Good morning, Feastlings.
It’s been a bumpy summer, to be sure. Alternately busy (thanks, everyone) and slow (we were expecting it anyhow,) we’ve been doing our best to bring you the dishes you’ve requested throughout the summer, and with the exception of the cotton candy machine shuffling off its mortal coil, we’ve done right by you. Six weeks ago, I set about finding someone who repairs cotton candy machines, and it turns out there are two in all of Arizona, both located in Mesa. But I’ve always circumvented fate, so I opened up the machine, meticulously labeled the wires inside it and gingerly extracted the motor. I took it to my now new friends at Hemco, who, it turns out, are not only excellent replacers of bearings in just about any motor you can think of, but are also aficionados of frogs’ legs. Food builds bridges.
Anyhow, after weeks of waiting for the bearings to arrive and for my new friends to install them in our failed motor, the day came, and Tuesday night, under the gun, as it were, I reinstalled the motor and fired it up. It spins like Baryshnikov. All was fleetingly right with the world. And then I discovered it: the heating element isn’t working. Either that or the little sealed blue box inside the machine that powers the heating element isn’t working. Either way, my short-lived career in cotton candy machine repair was over a scant six weeks after it began.
So here I am at the eleventh hour, apologizing again to you all for giving you the short shrift on the cotton candy shrimp front. My intention, however, is to make it up to you in the following small way.
In spite of the fact that we offered it a month ago for an entire week, I’ve had at least three dozen of you in the restaurant asking me when they’d see the lobster bread pudding again. The answer to that question is “right now.” Yes, I know we’ve already made it once, and yes, I know that it could be interpreted as cynical and manipulative to put it back on the menu to distract you from the fact that I’m not willing to go out and buy another cotton candy machine and have it overnighted here in August. Or you could consider it a product of the fact that we listen to you when you tell us what you miss, even if we’ve already made it once this summer. So Janice, I know you came specifically for cotton candy shrimp the day the machine fizzled out, and one day soon I’ll make it up to you, but everyone else, there’s lobster, corn and scallion bread pudding to be eaten, and you can enjoy it here until the menu changes on Tuesday and we tuck away the request menus for another season. You’ll see a few more requested dishes this week as well: Yes, Brian, and yes, Jan, we have gigante beans. Kilian, there’s warm Sicilian orange cake for you, and I’m embarrassed to say I’ve forgotten who asked us to bring back the smoked sweet corn ravioli and the carnitas sandwich, but they’re here too. You can find them all described in detail right here.
There’s also a fun, terroir-driven wine tasting this Saturday at 2:00, and the information on that is here.
And lastly, most of you know by now about my fondness and appreciation for public radio, so you’ll find me on NPR tomorrow morning from 7:00 to 8:00 am, and if you call to donate during that time, you’ll be entered in a drawing to win one of a couple of Feast gift certificates I’ll be bringing along to encourage people to support Arizona Public Media. I hope you’ll tune in and donate a little something. Thanks, all of you, as ever, for everything.
Love,
Doug and the entire Feast family