Slims Restaurant

As a child, Labor Day weekend was not just anti-climactic, but downright tragic. It signaled the end of swimming and a return to long days spent indoors in an ugly uniform breathing the stale air of my classmates and struggling over long division and later quadratic equations. “Surely there was more to life?” I would wonder as I stared out the window as late summer rolled into fall.

Fast forward twenty years later and the end of summer isn’t really heartbreaking at all. Thanks to an extremely affordable membership at the YMCA, I switch to swimming inside around this time, and an absurd fondness for the metric system has made me much more tolerant of certain aspects of mathematics. (Baking by weight instead of volume yields much more consistent results and I feel like its some kind of little secret club…so practical, yet so elegant!). Now my days smell less like the recycled air of institutions and more like the simmering of chicken stock, the baking of pan agua and a faint whiff of pork belly. As the sweetness of late summer tomatoes gives way to the buttery pumpkins of autumn, I now get terribly excited for the possibilities of the comforting flavors and textures that fall cooking entails.

This year at Slims we will transition into the cooler months with a relatively new staff of talented individuals excited to be working on the ever-changing seasonal menu. Thom McKenna, who spent four years in the Slims kitchen, is out traversing the wilds of Alaska as I write this. All those who worked with him will miss his impish sense of fun in the kitchen but we are so proud of his beer making abilities and know he will go far with these endeavors. Stuart Tennison, another long time Slims employee, has recently moved on as well and we wish him and his fiancé Franny best of luck in their new life together!

Although some of the players may have changed, Slims will continue to offer Latin inspired dishes with local, Midwestern flavors and ingredients. Right now, we are having great fun with our house made charcuterie board and Sarah, Lily and I are excited to learn more innovative and sophisticated pastry techniques that will translate into ever-better ways to end the Slims evening. Back at the garden, the greenhouses will soldier on despite the cooler temperatures ensuring that the salads at Slims maintain their high quality. Patrick will prepare the raised beds to winter over in a few months and start packing for a long overdue trip to Puerto Rico.

While we will continue to offer the prix fix menu on Friday and Saturday nights as we always have, we have decided to offer an additional option of “3 for $30,” on Thursday nights as well. The choice of three courses will be an appetizer or salad, an entrée and a dessert. This is a great way to sample the variety of flavors that the Slims kitchen is currently producing but without breaking the bank! Thursdays also tend to be a little slower, so it’s a great night to stop in even if you don’t have a reservation. We’ll keep cooking until the food runs out!

We hope you’ll join us for dinner soon…

Joanne