Hey everybody! Chef Jim here with a special announcement:
HIBERNATION SEASON IS OVER!
I know the last time you looked out from your cave it looked like the ice planet of Hoth out there, but there's been this big bright thing in the sky lately (rumors are circulating that it is called "The Sun") that will, scientists tell us, start warming things up soon now. As we here at the Gypsy are testing out our impending Spring menu, we have a giant flurry (oops, bad word choice) of activities on the way before that debuts. For instance...
Travellers' Menu
All this week Gypsy, in tribute to the “Irish Gypsies” known as the Travellers, will be featuring Irish dishes as part of a special extended menu:
‘Tribute to the Travellers’ Menu 2010
Smoked Trout Pate $8
Smoked Trout, cream cheese, and scallion spread served with cucumber and crostini
Irish Cheese Plate $9
Favorites Cahill Porter and Sage Derby with Port Derby and accompaniments
Colcannon Soup $4
Traditional Irish dish of potato, milk, cabbage, scallion, and leeks simmered into a hearty soup
Bubble and Squeak $14
Irish peasant dish of potato, cabbage, onion, and red cabbage patties pan-fried and topped with bacon crumbles and Irish Cheddar and served with a dill sour cream sauce.
Conway’s Irish Ale Stew $16
Slow-cooked stew of beef and root vegetables served with Cheddar dumplings
Milk-poached Cod $16
Cod fillet poached in milk with melted leeks, served with dill and goat cheese mashed potatoes
A Thinking Person's St. Patrick's Day 3/17 7PM
Kicking this off will be a special event Wednesday March 17th in benefit of the Carnegie Libraries: A Thinking Person's St. Pats. We will be featuring not only our special Irish menu and Irish beer and drink specials but also local librarians (!) reading passages from their favorite (or should that be favourite?) Irish writers and collecting donations for the Carnegie library system! Gypsy will donate a portion of our proceeds from this event to the South Side and Knoxville libraries as well. Get your think on as you get your drink on! It all starts @ 7pm, and as you know our seating is limited so reservations are definitely a must. Special thanks to Mrs. Suzy Waldo of Knoxville Library for brainstorming this event, coordinating the librarians, securing the amp and microphone, and getting the Carnegie Library on board! (RESOS: 412.381.4977)
Croatian Wine Tasting 3/20 1PM
Last year, cousins Diana Shaban and Dubravka Nezic started their own wine importing business to bring to Pennsylvania the wines of their family vineyards in Croatia. On Saturday March 2oth, the ladies will be hosting a special wine tasting event of those wines, from 1-3 pm at Gypsy. This is a rare opportunity for wine aficionados to taste vintages rarely available here in the US, and in addition to the Nezic Vineyards Tomindar Riesling, the cousins will be offering a second estate Riesling and a Frankovka (red). If the fruit of the vine is your thing, this is a can't-miss.
$20 for wine and hors d’oeuvres. Reservations are recommended.
Rollerderby Season Kickoff 3/20
Our Steel City Derby Demons are on a roll (sorry, couldn't resist), climbing four slots in the national rankings (from 20th to 16th in the nation!), moving into their new home at Romp -n- Roll in Glenshaw, and training for their home opener on Saturday March 20th against the Maine Rollerderby All-Stars.
To get you ready to romp and roll: http://www.steelcityderbydemons.com/home/2010/lores-tv-pittsburghs-derby-demons/
Derby Brunch 3/21
The sure-to-be-triumphant ladies of the SCDD will be joining us for a Geek Brunch in their honor the Sunday after their match from noon to 3pm with dishes named after some of our favorite players. Our last season of derby brunches was a huge success, and we are honored to host the post-bout brunch again this year. Brunch has been crazy lately in general, so if you have a group larger than 4, please call ahead. 412.381.GYPSY (4977)
One Last Brunch Item:
Reports of our brunch closure 3/28 were greatly exaggerated. Jim will still be out of town, but we are just tickled to announce that GUEST CHEF JOE POST will be filling in and frying up your morning medicine 3/28!
Bricks Pittsburgh Booklet Release Party 3/20 3PM
Last year Pittsburgh lost a bright star and a loving heart when visual and sound artist Rick Gribenas succumbed to cancer. Feeling this loss most acutely is his lovely wife, our dear friend Charissa Hamilton-Gribenas and her son, Jaden. Charissa is a kitten who has never shied from the uphill battle, and the good and resourceful woman she is, she is putting all her energies toward the good achieved by her organization, Bricks Pittsburgh, formed to help other young adults fighting cancer. Saturday, at AIR studio on the North Side is the release party for the long awaited BRICKS for Young Adults Cancer Awareness & Resource Guide
http://www.artistsimageresource.org/upcoming_events/index.html
A second event is scheduled at the Hot Metal Bridge Faith Community location at 2700 Jane Street on the 27th from 2-5. For more info: http://brickspgh.blogspot.com
Dr. Sketchy's Anti-Art School: “Sideshow Sketchy”!
Dr. Sketchy (aka Joe Wos) has been tearing up the Toonosphere with last year’s opening of the Pittsburgh ToonSeum in its own space at 945 Liberty Avenue (www.toonseum.org) where the one of a kind events have been non-stop since the doors first opened. Recently, a special dual drawing event between Sketchy Pittsburgh and Sketchy New York happened at the ToonSeum, with rooms full of artists drawing each other’s models live via the interwebs! The next Dr. Sketchy session, "Sideshow Sketchy" happens here at Gypsy Monday March 22nd. Doors open at 7 so’s you can pick your seat and get some grub from Gypsy’s especially themed-to-the-theme menu, and drawing starts at 8pm! Come on down and draw the lovely and talented Sketchy models for prizes, have a great time whatever your skill level, AND get a chance to mix it up with your drawing homies. $10 door
PS: Melanie is hoping to join in the fun by modeling as a bearded lady. That should be incentive enough on its own, I'd think..
Gypsy’s got some other great events on the burner with ToonSeum, so stay tooned!
Spring Menu Debut!
One of the pillars of Gypsy's philosophy is to use what is freshest and best by changing our menu with the seasons. Our Spring menu, debuting on Tuesday March 23rd,will be featuring some of your favorites from Spring menus past, like our Scallion and Potato Gnocchi in Onion Butter and our Dill and Almond Pesto-crusted Salmon as well as some new soon-to-be favorites, like our new Kalamata Chimichurri Strip Steak. Hungry yet? Curious as to what other delights our Spring menu holds for you? You'll have to join us after Tuesday to find out more!
Spring is here, I don't care what that rodent in Punxatawney says, and we are doing our best to give you some fun reasons to shake off those hibernation blues. Thanks for reading and for supporting Gypsy!
Chef Jim
Coming Attractions:
· Look for our new website—where all the buttons will work, I swear—end March. Thanks to Jim’s whiz kid kid sister, Madge!
· Don’t forget—Gypsy Strings every Thursday at 8PM
· City Theatre’s got a BRAND NEW WORLD PREMIERE SHOW opening March 26: Gypsy will be there catering the before and after parties for When January Feels Like Summer www.citytheatrecompany.org
· Easter Brunch: We haven’t done it since our first year, but this may be the year to return—expect a buffet style event with a Gypsy twist!
· April 9: Private music and dinner event with the Wandering Minstrels of Chatham Baroque—details TBA
· Don Aliquo—next date Saturday, April 17 at 8!
· Look for a SLOVAK wine tasting here at Gypsy—beginning May. Details TBD
*******************************************************************
Housekeeping:
PS: You are receiving this message because you submitted your email address to our mailing list. If you have received this message in error, or if you’d like to stop receiving occasional messages from Gypsy Café, please reply as such here: gypsy@gypsycafe.net and we will remove your address post-haste!
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Greetings from the HEART of the SNOWPOCALYPSE!
Greetings from the heart of the SNOWPOCALYPSE!
Chef Jim here. While we have all been freezing our collective tushies off shoveling and salting, I have been in the kitchen staying warm cooking up some delicious food for the Gypsy Nation.
VALENTINE WEEK MENU
Speaking of staying warm, Valentine’s Day is upon us. We are celebrating all Valentine’s weekend long with a special menu insert with some specially themed Valentines dishes for you and those you hold dear (please see below). We are offering a prix fixe menu for two made up of these Valentine’s specials for $50, including shared appetizer, choice of soup or salad, two entrees and shared dessert Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, or enjoy any of the items ala carte.
A Gypsy Valentine 2010
Appetizers
The Plate of Fruit and Honey
Fresh berries and Greek sheep’s milk Manouri cheese drizzled with pistachio honey, 8
Soup and Salad
Purple Passion Soup
Red cabbage, potato, parsnip and carrot bisque with sour cream, $4
(Our entry into this year’s South Side Soup Contest February 20! Get tickets at southsidepgh.com)
Lovers’ Salad
Baby greens with avocado, Dolce Gorgonzola, toasted walnuts, and pomegranate vinaigrette, $7
Entrées
Lamb Lollies
Za’atar-crusted Lamb Chops with honey-pomegranate sauce over goat cheese mashed potatoes, $18
Pasta Casanova
Linguine tossed with grape tomato, anchovy, roasted red peppers, Kalamata olives and baby spinach in extra virgin olive oil (available vegetarian without anchovy), $14
Giacomo Girolamo Casanova de Seingalt (1725 – 1798) was a Venetian adventurer and author who was so famous as a womanizer that his name remains synonymous with the art of seduction.
Queen of Sheba Salmon
Pistachio and spinach pesto crusted salmon filet and toasted Israeli cous cous with butternut squash, $18
Legend says the Queen of Sheba was convinced that pistachios were a powerful aphrodisiac and ordered the pistachio harvest of the best trees grown in Assyria to be used for her and her royal guests only.
Dessert
Pistachio Baklava
Crispy, buttery pistachio baklava triangles drizzled with honey, $5
Valentine Trifle
Individual trifle of sweet and sour cherries layered with lemon cake and white chocolate lemon crème anglaise garnished with whipped cream, $7
Truly, Madly, Deeply
Flourless imported bittersweet chocolate cake layered with chocolate mousse and chocolate ganache, finished with homemade caramel and fleur de sel, $7
Truffle Trio with Pomegranate Wine
Dark chocolate-Espresso and walnut brownie diamond, Giandiuotto (Italian hazelnut chocolate) truffle, and White chocolate-Apricot truffle accompanied by Tree of Life Pomegranate dessert wine, $8
$50 per couple or ala carte as priced
SATURDAY LATE NIGHT DATE NIGHT
For you night owls out there, on Saturday night Feb 13 you can enjoy a special deal after 9 pm. Order the entire Valentine Prix Fixe for just $35! Or, order ala carte and take $5 off of any of our Valentine’s entrées and enjoy any of our special appetizers or desserts for $5. Valentine Menu Cocktails are also $5 and other Drink menu items will be at special prices. We promise to turn the lights down extra low and set out extra candles for free! You get to look like a true romantic AND save some scratch! (You’re welcome!) Please call for reservations!
SUNDAY BRUNCH NOON-2:30
The annual “Famous Couples” Brunch returns Sunday. You may want to call ahead for this—we usually don’t take many reservations for Brunch, but we’ve got lots of folks calling and are starting to fill. Pepe Le Pew and Miss Kitty’s French Toast, anyone?
Please note: Brunch will end just a wee bit early, at 2:30, to accommodate the City Theatre show letting out at 3:30.
SUNDAY DINNER JAZZ AND RELAX
Topping off our Valentine’s Day festivities will be that coolest of the jazz cats and a man who knows his way around a soulful ballad: Mr. Don Aliquo, saxophonist extraordinaire and notorious jazzbeaux. If you want a hip way to show your beatnik chick how much you dig her then by all means make your reservations now, daddy-o. Don’t be a square. Joining Don, the whipsmart Mark Perna on bass and sweetie pie Ronnie Wilson on guitar starting at 6.
Every Sunday Gypsy offers a prix fixe and ala carte menu—this Sunday, enjoy items from our Valentine menu in addition to Winter Menu items.
Sunday Dinner hours: Early open at 3:30 to accommodate the City Theatre crowd until close at 9.
SOUTH SIDE SOUP CONTEST!
Another noteworthy February tradition that my lovely and talented wife Melanie has her hands in again this year is the South Side Soup Contest, and Gypsy is of course entering another delicious creation. This year, our tribute to the Gypsy punk band Gogol Bordello: “Start Wearing Purple” Soup, a lovely lavender-colored concoction of red cabbage, parsnip, potato and carrot made rich with sour cream (get a preview this week—we’re featuring this soup on our Valentine Menu! Saturday February 20th is the date, from NOON til 3, and for a measly $12 and a canned good, ($15 the day of the event) you get to taste the best soups from the best restaurants in the South Side. Proceeds benefit a great cause: the Brashear Food Pantry. What could be better on a cold snowy February Saturday than hot soup?
Get tickets here: www.southsidepgh.com
THEY LIKE US. THEY REALLY LIKE US!
Our humble little café has been the center of some major media attention lately, and of course, since our marketing budget is mostly imaginary, we are welcoming the hype.
Michael Machosky from the Tribune-Review was nice enough to include my Geek Brunch in his Geek’s Tour of Pittsburgh article, along with our friends at The Pittsburgh ToonSeum, Phantom of the Attic, and more. Read it here: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10010/1026585-46.stm.
Also, the venerable Washington Post made mention of the South Side Soup Contest featuring not only Gypsy but several of our Pittsburgh culinary buddies and you can get that article here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/04/AR2010020402892.html. Thanks so much and as always we are humbled by our praise.
THIS JUST IN: We MAY be mentioned in an article about the Soup Contest in the Trib soon also! Keep an eye out!
This is Chef Jim signing off. I have to get back to work; Mel had me implanted with a microchip that gives me a small but memorable electric shock if I am away from the kitchen for too long. Stay warm and keep shoveling!
Thank you for helping us to make this little place possible.
Chef Jim, Melanie, and the Gypsy Krewe
*******************************************************************
Housekeeping:
PS: You are receiving this message because you submitted your email address to our mailing list. If you have received this message in error, or if you’d like to stop receiving occasional messages from Gypsy Café, please reply as such here: gypsy@gypsycafe.net and we will remove your address post-haste!
Chef Jim here. While we have all been freezing our collective tushies off shoveling and salting, I have been in the kitchen staying warm cooking up some delicious food for the Gypsy Nation.
VALENTINE WEEK MENU
Speaking of staying warm, Valentine’s Day is upon us. We are celebrating all Valentine’s weekend long with a special menu insert with some specially themed Valentines dishes for you and those you hold dear (please see below). We are offering a prix fixe menu for two made up of these Valentine’s specials for $50, including shared appetizer, choice of soup or salad, two entrees and shared dessert Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, or enjoy any of the items ala carte.
A Gypsy Valentine 2010
Appetizers
The Plate of Fruit and Honey
Fresh berries and Greek sheep’s milk Manouri cheese drizzled with pistachio honey, 8
Soup and Salad
Purple Passion Soup
Red cabbage, potato, parsnip and carrot bisque with sour cream, $4
(Our entry into this year’s South Side Soup Contest February 20! Get tickets at southsidepgh.com)
Lovers’ Salad
Baby greens with avocado, Dolce Gorgonzola, toasted walnuts, and pomegranate vinaigrette, $7
Entrées
Lamb Lollies
Za’atar-crusted Lamb Chops with honey-pomegranate sauce over goat cheese mashed potatoes, $18
Pasta Casanova
Linguine tossed with grape tomato, anchovy, roasted red peppers, Kalamata olives and baby spinach in extra virgin olive oil (available vegetarian without anchovy), $14
Giacomo Girolamo Casanova de Seingalt (1725 – 1798) was a Venetian adventurer and author who was so famous as a womanizer that his name remains synonymous with the art of seduction.
Queen of Sheba Salmon
Pistachio and spinach pesto crusted salmon filet and toasted Israeli cous cous with butternut squash, $18
Legend says the Queen of Sheba was convinced that pistachios were a powerful aphrodisiac and ordered the pistachio harvest of the best trees grown in Assyria to be used for her and her royal guests only.
Dessert
Pistachio Baklava
Crispy, buttery pistachio baklava triangles drizzled with honey, $5
Valentine Trifle
Individual trifle of sweet and sour cherries layered with lemon cake and white chocolate lemon crème anglaise garnished with whipped cream, $7
Truly, Madly, Deeply
Flourless imported bittersweet chocolate cake layered with chocolate mousse and chocolate ganache, finished with homemade caramel and fleur de sel, $7
Truffle Trio with Pomegranate Wine
Dark chocolate-Espresso and walnut brownie diamond, Giandiuotto (Italian hazelnut chocolate) truffle, and White chocolate-Apricot truffle accompanied by Tree of Life Pomegranate dessert wine, $8
$50 per couple or ala carte as priced
SATURDAY LATE NIGHT DATE NIGHT
For you night owls out there, on Saturday night Feb 13 you can enjoy a special deal after 9 pm. Order the entire Valentine Prix Fixe for just $35! Or, order ala carte and take $5 off of any of our Valentine’s entrées and enjoy any of our special appetizers or desserts for $5. Valentine Menu Cocktails are also $5 and other Drink menu items will be at special prices. We promise to turn the lights down extra low and set out extra candles for free! You get to look like a true romantic AND save some scratch! (You’re welcome!) Please call for reservations!
SUNDAY BRUNCH NOON-2:30
The annual “Famous Couples” Brunch returns Sunday. You may want to call ahead for this—we usually don’t take many reservations for Brunch, but we’ve got lots of folks calling and are starting to fill. Pepe Le Pew and Miss Kitty’s French Toast, anyone?
Please note: Brunch will end just a wee bit early, at 2:30, to accommodate the City Theatre show letting out at 3:30.
SUNDAY DINNER JAZZ AND RELAX
Topping off our Valentine’s Day festivities will be that coolest of the jazz cats and a man who knows his way around a soulful ballad: Mr. Don Aliquo, saxophonist extraordinaire and notorious jazzbeaux. If you want a hip way to show your beatnik chick how much you dig her then by all means make your reservations now, daddy-o. Don’t be a square. Joining Don, the whipsmart Mark Perna on bass and sweetie pie Ronnie Wilson on guitar starting at 6.
Every Sunday Gypsy offers a prix fixe and ala carte menu—this Sunday, enjoy items from our Valentine menu in addition to Winter Menu items.
Sunday Dinner hours: Early open at 3:30 to accommodate the City Theatre crowd until close at 9.
SOUTH SIDE SOUP CONTEST!
Another noteworthy February tradition that my lovely and talented wife Melanie has her hands in again this year is the South Side Soup Contest, and Gypsy is of course entering another delicious creation. This year, our tribute to the Gypsy punk band Gogol Bordello: “Start Wearing Purple” Soup, a lovely lavender-colored concoction of red cabbage, parsnip, potato and carrot made rich with sour cream (get a preview this week—we’re featuring this soup on our Valentine Menu! Saturday February 20th is the date, from NOON til 3, and for a measly $12 and a canned good, ($15 the day of the event) you get to taste the best soups from the best restaurants in the South Side. Proceeds benefit a great cause: the Brashear Food Pantry. What could be better on a cold snowy February Saturday than hot soup?
Get tickets here: www.southsidepgh.com
THEY LIKE US. THEY REALLY LIKE US!
Our humble little café has been the center of some major media attention lately, and of course, since our marketing budget is mostly imaginary, we are welcoming the hype.
Michael Machosky from the Tribune-Review was nice enough to include my Geek Brunch in his Geek’s Tour of Pittsburgh article, along with our friends at The Pittsburgh ToonSeum, Phantom of the Attic, and more. Read it here: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10010/1026585-46.stm.
Also, the venerable Washington Post made mention of the South Side Soup Contest featuring not only Gypsy but several of our Pittsburgh culinary buddies and you can get that article here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/04/AR2010020402892.html. Thanks so much and as always we are humbled by our praise.
THIS JUST IN: We MAY be mentioned in an article about the Soup Contest in the Trib soon also! Keep an eye out!
This is Chef Jim signing off. I have to get back to work; Mel had me implanted with a microchip that gives me a small but memorable electric shock if I am away from the kitchen for too long. Stay warm and keep shoveling!
Thank you for helping us to make this little place possible.
Chef Jim, Melanie, and the Gypsy Krewe
*******************************************************************
Housekeeping:
PS: You are receiving this message because you submitted your email address to our mailing list. If you have received this message in error, or if you’d like to stop receiving occasional messages from Gypsy Café, please reply as such here: gypsy@gypsycafe.net and we will remove your address post-haste!
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