My friend, Steven Shaw, Beard Award winner and co-founder of the eGullet Society, has a new book in print: Asian Dining Rules: Essential Strategies for Eating Out at Japanese, Chinese, Southeast Asian, Korean and Indian Restaurants. This book serves as a primer for folks who might be mystified by Asian restaurants and is filled with useful information and personal stories. Once such story includes a mention of yours truly, in a discussion about boiled peanuts. Yes, boiled peanuts are not a delicacy limited to the American South, as they’re pretty popular in Vietnamese cuisine. I happened to introduce Steven and his wife to boiled peanuts, purchased from a roadside stand next to a Piggly Wiggly in eastern North Carolina.
The book is a fun read and should be viewed as that, rather than a comprehensive guide to each region’s cuisine. I particularly found the Indian food section to be helpful, as that remains the cuisine most difficult for me to understand. And seeing it’s only 10 bucks from Amazon, it’s a bargain definitely worth purchasing.
(Note: Coquette will be open for dinner tonight at 5:00 PM. For previous chapters of the story of this restaurant, please see the sidebar to the right.)
Friday, October 24 – Three days to opening
Kevin Jennings is sitting at the hostess stand of Coquette, the newest addition to the Urban Food Group’s restaurants, having fun with the computer. He’s moving little squares, diamonds and rectangles around the computer screen. “This is the coolest program ever,” Jennings informs me. He’s talking about Open Table, the country’s leading restaurant reservation system, where customers can go online and book a table at restaurants across the nation. Jennings is configuring Coquette’s floor plan on the system, putting tables where they belong. “I can drag and drop a table wherever I want. It’s so easy.” Actually, it must not be that easy, as Jennings is on the phone with Open Table’s customer service shortly thereafter, trying to reconfigure the shape of the bar area.
Coquette just opened up their reservation system, and as of Friday, they only had a small handful of bookings. But that’s not a bad thing, as they know the walk-in crowd will be brisk and in some ways it’s better to be a bit slow during the first week or two of business, giving the front of the house and the kitchen staff a bit more time to get the entire routine down. And there are concerns about the readiness of the waitstaff. “We’re pretty green,” an assistant manager informs me. “And I think we might be understaffed.” A stack of resumes sits on the bar, and interviews continue to take place. One interviewee is a waiter that I first remember seeing over a decade ago at Caffe Luna. Waiters move around in this industry, and the secret to service success is often being able to retain the best ones the longest. Read the rest of this entry »
Brown and light chicken stock. Lobster stock. Veal stock. Duck jus. Duck confit. Rabbit confit. These have all been made in anticipation of Coquette’s first customers, which will actually be tonight. Not paying customers, mind you, but special guests at a fundraising party for a local charity. Tomorrow night brings family members and Saturday, regulars and other special guests. Monday is when the real show begins, and that’s the date everyone is focusing on. Read the rest of this entry »
I was excited to receive a press release today announcing that La Farm Bakery in Cary will be expanding by adding a café where they will serve lunch and dinner in a manner that will complement their wonderful breads and pastries. You may recall that I spent a wonderful morning last winter working at La Farm, kneading and baking bread, getting to know the master baker Lionel Vatinet.
Tartines, those French open-faced sandwiches, and pastries will be available in the mornings, while the later menu, available until 9pm, will showcase soups, salads, cheese and charcuterie plates, tartines and pizzas. With the addition of a full kitchen, classic dishes such as eggs benedict, croque madame and others will be offered. They’ll even have wine.
The new café will feature a communal farmhouse table for 10, as well as seating at café tables for 50 indoors and 25 outdoors on the covered patio.
Standing in front of 40 new employees of Coquette, Scott Luetgenau is discussing the Urban Food Group’s philosophy of customer care. “I don’t want you to become the customers’ friend, and they don’t care what your name is or anything about you. I do want you to take care of those customers’ every needs. I want you to interact with them enough to help them with their menu and drink choices. When the food is served and the customer isn’t eating it, find out why. If it’s not right, fix it. If it’s not what they expected, make it right.” Read the rest of this entry »
If you’ve noticed I haven’t been posting a lot lately, it might be because my job has been keeping me away. Or it might be because I’m coaching two of my kids’ sports teams. Or I’m watching them play about 6-8 soccer matches a week. It might be because I’m focusing on my responsibilities as a board member of the Triangle’s largest provider of children’s mental health services.
“The restaurant will essentially be completed this weekend,” Kevin Jennings told me on Wednesday as he was showing off his new zinc bar (all $100,000 of it) and the folding windows that will allow special tables to sit out on mini-patios. The red awnings across the windows are done. That bar — and yes, you can call it the 100 Grand Bar with apologies to Nestlé – is stunning. Banquettes will be installed on Friday, as will all other last minute touches. Fabric will spread across the ceiling to help damper the noise. Read the rest of this entry »
I love high-speed photography, but it’s way cool when it involves food. Weburbanist has a great piece that includes a ton of incredible shots. Check it out.
Scott Luetgenau, Director of Operations for Urban Food Group, is calm — too calm — when you realize that in 12 days he’ll start training 50 employees to handle the front of the house activities of Raleigh’s new brasserie, Coquette, which is to open on October 27th. Thorough staff training is vital at any restaurant — particularly a new one of this size — but Luetgenau literally has his training manual scripted out to the last detail. Whether it’s how to pronounce a particular French apertif or providing a basic overview of French cuisine or how to deal with customer allegations of food poisoning, it will be covered. But most importantly, Luetgenau stresses, is that the service will be spot on. ”We try to separate ourselves with our service, being crisp, professional, knowledgeable. One of our models is the type of service found at Danny Meyers’ restaurants in New York.” The servers at Meyers’ Union Square Hospitality Group restaurants and the ones at Urban Food Group don’t try to be your friends. They don’t squat down and chat with you. They try to learn what you like to eat and drink, perhaps offer a couple of suggestions as a result, and then get the damn job done without being intrusive. Read the rest of this entry »
Four restaurants will be opening shortly at the Markets at Lake Boone, the new mixed use development on Lake Boone Trail, right next to my office. I previously reported that JK’s Steakhouse would be relocating to the area, and it’s my understanding that they’re in the permitting stage.
Also opening are YoHo Asian Bistro, Ciao! Osteria and EATS. These new places won’t be all that new for two establishments, as there is a YoHo Asian Bistro in Cary and a Ciao! Osteria in Apex (and would someone please tell me why do we need an exclamation point in the middle of a name?). YoHo will take up 3,200 square feet, whereas Ciao!!! will be a jewel box of a place, taking up only 2,500 square feet. I know very little about EATS, other than it’s described as “fast casual” and is being opened by Raleigh real estate developer Hadley Watson.
The Markets at Lake Boone
4025 Lake Boone Trail
Raleigh, NC
Chef Rob Bland may have worked in French restaurants across the world, trained under Guy Savoy, and graduated from the Culinary Institute of America, but he lays awake at night, thinking of the opening of Coquette — the first place where he’ll be the boss. “It’s not that I’m worried about the success of the restaurant, but I’m anxious to make it all happen.” The 30 year old, tattoo-laden chef has a deep passion for food, but particularly traditional French food. “It has a certain finesse, which is the same trait I like to see with my cooks,” Bland told me recently. “Coquette will be all about respecting the ingredients, respecting the dishes.”
Most of the menu items are brasserie staples, such as moules frites, gougères, cassoulet and steak au poivre, but some dishes have a slight twist. “We’re serving skate meuniere, rather than with the classic sole, simply because we know we can get better skate at a reasonable price than we can with sole.” Coq au vin won’t be braised for hours, which is required when cooking with a traditional rooster, but it will still retain that deep, full flavor. Read the rest of this entry »
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