griffinmarket

Hi guys,

here at the store we have some half bottles either white or red or champagne but the problems for me to buy them and being able to sell them are various.

First the distributors they don't want to carry strange formats, either half bottles or magnums or double magnums because they're more difficult to sell.

Second I still have to find a half bottle that has a cost equal to the 50% of a regular bottle. I've been told that glass, cork label costs are almost the same as for a regular bottle so the distributor cannot charge half the price of a regular bottle for these.

Third a wine in a half bottle do not ages as well as in a regular bottle or better, in a larger format. So you can find half bottles of nice wines already past their peak in half the time that it would take for a regular bottle.

In addition, we sell mostly italian wines and italian producers seem not to care too much about half bottles right now. It is really hard for me to be able to offer my customers with a variety of half bottles.

oooppss,

I forgot to tell you that the Quail eggs have been WITH the white truffles from last night, so...they're picking up flavour as we speak

What are the prices on the truffles? Are the black truffles Perigord/Provence? I assume the white truffles are fresh in from Alba, as I seem to recall you mentioning that you had a buddy or two in the business.

I wonder if anybody I know has a birthday coming up....

Both white and black are from Piedmont, whites are from Alba only.

Last night we had Piedmonteis Tajarin (little tagliatelle but narrower made with a ratio of 40 egg yolks per kilo of dough) with butter and White Truffles at 18$ per portion, and it was an appetizer portion.

Tonight we are going to have another appetizer which is going to be a Raviolone with Quail Egg and Porcini inside and white truffles shaved on top, for 9$ per portion.

Retail prices for this week...white 6$/gr or 168$/oz ---- black 0.60$/gr or $16.80/oz

they're really good

Ciao

Riccardo

Hi Guys,

just a quick info.

We have received fresh White truffles and we are going to use them in our dinners to go during the whole weekend.

White and Black truffles are also available for sale.

See you at the store

That is actually really funny - I used to run the Chefs Program at Cheesetique, up until March. I guess it's a new product!

So thanks, I'll be coming by to get one..

Hi guys....

we carry it at the Griffin Market.....

Hi Guys...

I just want you to know that The Griffin Market will be open July the 4th only until 6pm.

And the next week will be Duck week.

We are going to prepare several different dishes with duck....

Stop by to learn more

Ciao

Riccardo

Hi guys....

sorry to use this forum as a private posting zone but .....

today thursday 19th the Sandwich area will be closed all day, Laura needs to be downtown and can't be overseeing Panini making.

We will have some simple Panini pre-made that she's making right now, but nothing Hot or made to order.

She will be back for Dinner service.

The rest of the store will be open as always.

Sorry

Riccardo

I was walking to work with Mrs. B today and she asked, "so did Nicholls scoop you?" and I got to experience the cheap thrill of replying "hah! I scooped him!" Beyond that, though I think it's unfair to ascribe anything untoward to Mr. Nicholls. Indeed, given the long lead time in the Food section, he may well have had his piece in a queue for weeks, waiting for the space to come open -- or had it in his mind, waiting for one more pasta sample before he filed.

At any rate, as long as Laura is hanging out here, I'll ask a question I was going to phone in later today: it seems that there's a fairly short window between the time you finish the pasta and the time it sells out -- what would be an ideal time to drop by Saturday, as Stephanie and I have decided to do an mostly-Griffin dinner (we tried it the weekend you were closed and were depressed all night after driving to G'town). Also, in addition to those old Barolos, what might you have in a red and a white under $30 to go with whatever pasta you'll have on hand?

Hi, this is Riccardo from the Griffin market.

Saturday we are going to have handmade Ravioloni filled with Eggplant, Tomatoes and a slice of fresh Mozzarella. You can stop by between 3pm and 6pm to pick it up. These are handmade so we can not produce a lot, we are going to have no more than 15-16 servings available. So the earlier the better.

As far as wines to have with the ravioloni, i would need to know which sauce you are going to use in order to make a correct suggestion.

If you are going to prepare them with a butter and sage sauce, I would go with a Dolcetto (17.00) or a Tocai (13.00).

With meat sauce I would go with an Aglianico (18.25) or a verdicchio Superiore (18.00)

Stop by and we'll talk

Thanks

Ciao

Riccardo

Meh. It's an old, if scummy, newspaper tradition to "re-purpose" others' work without acknowledgement. Howie Kurtz has written on it a bunch of times.

Everyone else uses the Internets for their research why not the WaPo food section?

Hi guys,

This is Laura from the Griffin Market.

First thank you to Waitman for the wonderful post. We really appreciate the kind words and are looking forward to welcoming all of you from the Don Rockwell website here at our little store.

About the article on the Washington Post yesterday- I can only say that Walter, the author, is indeed a neighbor and frequent shopper here. He was one of our first customers and has returned almost weekly. He certainly has eaten his fair share of firsthand "research material."

Come on by and say hi!

Laura and Riccardo