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The Weekly Newsletter |
Menus and Stories for January 9 - 14, 2006
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| Happy New Year! |
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Zowee - it is 2006! Sure, sure, for you it might be old hat by now, but for me, this is the first newsletter of the new year and I am not yet even accustomed to writing 2006 yet so I feel entitled to one little greeting before we plunge into the year without any mention of the previous one.
We've been off for a week and, though we're back, we're still sleepy in the mornings and not quite up to full speed. Maybe the same is true for you. Anyway - nice to be back.
Okay - here we go!
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Claret Fullum and her cheeses |
A few years ago I spoke at a seminar about connecting restaurants and local farmers. At the end of the talk two women quietly intorduced themselves to me, saying that they were starting to plan how they might someday make Mexican-style cheeses here. I encouraged them and told them to get in touch with me when they had something.
Well here we are, a couple of years later and her is their cheese! We'll start having it in our shop in the next week or so. For now they have two Queso Frescos (fresh cheese) which is a crumbly-type of cheese. They are also making Panela, which is like a Mozzarella and have a "Yogurt Cheese" too. The one is like cream cheese but has live cultures in it so it is very healthy and much fresher than those hideous blocks of mysterious stuff that you find in the grocery stores.
I'd also recommend their yogurt. We'll have it in our "help yourself" case in the shop so pick one up, get some or our granola, have a cup of coffee, and settle into one of our sunny cafe seats for a quiet, low-key, healthy breakfast.
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| A word about parking |
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It was brought to my attention the other day that the signs in our parking lot were scaring away our customers. I went and looked and, sure enough, found some newl-iinstalled ones that had a stern tone - not the kind of thing I, for one, wish to convey to our customers. I inquired further and, well, a few moments later got on a ladder with my wrench and removed them. (I DID get permission first.)
Here's all you really need to know:
If you are eating here or buying wine next door, you are welcome to park in the parking lot.
Okey dokey. That's all I want to say.
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Dinners to go (Free dinner drawing*) |
Dinners come with a freshly-made green salad, salad dressing of the day, and made-right-here bread of the day. We take reservations until noon or so. Please order by phone (252-1500), by FAX (252-02002) or stop in to speak to one of us in person.
Here's this week's menu:
Monday January 9 Rosemary and Lemon Chicken 9.75
Tuesday January 10 Pork Enchiladas with Pineapple Salsa 10.25
Wednesday January 11 Tenderloin Beef Tip Crepes with Sweet Potato Salad 10.75
Thursday January 12 Martha’s Meatloaf and Mashed Potatoes 10.00
Friday January 13 Salmon au Poivre 12.25
* Every time you order a dinner to go you are eligible to enter our drawing. Just drop a card in our drawing jar (a business card works or fill out one of the cards that we have right here) and, at the end of the month, we'll pull one card which will be good for two free dinners-to-go. Inaugurated last month, our first winner was delighted! Maybe you'll win next month.
Order a lot? Enter a lot!
Good luck!!
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Our website |
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| Casserole of the Week |
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We make a special casserole each week on Wednesday. Please give us a call by the end of the day on Tuesday and we’ll fix yours for you. Come by between 4:30 and 6:00. Get a half (for 4 appetites) or a full sized pan (for 9 or so.)
Wednesday, January 11
Macaroni and Cheese with Roasted Winter Vegetables
Full - 28.00
Half – 14.00
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A winter party in The Garden Room |
Just before Christmas we had a fun evening here. A group of visitors came here for the evening and had a cooking demonstration/wine tasting/dinner. When they arrived they were formal and reserved. By the time they left, they were jabbering away, smiling, hugging (more than one hugged me on the way out the door), and chriping about the fun they had had.
I love the way this place transforms. Keep us in mind if you are looking for a place to have a small-ish gathering. 30-50 is perfect for us. And just think - you won't even have to vacuum!
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| "Exemplary Service" |
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We have a few new projects on our plate this year. We're taking a close look at the points in our mission statement and are refinining, adjusting, adding and discarding as seems appropriate. One thing that will be a focus is the idea of not just plain-old "customer service" (you know, the kind where the person says "my pleasure" while sneering and acting rude.)
Zingerman's Deli, in Ann Arbor, does a lot that we like, including making Excellent Service one of their bottom lines. A couple of us have attended a couple of their seminars and really like the way they do thing and so - we're bringing them here to deliver their message to our whole staff.
What this means for you in the long run is a continuation of us doing what we already do - but better and more consistently. And, in the short run, it means that we will be closed for one whole day Monday, January 16, while we conduct a staff training.
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On my visit home |
I grew up in a tiny town (30 registered voters at the time I was living there.) Going to the grocery store or going to school meant driving to Brandon, a booming metropolis of a few thousand folks about 10 miles away.
I was there this Christmas, visiting my family. We went to the grocery store (!) and I had to stop when we passed our local Chamber of Commerce. The little building is just as it was when I was growing up. It was closed the day we visited, but I have been thinking about how often we would get a call from the Chamber volunteer, asking if there was room for two for dinner that night at our Inn.
We're making our Chamber building in Asheville quite a bit bigger: we could probably fit ten of these little buildings inside our new visitor center. Makes me smile.
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| A Note From Laurey |
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Whew! It feels like such a long time since I last wrote a newsletter. But here we are in January and it is a Saturday and I am regaining the comfort of my familiar routine (though I met with a bride and groom this morning which means that my routine is a bit delayed, but you get the idea.)
Tomorrow is our work Christmas party. We’re always too busy to do any personal celebrating in December, and, heck, we get to stretch the celebration out this way and I, for one, am fond of that sort of thing.
When my big sister was a baby, my parents spent the first of a few winters in Islamorada in the Florida Keys. They got some dried up branch for a Christmas tree and decorated it for her. She was delighted by the whole thing but, when it was time to take it down for the year, she became so horribly upset that they gave in and left the thing up – until June, I think. I’m sort of with her – still. My house still has a few decorations up and I’m kind of happy to leave them that way, though we’ll probably take them down after tomorrow’s festivities. Chris has a different feeling about these things than I do and so I’ll bend, since it is not the biggest deal in the world to me. She is one who puts decorations up in the beginning of December and is ready, by the end of the month, to put them all away.
One year, just a few years ago, I decided to leave my tree up until the needles lost their green. It took until May and I was very happy to have my tree up for the whole end of winter and start of spring. What’s the big deal, I wonder? It smelled nice. It looked nice. I liked it. Ah well. I look at our little tree and wonder what will happen to it.
On the other hand, Chris and I got out and cleaned up some garden beds the other day. It was very warm and we both ended up in our t-shirts as we raked and dug. We ended up with a gigantic pile of leaves and sticks, a pile that was about 15 feet long and filled in the entire center section of the yard. I resisted the temptation to leap into the middle of it (I knew about the branches that hid underneath the moss and leaves) but it was hard to hold back. The truth about raking is that, left to my own devices, I don’t rake, but tend to wait for the wind to blow the lawn clean. It usually does this at some point in the middle of the winter I have found, so raking has always seemed sort of unnecessary. But it was fun to be outside the other day and I admit that the whole place looks very clean right now, even though we only cleaned the beds near the house.
After all, not only is it a good idea to get a jump on Spring Cleaning, but my Christmas party is just around the corner and its always nice to have the place clean for the guests. I’ll be in touch next week.
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Fun with Christmas wrappings |
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Contact
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Laurey's "Gourmet Comfort Food"
Eat In - Take Out - Catering
67 Biltmore Avenue Asheville, NC 28801
828-252-1500
Hours:
Monday - Friday 8:00 - 6:00 pm
Saturday 8:00 - 4:00 pm
"Don't Postpone Joy!"(tm)
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