Hello everyone!

Easter Brunch
As of this writing, we have three tables for 2  left for Easter Sunday
brunch, barring cancellations, available at 10:30 a.m., 1:30 p.m. and 3 p.m
and a table for 3 at 2:30 p.m. We are calling all of those who have reserved
tables to check for cancellations, and so are keeping a waiting list for
those who we have not been able to accommodate so far.

We're doing a made-to-order omelette station, because that was extremely
popular last year, as well as a raw bar, a waffle station, a carving station
with Elihu Farm leg of lamb, and baked cured ham,  a salad and vegetable
station, and desserts.
We will be requiring a credit card to confirm the reservations, with a
24-hour no-penalty cancellation grace period. (After that, it's a $10 per
head penalty.)

Admission is $35 for adults and $18 for children under 12. We will begin
seating at 10:30 a.m. and accept reservations each half hour until 3 p.m.
Breakfast will be served from 7 to 9:30 a.m. and dinner seatings will begin
at 5:30 p.m. with our normal à la carte dinner menu.

We're already getting calls about Mother's Day brunch (May 11). We'll
announce our format for that day's brunch after Easter, when we can evaluate
how well the guests liked the "food station" format.

Pink Plate Special
Paul is very excited about this coming week's Pink Plate. He plans to make a
rich sauce of tomato and crab, then add a mound of squid ink pasta tossed
with olive oil, coarse cracked pepper and breadcrumbs, topped with sautéed
shrimp. The squid ink pasta, called Spaghetti di Nero from Rustichella
d'Abruzzo is a durum wheat semolina pasta, extruded through bronze dies. The
squid ink doesn't lend an intense flavor to the pasta, but it does make it a
sexy, dusky noir.

Rustichella d'Abruzzo is a family pasta company that started in Penne in
1924 under the name Gaetano Sergiacomo. What makes its products
special is the quality of the wheat, the clean mountain water from the
Vestine Hills, the slow drying times (40-60 hours) which help preserve the
nutritional value and flavor of the wheat, and special bronze molds that
give the pastas a coarse surface (it helps the sauce stick.)

Help Wanted
We are looking for some qualified help, so if you are or know of likely
candidates who take food seriously as both a business and an art form,
please contact us. One of the positions will open up as we head into the
summer season and need to increase our kitchen staffing.  We could also use
a couple of qualified servers, especially those willing to work mornings.
LXR Luxury Resorts, our landlord, recently acquired Hilton and has added the
Hilton branding to the The Saratoga. It's too early to generalize much, but
our early experience is that the Hilton brand has dramatically increased the
number of business travelers using the hotel, which is in turn increasing
Chez Sophie's business. We are finding ourselves in need of additional
servers far earlier in the year than usual. Please come in to fill out a job
application and schedule an interview.

Artist in residence Joseph C. Parker
Joseph continues to take orders for castings of the pieces in his exhibit,
"Expressions of Love," which features tiny sculptures that he created to be
gifts for his late first wife, Sophie, over the 52 years of their marriage.

The castings cost between $300 and $3,000 depending on the piece. The
castings will be done to order, so if you want to give one as a gift to your
romantic love in the near future, we can create a pretty promise package for
you with a photograph of the original to present as a gift for a birthday,
anniversary, engagement. The casting for two of the pieces have been
completed, and a series of another piece will be finished soon.  The other
pieces will take six to 12 weeks for delivery depending on the complexity of
the sculpture.
To preview some of the pieces in "Expressions of Love" visit
http://www.chezsophie.com/sculpt_val.html

Cole in the House
Cole plays the baby grand piano from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday during
brunch and on Tuesday and Friday night (barring special events that preclude
live music.) He also comes in on nights he is not normally scheduled, such
as Thursdays and Saturday nights, if he feels like it. Cole, who won a
Billboard Critic's Choice Award for his 4-CD set of jazz compositions:
"Seasons in Saratoga," recently released his seventh CD "Chez Sophie Jazz."
This is 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.) Some of the cuts of the CD can be heard at
http://www.chezsophie.com/.
Copies are for sale for $16 at Chez Sophie and through Cole's secure
PayPal-friendly website at http://www.colebroderick.com/sound-7.htm
We can also mail-order the CD's for an additional $4 shipping and handling.

Skidmore/Albany Law Graduation
Skidmore graduation weekend is booking heavily. We'll be offering an
elegant, four-course, $70 per person prix fixe menu,  and will be serving
dinner the Friday (May 16) of Skidmore Graduation weekend from 5 p.m. to 10
p.m. by reservation. On Saturday, May 17, we will extend brunch to 3:30 pm.
and start serving the prix fixe dinner at 5:30. We've also taken lunch
reservations until 2:15 p.m. on Friday, May 16, to accommodate people
driving up from the Albany Law School Graduation ceremony.

Tasting menus
The Chef's Choice seven-course tasting menu is 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 or more 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, March 24, Tuesday, March 25, Wednesday, March 26, and
Thursday, March 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:
squid ink pasta tossed with olive oil and coarse cracked pepper and
breadcrumbs served over a tomato and crab sauce, topped with sautéed shrimp

Notes on Nico and Léo:

We suspect that two-year-old Léo is about to spring up another couple of
inches overnight because she is eating and sleeping with a passion. She fell
asleep while Mommy was driving to the supermarket and stayed that way
throughout the entire shopping trip. Cheryl laid a blanket in the bottom of
the basket and another over the prone child and proceeded to stack groceries
around her, trying to keep the frozen and cold stuff off her. Five-year-old
Nico became a little concerned about how close Léo was coming to being
buried and said several times: "I really think it's time to wake Leo up,
Mommy. The basket is getting too full."

"Leave her alone," Cheryl said a little selfishly, thinking about how much
easier it is to do the hunting and gathering with only one conscious child
to wrangle. After trying to sneak his hand into the basket several times to
pinch his sister awake, Nico protested: "But I'm not have any FUN!" to which
Mom replied: "It's grocery shopping. It's not supposed to be fun."
"It usually is," he muttered under his breath.
Léo continued to snooze through check-out and being buckled into her
carseat. As Mom tucked a blanket around her, she realized that sleeping was
not the only thing the child had been doing and hoped fervently that the
diaper would hold until we got home. As we pulled into the driveway, Léo's
eyes flew open as she announced: "Oh no! I got a problem! Down there! Hurry
Mommy!"

An hour later, she had three helpings of roasted pork and applesauce and
beans,  then cleaned her brother's plate as well. Far more rested and
fortified than her parents, she sang and chattered non-stop for the next
five hours.

Nico, meanwhile, has drawn his first representational object with a crayon.
Well, actually, that may be his parents' fault, because about a year and a
half ago he took a crayon and drew a series of wild spirals. "What is this?"
he asked his Mom. "Looks like a tornado," she said. Now he draws dozens of
tornadoes a day, some of which he thinks are of such superior quality that
he asks to have them hung on the refrigerator door. Sometimes he interprets
the tornadoes for us, explaining that they are styracosauruses with monkeys
on their backs or rhinos eating bananas. Last night, he was drawing at the
table while Mommy was washing dishes and announced: "Mommy, come look. I
drew myself." Expecting to see another tornado, Cheryl was amazed to find a
rather artfully drawn head with two eyes and a crop of what looked like
overgrown grass coming out of the top.
"I used hair gel," Nico explained.

The Parker family
at Chez Sophie
518.583.3538