had our weekly meeting this morning with designers and contractors, this time in the space, to see where we are and to see how things are looking.  starting to look good!  if you took out all of the tools and extra lumber laying around, and threw in some tables and chairs, it would actually look like a restaurant.  well, one without a kitchen.  and more importantly, one without a bar.  think we should wait to open just a bit longer.

right now it is looking like an early june opening, which actually makes me quite happy.  we want to focus on local produce and such as much as we can, and in this neck of the woods that means we are a couple months away from a beautiful selection.  pretty soon we will be back at the green city market on wednesday and saturday mornings, enjoying crepes, listening to folk music, and perusing tasty local ingredients.

to get a little preview, some of my team and i are headed out to a couple of farms this thursday to get a better idea of what will be looking good around opening time, and also to taste some local pork, goat and veal.  spence farm was nice enough to let chefs request certain seeds to be planted this season.  i flipped through a catalog of hundreds of varieties of everything from cucumbers to eggplants to tomatoes.  kind of like christmas time when i was in high school and my mom had me flip through j-crew to circle some things i liked. (i had quite the collection of flannels).  there are some varieties i have never seen or tasted, so i look forward to getting them at the goat and playing around a bit.

we are also visiting kilgus farm.  they have great goat meat which we have used before, but they also specialize in veal and pork.  i have tried so many pigs lately, it is hard to keep track.  think i should start stockpiling samples and freezing them, then do a true blind taste test to see whose pigs reign supreme.

i did a fun event a few nights ago at kenmore where i featured their goat milk in a sauce that topped some allen brothers’ prime ny strip.  very simple to make, especially on the induction burner we used which makes it a lot easier to avoid scorching.  reducing milk over induction also helps maintain a low temperature while providing even heat.  was great to be able to walk away from it for a few minutes and not have to worry.  it takes a couple of hours to reach the right consistency so it is nice to be able to get a couple of other things done in the meantime.  try this over beef, chicken or fish (scallops would be great, too).

kevin, rob and i and many others continue to push forward on gettting girl & the goat open…look forward to a great spring!