Clinton 350

No, that's NOT how many interns Bill has...  nevermind.

It's the sesquarcentennial (Jeez - even I had to look that one up) in Clinton Connecticut this weekend and si, si, Senor, El Guapo and his Tex Mex Tatties will be there!  

This Saturday from noon-ish to ten-ish, Chef Big Dog and Chef Lucky will be at the Clinton 350 Festival, celebrating the anniversary of their township from 1663 - 2013.  

FYI - that's 50 in dog years.  Since I was born in the Year of the Dog and at 42, I should have my own sasquatchial...sexquintupligus...siestadelfuego.... Yep, I'm an idiot.  

Idiot or savant, every great celebration deserves to be honored and I'm thinking about what should be the chef special for this historic, beautiful, Norman Rockwellesque, New England fishing town that the fuzzybutts and I walked through.  

At our last one, the crazy punk kilt fest, everyone loved, loved the Chef Specials: my Tex Mex interpretations on Bangers and Mash, Shepherd's Pie, and my Irish Whisky Habanero sauce.  

This is me tooting my horn.  

Toots to the left.  Ideas for a Chef Special to the right....

DUMBO

I think we found our home.  In an old abandoned skeletal tobacco warehouse situated in the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge, the Sunday location of Smorgasburg.

El Guapo, Chef Lucky, and I spent the weekend doing due diligence on this curious culinary community and it was a phenomenal experience.  Seemed like the foot traffic on Saturday was as substantial as Sunday but the latter is preferable to us.  

It's dog friendly, family orientated with a park and Ferris wheel nearby, and well, the name of the neighborhood may seem fitting to some of our friends and followers.  

We're submitting our application today to be a vendor so keep your pistolas crossed because it seems they're very exclusive.  

As many of you know, I walked across Manhattan, Brooklyn, and most of Long Island and one of the singular things I observed was the paucity of big dogs in the city. They're all micro, toy, min min, so it's time for a big dog there.  Chef Big Dog, that is.  

The Infamous El Guapo

Meet the Infamous El Guapo, the official mascot of Tex-Mex Tatties.  

He's kinda creepy, he's a puppet, and he enjoys long walks on the beach brandishing a pistola.

We don't know much about his past but we can assume that his white shirt, black sequined pants, and sombrero, he may have been a mariachi at some point.  

Because hell yeah, El Guapo can party (shown in nearby photo with Chef Big Dog).  

But he loves puppies, too.  Look, there's El Guapo with Oliver in Clinton CT.  With his pistola pointed at him.  

But the greatest thing about the Infamous El Guapo, is his palate for authentic Mexican food and that he eats, drinks, and loves the ladies more in one day than Tony Bourdain does in an entire season, that makes him more interesting than that Dos Equis guy.  

"Eat tatties, my friend".  

Next stop. Smorgasburg which will be a curious experience since El Guapo has never been to the city and the mayor, Uncle Mike doesn't like pistolas.  

Smorgasburg

We met a ton of foodies at the Wine Fest who want to help us take our culinary concept to a whole new level and one of the recommendations was the SMORG in Brooklyn, a self-styled Flea and Food Market.  

So this weekend, Chef Lucky and I are heading to the city to explore this seemingly cutting edge culinary community.  

We had to make the tough decision that Tex-Mex Tatties will no longer sell at the Aquidneck Grower's Market.  Much to our surprise, our demographic just wasn't really represented there.  We had a steady stream of loyal customers but not enough to justify the opportunity costs.  Most of the nice folks there are older and in search of bran and oatmeal and not really into fried foods which seems strange since the area is known for some of the best fried seafood in the world.  

Going forward, we're going to allocate our time and energy to New England festivals and perhaps a foodie market like SMORG but they're very selective in their vendors and it's expensive so we're headed there this weekend to check it out to see if it makes sense.  

Postscripts from the Wine Festival

Wow what a weekend.  And what a week!  Our first festival was nothing short of a profound, inspiring, yet humbling experience.   

 

On the production side, I made ten times the amount we have for the farmer's market, almost 1,000 tatties. 

 

I didn't even know until Monday that we'd be at the festival so creating a signature dish at a moment's notice was no easy thing.  But I don't like it easy.  Nothing great ever became so easily. 

 

I wanted the chef special tattie to pair expertly with wine and that's why I used four different types of cheeses.  And the topping I made for it was fruity, a pear, mango and habanero salsa.

 

And they sold like hotcakes I'm happy to report. 

 

But we had a few hiccups on the service side of the fest.  Once the word got out and we had a crowd of eager and anticipating palates, I got schooled on fryers, frozen tatties, and temperature.  Of the only three complaints we had over the hundreds of orders, one was that the center of the tattie was a wee bit cold. 

 

We adjusted and learned from the experience and on Sunday, I was on the fryer for five hours straight.  Several customers came back not once, but twice for 'To Go' orders and many, many wanted to know if we could ship them. 

 

This weekend was a validation of a vision and my desire to do something different, something special.  The lonely, unknown path of creation is only trepid to those afraid of exploration, who can't supplant acceptance with innovation. 

 

Shout out to those who are taking it with me - Fish for finding the fest for us, Dawn for helping us out this weekend, for tatties of course, Ashley for getting out of her comfort zone and selling, and finally, Chef Lucky.  I always joke that her nom de guerre is derived from how fortunate she is to work next to me.  But she held her own this week and I just might keep her. 

 

Chef Big Dog owns the house!

 

 

Who's Your Tattie?

Some of you don't know the origin of my culinary adventures.  It began with a dog I lost to cancer that turned into a walk that turned into cooking. 

 

But I'll never forget where I began and the names of the Tatties I create will be in honor of cancer dogs - some I have met, others I have not yet their parents' devotion continues to inspire me. 

 

We have thus far;

 

The Murphy Breakfast Taco

The Miss Faye Chicken Fajita

The Max Mushroom Quesadilla (coming soon)

The Pete Chipotle Chile Con Queso

The Ben Jamin BBQ Chicken

The Huckleberry Hound Dog