The Hard Way: Menus

Running even an unspectacular restaurant is hard work. But the places that rise to the top of the industry do it by going the extra mile. Instead of cutting corners, they add thoughtful touches. Instead of doing things the easy way, they do it the hard way. And in the end, it’s the hard way that makes them better.

There are so many examples of how this plays out in practice. And some of these themes have already been touched upon at one point or another in the history of the FLB. However, yesterday on Table Hopping there was a discussion about how often would you like to see the menu change at your favorite restaurant.

Steve Barnes acknowledged that his favorite local spots tend to change their menu quarterly. To his credit, Steve pushed for monthly changing menus, but allowed the restaurants an out citing workload, expense, printing and training.

Still, he got it wrong.

If we are talking about the realm of ideals, the only answer is daily. But I could also accept a weekly menu with some daily adjustments to it. To explain this position, let me ask you a couple of questions.

What’s the shelf life of a just picked ear of corn still warm from the sun of the fields? How long is the growing season for the magnificent Pink Pearl variety of apple?

The best restaurants assemble their offerings from the finest ingredients they can gather. Not all of them are available in quantities that will last a week. Others are seasonal offerings that are not around for a full month. And as is the case with corn, some of these ingredients are significantly less magnificent on day two.

Spring menus, at least up in Albany, are printed even before spring has sprung. And sure, restaurants can secure a constant supply of asparagus through their produce brokers from across the country and around the world. But I challenge the notion that it’s of the same quality as the first tender shoots that are whisked from the local farm as soon as they are large enough to fit in a pan.

Menus should be written daily to take advantage of the constant changing availability of truly great ingredients. To relegate these items to a select group of daily specials means a restaurant is satisfied with stocking the rest of their menu with everyday items from their distributors.

And that may be fine. Customers in our McDonald’s culture may appreciate the consistency. But it’s cutting corners and shouldn’t be anyone’s ideal scenario.

This is an impossible task, you might say.

No. No, it is not. And you don’t have to be Alice Waters or Thomas Keller to pull it off either. Take Passionfish, for an example. It’s a modest restaurant in the town of Pacific Grove. It’s nice, but not formal. And it’s only open for dinner. But every morning the chef goes to see what fish are available. And every day he sources local, sustainable produce. Then he writes the menu.

Yes, there are things that appear almost every day during a particular season. Just because one writes the menu every day doesn’t mean the restaurant feels like a different place every time you go. The style is the same. The techniques of the kitchen get recycled using slightly different ingredients. But even in corn season you may miss out on the corn fritters if you have a late reservation. Tough noogies.

So the menu isn’t some glossy affair. The last time Mrs. Fussy and I were there it was a handwritten sheet that had been photocopied.

But in fancier restaurants I’ve been to, the daily menu is printed out on a high quality paper stock and inserted into an elegant binder. The printing costs are miniscule. Especially because the nature of these menus limits the day’s offerings to one or two pages at the absolute most.

This is a form of dining that has yet to truly emerge in the Capital District. But this is what it means for food to be good. And without more voices clamoring for its arrival, those of us who seek it out will either have to make it ourselves or travel.

Given that we’re surrounded by great farms, it’s a little embarrassing that nobody is doing it.