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Spring Fever Special May 15th, 2012 Dear Friends and Customers of Solo Bistro: Notwithstanding nearly unanimous meteorological opinion to the contrary, today has turned into a very pleasant day indeed! Also notwithstanding objective, verifiable evidence very much to the contrary, such weather leads me to believe that I am sufficiently young and energetic to blow off the obligations of the day and go biking or gardening or some such activity and then catch up on the office work later. In a familiar victory of hope over reason, I shall uncharacteristically attempt brevity in the dubious belief that perhaps I’ll escape the office in time to do something outdoors this afternoon! So in this spirit of magical thinking, we come to the epitome of grounded good sense — and taste — the 3-course $17.99 Wednesday Special! Wednesday Special This week’s $17.99 Wednesday Special begins with a salad of kale, a wonderful leafy green touted as providing all manner of healthful benefits, but which is certain at a minimum to taste better than most of the tonics touted in times past, especially when complimented with a creamy Dijon dressing as Chef Lavelle promises this one will be!. The main course will be one of the few overtly vegetarian dishes I liked even as a child: eggplant parm over pasta, in this instance bucatini. For dessert, one of the glories of the spring garden, rhubarb, will send us head-over-heals in paroxysms of pleasure in the form of a rhubarb upside down cake! For a wine special we’ll look to hills of east central Italy for a delightful Montepulciano d’ Abruzzo from Vigneti del Sole, a company founded in Verona in 1925 by two brothers who had moved north in search of their fortune and found success. The brothers’ grandchildren returned to their southern roots where they continue to make wines that just about max out the quality-to-price ratio. Only $5.00 a glass! Friday Night Jazz May 18 This Friday we welcome back Mr. Ahmad Hassan Muhammad at the keyboard. There’s a great video of a radio broadcast Hassan did in 2010 with Rich Tozier on MPBN the fall after his graduation from Bowdoin highlighting his versatility as a musician and composer. There’s a much shorter promo for Bowdoin featuring a younger Hassan here in his freshman year. A man of prodigious talent, we are always glad when Ahmad Hassan Muhammad can fit Friday Night Jazz at Solo Bistro into his schedule as he has this Friday from 6:30 to 9:30 PM! As always, we look forward to seeing you on Front Street in downtown Bath, where one’s never too old to play hookey! Pia & Will Neilson, Owners Homer, Hyperion and the Super Moon May 13th, 2012 Dear Friends and Customers of Solo Bistro: This rainy Tuesday marks the end of a brief stretch of some beautiful weather! Saturday evening I happened to stroll by the local salt marsh about an hour after moonrise. The tide was up, covering the still stubbly spartina grass; the air was cool, still and moist, and the full moon was still low enough that its light was yet yellowish. This full moon was a perigee or “super” moon, which is brighter and larger than usual – and it was bright indeed! But what brought me up short was how the reflection off the water illuminated the very air, so that it glowed and in turn lit up the trees in shadow under the moon. It was shy of supernatural, but just! Similarly the rosy-fingered Dawn this morning was downright Homeric, blue and light grey above vivid greens, yellows, reds and pinks of blossoming trees and shrubs, sidelit by Phoebus Apollo’s approach in pink reddening to gold fading to yellow as his chariot cleared the tree line to the east while to the west the darkening grey of the coming rain rolled toward us. Such are the moments that make the long wait for spring in Maine feel like a bargain! And of course, speaking of bargains that are worth the wait, who can forget the 3-course $17.99 Wednesday Special at Solo Bistro! Wednesday Special
This week’s $17.99 Wednesday Special is perhaps again influenced by events in the wider world. There is a certain coincidence at any rate between the Secretary of State’s most recent travels and the menu for the Solo Bistro Wednesday Special, though Chef Tony Lavelle might disclaim it. The first course does little to elucidate the connection, being merely a salad of mixed greens with a cilantro-mint vinaigrette. The main course makes it straightforward, however: chicken makhani, or butter chicken curry over a bed of spiced chickpeas and jasmine rice. The mild but full flavored chicken makhani is a favorite from the sub-continent – just delicious! For dessert we look southeasterly for purple rice with a mango coulis. If you’re not familiar with Indian cuisine, this will be a great opportunity to give it a try! For a wine special we’ll look to the classic accompaniment to a curry, a riesling, in this case a German one from the Mosel region, J&H Selbach Piesporter Michelsberg Riesling Kabinett. This is an entry level Riesling from one of Germany’s top winemakers that we’re trying out. Let us know what you think. Only $5.00 a glass! Friday Night Jazz May 11 This Friday the New Space at Solo will host Harpswell’s own songstress, Dorie Barnes, accompanied by Jesse Feinberg at the keyboard. Rumor has it that a couple of other up-and-coming jazz vocalists will be dining at Solo on Friday and may sit in with Dorie for a bit as well – always a good time when that happens! Friday Night Jazz, every Friday at Solo Bistro from 6:30 to 9:30 PM! As always, we look forward to seeing you on Front Street in downtown Bath, where whether ones inclinations run to the Homeric or the sophomoric, one can take a culinary tour without have to cross the wine dark sea
Lunch with a dismal scientist May 2nd, 2012 | Dear Friends and Customers of Solo Bistro: I have just started reading a new book with a completely compelling title: An Economist Gets Lunch: New Rules for Everyday Foodies, by Tyler Cowen. It’s my first foray into what I think of as the “freakonomics genre.” A quick browse indicates some interesting hypotheses, like the best way to get good food intel in a new place is from an older cabdriver, or that the best Thai restaurants are attached to motels, along with some questioning of conventional p.c. food orthodoxy. A little heterodoxy is not a bad thing, though a lot may be a bore . . . . Lunch got off to an excellent start today, and we hope that it will be a hit among old customers and new — including economists! Tuesday through Saturday from 11:30 to 2 will be the hours, plus Mother’s Day (Sunday May13), when we’ll have some extra-special specials and will serve lunch all afternoon till 3 PM, when dinner service will start. Of course some things are just too good to change, and one of them is certainly the 3-course $17.99 Wednesday Special! Wednesday SpecialThis week’s $17.99 Wednesday Special inevitably heads south of the border as the 5th of May approaches. Cinco de Mayo is one of those holidays whose origins are widely mistaken, it having nothing to do with the Mexican independence day, which is in September. It commemorates the Battle of Puebla in which the Mexicans defeated a dramatically superior French army on May 5, 1862. They eventually lost the war, but some claim that the French defeat at Puebla was instrumental in preventing French support from reaching the Confederacy in the American Civil War at a time when it could have tipped the balance in that conflict. Though such claims may attract qualified credence, there is no denying that the Battle of Puebla has had a profound effect on the American restaurant industry! Solo Bistro’s culinary commemoration of the battle begins with a corn and poblano soup. For the main course, there will be a chicken mole – braised chicken thighs in a savory sauce of ground onions, garlic and chiles with a little chocolate that adds a subtle and delicious richness to the dish. For dessert, churros with a spicy chocolate ganache. Now that’s something to celebrate! For a wine special we’ll look to Spain, the first European colonial power in Mexico, and the Jumilla region, where Bodegas Olivares is one of the oldest producers. Their 2009 Old Vines Monastrell (some of the vines date back to within a decade of the Battle of Puebla), has gotten 90 point ratings from both Robert Parker and Stephen Tanzer. Its balanced fruit and acidity and light to medium weight should make it a worthy companion to a mole. A great value at only $5.00 a glass! Friday Night Jazz May 4Friday Night Jazz at Solo Bistro this week welcomes back the Belle of Bowdoin and Westbrook native, Ms. Molly Ridley singing at the keyboard with Jason St. Pierre and his alto sax at her side. Good golly Miss Molly and Jason St. Pierre, Friday from 6:30 to 9:30 PM! As always, we look forward to seeing you on Front Street in downtown Bath, where the orthodox, the heterodox and the number-than-a-box-of-rocks can all tie up together at the municipal docks to tuck into a pleasant lunch or dinner!
Pia & Will Neilson, Owners
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