Hello friends! This month, our menu is all about fresh, ultra-ripe, and delicious produce, seafood, and meats that are perfect for the season. Nearly all of the ingredients on our August menu are from local producers who bring us the absolute best of what’s seasonal and good from our gorgeous region. We are truly blessed to live in this bountiful valley. Now... Let’s eat!

A quick word on available seats: There are seats still available on a few dates throughout the month as of today, and we do have three Sunday Suppers lined up for August. Give Bobbie a call today and secure your seats or go to our website and book through Open Table.

So, let’s just get it out of the way at the start. Don’t be worried by the fact that boar is a main component of this dish. Boar is a delicious, moist, succulent meat that is an absolutely delightful alternative to regular pork. Give it a try and we guarantee you’ll be pleasantly surprised. The way we prepare them and the quality of meat means you are not getting anything too gamey at all, but rather a meat just full of robust flavor. These are all naturally raised, hormone free, free-range boar coming to us from our favorite Broken Arrow Ranch over in Texas. We are braising them down until they are incredibly tender and have the look and consistency of carnitas-style meat. We are filling one of three small house made tart shells with the boar, then filling the other two with wonderful just-picked grey California Morels and Bulgarian Chanterelles. The tarts will have a bit of Madeira custard to give them a rich and moist element, then Noah will prepare a Gioia Burrata Mozzarella (that’s the to-die-for cheese made in a warehouse down in LA) cream sauce to drizzle on top. That will add the perfect counterpoint to the earthy and dense flavors of the boar and mushrooms. A bit of broth with the slightly spicy kick of chilis and fragrant thyme completes the effect.

Third Course means it’s time for some beautiful and tasty seafood in the whimsical form of our Maine Lobster and Wild White Prawn “Sliders.” Basically, you’ve got our famously decadent butter-poached Maine Lobster and succulent grilled Wild White Prawns served on our Pastry Chef Britni’s house made brioche. On top, seared Number One (top sushi grade) yellowfin tuna comes in the form of a refreshing chopped seafood salsa with real wasabi. As those of you who have been with us before and enjoyed the sushi and sashimi break know, this wasabi is the real deal – grated wasabi root from Japan – not the dyed horseradish you get in most places. It’s pricey, and it’s delicious. On the base of the plate we have a light and ethereal butter sauce made from our house preserved limes and white soy. White soy is another specialty Japanese product coming to us from Kyoto. There they are renowned for this delicately flavored white soy that gets its lighter color due to the smaller amount of wheat used in the fermentation process. We love it. A mash of shiso leaf that is akin to pesto and fun, salty sea beans complete this delicious and unique dish.

Three cheers for Five Dot Ranch! These guys are an amazing family that always brings us the best beef ever. Corn-fed, fatty marbling, swimming in butter beef? Meh. Don’t need it. This grass and organic alfalfa and barley-fed beef is cut-it-with-a-fork tender, totally full of flavor, and surprisingly free of saturated fat. Don’t tell anyone, but it’s actually good for you. Of course, we make it sinful and unhealthy with our addition of rich Grade A French foie gras cream and bone marrow. But the beef, it’s just an innocent bystander. This dish is further brought to delicious life with the addition of just-picked yellow peaches from Karen Brenner at Brenner farms in Newcastle. Like those vine ripe tomatoes in our first course, our peaches are at the peak of flavor. They’re picked on Saturday, they go to market Sunday where Randall picks them up under the freeway at 5th and X, then they’re on your plate within two to three days. We’ll grill these and serve them alongside the beef for fresh-from- the-orchard sweet and robust flavor. Simple and suiting natural pan juices complete a perfect summer main course.

Again, freshness is the key with this dessert. When I asked Randall what was “old fashioned” about he dish, he said it was more about the feeling that these just-picked local berries give you when you eat them – like walking through a field on a summer day and picking berries right off the bush and eating them. That’s how good and fresh these berries are, and I guess, unfortunately, that moment-of-picking freshness is less and less of an experience people have these days. But not if we have anything to say about it. And not if you go to one of the many wonderful farmers markets in our region carrying the fruits of the labor of great farmers and ranchers carrying on the tradition so that what may seem old fashioned never actually becomes obsolete. OK, now stepping down from soapbox. On to the food! These berries – blackberries, boysenberries, raspberries – are local and wonderfully flavorful. We’ll be serving them with a dense, rich chocolate brownie that is almost fudge-like and that will have a crispy coating. On the side, cherry swirl ice cream that is part cherry sorbet made from Missy Gotelli’s last-of-the-season cherries from Lodi and part house made Tahitian Vanilla Bean gelato. To top it all off, enjoy crunchy almond brittle and cooling peppermint candy. Ahhh, summer.

If you want to check out some of the farmers markets where Randall and Noah get so much of our great stuff, you can eat like a king and support local growers and producers at the same time. Here’s where to find one of our many Sacramento Area Farmers Markets near you.