This Week at the Herdic House
Since the Herdic is a bit of a celebration type of a restaurant, we host our share of birthday parties big and small, so we know first hand what is blatantly obvious—there are millions of humans being born every day, across the world. Yet, that said, there are seasons that, here in Williamsport, seem to simply overflow with birthdays, and the tail end of March kicks off one of them. This past Saturday marked the 75th birthday of our friend Sally Butterfield (who’s likely to be in for dinner tonight, in fact), while these few days this week contain the birthdays of our one-time head server Wes Breen, former bartender Jacinta Hallman and the inimitable Gloria Miele, herself. Then Sunday, Herdic friend Bob Esposito will get another year older, and, over the next month or so, we’ll celebrate Liz’s birthday, Lula’s birthday, Teddy’s birthday, and the birthdays of a host of other Herdic friends (so many we dare not list them all lest we forget someone).
All of that said, it’s Gloria whose birthday we celebrate tonight (check out the photo by Rick Mason above, featuring Glory with guest servers Zach Ritter and Peachie O’Connor this past Friday). If you’re in early, you’ll be able to wish her “many happy returns”, as she dines (hastily) with the grandkids before we get busy. And while she had nothing to do with the selection of tonight’s Blue Plate, she did dictate that we’ll be handing out slices of her favorite chocolate peanut butter cake once she’s blown out the candles.
As for that Blue Plate, it will be Enmoladas tonight, a dish to which Sam Gonzalez introduced us—Landis Farm turkey and chicken rolled into corn tortillas with housemade mole sauce, queso fresco and raw onion, served over black beans and rice. 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. We’ll hope to see you out tonight! And we should mention that our soup tonight is more Glory’s speed: Italian wedding soup, with Hunter’s meatballs… 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 our Thursday night feature that pretends to be healthy, all while loaded with the tangy umami of ranch dressing: house favorite Herdic Pittsburgh salad, this week served with grilled tenderloin tips, fresh-cut fries, grated cheddar and parmesan ranch. Plus, Hayley on the bar (Hannah is in the DR this week) will be mixing up sparkling blueberry lemonade spiked with Tito’s vodka… And this Friday marks a truly excellent guest chef in our kitchen: we’d heard rumors of Marleni Feinstein’s culinary acumen over the past several years, long before we hired her daughter Divia as a server, but it took us years to lure her into our kitchen to share her gifts with the people of Williamsport. But now it seems we’ve hooked her! This year marks her third appearance in our kitchen—we started menu planning a few months ago, and the result in a Singaporean feast, styled more closely to the way in which Marleni’s family dines, with multiple complementary items served on the same plate or as accompaniments. Check out the menu designed by Hannah..and then call down for a reservation, please, because tables are filling up fast, and we want to be sure we have enough Singaporean fare for everyone!
And we don’t want to miss a chance to mention our other upcoming guest chefs and other guest appearances:
- Artist Laurel Gauthe on April’s First Friday, April 4
- and Kashfiah Fatema with recipes of Bangladesh and the Middle East on April 11
Keep an eye on our Facebook page for menus!