Issac Azimov, Rod Serling, Arthur C. Clark, Philip K. Dick, H.G. Wells, Frank Herbert, George Orwell: All members of an elite class of fiction writers that take us to places new to our imaginations. Some of their stories describe out-worldly locations, bizarre and unfamiliar cultures, and in some cases time travel. I have read works by all of these esteemed authors, but until recently could not integrate their notions into my personal reality.
I am not going to get weird on you all now, and I have not seen aliens, gods, or their mothers in Ryan’s misshapen bread, but I can relate to the multi-dimensional “reality” thing that some of these gentleman have spoken of.
As a chef responsible for the operation of a dynamic menu and high-speed kitchen, I must operate in two simultaneous time dimensions: The present and the future. As to the past, well, it’s over.
I am struggling to describe to you the stress that can be palpable as I am working feverishly to get the day started while on the phone to a farmer/raiser having the same time-vs.-need issues, and asking what my requirements will be four days from now, while I am portioning the day boat cod that was ordered two days ago and just arrived minutes ago, that will be gone an hour from now, requiring me to decide on a product 24 hours from now!
Yesterday, I was walking up from my basement prep kitchen/airless dungeon with my arms full when a customer on table 20 pulled at my arm and asked what we will be selling on Friday night? My mind went blank. I could not remember what day it was, or why I needed the brodo that was in my hands! I stared at the guest who was staring back at me thinking that this is it, Ed has finally lost it. Just then, like in the movies, I snapped out of it and rattled off: Skate wing, buluga lentils, braciole and eggplant neopolitan. I was back from wherever I was.
In business class you are taught the concept and methods of forecasting. I can do this quite well as it relates to my budgets and expenditures, but to forecast when and how many chickens will be arriving, if I am going to get the fish I ordered, what I will need on Friday for a vegetarian entree without knowing what is coming out of the ground, well this is not taught in any MBA classes. All this must be done while guests are ordering, a talented staff is plating, and my walk-in is emptying.
I do not want this blog to sound as me whining or venting because that is not my intention. I am what I am and I am doing what I love. My intention is to relay all the behind the scenes efforts involved in bringing to you products that do not come from the “man.”
I am dating myself for sure , but there was an episode of Star Trek where a time traveler was chasing his “parallel universe” twin. If they ever met, some sort of time-space tear would result and all life would cease. Only Gene Roddenberry could think of such a scenario. Still, I have this spooky image in my head of me running up the 20 stairs from the basement and colliding with “me” running down the stairs, both of “us” focused on the same task resulting in a head-on seismic collision, and WHAM! Manch-Hattan is vaporized.
Leaving science fiction to itself, and attempting to live in our own time and place, harvest in New England has arrived. Tomatoes, corn, kale, herbs, lettuce, cucumbers, zucchini, mushrooms, and not to mention hams, lamb and ducks are being delivered, albeit on an uncontrollable schedule. This is real time, and a very precious moment to be savored, for soon it will be the past. We must celebrate the present, revel in its bounty, and prepare for the next time it comes around.

See you soon,

Ed

Also
Free parking every day after 5 PM and all weekend at the Wellington Trade Center Lot off of Lowell Street. Disregard the guard house, We have achieved detante’ with the owner.
Good times at the Marble Bar daily from 7-9. 1/2 price everything off the bar tower and cold antipasti.
Tomatoes!!!!!!!
Happy birthday Monica and Ricky

Ed

We have all heard this chestnut. When our dad or mom told us we shrugged. What can be better than getting your wishes fulfilled we asked in bewilderment? “You’ll see!” came the inevitable and totally baffling response. Well, after more years that I care to disclose
(56 actually and still upright and focused), I have realized the true meaning of that statement. REPUBLIC has been operating for almost 7 months and we are realizing substantial sales increases. Great! you say, and I, along with my banker and landlord, agree most heartedly. Yet tell that to our partners/farmers.

When we started our journey with REPUBLIC, there were no farm-to-table restaurants in the city. Some chefs (all credit to Jeff Paige), who had a history of partnering with local vendors, were making a point of using local produce and cheese producers, but Claudia and I decided to jump in with a belly flop. All or nothing with our proteins (chickens, ducks, pork, lamb and beef – Jamon an exception), regional with our dairy, Parmesan of course out of the loop, and produce as it comes available and can be delivered.

Our Farmers/Partners for the most part are small, family-owned, and operating on the cutting edge of survival. It is truly a shame that with our state’s agricultural heritage we do not cherish the efforts and rewards of our neighbors. Too much of our farmland has been paved over for “house farms” or, Zeus forbid, strip malls or Walmarts!!! The business paradigm for agriculture to date has been direct sales, farmer-to-consumer, with retail being left out of the loop. No distribution network! The consumer had to drive to the farm or wait until a market was operating in the area to buy direct.
So now it seems the fastest way for the farmer/raiser to get to you is through chefs like me.

Thanks to you and your ongoing patronage of REPUBLIC, I am asking the farmer/raisers to produce to their maximum and make hard choices as to who will recieve their limited supply of goods. In my mind a wonderful dilemma for them, but an issue for me. Being on the intermittent receiving end of exceptional ingredients is a frustrating position to be in for sure for any chef or business owner.

The answer is that more chefs must take part in the farm-to-table movement and financially commit to purchasing local ingredients. If the retail market expands, the farmer/raisers will then feel comfortable in increasing their investment in fields and herds and you, my guest, will benefit. When dining out, ask the provenance of your entree or salad. Restaurateurs are under an immense amount of pressure, and profit margins are small indeed, but any effort in procuring local ingredients whenever possible will benefit all other operators and you the consumer for sure.

In the short term, there may be spot outages at REPUBLIC of certain menu items for a day or two. If you come in with a craving for local whatever, and I was not able to procure that item, please give us your e-mail and I will make sure that when it arrives again (it will only be a day or two) I will contact you. In the meantime, watch around 10 am when John or Alison from Sweetest Day Cultivators come in with greens, squash blossom and flowers. On Tuesdays, Miles Smith arrives with beef and along the way stops by Kelly Corner Farms and picks up my lamb. Kerry from Milk & Honey Farms also arrives on Tuesdays with our chickens, ducks, and eggs. Joe, not only makes cheeses at Vermont Shepherd he also brings them to us. Valerie comes by on Thursday from Heart Song and delivers creamy goat cheese. Middle Branch Farms is now delivering organic produce to the city and we are on the receiving end of some wonderful produce. Tim from Kellie Brook Farm in Greenfield comes by on Thursdays with our hams, that we roast in house for our croques and omelets.

It is getting easier because of your ongoing support. Claudia and I thank you and are very grateful. By the way, if you know of any producers that are looking for an outlet, give them my name, just be sure that they have a truck and a teenage son or daughter to drop off the goods.

See you soon

Ed

Also:

Enjoy half price antipasti and beverages from our tower from 7-9 at the Marble bar every night
Free parking after 5 in the Wellington Trade Center Lot on Lowell Street. Do not be intimidated by the guard tower. I made a deal.
Ryan is now making bagels..

Hot!! Oh yeah it’s hot. It is hotter than … well you can finish. Heat comes with summer and we will all pine for a bit of it come January, not that I am happy with the “…stalled high pressure sitting over New England” . Summer does however bring treasures: Days at the beach and nights sitting out staring at the stars with a cool barley beverage are high on the list, but what I am talking about is real food grown just kilometers away from my kitchen. Wonderful friends Alison and John, accomplished professionals and artists-now-gardeners, are showing up every other day with extraordinary greens, edible and beautiful flowers, and other delights that I am incorporating into our daily special menus. You will even see greens that Claudia has raised ( Webster Street Farms) showing up. Milk and Honey Farm in Canterbury is now delivering chickens and ducks every Tuesday. We are getting produce from Northern Mass and within a week from New Hampshire.
Swordfish, Monkfish, Halibut as well as Scallops the size of bocci balls are now readily available. Our ham is now fresh from Kellie Brook Farm in Greenfield, and one of my line chefs, Ken, is smoking it for 12 hours. We are serving it for breakfast and on our Croque Madame with a farm fresh egg and Pineland Farm Swiss. Our flatbreads are being made with regional mozzarella, ricotta and goat cheese. Nowhere else in the city can you get the variety of local products that we are procuring. No lie.
I have never been able to deal with extreme weather, either hot or cold. A kitchen, however, is a case study in extremes. In winter, frigid air is blowing down on your head from the make-up air system, producing a monstrous headache, and in the summer 500 degree heat is blasting from the ovens not 6 inches from your face. We hang meat thermometers from the hood and high five each other when the temp reads 110. Trips to the refrigerated walk-in are mandatory.
So, its hot. Soon it will be cold, and then it going to be hot again. Let’s focus on the gifts of this short (and hot) season. I promise as much garden fresh produce as I can get delivered. The freshest of just-landed fish and char-grilled grass-fed Miles Smith Farm Beef. The blackboard will be full for sure. Wash it all down with something cold from our beer and wine tower, made to taste even better from 7-9 PM ( 1/2 price) . Enjoy it from our “street seats” with the only view of the mountains in the city.
Yes it’s very hot, but soon it it will be very cold……

See you soon

Ed
Also: Skatewing with brown butter and lentils du puy are on the menu this weekend.
Free parking every night after 5 at the Wellington Trade Center lot on Lowell Street.
Bear with us if some of the proteins are not available on occasion. Our Farmer/Partners are are working hard to meet our volume requirements.
The “Meet the Farmer” dinner dates will be announced soon via e-mail, so don’t spam lock me out!
Do some good Tuesdays! 3% of sales donated to NH Food Bank and the Manchester Animal Shelter.

At 5am the sun is almost up. There is a mockingbird outside my window, that I am trying to place a kill contract on, announcing the sunrise with an out of tune and violently-loud refrain that sounds to me like “Ed, you are behind the eight ball” in a rising and falling cadence constantly repeating for 30 minutes. That is what wakes me, but that is not what keeps me awake. What constitutes my night terror is a black space, 4 feet by 4 feet, looming large in my mind and growing ever larger with each tick of my alarm clock. It is in the center of our restaurant, the focus of our guests’ attention, and the source of many sleepless nights: it is “THE BLACKBOARD.” Never has any object been so aptly named. It is large, deeply black and empty twice a day. To fill that space is my daily challenge and nightly terror!!

For the most part, all restaurant menus are controlled and basically static. Via the menu, new guests are offered the Chef’s approach to the concept, and repeat customers are assured that their favorite item will be welcoming them when they next arrive. This is necessary for cost control, purchasing. and concept development, but the additions to the menu truly define the restaurant, the Chef, and the quality of the staff to produce, explain and serve new and interesting items twice daily.

REPUBLIC is the first true farm-to-table restaurant in Manchester and given my Mediterranean style of cooking, coupled with Claudia’s vegetarian zeal and cooking skills, and our vendors’ bizarre delivery schedules, I have a variety of ingredients coming daily from internal and external sources. This is all happening at different times of the day and arriving in varying amounts. Once everything arrives I then have to do something with it all!! And then there are the daily calls to our two fish vendors. It is not uncommon at all for us to sell out of the daily catch before 5pm resulting in a panicked call and drive for more fish, and the resulting need for a new plate set.

In the afternoon we may be grilling diver scallops and serving them with an herbed gremolata and braised lentils. By 5 pm we have only 2 orders left of the scallops and no more lentils because a guest wanted a double order and someone else wanted the lentils as a side . AHHHHH!!!!! The special flat bread with the marinated local beef sold in an hour and now I am out of red meat for the day. AHHHH!!!! A rush call … a new fish … a frantic walk through our pantry and produce walk-in … a speed read through one of the uncountable volumes of cookbooks for some sort of inspiration, all the while staring at this black void between the bar and the kitchen with chalk lines drawn through the menu items, and my heart begins to race. It is worse after the dinner service when I know there is nothing left from the day and at 5 am I am reviewing the produce order, mentally walking through dry storage for legumes, pasta or risotto, and anticipating the call from the fish monger at 8am as to what has just landed.

Early this morning, soon after that *#@!!*# bird woke me, I was staring at the dark ceiling and beginning to get agitated. Some how one of my line chefs came to mind. We were chowing on the falafel that we use to bread the cod and he said, “Chef, this is great, why don’t you do something with it?” A quick scribble on the note pad by the bed and the rest of the menu came to mind. Tonight, we served char grilled Mahi Mahi with a falafel cake, tahini dressing, tzatziki, and a bulgur wheat salad. A few other items materialized as the day went on, while previously ordered products were coming in the back door and Claud was handing me her vegetarian inspirations. Just like that, the BLACKBOARD was filled. My heart calmed and the plates looked wonderful.

As I walked out the door tonight around 10 o’clock I glanced at the board … chalk lines were drawn through all but one of the offerings! The board was again empty. Elated that our guests appreciated the items? Of course! Excited that we will be offering fresh products to our guests tomorrow? Of course! Looking forward to that mockingbird? Don’t think so …

See you soon,
Ed

Updates:
Next Thursday, June 24, we will be at the Verizon Center for NH Magazine’s ” Best of NH” Gala. We were awarded the Editors Choice for Best Euro Cafe. We will be offering tastes from our menu, along with the other winning restaurants. You will be sure to walk away full and entertained.

Claudia’s NYC Botanical Garden photos are on exhibit in the gallery space at Wiggin & Nourie Law firm on Commercial Street 9am to 5pm along with other photographic artists from her group, Off Kamera. Free admission.

Our chickens and ducks will arrive next week and the anticipated menu roll out will be June 28

Our first “Meet Your Farmer” dinner will be scheduled for the second week of July. We will e-mail out the date and the first 25 guests to reply will be invited. Space is very limited.

Given our new and rather demanding schedule, guilt has ruled the feeding of our cats Ricco and Max (newly released from the witness protection program) and they have gotten rather large. Volunteers are sought to exercise our pets.

When it’s the middle of February at 8PM, the temperature is a raw 23 degrees, it’s dark and stormy and the air is comprised of nothing but stinging ice crystals; the day is over. You are in and in is where you want to stay. Now it’s May, it’s still light and you just finished mowing the lawn or just got back from a bike ride or long walk and now what to do? TV is boring, especially when its still light out side, and no one has started dinner yet. In Rome around 8PM is when the “passeggiare” starts. Romans get up, get dressed up and walk to the center of town. They stop in for a coffee or a wine at a cafe. Everyone is checking out everyone else. Friends are meeting for dinner and hanging out even on a Wednesday. Life is beginning at 8PM.
At REPUBLIC we hope to get our own “passeggiare” going. The outside tables are a great place to watch the people parade on Elm Street. The Marble bar is inviting, the kitchen is still open and the parking is free behind us at the Wellington Trade Center lot on Lowell Street. We have the best coffee in the city and it is permissable to hang out with a cappuccino and a pastry after 8PM. Coffee is not only a morning beverage and an espresso ( it translates to essence of) has less caffeine than the stuff from DD.

Let me entice you with half price antipasti and 1/2 off everything from our draft tower ( including glasses of wine) from 7PM to 9PM at the Marble Bar Sunday through Friday, and it starts today. The rest of the menu is available and I will always have something interesting and unique on the black board.

This weekend it will be branzino ( sea bass, not Chilean) and Kelly Corner Farm (Chichester) lamb that I will be offering Moroccan style. We have fresh artichokes that we have been serving a la Romana, and baby eggplants with an aromatic red lentil stew. Wash that down with a $2.50 Guinness or glass of Washinton State Merlot for $2.75 and life is good.
Romans truly believe that they have a corner on “la dolce vita” and they may have a point, but they usurped our tomatoes so we can take their passeggiare!

See you soon,

FYI. Look for our new menu to roll out the second week of June. The chickens and ducks are just about ready from Milk and Honey Farms. Remember: No farms, No food !

Ed