo, with caramelized onion and dried plum
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Simple green salad with snap peas, cherry tomatoes and marcona almonds in a sherry vinaigrette, finished with shaved manchego
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Seafood paella with shrimp, clams, mussels, squid, albacore tuna, cod and shell peas Landis chicken and Misty Mountain chorizo paella with saffron and zucchini
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Tarta de Santiago: Spanish style almond cake with fresh berries and whipped cream
And this Saturday marks an awfully big birthday for the man pictured below. Known, by his own avowal, often as “Judge Wood’s son”, “Liz Miele’s dad” or just Jim Wood, an all around wonderful man, a terrific dad and even better grandfather, he’s been our rock here at the Herdic House for as long as we’ve been open, providing everything from emergency Wegmans runs to good companionship at the bar to (at least for this Friday) piles of ultra-flammable scrapwood to fuel our Paella fires. If you see him, wish him Happy Birthday! And we’ll be running a menu of features on Saturday night that are sure to appeal to him (but what food doesn’t?), in honor of his 75th birthday!