Hello, everyone.

On the Rue Montparnasse, when you've partied to excess, you seek a neighborhood bistro to serve you a little steak frites as a restorative. Steak frites, as true steak connoisseurs will tell you, bears no resemblance to the American 50-ounce prime rib or the ubiquitous filet mignon that you can eat even if you are a 9 month old baby with 5 teeth. It's not steak au poivre, or entrecôte or steak béarnaise. Steak-frites is hanger steak cut in diagonal slices, red in the center and all burnt and peppery around the edges, with a pile of French fries and a liberal dousing of a red-wine and shallot sauce.  
For an extensive wander though the politics and history of the allegedly French frites visit http://flan.utsa.edu/conviviumartium/Tebben.html
By way of warning, you'll probably spend quite a few minutes on this detour.

Since Thanksgiving is often a week for excess, we thought we'd offer this restorative in advance as our Pink Plate Special on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. (Since we've got a whole Thanksgiving kind of thing planned for Thursday, the Pink Plate won't be offered that day.)

The Pink Plate is a weekly prix fixe special we offer this week on MONDAY, TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY. For $30 per person, you get your choice of soup or salad, the featured entree, two selections from our cheese board or one of a couple of featured desserts, plus coffee, tea or espresso.

Cheryl and Paul brought in a truckload of new wines this week, some of which will go on the Thanksgiving tasting menu and the rest will be available to visitors during Saratoga Restaurant Week (see below) and beyond.

Thanksgiving is going to be extraordinary at Chez Sophie. It's the first year we've ever served on the holiday, and apparently there is a pent up demand for Thanksgiving dinner at a place like ours. We're offering a turkey dinner from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. for $35 featuring free-range, all-natural local roast turkey and trimmings and pie for dessert. Our regular menu will also be available and turkey dinner for children under 12 is $15. People have begun requesting turkey dinner starting as early as noon, and we are accommodating as many of those requests as we can. The main dining room is getting dangerously close to sold out, but there are still seats left for our special turkey tasting menu, which will be served in our private dining room at 6:30 p.m. This special Thanksgiving dinner is limited to 20 people around a communal table, and will include at least five courses featuring heritage breed turkey and at least four spectacular wines. This is a particularly good option for people who love to dine well and in a festive setting, but won't be with their families on our national day of gratitude. The cost for the special turkey wine party is $100 per person, plus tax and gratuity.

The Saratoga is offering our guests discount rooms as available for about $79 for single or double occupancy with a King bed or two doubles. The package prices for dinner and an overnight stay run thus: Regular turkey dinner with a room would be $114 per adult, plus wine, taxes and tips.

Regular turkey dinner for 2 with a room would be $149, plus wine, taxes and tips.

Regular turkey dinner package for 2 adults and one child under 12, staying in the same room, would be $164

The wine tasting dinner with an overnight stay for 1 would be $179 plus taxes and gratuities.

2 people staying overnight together could do the wine tasting Thanksgiving for $279, plus taxes and gratuities.

The day after Thanksgiving marks the first day of Saratoga Restaurant Week, which we have inexplicably agreed to participate in as a new member of Saratoga's downtown. In honor of Saratoga's establishment by a county board of supervisors in 1819, we will be offering a three-course meal for the ridiculously low price of $18.19. Paul has figured out that we can offer a choice of soup or salad, a choice of moules frites or roasted stuffed pork loin and a choice of two desserts for that special price, without going out of business instantly. This is clearly a promotional loss leader during a week that is generally very slow in the restaurant business. Maybe we'll draw in a few people who won't wait a full year to return, or at the very least, we'll be able to offer our faithful regulars an incredible bargain.
To see details and other participating restaurants, visit http://www.discoversaratoga.org/RestaurantWeek/

Our Sunday Jazz Brunch promises to be special this week, but since Cheryl misplaced the handwritten sheet containing this week's actual specials, we can't be very specific until we reassemble the kitchen staff tomorrow. The brunch specials run from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The complete menu, offered from 7 to 2 p.m., includes a Continental assortment of muffins, pastries, fruit, yogurt, quiche etcetera for $9;  omelettes ($9 to $11); pancakes du jour ($9); the All in One, which includes 2 eggs any style, homefries, toast and sausage or bacon ($10); waffles with sweet cream butter and local maple syrup ($10); and Irish steel-cut oatmeal ($8).
Jazz pianist Cole Broderick plays from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Night Dinner
December 24 and 25
Details to be announced
We will be serving options suitable for families and for gourmands wishing for a special holiday meal. Rooms available at The Saratoga at a steep discount for Chez Sophie ticket holders. ($79 per night.)

New Year's Eve at Chez Sophie, 2006
Sunday, December 31, 2006
Our most elegant party of the year

Early seating prix fixe special
Tables available at 5, 5:30, 6 and 6:30 p.m.
Prix fixe five-course menu including options for three of the courses, with a glass of Champagne included
Cost: $75 per person, plus tax and gratuity

New Year's Eve late night party
Tables available at 8, 8:30, 9 and 9:30 p.m.
Prix-fixe eight-course menu, including options for three of the courses, midnight Champagne toast included
Jazz Pianist Cole Broderick to play starting at 8 p.m.
Cost: $125 per person, plus tax and gratuity

Special prix fixe wine menu available as well as our full wine list and bar
Double rooms at The Saratoga available for $199 per night.
Reservations required with credit card confirmation
518.583.3538

Live Piano Jazz
Jazz pianist Cole Broderick plays the baby grand Tuesday through Friday night, and during Sunday brunch from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. (barring special events that preclude live music.)
Cost: No cover charge

Tasting menus
Chef's Choice seven-course tasting menu available each night.  The menus are designed based on the best and most creative dishes Chef Paul K. Parker is serving each evening. We will pair wines for you or you can order from our extensive wine list.
Cost: $75 per person, plus tax and tip. Everyone at the table must partake in the tasting menu

If you're feeling less impromptu, you can call ahead to arrange a special tasting menu with the number of courses and wine pairings designed to suit your capacity, dietary restrictions and budget. Tasting menus arranged in advance will be printed on commemorative vellum scrolls personalized with the name of the host or the reason for the event.
Cost: $50 to $200, depending on the number of courses and the wines selected; available for two to 75 guests
Call Cheryl to make arrangements 518.583.3538

The Pink Plate Special
offered Monday, November 20 through Wednesday, November 22
$30 per person
includes your choice of soup or salad, a special entree, selected
desserts or a cheese course and coffee, tea or espresso.

This week's special entree:
steak frites

Notes on Nico and Léo:
"Look at the corn, Mommy," Nico says as we're driving down the Northway.
"That's not corn, honey," Mommy replies. "It is tall like corn, but those are called cattails."
"There are cats in there?" he asks dubiously.
"No, no. Cattails are reeds that grow in marshes. Umm, a marsh is a bit of ground that stays wet all the time because of drainage or a high water table. Reeds are plants with hollow stems that look kind of like your flute and your penny whistle."
Five minutes later, Nico asks: "Are fruit plablamo?"
Paul and Cheryl look at each other, perplexed. "We don't know what plablamo is. Say it another way."
After 6 or seven attempts, we realize that Nico has forgotten the word cattail and has inserted another word in its place. Finally we get back around to the real question: "Do cattails have fruit?"
"No, it's not like corn, which has a vegetable growing in the middle of the stalk. Not all plants have food that humans can eat inside them. Some have vegetables, some have fruit and some just have leaves and flowers," Cheryl fumbles.
Paul and Cheryl look at each other again, anticipating Nico's next impossible question: "What makes fruit fruit?"
Cheryl can't remember the scientific answer to this question, so she tries to fake it. "Well fruits are usually sweet, and vegetables...."
"That won't work," Paul interjects. "Tomatoes are fruit."
The parental debate that ensued has so totally confused our 3-year-old little lamb that he'll soon be trying to eat ivy and make green bean pies. We looked it up later and found out that fruits have seeds and vegetables don't, but that just mucked up the discussion even more. Botanically, tomatoes, green beans and squash are fruits, but they are categorized nutritionally as vegetables. This isn't a contradiction because "vegetable" is not a botanical term. Try explaining that to a three year old.

Léo apparently doesn't hold against her big brother the fact that he frequently jumps on her, pinches her, bites her and bangs on her with his toys. (Paul and Cheryl have actually resorted to the promise of a measured dose of corporal punishment to try to stop this, having exhausted the effectiveness of time-outs and retraction of toys and privileges.) In fact, Léo's chief joy at this stage of her 10-month-long life seems to be finding her brother while he's under the covers. Nico hides under the blanket and wiggles and makes noises and she pounds on the covers, shrieking with gleeful giggles. The discovery of this game has done more to inhibit the experimental torture of the baby than any negative reinforcement we've tried. At last, the Big Brother has found something he can DO with the lump of baby flesh that is his sister. She occasionally gets bumped when Nico springs out from the covers with a roar, but she doesn't seem to mind at all. And Nico doesn't complain when she grabs his blond hair with both fists and pulls, as long as it happens in the context of this magic game.

We hope to see you soon,

The Parker family
at chez sophie
518-583-3538