THE CULINARY
BUZZ
Creating Incredible Memories ... One Bite At A Time!
DINING DEALS
Summer savings at Pazzo!, Chops City Grill, Yabba Island Grill and Blue Water Bistro
EMPLOYEE SPOTLIGHT
SUMMER FLAVORS
Get to know the characters of Culinary Concepts
Light and refreshing salads and entrees
MEET US AT THE BAR New Bar Manager at Yabba Island Grill
presented by Culinary Concepts’ restaurant group
Happy
SUMMER is CALLING!
Welcome! JULY 2016
It’s Summertime! We’re so excited for July, the quality time with loved ones, the perfect fishing days and laid-back nights! The bright, colorful bursts of fireworks filling the sky on the 4th of July is the perfect way to usher in this month’s summer adventures, as well as some delicious new dishes! Now that the rush of season has passed, our team is enjoying the break, relaxing and taking some vacation time. We are also embracing the slower pace of summer and using this time to
recharge and get creative with fresh ideas and new flavors for you to try! We’re thankful to have you as loyal customers, our hardworking and diverse employees as Culinary Concepts family members, and are proud to call Southwest Florida home! We hope you’ll come, enjoy the relaxed ambiance in our restaurants and celebrate summer with us! Happy Dining!
Join the fun!
@CulinaryBuzz
CulinaryBuzz
SALMONE p. 13
Contents JULY 2016 08 Five Fun Facts about dry aging at Chops City Grill 09 Flavors of Summer fresh and light summer entrees to try 11 Summer Savings and Dining Deals The best deals in town! 13 Hot Dish featuring Pazzo! Cucina Italiana 14 “Jill� of All Trades employee spotlight on Christina Kraus 16 Meet You At The Bar! New Bar Manager and cocktails at Yabba Island Grill
Guests come from around the world to see and chat with Tomas Aguilar. Find him at the wok bar at Chops City Grill in Naples.
CHEF of JULY
FRANCIS PISCHNER Blue Water Bistro “ We’re cooking up the freshest seafood in town! Stop by and see us soon. ” Blue Water Bistro casts a wide net to satisfy everyone’s appetite, serving a wide variety of chargrilled fish paired with incredible sauces and sides. We offer perfectly grilled steaks, along with tons of fresh shellfish and unique ever changing creative bistro fare.
THE RESTAURANTS! Pazzo! Cucina Italiana
853 5th Avenue South Naples, Florida 34102 (239) 434-8494 www.pazzoitaliancafe.com
FLAVORS OF SUMMER p. 9
SUMMER DEALS AND SAVINGS p. 11
Chops City Grill
837 5th Avenue South Naples, Florida 34102 (239) 262-4677 www.chopscitygrill.com
Yabba Island Grill
711 5th Avenue South Naples, Florida 34102 (239) 262-5787 www.yabbaislandgrill.com
Chops City Grill, Bonita Springs 8200 Health Center Blvd. Bonita Springs, Florida 34135 (239) 992-4677 www.chopsbonita.com
Blue Water Bistro
23151 Village Shops Way, Suite #109 Coconut Point Mall Estero, Florida 33928 (239) 949-2583 www.bluewaterbistro.net
MEET US AT THE BAR p. 16
Fun Food Fact
4,512 lbs the number of pounds of tomatoes we used at all the restaurants last year. That's a lot of tomatoes! 2016. July
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Z Z U B y R A N I CUL
#
Lasagnetta with fresh berries at Pazzo! Cucina Italiana
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Five Fun Facts
About Dry Aging! You may know that dry aging meat gives our steaks incredible flavor and tenderness, but do you REALLY know how we dry age steaks at Chops City Grill? It’s a time consuming process. We age our beef, on premise, in temperature controlled coolers for weeks. The enzymes in the beef break down the muscle tissue and push the flavor to the center of the cut, and the outer ring of the meat wastes away and is eventually discarded. What’s left is an incredibly flavorful and tender steak! Here are some fun fact about our dry aging process at Chops City Grill.
DRY AGED ON PREMISE!
1
2000
# of pounds you would find in our dry-aging room on a given night during season (Roughly 1,000 LBS for each Chops restaurant; in a typical month you might see 10X that amount go through our dry-aging room!)
2 3
25%
The percentage of the meat that is lost during the dry-aging process.
Temperature, humidity and moving air,
it’s the trifecta for dry aging which allows the moisture in the meat to evaporate and the enzymes in the beef to concentrate the flavor to the center, breakdown down muscle fibers and tenderize the beef
4 5
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# of days we dry age our steaks. Sorry we can’t tell you the exact number of days ... it’s a secret!
40˚F
The temperature at which we dry age our steaks (for perspective: water freezes into ice at 32˚F).
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Culinary Concepts
WARM HOMEMADE GOAT MILK RICOTTA, Fresh Fig, Blackberries And Tangerine, Umbrian Raisin Bread
SWEET ROASTED TOMATOES
FLAVORS OF SUMMer With the summer heat, refreshing entrees are in order – especially in Southwest Florida. Stop by Culinary Concepts’ restaurants and try delicious and light entrees at each of our restaurants. Not sure what to order? Here are some wonderfully light favorites to try! A PERFECT COMPROMISE. The Steak and
ROASTED BEETS, Sorrento Citrus “Jam”, Panna Fresca, Candied Walnuts, Micro Arugula
Tomatoes at Chops in Naples marries our rich and flavorful peppercorn encrusted sliced sirloin steak with the refreshing acidity of summer heirloom tomatoes, artisanal cheeses and mixed greens served with aged balsamic, extra virgin olive oil and sea salt. TART FOR SUMMER. The Lemon Chicken scaloppini with fresh citrus, spicy cherry peppers, smashed potatoes and crispy onions at Blue Water Bistro is light, filling and a great deal at less than $20. SWEET AND SATISFYING. Paired with a glass of unoaked Chardonnay, at Chops in Bonita our Blackened Tilapia served with sautéed spinach, quinoa and brown sugar roasted butternut squash will satisfy your health goals and flavor cravings. SURPRISINGLY LIGHT. The secret of our La Coda at Pazzo! is the delicious yellow tail snapper. Flavored with wild oregano-tomato, topped with shrimp scampi with castelvetrano olives and served toasted farro, caponata and carmelized lemon – this dish will fill you up yet leave you refreshed. (Pazzo!) POWERFULLY FRESH. The Tuna Monsoon at
Yabba Island Grill is a rush of flavor with sliced togarashi, seared tuna with spinach, frisée, fresh pineapple, water chesnuts, avocado, cashews, seaweed and radish tossed in a delicate ginger soy dressing.
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NATIONAL CHEESECAKE DAY IS JULY 30TH
King Of Cheesecake
Chops City Grill offers our homemade incredibly creamy and light traditional New York style cheesecake with seasonal berries and a fresh blueberry coulis in honor of National Cheesecake Day on July 30th! We invite you to come in and discover why we call it the “King of Cheesecake”! Check out other bizarre holidays on page 21.
SUMMER SAVINGS
& Dining Deals! NY STRIPSTEAK with heirloom tomatoes and roasted root vegetable with popcorn butter
Our summer dining deals first started at Pazzo!, with 10 entrees for less than $20! It inspired our friends and fans to come in more often, so we brought a taste of it to all our restaurants*.
GREAT DEALS!
FEATURED JULY DINING DEALS! CLUB CARD MEMBERS Present your Club Card and receive 20% off all bottles of Champagne (priced $50 - $150) at all restaurants. $10 OFF ANY ENTREE Download, print and present your $10 coupon and receive $10 off any entree, including steaks, grilled fish and entrees from $19.9. Restrictions apply, see coupon for details. Download your coupon at www.gr8food.net
“My goal is to get a lot of people in the room,” said owner Skip Quillen. “We want to have a fun summer – for us and our customers!” At Chops City Grill in Bonita you’ll find items like our Grilled Flat Iron Steak with kimchi fried rice and Asian BBQ and our Crispy Chicken Breast with Chevre Cheese with garden fresh sorrel and limoncello soaked raisin stuffing with wild mushroom risotto. At Blue Water Bistro, our Crab Stuffed Shrimp and our bourbon-brown sugar glazed Blackened Salmon have made a huge splash.
Customers at Pazzo! also love the chance to try several items on the menu at a special price, said Jon Sanders, general manager. “Our guests love it,” he said. “Instead of stopping in for Early Dining, they order from our full dinner menu to try entrees new to them!” And there is more! To reward our locals and inspire others to get to know us better, we also launched a $10 off coupon good at all our restaurants for any grill or entrée item – including our new entrees for under $20! “The coupon keeps the party going,” Quillen said. “We’re rewarding our loyal locals with up to 70% off entrees. ” With reduced priced entrees starting at $19.9 combined with a $10 off coupon those are deals are not going to last long.
*Note: the dishes available for less than $20 vary from restaurant to restaurant with as few as 5 entrees offered or as many as 10 entrees, depending on the restaurant location.
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great
Dining
2016. July
PAZZO! CUCINA ITALIANA’S unique atmosphere is at
once romantic, casual and crazy! It’s the perfect destination for a special date or the place you can go night after night with friends and family. This year, Pazzo! celebrates 20 years as Fifth Avenue South’s oldest and most prestigious Italian restaurant! Experience the magic of Pazzo!
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Culinary Concepts
HOT DISH: SALMONE Served at Pazzo! Cucina Italiana. Our pan-seared salmon is delicate and flaky served with roasted butternut squash, kale and brown sugar butter sauce accented with cavatelli pasta and garnished with praline bacon and tossed citrus greens BONUS: It is one of the "10 entrees Under $20"!
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www.GR8FOOD.net
A “Jill” of all trades ...
Christina Kraus! SO TALENTED!
When Christina Kraus isn’t bustling behind the bar at Pazzo!, she may be painting a sculpture, a piece of driftwood or Adirondack furniture in her home studio. Last fall, Kraus was selected as one of the artists who illustrated roughly 50 hulking sea turtle sculptures made of fiberglass for Turtles on the Town, a public project to rally support for the arts, the environment and charitable giving through a community arts project in Collier County.
“The coolest project I’ve ever done has got to be these turtles,” Kraus said. Her turtle was dubbed the Florida Tribute Turtle, which she illustrated with the state flag, the Naples Pier, our zebra-winged state butterfly, an orange blossom – our state flower, and a conch shell. The sea turtle sculpture took weeks to paint and was auctioned off to raise money for St. Matthews House. 2016. July
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Culinary Concepts
Now it’s on display at the Champions For Learning facility on Enterprise Avenue in Naples.
Christina is working on a new turtle these days – this time an ocean themed one with a coral reef and tropical fish scene on the lower half of the shell, and a flamingo on the upper half and a sunset scene on the underside of the shell.
Kraus’ creativity is remarkable. At the Pazzo! Bar it’s manifested in the sleek cocktails she serves to guests, and off the clock she can often be found working on murals, painting on canvas and sculptures, and illustrating Florida-inspired scenery on brightly colored Adirondack chairs. She first started painting because of her interest in her father, Tom’s, work. “My dad has been a painter for a long time, and loves to fish,” she said. “He started painting fish on these big driftwood boards, placing the fish he caught on there and tracing them.” But working on the sea turtle sculptures hit close to home too. Her mom, Maura, is known around town as the “sea turtle lady.” More than 30 years ago, she started the sea turtle program in Collier County and is the principal environmental specialist for the Sea Turtle Program with the Natural Resources Department for Collier County. “My mom started the program hatching turtles on Keewaydin
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Island,” she said. “They had an observatory where they raised the turtles in tanks and let them go. “They say the sea turtles come back to where they were let go 30 years ago and in the last couple of years my mom has started to see all the babies, now full-grown, coming back to their nest.” It’s no surprise when Maura first heard about the Turtles on the Town project, she urged Christina to get involved. “She said, ‘You have to submit some designs, get some pictures in there and see if they pick them,’” Christina said of her mom. “We got one that was picked out of four entries!” - 15 -
It’s not her largest project though. She’s done a 12-foot by 24-foot mural of the famous Japanese painting of crashing waves – “The Great Wave Off Kanagawa” and once she did a 3-foot- by 3-foot mural of a local comedian, but she really got started painting by creatively illustrating Adirondack chairs. Lately she’s been caught up in a new project – painting and illustrating her soon-to-be daughter’s room. Kraus first found out she was expecting in February. “She’s already got a full closet, because that’s the way I am,” Kraus said. “She’s got all these cute little glittery outfits.” Her little girl is expected to arrive on October 17. “We’re excited to meet her!”
www.GR8FOOD.net
NEW COCKTAILS and BAR MANAGER!
Meet Us At The Bar! Chelsea is putting the craft back into craft cocktails at Yabba Island Grill. “It’s the small details, the fresh-squeezed juices and surprising flavor pairings that make a difference you can taste.” www.yabbaislandgrill.com
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Culinary Concepts
BUTTERFLY ROLL with deep fried shrimp with a mango-blackberry chow chow, avocado and cream cheese and sriracha mayo
Yabba also has a new sassy, energetic and fun bar manager, Chelsea Loftus, ready to let her creativity loose!
“I’ve always wanted to bartend,” she says. “It’s a fun way to interact with the guests – people are there to talk to you, find out your story.” And Yabba’s bar has a great story! We’ve got the biggest beer and cocktail list on 5th Avenue South with a nice 72-bottle wine list offering guests reasonable pricing and recognizable brands!
THE BAR IN NUMBERS
Cheers!
WINES BY THE GLASS:
22
WINES BY THE BOTTLE:
72
CRAFT MARTINIS & COCKTAILS:
46
BEERS:
32
LIQUORS & SPIRITS:
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July 5th - 31st, 7 days a week, all night long all appetizers, well & call drinks are 50% off at the bar!
60+
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Employee Spotlight
In the last 35 years he’s lead the kitchens on Miami’s finest fine dining restaurants, owned his own restaurant – you might have heard of Grouper & Chips – and now he brings his many talents to lead Blue Water Bistro’s team of talented cooks. Executive Chef Francis Pischner is definitely someone you want to know. He’ll tell you the best stories, serve you the most delicious food when you dine at Blue Water Bistro at Coconut Point and is always ready to recommend a dish.
Chef of the Month FRANCIS PISCHNER EXECUTIVE CHEF Blue Water Bistro
“My team at Blue Water Bistro is my family,” he said. “We have a lot of fun in the kitchen and I’m so proud of my guys and what they can do.” www.bluewaterbistro.net
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“The Blackened Salmon with the butternut squash is our top seller,” he says. “That’s one of my favorite dishes. It’s got the spicy blackened flavor with the sweetness of the squash and the bourbon sauce enhances all the flavors.” He grew up working in the kitchen and got his start at 14 working for his cousin Terry Left in his hometown of Charlevoix, Michigan. In the 80s, he worked in some of Miami’s most lauded French restaurants, serving up dishes like Snapper Dugleré in a velouté sauce or churning out as many as 300 souffles a night. He also started Grouper and Chips in Naples and ran it for 21 years before joining the Culinary Concepts team. Culinary Concepts
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Culinary Concepts
J u ly B i z ar r e H o l i d ays
1 Creat i ve Ice Cream F lavor s Day
18 Nat ional C av iar Day
2 I F or got Day
19 Nat ional R aspber r y C ake Day
2 Wor ld UF O Day
2 0 Nat ional Lollipop Day
3 St ay ou t of t he Sun Day
2 0 Moon Day
4 Indep endence Day
2 0 Ug l y Tr uck Day - i t ’s a “g u y ” t hing
4 Na t ional Count r y Music Day
2 1 Nat ional Junk F ood Day
6 Inter na t ional K is sing Day
2 2 Hammock Day
6 Na t ional Fr ie d C hicken Day
2 3 Nat ional Hot Dog Day
7 C ho cola te Day
2 3 Vanilla Ice Cream Day
7 Na t ional St raw b er r y Sundae Day
2 4 Cousins Day
8 Na t ional B lueb er r y Day
2 4 Parent ’s Day
8 V ide o Game s Day
2 5 Culinar ians Day
9 Na t ional Sugar Co ok ie Day
2 6 A ll or Not hing Day
10 Te dd y B ear Picnic Day
2 8 Nat ional Milk C hocolate Day
11 C he er up t he Lonel y Day
2 9 Nat ional L as ag na Day
11 Wor ld Populat ion Day
3 0 Nat ional C he e s e c ake Day
12 Di f ferent Colore d Eye s Day
3 0 Fat her- in - L aw Day
12 Pe c an Pie Day
3 0 Inter nat ional Day of Fr iendship
13 Embrace Your G e ek ne s s Day 13 F o ol ’s Paradis e Day 14 B as t ille Day 14 Pandemonium Day 14 Na t ional Nude Day 15 Tapio c a Pudding Day
CELEBRATE NATIONAL CHEESECAKE DAY ON 07/30 AT CHOPS.
15 Cow A ppre cia t ion Day 16 Fre sh Spinach Day 17 Na t ional Ice Cream Day 17 Peach Ice Cream Day 17 Yellow Pig Day
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Culinary Concepts Culinary Creating Incredible Memories ... One Bite At A Time!
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