At the beginning of last week my wife, Jaime and I were deciding whether we should go to the eastern shore or possibly the jersey shore for the weekend.  During this discussion we received an airfare alert for a very reasonably priced ticket to Milwaukee.  I know what you’re thinking, unless I’m picking up a new Harley at the factory, which I wasn’t unfortunately, why go to Milwaukee?  First reason that’s where one of Jaime’s sisters lives and second, which was my true motive, is that Chicago is only about …

This past Sunday I set out on my weekly drive out of the city and headed to the shore just to walk on the beach.  About a half hour into the drive a large electronic bill board was flashing all lanes closed at exit 41.  As my luck would have it I need to get past exit 41 to in order to arrive at my final destination which was to be Lewes, Delaware.  On the positive side of that I was just outside of Annapolis and it was around 3 …

Let’s talk fruit cocktail.  When I was a kid every once in a while for no apparent reason in the dead of winter we would have fruit cocktail for dessert.  The fruit was not fresh and thankfully not frozen, but it was canned.  All I knew is that when this day came I was stoked.  There was usually only one nuclear cherry in the can so endless fighting between my brother and I ensued.  Flash forward to current day I still have a fascination with fruit cocktail but I do …

 
When I think of what makes a good Italian bakery for breakfast I automatically think espresso drinks and pastries.  So when it came time to build the menu for Potenza Bakery  and procure products for this outlet we started with a local coffee roaster  and a whole lot of ideas of what we wanted our brew to taste like so after multiple tastings and refinements we wound up with what we consider our perfect blend for the bakery.
Now that we had coffee it was time to dive into my favorite …

We’ve made the final changes to the Zola Wine & Kitchen menu and the last items we switched up are the most unusual, but my favorite.
I wanted to have a bit of fun as well as some eggs for lunch so the first dish to hit the menu was the All American Breakfast for Lunch.  This dish is just that: Two scrambled eggs seasoned with truffle, house made maple breakfast sausage, cheddar biscuit and buttery hash browns.  What a great lunch for the person who either just woke up or …

Executive Chef, Bryan Moscatello
When Super Bowl Sunday comes around the thing I’m most focused on is, what food to serve.  Most people are eating sandwiches, pizzas and assorted chips and dips.  Keeping this in mind I opt not buck tradition so pizza and sandwiches will be served at my house and why not throw in a couple little platters of great bites.
Lets talk little bite first.  Since I moved and threw my mini fryer out nothing deep fried will hit the menu. I wanted to get some fruit onto the …

Check out the first video post- we’re starting with the basics: Wine Tasting 101

Stir Food Group’s Vice President of Operations and Sommelier, Ralph Rosenberg
I’d like to spend my first post covering a wine maker that has been producing the finest bottles for hundreds of years and revolutionized wine while preserving their uncompromising quality.
The Antinori Family is the “Oldest Family Owned Business on Earth” as quoted recently from 60 Minutes. Alessia along with her two sisters are the 26th generation running the company. Alessia Antinori will be at Zola Wine & Kitchen on January 20th to guide you through a sampling of over 8 …

Executive Chef, Bryan Moscatello
The Feast of the Seven Fishes is the Christmas Eve meal that many an Italian households participate in.  The premise is simple- you have a feast which includes seven different types of fish.  When I was growing up these meals would include a selection of scungilli, bacala, calamari, mussels, clams, shrimp, sardines, octopus and a fin fish sea bass, tuna or grouper.  Usually the shellfish were braised in marinara, the shrimp prepared with garlic, the sardines cured, the octopus charred and the fin fish grilled.  We had …

Executive Chef, Bryan Moscatello
Over the past two weeks we have begun to serve lunch at Zola Wine and Kitchen.  The overall idea is to serve a very fast lunch at very reasonable prices.  The twist is that these items being prepared are directly from local farms (the majority not the minority) and all of the items are made by us.
So the veal pastrami is first brined then peppered and smoked, the bacon is cured with apple and brandy before being smoked, burgers and meatballs are ground to our spec. as …