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.