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

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Housekeeping:
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