When life and business changed so dramatically in March, every restaurant in town had to decide what their response would be to this new reality. For some who were already doing a take-out business that was significant, the impact was muted. For the higher end restaurants, doing take-out was unthinkable. Or was it?
Most of the white tablecloth places closed immediately rather than adapt to this strange new world. Others like Galatoire’s stayed in the game, and still others made the game fun. One of our favorites these last few weeks has been GW Fins, because, first, it’s a great restaurant, and second, they’ve had fun making the best of a tough situation.
And we, in the business of reporting on restaurants, have enjoyed watching them as they sold their biscuits as a mix for you to make at home. And their signature Salty Malty ice cream.
But then they closed, and we were sad. And now they’ve reopened, and we are glad. So glad that we picked up from them last night, and it was a strange order.
Reopening this time they have added premium raw foodstuffs to their to-go menu, which is online. (I’d go to their site just to look at the homage pic, but I digress…) This is wonderful news for diners in this covid world. I don’t know how restaurants feel about it, but we are grateful to be able to purchase their premium ingredients for our home cooking. If only we knew what to do with it.
I’m sure restaurants have an unsettled feeling about what’s on the other end of this for them. Now that people are cooking more at home, will they want to come back to dine in restaurants? Good news, restaurateurs: the answer is a resounding YES!!!
Last night we picked up seafood gumbo, which came packed in a paper container that I loved, with a generous amount of perfectly cooked white rice. We tried to pack the rice tightly in a measuring cup so it would sit in the middle of a pool of gumbo like in the restaurant, but our rice dome fell apart.
Next, we reheated a delectable softshell crab with a maque choux over a spoon bread cake that was sublime in texture. This was a great dish and all I could think of as I ate it was how incomparably better it would have been had its travel time been only from their kitchen to my table. The dirty rice and collards we also had were Fins quality but didn’t suffer as much from take-out.
We also got Tempura Fin Wings with crispy noodle salad and Korean Glaze. On the website the delectable lobster dumplings are pictured to entice you, but I resisted the urge and tried the fin Wings. These thrilled Tom, and were very good. They made a gorgeous presentation, and our daughter plated them beautifully with a schmear of Korean Glaze and a carefully molded oval of white rice.
Also in our to-go gourmet dinner kit was raw top-of-the-line scallops almost too beautiful too cook. We took some of the Fins lemon and caper butter compound and melted it in the hot saucepan, then placed the scallops in the sizzling butter. The instant sear gave us the confidence that a great dish was coming.
These took much longer to cook than we expected. We deglazed the pan with white wine, and put the whole saucepan in the oven to finish. Apologies to everyone, in the plating of the dish our resident stager had only some basil to garnish. It was strictly garnish.
These were a treat for Tom, who was giddy when they were placed before him. He remained giddy throughout the consumption of them all. I tasted the sauce and thought how much better it would have been in the restaurant.
We finished this great meal with the Salty Malty ice cream, which comes in another beautiful Fins take-out container and has a chocolate pretzel on top. This is everything everyone says it is.
It was truly a gourmet meal eaten on the deck in the comfort of home. We enjoyed it immensely. Walking back into the kitchen, I was greeted by stacks of dishes from all the courses, and stacks of pots from all the warming of these courses. It’s a good thing I had that Salty Malty Ice Cream to keep me company.
This experience was a delicious reminder of what awaits us, the diner, at the end of all this. Trust us, gourmet restaurants, you have nothing to fear.
