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Hello, everyone.

News flash; Today, Friday, is actually the 21st of December, not the 22nd. This is a small fact that hundreds of people have pointed out to the denizens of Chez Sophie since Cheryl inexplicably mixed up the date of our holiday tree-trimming party.

The idea is brilliant, even if Cheryl's grasp of the Gregorian calendar is a bit tenuous. Tonight, Friday THE 21ST, we're planning a tree-trimming party at 6 p.m. We invite all our guests to come and trim our Christmas tree, and we want everyone to bring something they made to hang on the tree - paper or cranberry chains, origami birds, cardboard ornaments, whatever. Everyone who brings an ornament, no matter how exotic or homely, will be rewarded with a free glass of sparkling wine or a cup of Paul's famous mulled red wine in front of the fireplace. We'll have Cole Broderick start playing jazzy carols at 6 p.m. You can stay for dinner or bar snacks if you want, or just hang out for the music and free bubbles and be on your way. We thought it might be a nice break for people as they finish their last- minute holiday shopping and preparations.
(We thought about sending a date correction for the tree-trimming last Friday when we discovered our error, but were afraid that two emails on the same day might transform our missives into spam.
Hopefully, the initial date confusion won't keep our customers away.)

The tree will be ablaze on Christmas Eve and Christmas, and we will be offering a fabulously festive five-course prix-fixe menu. The first course will be your choice of raw oysters mignonette; or escargots en surprise with fennel and cream; or pear and foie gras tart; or cara cara orange and braised fennel salad. The second course will be exotic mushroom consommé with Christmas colors. Course 3 will be your choice of goose à la Bigarade (goose à l'orange with Seville oranges); or fresh baked ham from Flying Pigs Farm with Tahitian flavors (vanilla, papaya, carambola, pineapple, star fruit and whatever); or whole branzini with blood orange and herbs; or forest mushroom and truffled salsify tart with barley risotto and brussel sprouts.
The fourth course will be a bejewelled pomegranate salad and the last course will be your choice of mincemeat pie, apple pie with English cheddar, walnut tart or chocolate mocha Yule log.

We will be taking reservations for this fabulous five-course feast from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. on December 24 and 25. (No à la carte menu will be offered.) 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.)

To that end, Paul has come up with two extraordinarily elegant menus for New Year's Eve, one a five-courser for early birds and the other an 9-course extravaganza for those who want to hang out until the wee hours. Our early seating, with tables available at 5, 5:30, 6 and 6:30 p.m., will feature a five-course menu (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 cost $130 per person, plus tax and gratuity.
To see the full menu for each seating, visit http:// www.chezsophie.com/events.htm

An optional prix fixe wine menu selected to pair with the dishes being offered will be available, as well as our full wine list and bar.
The Saratoga has agreed to make double and king hotel 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.

Several comments were offered by readers about Cheryl's search for a Yiddish word that sounds like nuschpice, and refers to a dry cracker at the end of the meal used to clear the palate. A long time customer
- who remembers having the first forbidden oyster of her life in front on Sophie and Joseph's Christmas tree, wrote: "Since 'forschpeis' is the appetizer before the main course, I assume
"nuchschpeis" is eaten after the main course. It's not a word that
was in my family's lexicon, but 'for' is before and 'nuch' is after so it makes sense."

That led Cheryl to look in a German dictionary and find the word "nachspeise" which means dessert. That's could be the root of the Yiddish term, although nachspeise is a general term, not one specific to cookies or crackers or after dinner digestives.

Another guest writes: "To my Russian ear (althought not Jewish) the word "okraytshick" definitely conjures up the idea of the end piece of a loaf of bread.
In Russian the word "okraina" means "the outskirts" of a city, for example; therefore, the end of something. And there were many Jews living in Russia, and especially in Ukraine, (which in itself is awfully close to "okraina"); so there may well be a connection there."

The Pink Plate Special this week will be hanger steak with fries.
Our 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.

The Pink Plate is a weekly prix fixe special we will offer this week on Wednesday and Thursday (our menu is prix fixe on Monday and Tuesday and does not include the Pink Plate.) 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.

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 papardelle pasta with crab, asparagus and sun-dried tomatoes ($15); roasted
Cornish game hen with citrus clove glaze ($16); Cajun shrimp with
grits and andouille sausage ($16) and applewood smoked bacon and spinach quiche with cranberry walnut side salad ($15). Appetizer specials include a crabcake with lemon caper mayonnaise ($16); oyster shooter ($3.50); a salad of mixed baby greens tossed in a red wine vinaigrette ($7); Rhode Island Littleneck clams steam in white wine with herbs ($13) 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).

We have been making mail drops throughout the day at the central post office to get as many gift certificates to their destination as possible before Christmas. Our front desk will be manned from 7 a.m.
until the bar closes (usually after midnight) to accommodate last- minute gift givers every day, including Christmas Eve and Christmas.

Because we had some mail orders to ship, Chef Paul made a few extra stollen, a holiday yeast bread dense with dried fruit and nuts, powdered with confectioner's sugar. If you'd like a last-minute loaf wrapped with cellophane and pretty ribbons, give us a call. The breads work well as a sweet breakfast bread or as a snack item to keep on the sideboard throughout a holiday gathering. A 1.5 pound loaf is $25, and an enormous 4 pound loaf is $50. To place an order, call Cheryl at 518.583.3538.

We'll also be selling copies of "Chez Sophie Jazz" the seventh CD release from pianist-composer Cole Broderick. 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. (The singer is Cheryl Clark, co- owner of Chez Sophie, wife of Chef Paul, mother of the adorable Nico and Léo, and author of this weekly missive.) Some of the cuts of the CD are available at http://www.chezsophie.com/.
Copies are for sale for $16 at Chez Sophie and through Cole's secure PayPal-friendly website at https://s.p2.hostingprod.com/ @colebroderick.com/ssl/order-cole-broderick-cds.html. We can also mail-order the CD's for an additional $4 shipping and handling.

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 Wednesday, December 26 and Thursday, December 27

$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:
steak frites

Notes on Nico and Léo:
There is nothing quite as exciting for a parent as trying to get two small children dressed well enough to play in the snow. The process took so long on Monday that Cheryl was actually afraid that night would fall before she got the kids outside for some exercise. She dressed Nico first and sent him into the yard to play, then proceeded with the requisite Léo layers: diaper, wool tights, turtleneck onesie, (which snaps over the tights and diaper) wool socks, wool sweater, mittens and fleece snowsuit. Then she admonished the fully bundled child to remain seated on the couch while she went to find her boots, which were not on the drying rack where they should have been. When she found the boots, she also found Léo in the open doorway where Nico had just come back in with wet shoes and a pail of new fallen snow. The child had managed to soak through her socks and tights before ever getting her boots on, which meant the removal of six articles of clothing and the replacement of at least three. Mommy is pleased to report that she stifled the scream.

We found this note last night in the pocket of a coat that had not been worn for a couple of weeks. During a recent world convention at The Saratoga, a group of fantasy novelists took kindly to Cheryl and Paul and stuffed two big duffel bags full of signed books. They brought them to the restaurant on a day when Paul had already gone home to be with the children. Cheryl ferried them home, but Paul took a nap as soon as she arrived. Nico investigated the bags, and Cheryl explained that they were gifts for Daddy that he was going to be unbelievably excited about. Later, Nico impatiently came to his mother and said: "Hey, Mom, will you open this so when Dad comes back in he says 'Oh My God!?' I love it when he says that. I say it with him."

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..

If at any time you would like to be removed from our weekly email list (or receive less frequent postings about wine dinners or special events) please let us know by return email. We hope you enjoy our news.

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.) If you think you are on the list but have not received gift certificates on your special holidays, please contact us with an updated email address. We find that many of the email addresses we have collected over the past few years are no longer valid.

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