Do-It-Yourself When a Pet Restaurant Goes Out of Business...

Seven years ago, we were in Kansas City, MO, for my high school reunion.  While there, we discovered a great place in Westport called One80.  We loved the menu, the good prep and the waitress was even nice.  Sue (a friend since kindergarten) was with us and we went nuts for the flatbread pizzas.  We wound up ordering three of them, one after the other.  We'd finish one, order another and wait for our next victim of greed while swigging away.

Yesterday, Richie was poking about in his volumnous files and came across the menu from that memorable lunch.  One80lounge.com is still up despite the fact that they've closed.  You can read it and find things to tempt you that you can easily (more or less) duplicate at home. 

Ah, I remembered fondly the Blind Dates - roasted garlic and almond paste stuffed into a date, wrapped in prosciutto, bathed in a port fig glaze  served warm. 

We have dates in the refrigerator -- incidentally there as much potassium in one date as there is in three bannas -- and it's the work of a minute to slice off the top of a whole clove of garlic, bathe it in olive oil, wrap it in foil and roast it.  The mini-Cuisinart would make quick work of the almonds and garlic.  Prosciutto is available in supermarkets.  For the port fig glaze, I'd boil down a cup of port with dried figs in it to a half cup.  Cuisinart that and go from there.

Tuscan Cobb Salad -- here's the list of ingredients:  chicken breast Milanes, smoked bacon, gorgonzola, hard-boiled egg, tomatoes, mushrooms (shrug) chopped romaine and Green Goddess dressing.  They used to get $8.99 for this dish.

But this struck me as 'way too many tastes.  It's a One80 Benny, served at the weekend brunch.  House-made, citrus-cured salmon, sliced tomato, boursin cheese (they were fond of it) and lemon hollandaise on toasted garlic bagels.  It was served with rustic Yukon Gold potatoes. 

Another brunch speciality:  Drunken Donuts -- small, powdered-sugar donuts (or a mess of donut holes) with a mixture of hot chocolate and Grand Marniere to dunk them.  $4.99

Tuscan Steak Kabobs - a rather elegant summer barbecue dish ... skewer Italian-marinated beef chunks -- an Italian salad dressing would work fine -- red pepper and onion chunks, and grill them.  Then slather them with balsamic glaze (boil a cup of balsamic vinegar down to half a cup) and serve with gorgonzola fondue for dipping the meat.  Get a good-sized chunk of the cheese and nuke it would be my suggestion.

Bon appetite!