Update 4/28/07

Okay -

Lease is signed!!! That was about a week ago. Since I have such awesome abilities as a real estate mogul (not!) My lease term does not start until construction is complete and my doors our open. Not that I would want to, but I could take a year to finish the remodel.

Engineers!
I signed an agreeement with my architect to put together my planset to go to the county for our building permit before spring break. He would manage the engineers and get the drawings done. Due to our high growth in NM, I am still trying to get my planset completed and my building permit!

CONCRETE!!!
The architect (also my landlord) gave me some good advice. Let a professional contractor cut, break and haul off the concrete we need to remove for my plumbing. I got the quote, did some figuring and decided we could do it cheaper renting the equipment and using some punk a$$ kids to do the dirty work. I never thought it was going to be easy, but it turned out to be almost impossible. The advice from my landlord/architect was missing one vital peice of information...the concrete was 5000 psi (3000 psi is considered hard to work with) and had a nylon mesh inside of it to help it keep from cracking in the case of an EARTHQUAKE or other natural disaster.

Normal concrete blades were vitually ineffective and the jackhammer wouldn't break it up. Other times that I have busted up 'crete, once you get it started, you can break it up and haul it off in fairly big peices...we basically had to turn this into small rocks since it had the mesh to hold it together.
Long story short, after a FULL day of work, we have 90% of the concrete cut and about two wheelbarrels broken out. I returned the rental equipment, and I will have the pros come in to finish our handiwork. On the positive side, I don't think I will be paying more than the original quote, we were able to cut it quite a bit cheaper than they would have...


Kaelin thought it was pretty loud!












More later! J

Getting closer

I feel good about breakfast and lunch, but am still working on dinner. This will be what I open with, and will grow with time.

BREAKFAST
7a-3p every day
Drivetime Burrito $ Red skinned potatoes, scrambled eggs, cheese, red or green chile.
Add rice, beans, veggies $
Add carne, bacon, sausage $
Breakfast Burrito Plate $ Filled witih scrambled eggs, cheese and your choice of carne, bacon or sausage. Served with beans and red skinned potatoes
Breakfast Sandwich $ Our soon to be famous Sandia Toast filled with two eggs, cheese
Add green chile $
Add bacon or sausage $
Huevos Chilaguilles $ Chile soaked tortilla chips topped with two eggs your way, red or green chile and cheese. Served with red skinned potatoes and either bacon filled pinto beans or vegetarian black beans.
Sandia Toast $ Part souffle, part French toast.
Add 100% maple $
Barb's Pancakes $ From scratch.
Add 100% maple
Breakfast $ Black Angus patty, topped with a fried egg, bacon, green chile and cheese. Served on a bisuit with red skinned potatoes
Biscuits and Chile $ Baked in house and served with two fried eggs, chile and cheese
Add Carne, Bacon, Sausage $
Hen Grenade $ Sandia Toast, topped with ham and two poached eggs and smothered with hollandaise. Served with red skinned potatoes
Sangre de Cristo $ Black forest ham, swiss cheese, house roasted turkey, cheddar cheese and green chile layered up with sour dough bread, dipped in egg batter and grilled. Served with red skin potatoes.


LUNCH
11-close everyday
Burrito $ Filled with cheese and your choice of chicken, carne, grilled steak or veggies. Red or Green, with beans and rice
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-all burgers are 100% Angus chuck and are served with lettuce, tomato and pickle with your choice of mixed greens ($1 extra for fancy salad), fries or homemade potato chips -
GS Burger $ ¼ lb pattie
Double GS $ two ¼ lb patties
GS Veggie $ black beans, blended with fresh vegetables and grilled.
add bacon, cheddar, blue, swiss, avocado, chile $
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
all sandwiches served with your choice of mixed greens ($1 extra for fancy salad), fries or homemade potato chips -
Sangre de Cristo $ Black forest ham, swiss cheese, house roasted turkey, cheddar cheese and green chile layered up with sour dough bread, dipped in egg batter and grilled. Served with red skin potatoes.
Grilled Chicken BLT $ Free range chicken breast, applewood smoked bacon, lettuce, tomato
and homemade mayo
Chipotle Steak $ Marinated and grilled flat-iron steak, open faced with sautee'd onions and bell peppers with melted cheese
Sloppy Jay – Black angus chuck slow cooked in homemade bbq sauce and served on a hamburger bun
Hot Turkey Dip – Fresh roasted turkey breast, with green chile, cheddar and homemade green chile ranch dip

all box lunches come with choice of mixed salad, homemade potato chips, or soup (we'll give it to you cold in a microwave container) and choice of beverage
Monday – tofu salad wrap – or - cobb salad sandwich
Tuesday – cucumber raita wrap – or ~roast pork sandwich
Wednesday – marinated mozzerella and tomato sub – or - cobb salad
Thursday – roasted bell peppers sauce, marinated artichoke bottoms – or - thai chicken wrap
Friday – Homemade hummus with cucumber raita – or -
meatloaf sandwich

SALADS
lunch and dinner

Salad Dressings – Basil Caesar, Green Chile Ranch, Mango Vin, Dijon Vin, 1000 Island
Caesaprese $ Housemade basil/caesar dressing tossed with romaine lettuce, fresh mozzarella, tomatoes and croutons
1000 Island $ Mixed greens tossed with 1000 dressing and served with fresh fruit and cottage cheese
Spinach $ Mango vinaigrette, baby spinach leaves and fresh vegetables
Steak Ranchero $ Marinated and grilled flat iron steak, tossed with mixed green and our chipotle ranch dressing
Chopped Salad $ Roast chicken, crumbled blue cheese, bacon, lettuce, tomato, avocado and Dijon vinaigrette
APPETIZERS
lunch and dinner
Chips $ Homemade potato chips with chipotle ranch
Romescu $ Roasted red bell pepper, fresh garlic, lemon and almands puree'd served with flour tortilla chips
Lamb Quesadilla Slow roasted lamb round


DINNER
4-cl everyday
Sunday -
Monday – Roast Porkloin with gratin potatoes
Tuesday – Bbq Lamb top round, roasted potatoes
Wednesday – Pot Roast, just a touch of curry
Thursday – Meatloaf with garlic mash potatoes
Bella Vista Friday – Fish and Chips all day
Beef Tenderloin–Grilled with shrimp scampi
Saturday – Grilled King Salmon with white corn chipotle ragout

Test

Logo

killed post

Breakfast - ROUND 2 - there will be many more, I'm sure of it

Hand Held Breakfast Burritos $$$

Breakfast Burrito Plate $$$

Start with eggs and cheese
Pick your chile – red or green
Pick your meat/filling – bacon, sausage, citrus marinated pork, green chile roasted chicken, callabacitas or chilaquiles add $$$
Pick your extras – quacamole, potatoes, vegetarian black beans, bacon beans, cilantro lime basmati rice add $$$

Huevos Rancheros
Two eggs cooked your way, white corn tortillas, choice of vegetarian black beans or bacon beans smothered with red or green chile and cheese.

Huevos Chilaquiles (chill a kil ees)
White corn tortilla chips, quick cooked with tomato and chile, topped with two eggs cooked your way. Smothered with red or green chile and cheese.

Uncle Benny
Two poached eggs, atop sautee'd spinach and a homemade biscuit smothered with cheddar cheese sauce.

French Toast
Thick slices of egg bread 'frenched' and served with maple syrup

The Elvis
Peanut butter and banana sandwiched between two slabs of french toast and drizzled with honey

The Fruit Cake
Sliced strawberries and cream cheese

The Cowboy
Cheddar cheese and choice of bacon, ham or sausage

Barbie Cakes
Pancake batter made from scratch, served with maple syrup
add real maple $$$
add fruit and yogurt $$$

Irish Oatmeal
Steel cut oats, no Quaker around here

Granola and Yogurt
Homemade granola served with plain yogurt

Breakfast Burger (hangover cure) - bacon, fried egg, cheese and chile

We'll see what evolves next...maybe some aimless rambling!

Logo

Here is one of my logos...thanks BR!

Lunch

available 7 am – 10 am, pair a box lunch with a handheld breakfast burrito and cup of coffee $15

all box lunches come with choice of mixed salad, homemade potato chips, or soup (we'll give it to you cold in a microwave container) and choice of beverage

Monday – tofu salad wrap – or -
chicken salad sandwich
Tuesday – cucumber raita wrap – or -
roasted porkloin sandwich
Wednesday – marinated mozzerella and tomato sub – or -
cobb salad
Thursday – roasted bell peppers sauce, marinated artichoke bottoms – or -
thai chicken wrap
Friday – garbonzo bean salad wrap – or -
meatloaf sandwich

Burgers are all made from black angus beef
GS burger - ¼ lb pattie
Double GS – two ¼ lb patties
Saturday Morning GS - ¼ pattie topped with cheddar cheese, bacon and a fried egg
GS Veggie – black beans, blended with fresh vegetables and grilled.

add bacon, cheddar, blue, swiss, avocado, chile, etc...

Sloppy Jay – ground chuck cooked with special midwestern charm. I dare ya to eat it without a fork
Hot Turkey Dip – Fresh roasted turkey breast, with green chile, cheddar and homemade ranch dip
Grilled Chicken BLT – Free range chicken breast, applewood smoked bacon, lettuce, tomato
and homemade mayo

Salads – Basil Caesar, Ranch, Mango Vinaigrette, Dijon Vinaigrette, 1000 Island

GS Caesar – Romaine lettuce, parmesan cheese, toast, and tossed with basil caesar dressing
Ranch – Mixed greens, avocado, tomato, cucumber, green chile and our homemade ranch dressing
Spinach – Baby spinach, mango vinaigrette
Chopped Salad – Roast chicken, crumbled blue cheese, bacon, lettuce, tomato, avocado and Dijon vinaigrette
1000 Island – (if I sell a million of these, maybe I could buy 1 Island?) Mixed greens and tomato wedges. Add a scoop of cottage cheese

Burrito or White Corn Enchilada Plate -
red or green chile
Meat Options – green chile roast chicken – or – citrus marinated slow cooked pork
Non-Meat Option – callabacitas – or – chilaquiles
Other Options –
vegetarian black beans
bacon filled pinto beans
cilantro lime basmati rice
quacamole, roasted tomato salsa

You get the idea...

More (or less) to come.

J

current floorplan

OK, let's start with Breakfast

I have two categories for breakfast - things I am doing for sure and ideas of things I want to do. The things I am doing for sure is a VERY small list, the idea list is HUGE.

Fer Shure
Breakfast Burritos
Huevos Rancheros
Bacon/Sausage/Egg Plates (ya know, 'I'll have two eggs sunny with four strips of bacon and piece of toast.')

That's it for that list. Even the breakfast burritoes have two lists -
Fer Shure - Eggs, potatoes, cheese, bacon, sausage and chile.

Maybes for Breakfast Burritos-

Carne de Chango - pork, but not just any pork. Hopefully I can source a good quality, hormone/antibiotic free pork butt that I can citrus marinate and lightly smoke. I am hoping for something a little different than carne adavada that everyone does, but not something so different that it scares people.

Carne de Carne - shredded beef brisket, not sure I want to do both beef and pork?

Pollo - Roasted chicken (a tasty bird) picked and simmered with green chile

Two types of beans - bacon filled pinto bean goodness and a vegetarian black bean

Rice - cilantro lime, if they/you will let me. I love rice for breakfast

Callabacitas - the zucchini/chile mix

Chilaquiles - tortilla chips that are quick cooked in a tomato broth, a hearty addition to a breakfast burrito

Maybes for the rest of Breakfast:

Huevos Chilaquiles - Tortilla chips that are quick cooked in a flavorful tomato broth, topped with fried eggs, served with beans and chile. Much heartier than the standard 'Rancheros'

Eggs Benedict - Do I really want to open that whole hollandaisse can of worms again? It really went awry last time.

Hippy Benedict - spinach and cheese sauce. Not really any healthier, it's just something that every hippy breakfast place in the PNW had, and I haven't really seen here in NM.

Crepes - There is so many things I could do with crepes, I don't even know where to start.

Pancakes - I know it doesn't seem like that should even be a question

French Toast - Think of the 'sandwiches' we could create between two slices of thick french toast. Ham and cheese, sausage and egg, strawberries and cream cheese, PBJ (with banana and bacon?), club sandwich

Eggs in a hole

Irish Oatmeal

Yogurt/granola sh$t

Cream of Wheat Sticks - cream of wheat that has been cooked and chilled so it 'sets up.' You then fry it up on the griddle. I was envisioning it as a kids dish, but I had seconds of it this morning with maple syrup and bananas and it's in a wedge and not a stick.



Breakfast Burger (hangover cure) - bacon, fried egg, cheese and chile

I've even started thinking about a 'dessert for breakfast' category.

Gingerbread french toast with maple sauce (creme anglais)

Half a grapefruit with carmelized sugar on top (brulee)

Cream of Wheat with peppermint ice cream...that's what the leftover cream of wheat was from. My kids loved going to school telling everyone they had ice cream for breakfast.

Breakfast all day???

That's it, what do you think? I think I have it set so that anyone can post replies, if not, drop me an email at jwulf@cybermesa.com

Jaybob

Something new?

Okay, May is a bit too long, huh? Maybe I'm not such a serious blogger.

New works...




Press Release by JCrichar and Assc.

Jay Wulf, formerly the chef and a partner at the
Standard Diner, has left the Diner to focus his
culinary attentions on a project closer to home and
heart in the East Mountains. His new venture, The
Greenside Cafe, will be located in Cedar Crest, and
will feature many of the distinctive creations
Albuquerque diners have come to expect and appreciate
from Wulf. "I felt
that the time was right," says Wulf of his concept,
which will include ready-to-eat takeout as well as
fully prepared meals to enjoy in the 100-seat dining
room. Wulf, who arrived in New Mexico in 1992, has
lived in Cedar Crest for four years and feels it has
been overlooked as a destination for those seeking a
good dining experience. "The many residents of the
East Mountains don't have a lot of alternatives when
it comes to dining out, and I'm hoping to attract a
few people from the big city as well," Wulf says,
adding that it's an easy (and scenic) drive from
Albuquerque or Santa Fe. The highly anticipated Greenside Cafe,
which will also serve beer and wine, is on schedule to
open sometime in the late spring.

My Sunday with David

What a gas! Going back 10 years to the same comedic timing and style of a good friend.
We all met at Marja Martins' kitchen in Santa Fe. You may know her as Marja's Custom Catering. What a wonderful kitchen. I had a little something to do with it : )
David prepared a great little menu. Including duck mole, made from fresh duck legs he marinated and brought in his suitcase from California. Even though the menu reads super simply, everything was just dynamite. If I was younger, and didn't have kids, I would be on my way to Berkley to work with David again at Chez Panisse!!!

Wish I had some goat cheese

Grilled flat iron steak....Roasted poblano cream sauce, topped with blue cheese. I would like to have this with some excellent gratin potatoes, but we don't have that basic mastered at the restaurant yet. Tomorrow, we will have ANOTHER lesson...would anyone like one also? I'm gonna run it this weekend topped with some soft goat cheese and browned a little bit. It was most excellent. The flat iron is just the right amount of texture for me. You need a steak knife to cut it, but it is just the right amount of tenderness so you don't have to work too hard to chew. Very good flavor.

David Tanis

One of the more influential chefs I have had the pleasure of working with will be in town this weekend to cook dinner for a Buddhist wake/memorial.
Six months out of the year, he is the chef at Chez Panisse and the other six months, him and his partner Randy live in Paris and host dinner parties. Their seventeenth century apartment is called. "aux chien lunatique"
I know David from Cafe Escalera in Santa Fe. I'd give you a link, but Escalera 'flamed out' years ago. At least, that's what it says when you do a 'Google.'

Dinner...

Ah, the power of the internet...where else can you find such worthless information. Decided to grab a burger, and leave work in time to drive home and kiss my kids goodnight : )

Coffee

When Matt and I first started talking about the 'diner', one of the first orders of business I felt was to get a truly unique coffee for the restaurant. My first (and only) call was to Dave Black. Since it turned out that we had lots of time, we ended up going through just about every bean that was available.

I wouldn't say that I am like that guy that works for Starbucks that walks around a table set with lots of coffee cups, tasting one at a time with a tiny spoon, but I definately like my bean. My first pre-requisite was that the coffee be fair trade and organic, it's a small price to pay I think.

Dave and I settled on a Sumatran bean (here's some interesting info coffee research and coffee review) and a medium roast.

Just thought I should share a little bit of the background on the bean. I drink it daily...in moderation of course, wouldn't want to get jittery now would we.

More

New Menu

Okay...here's what's changing. I wish I could post a better copy of our menu, but I think the only electronic copy is on a computer in Bernalillo. I guess that's a good place for it, we definately shouldn't put it up on our website. Here's a scan of the Menu

Meatloaf...gotta be more summery, on top of that we are REALLY tired of dicing and roasting butternut squash. I'm thinking about some fresh herb blend, maybe some nice sweet onions. I think Walla Walla sweets should be available soon, but maybe Vidalia. Sautee'd chicories, maybe a roast tomato gravy.

Tuna Spring Roll...Matt hates it, I don't disagree, but I know people are going go apes**t on me for changing it. Matt keeps talked about a tuna 'caprese', which sounds cool, but he keeps bugging me. I'm thinking some toast, basil aoilli, red and yellow tomatoes, thin sliced tuna, and some arugula. Sounds like summer, but I need that one other thing to put it over the top...hmmmm, what could it be?

Definately need a new beef tenderloin dish...I personally dislike beef tenderloin, no texture, no flavor, just being honest. It's kinda like the pre-requisite grilled chicken breast dish every restaurant feels it needs. : ) I am getting some flat iron steaks in to sample.

Cool article on Flat Iron Steaks

The onion brick has gotta go. We just can't pull it off consistently. I think really good onion rings, (maybe with the Walla Wallas), served up in our cool baskets.

Steak Salad...working on that...as published earlier.

We gotta put onion rings on the pulled pork...it's REALLY good.

The Pork T-Bone is a real dog. As a result, the less of an item you sell, the less love goes into by the linecooks. Even though, I would like everyone to think I cook everything, it is my buddies on the line that are responsible for ensuring that my dreams make there way to reality.

Risotto...gonna make something springier. I'm thinking a kinda lemony risotto with lots of parmesan and a spring vegetable ragout. Fresh tomatoes, peas, asparagus, maybe some fava beans...I think that's dinner!

Jay's a bonehead

I think one can now post comments...but only to new posts?

J

My Dinner...Hey, get away from my dinner

I am sampling some 'pub steaks...they come from the 'shoulder clod heart'. Thinking about using it instead of flank steak that is on our steak salad. Matt REALLY hates our steak salad, and I don't really blame him. Personally, I think steak and salad just shouldn't go together, but hey, that's just me.

Anyway, I marinated the steak in some J-1...damn that's some good sauce, grilled it, and I am eating with our curry sauce from the pot roast. Veggies and mash potatoes, cuz I knew I would be taking a picture of it. I swear I am cleaning my plate though.

New Menu - Menu Tasting

I have put together some new menu ideas...drop me an email with a good reason why you should be part of my menu tasting group.

jay@standarddiner.com

mmmm

Tribune and Journal

Albuquerque Tribune...thanks Carrie!!!

Albuquerque Journal...thanks Andrea!!!