First things first: we’re open on Thursday! Why do we say that right up front? Because on Wednesday morning, there was a veritable flood in the sub-basement. There was water about 40″ deep, which comes out to an estimated 15,000 gallons. Yes, that much water in our second level basement. Fortunately, we don’t store much down there, but what is down there is pretty important. Like the water heater. And the electrical systems.

Here’s a photo of the electrical system that was previously under water:

We were so very lucky, though. We had an amazing team of electricians who worked what was practically a miracle in just about six hours. Thanks to this talented duo, we’ll be more or less back online tomorrow. So, a big and hearty thanks to the team who came in and worked long and hard to get us through this emergency!

Amazing Duo

On top of all of that, Ryan (seen below) even postponed his birthday celebrations to help us!

Hero John

Hero Ryan

Another round of thanks goes out to all of the businesses on our block, who generously agreed to having their power shut down for thirty minutes while our electricians worked to return the building to the grid. It didn’t end up taking thirty minutes (instead, it was an amazing six!), but we really appreciate our supportive community.

Speaking of supportive community, many of you, our customers, also dropped by on Wednesday evening to check on us. The power was out, but we could see by candlelight!

The upshot: thank you, everyone, for helping us get through a difficult day, and for reminding us what a great, supportive community we have!

Correction to original post: 15,000 instead of 40,000 gallons of water. (It was a long day!)

Well, now we’re looking for even more feedback! Tell us what movie you’d like us to use as inspiration for our next “Dinner & A Movie” event in March, and we’ll run with it. Polling will be done on our Facebook page - just find the post about the event and put your suggestion in the comments. If someone has already posted a comment with your pick, then “Like” their comment. The suggestion with the most Likes wins! Polling will be open for a week, and then we’ll announce the winning flick.

What’s your favorite food experience?

This question really got people going, so if you’re in the restaurant, feel free to snag one of them for a good story. Tessa remembers the most amazing and unexpected food and wine pairing she’s ever had (it pretty much knocked her socks off): a thousand-year-old duck egg, pickled ginger, and Wolf Blass Grey Label Shiraz. Bryce fondly recalls the time he met Dutch food show host Renee Plujmb while Bryce was visiting his friends the Wiesners in Austria. The food he and his friends Christoph and Isabell were able to serve up from their farm was good enough to keep the television personality from making his evening reservation at an upscale restaurant. Trevor had a perspective-changing experience at a truly farm-to-table restaurant that grew its own greens, veggies, and fruit and also slaughtered its own pigs. Amanda is still amazed that she was able to get up the gumption to cook duck confit in her own kitchen, but it was certainly one of those shining moments that she’ll never forget.

What’s your number one tip for cooking at home?

Tessa advises, “Don’t be afraid to improvise! Cook books are like the speed limit—they’re recommendations. (Okay, just kidding on the speed limit, really!) After all, it’s just food, and you can always order pizza. Also, use sharp knives and high heat, season well, and for God’s sake, taste your food before you serve it to others!” Bryce chimes in and says to keep it simple, plan ahead, and get as much done ahead of time as possible so that you can enjoy the food with your guests. Trevor says to take your time and relax; after all, you should enjoy the time you have in the kitchen when you have the opportunity to cook! Amanda reminds everyone not to be intimidated. It’s just food, and everyone eats it! There are plenty of resources out there to help you, so just dive in, read the directions, and follow your taste buds.

Have more questions for our blog team? Want to share some of your own home cooking tips or fond food memories? Leave us a comment below and join the conversation!

In my heart I want to be able to sing, dance, paint, photograph, sculpt, write and act, but the cold hard fact is that I’m terrible at just about all of them. I will never be Ansel Adams, Maya Angelou, Picasso, a ballerina, or a proficient singer or instrumentalist. But the feelings of inspiration, possibilities, hope, and the chance to dream and be something outside of what I do on a daily basis is pretty damn amazing. While I may be able to figure out chemistry problems and contribution margins in my head, I will never be able to pick up a pencil and draw an object or person that would have the potential to inspire another individual, much less the masses.

Art, in all its varied forms, is an inspiration, even when we don’t understand it—but as humans there is so much we don’t understand. Art is a safe way, a fun way, a non-pressure-filled way for us to let our imaginations explore and our boundaries to be pushed (whether we know it or not). It helps us right-brained people explore and feel something other than the safety of logic, numbers, and rules. It draws me to the other side of wonderment. I marvel at how someone could think of, plan out, and then execute something that has no structure except for what she or he created. But most of all, it helps me to appreciate that which is different from myself, that which is different from my usual reality. Perhaps it is my logical brain trying to figure out how another brain can function in the same day-to-day capacity as mine, but be so incredibly different. How can you not appreciate that? How can you not support that? Why would I not want to be a part of that?

More importantly, why wouldn’t you?

-Tessa

As part of Söntés’ commitment to and partnership with arts organizations, we’ll be working with the Rochester Symphony Orchestra & Chorale to host an evening of Latin music and dancing this Saturday, February 18th. Ticket holders for the event will receive a discount on dinner here before the show (just show us your tickets!), and after the concert we’ll be hosting a guest artist celebration with more music and dancing. Aside from the fact that it’s a perfect end to Valentine’s Day week, the Latin Love concert promises to be a great time. Check out more details on the concert here. 

That’s right, an entire dinner based around bacon, each dish a unique creation with pork at its core. Intrigued? Read on for details! Chef Trevor explains how this mad, brilliant idea came to be, and dishes up some mouthwatering details.

This bacon dinner came to life after Chef Bryce and I were discussing the means by which to serve a dinner that would show people how a familiar ingredient can be cooked in multiple unfamiliar ways. Once the ball got rolling, the bacon dinner ideas just started pouring out.

It was easy, because bacon is something that most people love (at least most of the people that I know) and everybody loves it for different reasons. Some love bacon in the form of thin crispy strips, some love it thick cut and meaty, some love it  as a way of holding other foods together. No matter how you enjoy this lovely cut of smoked pork belly, you’re bound to have happy memories.

Brainstorming for the bacon dinner was almost too easy. There are some very obscure ideas that we’ve come up with that we did not put on the menu—but we may try them anyway! The craziest menu items that we are definitely going to try out are bacon cotton candy and bacon straws. Really, those are just two of the ideas that we are playing around with. The closer we come to the dinner, the crazier the ideas will become, I just know it. I also know that I’d like to push the limit even more if we can really fine tune some of these ideas.

Bottom line: be it breakfast, lunch, or dinner (maybe even dessert), bacon can provide something for just about anyone. And all I have to say to that is, praise the lard!

-Chef Trevor

Intrigued? Click over to our Happenings page for the full details on menu and price. Advance tickets are required, so don’t forget to call in and reserve yours! Call us at 507.292.1628 to save your spot.

Need a bit more convincing? How about some of the specialty drinks we’ll be serving on those two evenings? Read on!

Maple Bacon Old Fashioned

Chocolate Covered Bacon

We get our squash from Fairview Farm, which is located just over in Altura, Minnesota. It’s been run by Mark and Laurie Timm since they purchased the farm from Mark’s parents in 1989. Not only is it a great family farm, but it produces some magnificent veggies. Mark and Laurie’s long history and combined experience also means that they have some excellent advice to give about storing vegetables.

Keep ‘em cool & dry

Remember root cellars? They’ve waned in popularity, but the idea behind them was to keep vegetables safely stored through the fallow months. Even though you may not have a root cellar at your house or in your apartment, you can follow the same principles when storing your favorite acorn or butternut squash. Basically, keep them in a cool, dry, dark place. You’ll want to make sure that the temperature of the storage area is somewhere in the mid-50’s (Fahrenheit). Laurie Timm has a couple of tips. You’re probably not using those summer picnic coolers over the winter, so instead of leaving them sitting empty in the garage, fill them with squash, potatoes, or beets. Just make sure that, wherever you’re storing them, it doesn’t freeze hard. If it’s an attached garage, but not insulated, store them against the wall of the house, which should keep the root veggies at about the right temperature. (Laurie advises a similar thing for onions: store them in a mesh bag hung on that same wall. This will keep them cool, but allow airflow to get to them so that they stay fresh.)

Keep the fruits & veggies separate

Acorn squash actually store for the least amount of time (about 8 weeks), but most other squash, such as pumpkins or hubbards, will store for a minimum of two months. Another tip from Laurie: for maximum lifespan, don’t store them with apples or other fruit. Apples in particular put off a lot of ethylene gas, which causes vegetables to start growing again. Laurie described how their carrots actually started growing tops again when they got too close to the apples! Basically, if the veggies come out of dormancy, it’s going to cause them to begin to break down and potentially rot. Therefore, once you do take your winter veggies out of storage, use them quickly.

Fairview Farm Spinach, January 2012

The moral of this story? Well, there are two of them. One: don’t be afraid to stock up on late season vegetables at the autumn farmers markets. Two: try the midwinter markets! You’re guaranteed to be pleasantly surprised. Just today, Fairview Farm was selling an excellent crop of spinach at the morning farmers market.

P.S. – One last good tip from Laurie Timm! Did you know that you can make autumn tomatoes last until December? Buy up the green tomatoes in the fall, then wrap them in newspaper and put them in a cool, dark area. They won’t last as long as the squash, beets, or carrots, but you can bet that you’ll be able to have tomatoes with your Thanksgiving or Christmas feast!

I moved from Scotland to the US in 1996, then to Rochester in 1998. In 1999, I started home brewing as a fun, creative hobby that I could share with friends. Also, with no place to get my favorite beers in the area, I found I just had to brew them myself!

I met Tessa and Nelson in 2010; we became friends over our mutual love of beer and wine. I helped teach them some brewing techniques the best way possible, by brewing a few batches of beer. One of our favorites from those batches was a coconut porter—dark in color yet relatively light, flavored with toasted coconut and bourbon vanilla beans. That porter is truly is a dessert beer.

I like to brew all beers, and love drinking all beers, from pilsners and wheats, to ales and pale ales, porters and stouts and IPAs. I’ll brew them all out of my small scale home brewery, but, having grown up in Scotland, I’m especially fond of ales and stouts.

The style of Wednesday’s debut beer is an imperial stout. An imperial stout is an extra strong stout that was originally brewed to withstand the rigors of travel, as it was made in England to be sent to the Russian czars. The imperial stout is a high-alcohol, highly hopped beer aged over time. The beer you’ll enjoy at Söntés, for instance, has aged in the bottle for one year. In that beer, you’ll find tastes of raisins, chocolate, and coffee with a warm alcohol feel (8.5% abv). It’s great paired with desert, cheese—you name it! Or, just sip it by warm fire on a cold winter’s night from a nice goblet!

The Wee Highland Brewing Company is indeed wee; it’s a nanobrewery in the Finnie garage and the Söntés kitchen. The beer you’ll be tasting at the event was made just twenty feet from where you’ll be drinking it—in Söntés’ kitchen! Each beer is made in 10 gallon batches, hand-crafted with love by myself and whatever friends are available to pitch in. And, of course, with the support of my wife, Dawn, and my two master bottlers, Duncan (age 5) and Ewan (age 3).

Looking forward to seeing you on Wednesday!

-Steve Finnie

I can’t really blame people for disliking vermouth, though, when most bars tend to carry the cheapest vermouth for mixing. The stuff frankly tastes like lighter fluid’s second cousin. It’s no wonder that most people don’t want this flavor mixed with Grey Goose or Tanqueray. The long history of fortified, herbed wine has culminated in… this?

Fortunately, no. The American vermouth revival has well and truly begun, and I am here to sing its praises! Aided by the longstanding, never-waning popularity of vermouth in Europe, Americans are once again discovering just how amazing vermouth can be. My first introduction (and it’s popular enough now that it probably serves this same function for many) to the world of fine vermouth was through Dolin Vermouth de Chambéry. The best part about it? You have three choices: sweet, dry, and blanc. Dolin sweet vermouth is a gentle sweet, not at all cloying, with deeper herbal notes after the initial cherry taste. Their dry vermouth has none of the bitter flavor you might think common in vermouth; rather, its herbed high notes and clean finish make it perfect for sipping on its own over ice, or with a lemon peel. My favorite of their line is the blanc, which provides a nice middle ground between the sweet and the dry. Dolin Blanc is an off-dry, aromatic delight with gentle floral notes reminiscent of honeysuckle on the front end and a citrusy finish.

Find that you really do fancy vermouth after all? Then check out some of the American producers of vermouth. For one, there’s Vya, from Madera, California. Another California producer is Sutton Cellars. There are also some great Oregon vermouths: Imbue Bittersweet Vermouth, which the guys at my local wine store simply cannot stop raving about, and the refined Cana’s Feast Chinato d’Erbetti.

So, there are a few suggestions to start you off. And if you’re feeling brave, the next time you order a martini, ask your bartender what vermouth is on the rail. You may want more than just a pass of the bottle over the shaker after all!

P.S. – Wonder what we’re serving at Söntés? Dolin, of course!

Soft and creamy, unctuous and bold, silky and salty cheese. It’s no longer a sad stand-in for some appetizer filler, it’s now the star! Heck, sometimes it’s the meal.  And the food you can put with cheese can literally have you looking like your own gourmet food purveyor (and the rock star of any party) with minimal work! The trick is knowing which items pair well with which cheeses. So, here are some guidelines to make you your own cheese genius.

Soft and Creamy Combos

Cheeses such as camembert, brillat, brie, and burrata pair well with either dried or fresh fruits, your choice (just mix and match if you’re indecisive like me). Stone fruits such as apricots or peaches, berries, cherries, apples, and pears are some of the easiest. If you can find fresh figs or persimmons it will really be a treat. If you’re not in the mood for fruit in its solid form, any form of fruit pâté, jam, jelly, or preserve is wonderful. Lastly, don’t forget honey with your creamy cheeses—I love the honey and honeycomb we find at the farmers market.

Medium Textured Pairings

These easygoing cheeses (such as garraxota, percorino, manchego, and Wisconsin cheddar) are amenable to just about anything, so feel free to experiment. Fruit, nuts, jams, jellies, and olives are colorful and varied enough to please even the most sensitive palate. If you and your guests are meat lovers, a mild prosciutto or serrano ham is a safe way to go. Feeling a little braver than that? Try a bit of bresaola.

Hard & Hearty Medleys

Aged hard cheeses (Rolf Beeler gruyere or 993 parmesan, for instance) can really handle hefty pairings. Pair it with heavy sausages and chorizo, nuts with smoked pimentón, or sea salt and the fruit of your choice. Dark chocolate adds an unexpected twist to the usual pairing suspects. Look for saucisson sausage, soppressata, or just a good old fashioned summer sausage—it’ll remind of you all your family reunion cheese platters, but somehow better.

Blue All Over

We can’t forget to sing the blues! There are so many varieties: dry and crumbly, creamy and salty, creamy and spicy—and made from different types of milk now too! The one thing they all have in common (besides being called blue) is that they beg for the prefect foil to their over-the-top ways. Chocolates, sweet dried fruits, figs and fig breads, and yes, even prunes and raisins really bring out the flavors in your favorite blues. Really, it’s the perfect expression of the old adage that opposites attract.

Hopefully these guidelines can help demystify the art of cheese pairing and vault you into the party platter god or goddess you know you are!

Wait, what? What is miso, you say? A hippie health supplement? Well, no, not exactly. That soup served as an appetizer at a Japanese restaurant? Well, yes, but it’s really much more than that. One of those newfangled probiotic trends? Probiotic, yes, but it’s not new at all, and as a trend it’s here to stay.

In fact, it’s an amazing seasoning—and it’s much more tasty and easy to use than you might expect. Really, if you’ve never had it, you should at least give it a shot. Take my word for it, it’s good stuff. If you’re at least curious, then read on! What follows is your miso primer.

Navigating the Spectrum: The Colors of Miso

If you go to buy miso at the store, you may find that you have a few different options (particularly if you’re at a Japanese or Asian food market): white, yellow, red, or black. The lighter shades are more mellow and less salty in general than the darker shades. Miso is, as you may know, a fermented food. Fermented soybeans, to be specific—although there can be additional ingredients like rice, barley, millet, or a number of other grains. The grains are aged with salt and the koji culture anywhere from a few months to well over a year. More or less, you can expect that the longer the aging period, the deeper the depth of flavor.

If you’re a miso beginner, you’ll probably want to start out with white or yellow. If you like it, try the red. After that, sky’s the limit! Search out regional variations or try miso made from different bases. You’ll find that some varieties are light and sweet, some are musky, and some are earthy.

There are plenty of Japanese manufacturers who ship to the U.S., but you’ll find some American made miso as well. I usually read the label and go for a brand without any preservatives, because after all, the fermentation process is really preservative enough. That’s the whole point; why add something else?

More Than Simply Soup

At the moment at Söntés, you can find miso braised turnips served with our Pan Seared Scallops. Salty, sweet, smooth, and rich—what more could you ask for? In truth, you can add miso to almost anything to give it a tangy kick. Use it as a topping on vegetables, or braise fish with it, or pickle things, or make a dressing for a salad or sandwich. There’s even a recipe out there for miso cookies, I kid you not;  I haven’t tried them, but I’d be willing to give it a shot.

That being said, miso soup is really quite good, and completely nourishing. The trick to making it is simple: don’t boil the miso. Throw your other ingredients into the pot first (daikon, carrots, onions, or tofu, for example) and boil them with some water and dashi (fish) stock until they’re cooked through. Turn down the heat and wait until it is no longer boiling, then add your miso and gently strain it into the soup. The Japanese say that if you have a good balance in the soup, the miso will taste like the sea.

Additional tip: I like to poach an egg in the stock if I’m having the soup for breakfast. Highly recommended for a cold winter day.

So, here’s to your health! Enjoy the miso.

-Amanda, Editor in Chief