At the Huntsville Restaurant Week kick off, Mayor Tommy Battle said, “Every week is Restaurant Week at our house.”
Which I must admit sounds familiar. With a job that keeps me on the go, sometimes my only option (assuming I want to eat) is eating out. So what makes the Year of Alabama Food’s Restaurant Week different than any other week of the year?
Obvious answer: participating restaurants (found here) are offering a special fixed-priced meals for lunch and/or dinner. But I hate obvious answers. After all they’re so obvious.
So what’s my less obvious answer? Because of these special menus and prices, Huntsville Restaurant Week (HRW) is a chance to support our local community. To taste. To discover.
And above all eat, drink and be merry! Isn’t that what going out to eat is all about?
To get an insider’s look at HRW, I went behind the scenes at one of Huntsville’s local restaurants participating in Restaurant Week, 1892 East Tavern and Restaurant.
Local
To me, the most important aspects of HRW is getting out and supporting your local restaurants. I mean, this is Huntsville Restaurant Week! What better time to support our local merchants??
And if there is one restaurant in town that epitomizes the local restaurant it is 1892 East. For those of you who are raising an eyebrow, let me educate you. I can sum up their operating philosophy in 2 sentences (or rather their head chef Steven Bunner can.)
“We’re an ethos driven company; we’ll forgo profits to use a local product. Sure there’s cheaper products, but they’re not made in our backyard.”
That’s right. He said forgo profits. (When was the last time you heard a business say that?!) In fact 80% of 1892’s products come from local (the greater Southeast region) merchants.
“Choosing local products, at home or at the restaurant, is a way to support your neighbor to support your local companies. This is a prime opportunity to reassertion ourselves as an agricultural state. It’s a great time for Alabama products to shine,” Bunner says.
But in order for this to happen, we’ve got to work together. Shop together. Eat out together.
Taste
Speaking of eating out, diners who visit 1892 East during HRW will be treated to one of their signature appetizers:
- Petite size Crispy Shrimp & Grits appetizer: Gulf shrimp stuffed with Wright Dairy cheddar grits, served with smoked tomato dipping sauce
- Roasted Chicken Entree: Roasted Springer Mountain Farms chicken breast with seasonal vegetables, roasted new potatoes, and pan jus
- Petite seasonal Bread Pudding: House made spent grain bread pudding with fresh Florida oranges and almonds topped with crème anglaise, vanilla ice cream, and white chocolate garnish
- Iced tea or soda
While watching the cook prepare what looked like a table full of these orders, I asked Chef Steve why he selected this menu for HRW.
His answer was what I came to see as very 1892 East. He said that the menu contained the most locally sourced items. To see a full list of 1892’s partners, click here.
Your HRW dish contains:
- Shrimp from the gulf coast
- Grits with cheese from Alexandria, Alabama
- Chicken from North Georgia
- Seasonal veggies, some from right here in town
- Oranges from Florida
1892’s menu changes seasonally. Click here to see 1892’s full menu, which changes seasonally thanks to the use of local produce. One thing that may jump out at you is the entire section of vegetarian options. This was a purposeful choice on 1892’s part. For one thing, Steve’s business partner and his wife are vegetarians (perk of having your own business, right?).
But I liked Steve’s answer when I asked him about this section, “Vegetarians are people too. They deserve good food.”
As a former vegetarian who had quite a challenge eating out when I moved to Huntsville, I give serious props to 1892 for including this section. And I’ve eaten quite a few items off of it, and they are mighty tasty.
Discover
Wonder what happened to all those crispy shrimp and grits? They went to a table of folks who met once a month to go out to dinner and chose 1892 East because of their HRW special.
Most of them had never been to the restaurant before, so I was eager to gauge their reactions to the food and the restaurant.
“Good food! Good service!”
“They let us hang out & chat!”
“Great food!”
And they all said they’d be back.
At the back, you’ll notice a guy in a white jacket. That’s Chef Steve chatting with one of the diners. I could tell this was a common occurrence at the restaurant. One of the hostesses, Miriam Callihan, confirmed my guess.
“When you get a new menu chef Steve comes out and talks to the customers and gets their feedback on what they like and don’t like. You can tell he really cares about the food that goes out.”
It is obvious even to the most causal observer that Chef Steve cares about every aspect of his restaurant. While showing me around the restaurant, he literally beams with pride. He knows all the employees and greets each of them by name, right down to the dishwasher.
This attitude is clearly contagious. Everyone working at 1892 clearly cares about their restaurant.
Eat, Drink and Be Merry
To sum up:
Eat: Use HRW as a chance to get out and try some places you’ve never had. And since you’re going anyway, why not choose a restaurant that’s supporting your local community?
Drink: Don’t limit yourself to eating locally! Drink locally! Alabama, not to mention Huntsville, has a lot of local brews. While you’re out, add one to your meal.
If we’re talking about local beer, I have to mention 1892. They only serve local craft brews. And they’re all on tap. It’s even common for them to have local brews no one else in town carries. Add a beer flight to accompany any meal to sample 3, 4, or 5 brews of your choice for $7, $8 or $10. Oh, and they serve a true pint.
Be merry: Grab your friends and enjoy!
Eat at 1892 East
Address: 720 Pratt Avenue
Phone: 256-489-1242
Email: Click here info@1892east.com
Find them online here
Like them on Facebook here
Hours:
Monday – Friday: 11am – 2pm (lunch); 5pm – 10pm (dinner)
Saturday: 5pm – 10pm (dinner)
Sunday: 10am – 2pm (brunch)
Event Information
Event: Huntsville Restaurant Week
- What: 10 day promotion throughout the state of Alabama where participating restaurants offer special fixed-priced meals for lunch and/or dinner.
- When: Friday, August 17, 2012-Monday, August 26, 2012
- Who: List of Madison County restaurants
Guest blogger for We Are Huntsville. Are you interested in writing a post for our site? Email katelyn@wearehuntsville.com.
