A Masterpiece for the Maestro

On a lovely September evening, Maestro Manfred Honeck, new music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, celebrated his 50th birthday with a seven-course dinner on the patio at Passport Cafe.

He was accompanied by PSO leadership and several of the principal musicians. We were honored to serve Maestro Honeck, and look forward to the continuation of a tradition of beautiful symphonic music at Heinz Hall.

This is the menu we served:

Petits canapés
Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin

Baked zucchini filled with sopprasotta sausage, sundried tomoato, Kalamata olives and fresh mozzarella
2007 Terredora Falanghina

Seared scallop, citrus au jus, pickled asparagus
2006 Domaine Trois Frères Muscadet

Bronzino (sea bass) dusted with chickpea flour and pan-fried, with heirloom tomato
2006 Cakebread Cellars Sauvignon Blanc, Napa

Salad of local greens, peaches, goat cheese and sunflower seeds with honey plum vinaigrette

Shelter Farm lamb rack with mushrooms and kidney sauce
2008 Nieto Sentiner Pinot Noir, Argentina

Tenderloin of beef and duck sausage with Port fig sauce
2004 Château Montelena Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa

Gâteau Opéra served with coffee-caramel gelato and fresh strawberries

We're Blushing

A customer recently sent us a link to his blog, saying that a visit to our restaurant had prompted him to post a message about Passport Cafe on his blog. The writer owns a consulting firm headquartered in Wexford, and we hope he will introduce himself next time he and his family come in to dine! Here is his post:

PASSPORT CAFE ACCOLADES
Posted: August 24th, 2008, by Andy

Consistent with the preceding post and in contrast to the next one, we feel compelled to write about our favorite restaurant, Passport Café of Wexford, PA.

So far, our readership numbers have not been huge, but the trend is pointing in the right direction and we do write for a highly-selective, refined, and intelligent crowd. Unfortunately, that rules out many of the six billion. (If we were pandering, we would mention that our readership is extremely good-looking, too.)

We’ve had readers from across our great country and across the oceans, but for those readers who live or plan to travel near our corporate headquarters in Wexford, PA, we unconditionally recommend meals at Passport Café.

We’ve been there on several occasions, and wish that we could go more often. The food is fresh—much of it is local—and the style is varied and international. All of it is done right. Well, not just right, but perfect. We attribute this perfection to the use of the best possible ingredients. We believe that is also why we always leave astonished by the fact that normal portions, i.e., 1980’s portions, can be so filling and satisfying.

By the way, the service is exceptional, and here is an example of something that happened today at brunch.

Yesterday, we downloaded the Sunday brunch menu, and the junior princess immediately fixated on the chicken pot pie. (Before we continue, we should note that it is a shame that their dish should share that same name with things served in cafeterias and that come out of frozen boxes.) Anyway, the junior princess was set on it.

When we arrived, we soon realized that the menu had changed, and we briefly mentioned it our server, a very gracious young lady named Alyssa. We thought no more about it.

Our four meals arrived, and we attempted—without much success—to breathe between bites; everyone enjoying each morsel. (We’re sure the children appreciated the fact that the table was wider than our arms are long.) Then what to our wondering eyes should appear, but chicken pot pie, compliments of the chef. Completely unnecessary, but completely appreciated. Needless to say, the junior princess’s eyes lit up, and the bigger one’s face was suddenly green with envy.

We suspect that on Tuesday, she will be the envy of the school cafeteria when she “bags” the leftovers in a hot thermos.

Thank you Alyssa and Passport Café, and please, please, please keep up the good incredible work.

Lazy Sunday

Sundays are one of my favorite days at the restaurant.

One of our guests today, visiting from New York, said the menu reminded her of a "New York brunch." There is definitely something for everyone, as guests can choose from breakfast favorites or lunch entrees. We are open from 10 - 3, so the time you arrive might have some bearing on whether you feel more like breakfast or lunch.

I know that I love the menu choices like "Eggs Benedict" and "Croque - Scrambled Madame" that are only available on Sunday. When we lived in Paris in 2006 while Mark was concluding a deal for Heinz, we were surprised to see that eggs for sale in the market were not refrigerated. Instead, they were stamped with the date laid -- usually two or three days before I was purchasing them! Using fresh eggs not only to serve by themselves but also as an ingredient in pasta or cakes made such a difference in the taste. Upon our return from France -- even before we opened Passport Cafe -- we began to use eggs from Eichner farm because we learned they are always freshly-laid, often the same day. We also learned from Mr. Eichner that his chickens are fed only grain, not parts of other chickens as they are at some corporate chicken farms. I remember his telling us, "That's just not right. That's not the way God intended it to be."

Although we use Eichner Farm eggs all week in the kitchen, it is on Sunday that they are showcased. Perfect eggs, perhaps paired with local ham and a famous Chef Carlson sauce -- as far as I'm concerned, you can't get better anywhere.

I got so carried away talking about the eggs, I haven't even mentioned the Sunday pastries. Our pastry chef, Erin Ribo, came to us at the beginning of December from Hyeholde Restaurant, where her desserts had achieved no small fame. Through the week, Chef Ribo makes our daily bread and focaccia, along with tantalizing desserts that are as beautiful as they are delicious. On Sunday, though, she outdoes herself with made-from-scratch croissants -- plain and with chocolate. She also makes one or two varieties of muffins and a cinnamon or nut pastry. We offer small or large pastry baskets so people at the table can sample all of them!

One of my other favorite features of Sundays at the restaurant is that customers come in relaxed. It may seem like the perfect time to enjoy a Bloody Mary or a Mimosa when the rest of the day is not programmed -- or at least not as programmed as other days. I also love that there are usually some multi-generational groups. It can be a special time for grandparents to fuss over grandchildren, and vice versa. The children are often dressed in their special clothes and are on their best behavior, aware that this is a sort of fancy place and anxious to show that they can act grown up too.

I don't know why, but it seems that the best behaved children in the community come to our restaurant. It probably helps that Mark and I are crazy about children. We have puzzles and coloring books to help keep them occupied, and special "Bento boxes" for serving children's meals. Mark has even been known to carry a baby around for enough time to allow a harried mother or father to enjoy a meal. He manages to keep the baby fascinated while he continues to greet guests and shows the baby the workings of the kitchen at the chef's table window.

If you have not yet had a chance to join us for Sunday brunch, take a break from "fast food" and come relax with us on a Lazy Sunday.

"Local Harvest" Plentiful in Northern Suburbs

Summer has arrived in Pittsburgh!  

My husband Mark and I opened Passport Cafe last fall with a commitment to using products from local farms as much as possible.  In the fall we enjoyed a lovely harvest of different varieties of squash and corn from Kaelin's and Shenot's for as long as they lasted.  We also bought dozens of chickens and dozens upon dozens of eggs each week from Eichner Farm, just a couple of miles down the road.

Over the winter, we researched additional sources of local meat.  We found delicious ground beef, pork and steaks from Penn's Corner Farm Alliance.  We also convinced our friend Joan Spaulding from Shelter Farm in Greene County to sell her lamb to us instead of sending it off to New York restaurants.   Like our other products, we can only get it "in season" and there are two lambing seasons a year at Shelter Farm.  We are not offering it on our current menu, but ask anyone who had our lamb spring rolls, lamb pasta, leg of lamb, or our lamb mini-burger "sliders" and they will tell you it was off-the-charts delicious.  We may have some again in July.  Watch for its return on our menus on=line.

Now that it is summer we can offer a rich and varied local harvest, so that you are assured of the freshest local greens, vegetables and fruits.  You may run into Mark doing his rounds at the Wexford farm markets, picking up oversized bags of mixed greens at Kaelin's or local tomatoes at Soergel's.  There is always a good chance of seeing him at Eichner's collecting chicken and eggs, as well as ham and bacon for our Sunday Brunch and 80% lean hot dogs for our Summer Kids' Lunches.  

We waited with some impatience all winter for the time when our guests would be able to enjoy lunch, dinner or brunch on our patio.  Thanks to the gardening skills of our friend Hazel Pruckner we have been able to offer our guests a lush setting since early May.   Additionally, on Fridays when Northway Christian Community has a car cruise, we grill on the patio and offer special fresh-from-the-grill appetizers and entrees -- plus a dollar off all beers on tap!

Our community is a marvelous blend of homes, retail, places of worship, workplaces, and farms.  We feel blessed to live in such a beautiful place.  Mark and I hope that you will enjoy many delicious meals at Passport Cafe.  Even more, however, we hope you will find it -- as many already have -- to be a place where people in the community gather to catch up with friends and to celebrate special occasions, all the while knowing they are supporting our local farms and other businesses.