The Feast of the Seven Fishes Dinner Sunday at 6:30 p.m. at Majid’s, 3930 Chenoweth Square, will “invoke a sense of an Old World communal feast,” according to bar manager Stephen Dennison.
“This is an Italian tradition, generally taken on Christmas Eve,” Dennison explains, “a celebration of family and the bounty of the sea.” Majid’s won’t just focus on Italian food, though, with a menu that includes British fish and chips and American oyster stew.
Cocktails will appear in the first course and the last course, according to Dennison. He says he has chosen drinks that marry the cuisine and cocktail. And guests will serve themselves with red and white bottles of wine on the table. This is “the tradition in the Old World,” he says.
On the menu: smoked oyster, house-cured salmon belly and tuna ceviche served with a “bloody Caesar” cocktail; butter-poached scallop with Persian pistou; oyster stew; family-style puttanesca; frittata of smoked salmon, cream cheese and chive; chopped salad with shrimp scampi, golden beet and hearts of palm; fish and house chips; and fresh fig cheesecake and chambord berries with a Dumante eggnog.
The dinner costs $55 plus tax and tip. Call (502) 618-2222 for reservations. More information: www.majidstmatthews.com
Bake it yourself with Please & Thank You
Coffee, treat and record shop Please & Thank You, 800 E. Market St., has launched a line of Bake It Yourself products, beginning with chocolate chip cookies and brownies.
“Everybody asks for the cookie recipe, but I’m not ready,” says co-owner Brooke Vaughn. “I’m married to a designer, and it’s a dream to do a cookbook someday. I don’t want to give my recipes away … but (the kits) are a way for people to confidently bake cookies at home.”
The cookie box comes with a dozen pressed-out rounds of refrigerated cookie dough. “It’s actually what we put in our ovens here,” says Vaughn. Also included are her tips for perfect cookies (the most difficult of which may be the instructions to wait five to 10 minutes after cookies come out of the oven before removing from the pan). Immediately, “I had someone buy 12 dozen for Christmas gifts,” says Vaughn.
The brownie box contains enough baking mix and Callebaut French chocolate chips for a dozen. “The chips are the kicker!” says Vaughn. The mix contains “Weisenberger flour, French cocoa, salt … everything we use to make our brownies,” she says. “The box tells you everything you need at home before you leave the grocery store.”
“I knew this was gonna work when my mom did it,” says Vaughn. (Her mom has never cooked.) “I gave her the zucchini loaf package and told her to roll with it, and she made a successful loaf.”
The zucchini loaf, a pumpkin loaf and a funfetti birthday cake will be among future Bake It Yourself offerings.
The cookie box costs $15 (freshly baked, they’re $1.75 each in the store), and the brownies are $12 ($3 each fresh in the store).
More information: www.pleaseandthankyoulouisville.com.
Bistro 301 updates farm-to-table menu
Continuing its emphasis on using local products, Bistro 301, 301 W. Market St., has updated its menu for the fall/winter. On the new menu, which includes an all-new entree lineup, “we’re trying to give people more small-plate options and inexpensive appetizers,” says owner Matt Mershon.
The new “mac n cheese” with Boone Creek cheese comes in a large ($10) and small ($6) plate size, as does the baked crab and artichoke dip. Bourbon chicken skewers with preserved lemon aioli round out the $6 offerings. The restaurant uses chicken from Garey Farms.
“David Garey is the farmer that we get all of our free-range chickens from,” says Mershon, “and he’ll give us a list of everything he’s growing. So right now we’re getting butternut squash and mustard greens. I think a lot of people don’t know how involved we are in farm to table. For 12 years we’ve been buying local. It wasn’t until the Kentucky Proud program started that we could do it on this scale. We’ve been able to partner up with farmers to purchase a lot of local products on a weekly basis.”
Mershon works with Stonecross for bacon and Carol Friedman for greens.
Mershon says local food is more than a dining trend for him.
“I’ve read and studied (sustainable-farming proponent) Wendell Berry,” he says. “It’s something I know about and care about and am passionate about.”
More information: (502) 584-8337 or www.bistro301.com.
News bites
Harvest, 624 E. Market St., was recently featured in a roundup of Best Southern Food in the U.S. in Food & Wine magazine.
Blind Pig, 1076 E. Washington St., has a new winter menu that includes all-new salads and two new dinner options: “walleye with red bean barley risotto and wilted chard” and the “grilled rib pork chop with mashed sweet potatoes and roasted root vegetables with persimmon compote.”
Annie May’s Sweet Cafe, 3110 Frankfort Ave., has added a breakfast menu, which includes breakfast sandwiches served on allergen-free, gluten-free buns. Organic bacon and eggs, and Grind veggie patties are among the options.
Relish has opened at 1346 River Road. The restaurant and “Gourmet to Go” shop’s menu focuses on healthy, fresh-ingredient-focused dishes.
Tell Dana! Send your restaurant “dish” to Dana McMahan at thecjdish@gmail.com.
