Maddey's Craft and Cru Pop Up Dinner

Last Friday May 22nd, Chef Jason Schofield organized a pop up dinner at the East End Market to showcase his cooking skills and to help raise awareness for his upcoming restaurant endeavour Maddey's Craft & Cru which he will be opening in Orlando.

It was a 5 course dinner and there were a dozen attendees.  Cocktails were hand prepared by a bartender from the Courtesy.  Here are the ingredients:

1 - Dolin Blanc, Toro dry vermouth, lemon, simple syrup, raspberries, champagne, mint
2 - Gin, lemon, Falernum, yellow chartreuse, peach bitters
3 - Averna, vanilla bean syrup, lemon, Carpano Antica, fino sherry, strawberries
4 -Cynar, Ancho Reyes, Cardamaro, Burlesque bitters, lemon bitters, Fernet rinse

The meal began with a Sliced beef tongue, brioche pudding, pinot noir apple cider reduction. My first time trying tongue. I was worried some of the other attendees wouldn't try it but I was wrong they all ate it.

The second course was Salad - Goat cheese ricotta, Kale, honey’d almonds, organic tomato, Berkshire hog slices, charred lemon. This was a really creative dish and I will say I've never had anything like it. It had a great unique flavor.

 

Next up was the pasta course -  Tomato pasta with whey broth & ricotta. Chef said he was inspired by a type of pasta called Fazzoletti which means handkerchief. I wasn't sure what to make of it by the description or what whey broth was but this was really fantastic and creative.

 

Entrée
Truffled purple yam short rib, glazed onion, tongue lardoons. The Short rib was the perfect tenderness and just the right portion. Very good!

 

Final Course was Dessert
Caramel bourbon Float with Olde Hearth peanut butter sandwich

Chef Jason is hosting another Pop Up dinner this time in Tampa on June 20th. I will post details when they come available or reach out to him directly at chefjschofield@gmail.com

Chef Eddie's opens second location

Chef Eddie's Soulful Southern cooking has opened a second location in Orlando. It's located at 595 Church Street just west of I-4.

Check out the Menu:
http://chefeddies.com/our-menu/

reviews:
http://www.yelp.com/biz/chef-eddies-orlando-4?hrid=K7Tg4GY5kkuCYxJ-icGReg

Open Seven (7) Days A Week
Sunday -Thursday  8am -10 PM      and    
Friday & Saturday  8am – 11 PM

595 West Church Street Orlando, FL 32805
TEL: 407.826.1731

Osprey Tavern - Baldwin Park

Osprey Tavern opened in mid March of 2015. The neighborhood it's located in Baldwin Park has been needing a good restaurant for a while now. There were a few good restaurants years ago but now not any worth mentioning except the Sushi place across the street.

I finally had a chance to try The Osprey Tavern this weekend and had a great meal. We tried many of the menu items and were mostly impressed.

The decor is very nice, although the name implies gastropub, it's much more of a almost fine dining restaurant.

The menu seems somewhat limited since they are still in their soft opening phase, according to the staff they will be adding a few more entrees and more menu items once they transition out of the soft opening phase. They also have a new executive chef taking over in a few months, more details here: http://tastychomps.com/2015/05/chef-joseph-cournoyer-burnett-joins-the-osprey-tavern.html

Menu

We started with the Charcuterie platter which was impressive looking and had a lot of great flavors with meats, mustards, jellies and pickled vegetables. The duck prosciutto was a little too salty but otherwise everything was excellent.

Charcuterie Platter - Duck prosciutto, rabbit rillette, soppressata, chorizo verde, head cheese, octopus conserva, cheese spread, pickled vegetables

I had a few bites of this, wasn't really my thing, didn't have any flavor that stood out but if tartare is your thing I'm sure you'll like this

Wagyu Tartare $14 - Raw finely ground Wagyu beef, red currants, chive oil, egg yolk, boquerones crisp

The Tagliatelle pasta dish had mild flavors, I assume they make the pasta in house but it doesn't mention it on the menu, although it was visually pleasing nothing really grabbed me flavor wise but it was still an enjoyable dish.

Tagliatelle $14 - Tagliatelle noodles, squash, peas, bacon, beemster gouda, brown butter

The marble potatoes had a great mixture of colors, purple potatoes and standard ones, they were about the size of new potatoes. This dish had a fantastic smokey flavor but were a little too salty. I really enjoyed them regardless of the salt. The smoked mayo gave the dish a fantastic tang. I would love it if they would make this in a larger size for sharing with the table. 

Marble Potatoes $5 - mixture of purple and standard new potatoes with smoked mayo, manchego, pickled fresno peppers

Sweetbreads are one of my very favorite meats. I've eaten them dozens of times in Argentinean restaurants usually prepared with roasted garlic.  These Beer Battered Sweetbreads were pretty decent but I'd prefer to see them prepared without being fried. If prepared correctly they can be extraordinary. The coleslaw looking item on the side was supposedly green mango though the menu does not mention it. It was an odd pairing but I did like the unique mild flavor.

Beer Battered Sweetbreads $7 - sauce gribiche

Though the menu didn't mention dessert we asked and were given a dessert menu which had Ice Cream, Panna Cotta, Peach Cobbler. Would be nice if they had a few dessert wines on that menu to pair with them.

This ice cream sundae was excellent, the ice cream was flavored with cardamom, it was surprisingly fantastic.  The flavor of the ice cream cardamom was spectacular

Ice Cream Sundae

I didn't get the full description of this dessert but it had a coffee or espresso flavored ice cream and little chocolate cakes.

Overall I'd certainly visit here again, The steak is the most expensive thing on the menu at $38 but most of the other dishes are fairly priced for a fine dining restaurant. Many of the dishes are on the smaller size. They also have pizzas and lots of unique cocktails.

Their website is still under construction:
http://ospreytavern.com/


Instagram:
https://instagram.com/the_osprey_tavern/

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Osprey-Tavern/459200480850163