Brunch Time

Well, we "soft-launched" a new brunch menu this past weekend. We think it worked out really well. Five tasty selections all for $8.45, and at the same time the entire regular menu is available for someone who just wants a good $4.50 Chili Cheese omelet! This is really something that we have been wanting to do for a long time but it's really a big effort to introduce a new menu with entirely new ingredients that have to be sourced, purchased, stored and of course prepared.

The Schnack partners meet last week and we decided it was time to "get on with it." It was really easy, now a few months into our operation, to pick the menu. A few things that we normally don't have like Smoked Salmon (we use Nova Tidbits (trimmings), and a few things we always have like lots of Jubilat bacon and vegetarian Duck.

Only time will tell if this menu works well enough to bring out more people on Saturday and Sunday AM into Schnack, but that is our objective here. We are trying to stay within our basic "flavor range" but come up with a full brunch meal for a good price; we include a drink, unlimited coffee and/or tea, and plenty of food!

Soup

This week until it runs out, we are serving Sorrell Soup. Also known as Schav, we are serving it warm with a few bits of cheese. In the summer we will serve it cold with some chopped hard boiled egg.

Special Ham

We are going to have a Ham Special this weekend as well... Details to follow but I'm picking up a 6 lb Ham from Jubilat today.

Weekend Brunch

We are getting ready to do a test launch of our new weekend Brunch specials. We will have 5 special brunch meals priced at $8.45 including a Mimosa or OJ, Coffee and/or Tea. The specials will include French Toast, Smoked Salmon, Onions and Eggs, a vegan item, a hearty Polish breakfast and an all protein special (No Carbs)

Time Out New York

Time Out New York has listed us in their NYC "Best Of" Eating Guide! We are also still listed in their regular listings for Brooklyn as a "Critics Choice." Thanks, Time Out!!!

Party Time

On Halloween we will have some entertainment from 5pm to 7pm... Here is the "press release."

The Deedle Deedle Dees are a brand new rock group. For kids!

Featuring the talents of Ulysses S. Dee, Innocent Dee, Valentino Dee, Friar Dee, and Gowanus Dee, the Deedle Deedle Dees sing songs about handwriting, historical villains, humpback whales, and other topics that need more songs sung about them. Country, punk, and traditional Mexican music all make their way into our sound, but the best way to describe our music is "catchy."

Don't miss the Deedle Deedle Dees' debut performance on Friday, October 31st (AKA Halloween) at Schnack. Our show is interactive so if you have instruments of your own, bring 'em!

Show starts at 5 p.m.

Our website, www.thedeedledeedledees.com, is still under construction, but if you'd like more info on the band, please write to Ulysses S. Dee at lloydmiller@mac.com.

More Specials

We have finished up the "spicy" Bigos, but we still have a bit of the Hessian Stew left. We have decided to make the extra spicy sausage part of the regular menu.

This Weekend

This weekend we are serving the last of our spicy Bigos and a Hesse region beef stew. In German it's "Hessisches Paprikafleisch."  It's from the New German Cookbook by Jean Anderson and Hedy Wurz. It's a wonderful stew of fresh lean chuck, mushrooms, and onions served with French bread and some grill roasted corn. The mushrooms were our idea, and it is traditionally made with green peppers.

Specials

Specials serve very different purposes for chefs and restaurant owners. For some, it's an opportunity to charge a lot of money for a dish that is often more rarefied than that on the regular menu. Other establishments use it to get rid of ingredients that are approaching the end of their shelf life. However, when I was growing up the special was something entirely different. It was something not normally available on the regular menu and was offered at a good value, sometimes cheaper than regular menu items. In the NY dining scene, specials are also a way of catering to regular clients who might be bored with the regular menu, and of course foodies who are always craving something different.

At Schnack we run specials for many different reasons. When we get in fresh ingredients as mundane as lettuce or as nice as turkey breast we often like to reduce the price a bit and sell as much as possible knowing we have enough in-house and will not run out of it. We also like to be creative within the context of our "palate" of flavors; this has led to dishes like Knockwurst in Japanese curry with veggies over Japanese rice.

This leads to a question we get often, which is, "what type of food do you sell?" The answer we most often give is simply American or even Brooklyn, but in truth we throw in a bit of Eastern European, like Polish, and some German, and even a bit of NYC Jewish.

For the last few weeks we have been running bigos, which is a very traditional Polish dish (Hunter Stew). We intend to be running German, Polish, and various other Eastern European dishes all throughout the fall and winter. When we get into the New Year, and Alan's TV show, "Cooking in Brooklyn" starts to air we expect to run most if not all the items from the TV show as specials.

Trick or Treat

I think everyone knows we take our "treats" very seriously at Schnack. So we are very excited about inviting the local kids down to Schnack for Trick or Treating. On Halloween we will be welcoming Trick or Treaters between 3pm and 6pm. About 5pm we are expecting some special musical guests who will be performing for the kids and their parents. More information about our musical guests will be available here shortly.

Best Of

Here's some press that I didn't see before. Perhaps that's why we were so busy earlier this evening...

The Village Voice writes, "Red Hook's latest dive SCHNÄCK utilizes sumptuous Stahl-Meyer franks, pink and moist and salty and fresh tasting, more aggressively flavored than most. Their tiny hamburgers—the same size as White Castle but much better tasting—are also worth checking out."

Halloween

We are going to celebrate Halloween at Schnack. From 3pm to 6pm we invite kids (and their parents) to stop by and "trick or treat." We will stay open extra late until 3am (for food orders), and we will have Halloween-inspired specials like caramel apples. We will have $1 PBR's and many other treats, surprises, and specials. We will also be doing our soon to be famous "beer shakes!"

We have a few great specials for tomorrow. We have meatloaf, fresh roast beef w/ garlic, and a bit more bigos left.

Beer Shake

Well, it's official.  This month we are going to be offering a Beer Shake make with a strong stout from Dog Head Fish. We have Drunk by Chocolate and The Thriller in vanilla. The price will be $3.75 and as odd as it sounds, it's really great! Available to all Schnack customers 21 and over.

The best news is that we sold out of all of the hot spicy sausage from Jubilat in less than 5 days. We have prepared a new batch of hot pepper, even hotter than before, with a few other tweaks and we will be bringing it to Jubilat tomorrow so that they can get us the next batch of Sausage on Tuesday or Wednesday.

We got a brief mention today in the NY Times in an article by Seth Kugel.

We are working hard on drafting the next version of our menu. It looks like egg creams are going away and bread pudding will be added. The bread pudding will sell for $3.25 and egg creams will still be available upon request for the same old price.