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Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

Thanksgiving passed at Chez Sophie last night with a steady flow of wonderful families, tremendous turkeys and pies and all the other trimmings, and with the exception of a few small hitches, a deliciously smooth rhythm.

One of the major snags was that Nico and Léo's babysitter called in sick, and with Grandma and Grandpa traveling, Cheryl and Paul found themselves desperately trying to find a fill-in babysitter on the morning of a major holiday. Cheryl finally gave up working the phone and brought the children into the restaurant less than an hour before the first customer was to arrive at 2 p.m. The menus were already printed, the dining room was set and cleaned, the seating chart had been completed the night before and the flowers and Thanksgiving decorations were already in place. But Cheryl's attempts the night before to program the special Thanksgiving menus into the point-of- sale computer did not come out quite right, and she needed a few minutes to tinker with it.

Randy, who technically is a room service attendant and manager of our maintenance staff, but in reality is more like a faithful family retainer, scooped up the kids and took them to do something fun.
Cheryl, whose brain is not quite large enough to figure out this food- service computer programming stuff easily, was desperately wishing that her dear night captain, Erica, was here to do it for her instead of having Thanksgiving dinner with her family. (Erica came in a couple of hours later, before the turkey digested, so that another server could leave early and eat with her family.)

Then one of the servers came downstairs and whispered sotto voce to Cheryl, who was still incompetently pecking at the keyboard, "I'm seating the first four of the 2 p.m. reservations, now."
Cheryl looked at the clock and whispered back: "No! It's only 1:45! I still have 15 more minutes!"

The bartender, seeing other customers standing outside the doorway (and seeing Cheryl nowhere near said doorway,) tried to be helpful and started showing other people to tables (now 12 minutes before official opening.) By 2:05 p.m., we managed to get it all under control, but those first few minutes were so frantic behind the scenes that the rest of the day seemed unusually peaceful and happy.

It went so well, that some of the families decided on the spot to come back for Christmas Eve or Christmas dinner next month. We'll be offering a five-course prix-fixe menu featuring fabulous, festive choices, with seatings from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. (No à la carte menu will be offered, but there are great choices within each of the courses on the fixed-price menu.) The price will be $75 per person for food, plus beverages, tax and gratuity. Children under 12 eat for $25.

Hotel rooms at The Saratoga will be available to Chez Sophie customers at a steep discount. ($79 per night.)

Many of the Thanksgiving guests were apparently already thinking ahead to the start of the holiday shopping season and asking about Chez Sophie gift certificates and Cole Broderick's new CD, "Chez Sophie Jazz."

Our gift certificates are available in any denomination, printed on stationary gift cards and mailed to either the recipient or the sender (if you'd prefer to stuff the stocking yourself.)

If a gift certificate for a specific dollar amount isn't quite right for your needs, you can also have us make up a gift certificate for a specific type of meal, so the value is not quite so blatant. For example, you could have us make up a certificate for "Two Pink Plate Specials," which would entitle your guests to the three-course prix fixe we offer Monday through Thursday, except during track season.
That would be $64, or $80 if you include tax and tip.

You could treat your friends to "Two seven-course chef's choice tasting menus" prepared especially to suit their dietary desires or restrictions, for $160, or $200 if you include tax and gratuity.
You can boost the gift to include wine pairings with a budget set by you. A gift certificate for "Two seven course chef's choice tasting menus with three wines, tax and tip" could be purchased for $280 (or more if you want to offer a larger budget for wine.)

The tasting menus are pretty neat, because unlike some restaurants, we don't come up with a one-size-fits-all menu and offer that and only that. We question our guests when they make their reservations about whether there are any foods they are allergic to or prefer to avoid, and if there are any foods that they are particularly fond of.
For example, we already have three different tasting menus requested for this weekend. The first couple loves foie gras and sweetbreads and would like to have them on the menu if they are available. One of them can't easily digest raw tomatoes. They don't want to add wine pairings, because they will be driving afterwards. Their bill will be $160 before tax and gratuity.

Another group of four has requested a menu the same night, with a no- holds-barred approach to the food, the more creative and surprising, the better. They've given us a $500 budget ($125 per person) to pair wines with this spectacular feast, so their bill will be in the neighborhood of $820 before tax and tip.

Another couple wants us to do the choosing for them, but only think they can manage five-courses so soon after Thanksgiving. She's allergic to garlic and he doesn't eat red meat or shellfish. They want about two glasses of wine each, and have set for us a total budget of $170 before tax and tip.

We'll personalize their menus with their names and the date, print them on pretty paper, roll them like scrolls and tie them with ribbons. The guests can either follow along so they know what is coming, or enjoy the surprises and wait until the end of the meal to unroll the scroll and see our descriptions of the foods and wines they enjoyed.
We will be happy to design tasting menus throughout the holidays for parties of one to 75.

To get a gift certificate, just call 518.583.3538 to order by phone, or stop into the restaurant to pick one up in person.

Our Pink Plate Special this week is one of our customers' all-time- favorites, cassoulet. This is a dish that originated in the Mediterranean Languedoc, which is known for being swelteringly hot and humid in the summer. Winter is equally extreme. While it continues to be sunny, with enormous blueberry skies stretching into eternity, it can be bitterly cold, with frost on the evergreens almost every morning. That's the time of year for cassoulet, a slow- cooked stew of beans and meats, served in a baking ramekin covered with a gratin crust. Early recipes used fava beans, but after white beans were introduced in France in the 19th century, they became the cassoulet bean of choice because of the creamy texture and subtle flavor they add to the dish.

The name comes from cassole, the word for the glazed earthenware crock traditionally used for the dish. The choice of meats used in cassoulet varies widely from region to region. Prosper Montagné defined a "Trinity" of cassoulet, with the "Father" coming from Castelnaudary, the "Son" from Carcassone and the "Holy Ghost" from Toulouse. The Castelnaudary cassoulet, the oldest of the three, features pork (ham, loin, leg and sausage) with a bit of preserved goose. The Carcassone cassoulet features leg of mutton and during hunting season, partridge. The Toulouse cassoulet uses the same ingredients as the Castelnaudary version, but in smaller quantities, with the difference being made up in fresh lard, Toulouse sausage, mutton and duck.
The French take this dish so seriously they have actually tried to nationalize the regional variations out of existence. (What would the French do for fun if they weren't arguing about food?) In 1966, the États Généraux de la Gastronomie Française decreed that cassoulet must be at least 30 percent pork, mutton or goose and 70 percent beans, stock, fresh pork rinds, herbs and flavorings.
This decree does not extend to Chef Paul's kitchen. His cassoulet is
different and original each time he makes it, and always delicious, hearty and warming.

The Pink Plate is a weekly prix fixe special we will offer this week on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. For $32 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 and coffee, tea or espresso.

Funny Thanksgiving moment: Cheryl was walking into the kitchen and saw our brand-new, and we mean still pink-and-gleaming-new busgirl Devan, standing in front of a reach-in wine refrigerator studying a bottle of Pinot Grigio, apparently afraid to touch it. Devan, who is extremely smart and very well-respected in her neighborhood, has been in the restaurant business for a grand total of two days. She is younger than any other busperson we've ever had, and clearly not old enough to touch that bottle of wine, and she knew it, because we'd had a long talk before giving her a tryout about the limits of what she is allowed to do (basically clearing and resetting tables until she has to go home at 9 p.m. on non-school nights.) We went over this with every member of the floor staff, but sometimes it's really hard to get a server to remember not to pass on chores to the nearest available busperson.

Cheryl sped into the side kitchen and asked Devan what she needed.
"Pino Gino?" she ventured. Cheryl looked at her blankly. "Pella Gario? I don't know. The French guy asked me to get him a bottle of something that sounded like that for a table." Cheryl opened her mouth to lecture the poor girl about saying no to any request that would violate the rules governing minors in the workplace, when she cottoned on to what Dominique had said in his charmingly French- accented English. "Pelligrino. Bottled water. Wrong fridge."

We offer a fun and elegant à la carte brunch on Saturday and Sunday.
Our artist-in-residence, jazz pianist Cole Broderick, plays the baby grand piano from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday

The brunch menu this Saturday and Sunday will feature seafood scampi over angel hair pasta ($15); pan-seared petit filet mignon with herb- roasted fingerling potatoes and sauce au poivre ($18); crispy cornmeal-bacon waffle and grilled ham steak ($14) and cornflake- crusted French toast with choice of bacon or sausage ($14). Appetizer specials include a crabcake with lemon caper mayonnaise ($16); a salad of Sunset Hill Farm greens tossed in a red wine vinaigrette ($7); cheese and charcuterie ($11) and soup of the day ($8).

The brunch specials run from 10:30 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, frittata etcetera for $9;
omelettes ($10 to $12); pancakes du jour ($10); 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).

Artist-in-residence Cole Broderick has been busily promoting his seventh CD release, "Chez Sophie Jazz." This CD is a departure for Cole, who won a Billboard Critic's Choice Award for his 4-CD set of jazz compositions: "Seasons in Saratoga," because it's the first time he's recorded with a vocalist. Weirdly enough, that vocalist is Cheryl Clark, co-owner of Chez Sophie, wife of Chef Paul and mother of the adorable Nico and Léo. Their artistic collaboration started back in the diner, a couple of days after Nico was born, when Cole heard her singing to her infant son while vaccuuming the carpet in the rear dining room. Since then, he has persistently urged her to sing with him in the dining room, and conceived and produced a CD of
12 of the standards the two of them perform in Chez Sophie's dining room and 4 original piano compositions. Our illustrious web designer, Sharon Maenza of Kilakwa Associates, has loaded parts of the CD onto our website at http://www.chezsophie.com/ Copies are for sale for $16 at Chez Sophie and through Cole's secure website at https://s.p2.hostingprod.com/@colebroderick.com/ssl/order-
cole-broderick-cds.html

We're booking reservations for New Year's Eve 2007, on Monday, December 31, 2007.
This is our most elegant party of the year, with festive decorations and special menus to make the evening memorable. Our early seating, with tables available at 5, 5:30, 6 and 6:30 p.m., will feature a prix fixe five-course menu including options for three of the courses, with a glass of Champagne included for $80 per person, plus tax and gratuity.
The New Year's Eve all-night party starts at 8 p.m., with seatings available at 8, 8:30, 9 and 9:30 p.m. The 9-course menu will feature options for three of the courses, with a midnight Champagne toast included. Jazz Pianist Cole Broderick plans to start playing at 8 p.m. The cost is $130 per person, plus tax and gratuity Special prix fixe wine menu available as well as our full wine list and bar.
The Saratoga has agreed to make double and king rooms available to Chez Sophie customers for $219 per night. Book early, because the hotel is always sold out on New Year's Eve.
Reservations required with credit card confirmation, call 518.583.3538.

Live Piano Jazz
Jazz pianist Cole Broderick plays the baby grand Tuesday and 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 at an additional charge or you can order from our extensive wine list.
Cost: $80 to $200 per person for seven courses, 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: Depends on the number of courses and the wines selected; available for two to 75 guests. Call Cheryl to make arrangements at
518.583.3538

The Pink Plate Special
offered Monday, November 16, Tuesday, November 27, Wednesday, November 28 and Thursday, November 29

$32 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:
cassoulet

Notes on Nico and Léo:
The highlight of Thanksgiving for Nico and Léo was when Calla, the nearly-four-year-old daughter of photographer Emma Dodge Hanson and poet Marc Woodworth, came back to visit the children's nursery. Nico was beside himself, and couldn't figure out which toy or game to show her first. He got so excited he bumped his sister, who furrowed her eyebrows and said in that not-quite-two-year-old lisp: "Top it, Deeko." Nico ignored her and kept chattering. "Top it, Deeko!" she demanded more loudly, and then, frustrated at being ignored, said quite clearly: "Tut up." (Which proves why you should never be rude, even to your annoying, barking dog, within earshot of a child.) Calla, who is a precocious font of information and opinions (no doubt gathered while she asks "Why?" about EVERYthing) looked gravely at the two Parker children.
"You should be more sensitive," she advised.

Nico delights in teaching his baby sister expressions, that while not always socially unacceptable, often cause his parents to roll their eyes. The children were in their room jumping on the beds with their Dad when he emitted a fatherly post-Thanksgiving belch. Léo stopped, tittered, and announced ecstatically: "Burp! 'Scuse you, Dude!"

Later, she persuaded her father to put mittens on her hands, and then another pair of mittens on her feet. She admired the effect, and
opined: "Frog's Feet!"

The Parker family
at Chez Sophie
518.583.3538

Chez Sophie was founded in 1969 by sculptor Joseph Parker and his French-born wife, the late Sophie. The business moved to a vintage stainless steel diner in Malta Ridge, New York, in 1995. It is owned today by Sophie and Joseph's son, Paul Parker, and his wife, Cheryl Clark. In June of 2006, they moved the restaurant into their current location in The Saratoga Hotel on Broadway..

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P.S. Each month we draw a name at random from our database of customers and send them a $50 gift certificate to Chez Sophie. If you would like to be added to this promotions database, which is owned by Chez Sophie, please send us an email with your name, address, telephone number, birthday and anniversary. People on the list will also receive a gift certificate by mail or email for a free glass of champagne or dessert on their birthdays or anniversaries. (You only need to enter once to be eligible every month.)

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