A procession of chefs has created the menu at Friars Folly, but none more splendidly than the first chef, Chad Norman. Chef Chad, who has returned to his home state of Florida where he loves to fish, had the ability to create unique and outstanding flavor profiles in each of his dishes. His assignment in 2003 was to create a ‘tapas menu’ - appetizer-style food that would be the perfect munchie to wine and micro brew beers.
Chef Chad’s menu combined with the creative wine bar and live entertainment made Friars Folly so successful that it won the San Marcos Chamber of Commerce “Best Small Business of 2004” award. Accommodating both tapas and fine dining entrée service with the 120 square foot kitchen can be especially challenging when 150 people show up on Friday night. The menu today is as popular for the tapas as it is with full dinner crowd. Here’s a Friars Folly tip for insiders – choose tapas on busy weekend nights.
Owner, Tami Ridley’s goal was to create a ‘fortified coffee shop’ where patrons could hang out drinking great wine and savory snacks instead of drinking lattes and eating scones. She half-heartedly blames Chef Chad for turning her little cozy meeting place into a three-ring circus of a restaurant because the guests wanted him to ‘super-size’ his unforgettable tapas into entrée dinners.
Other chefs have attempted to make their contributions, but our guests remember most fondly Chef Chad’s dishes. “Where’s the Friars Stack? The Bistro Filet? The Classic Ceasar? The Blue Cheese & Brandied Apple Candied Cashew Salad? The Black & Blue Tuna?”
Tami listened to her guests’ requests and is reintroducing all of these dishes back to the menu. To the restaurant’s success, she gathered back the original kitchen staff that opened Friars Folly on January 3, 2003 to recreate ‘exactly’ Chef Chad’s items – Ramon Alvino, Milena Ziober (owner and chef of Leucadia’s Café Melodia now known as Le Papgayo), her mother Dora Burnquist who whips up a ‘to die for’ Apple Pie, Chocolate Passion Fruit Mousse and Coconut Flan, Faustino Dominguez and Chef Chad who is just a phone call away in Florida. Patricia McCormick, former owner and chef of Café Merlot located at the historical Bernardo Winery, originally opened our doors while finding Chef Chad and still stands by as a consultant. She is also the creator of the legendary Spinach and Artichoke Dip that our guests claim is the best they’ve ever had! It’s the feta, parmesan, cream cheese and sour cream combination that make it so much yummier!
Tami’s cuisine style, yet to be categorized in the cookbook shelves at Barnes & Nobles is “Cal-Spanish”. Her goal with the food and wine served is to subliminally connect her guests to the rich culinary and wine history of California, especially the Colonial Spanish period. She hopes her guest will someday appreciate that the land where there homes are, were once the barren Spanish outpost of California that the Friars converted into the world’s most bountiful agricultural harvests and livestock ranges.
Her directions to the chef when creating the menu is to make dishes that include the Mediterranean, South American and Mexican grains; beans like chickpeas; fruits like citrus, grapes and figs; vegetables such as chilies, tomatoes, artichokes; and spices that Padre Junipero Serra, founder of the California Mission chain, imported for the Friars to plant and cook with at the Missions. Tami researches constantly for historical recipes that the Friars regionalized from their homeland Spain with New World ingredients such as tomatoes, chilies and corn tortillas to create dishes that became classic fare at the Missions and Ranchos.
Not only did Padre Serra cultivate the land with produce, he established the first vineyards and vinted the first wine – right here at Mission San Diego. For his contributions to the wine industry of California that he created, he is given the title of the ‘the Father of California Wine’. The restaurant Friars Folly is so named in recognition of him and the other Friars that created much of the California culture still visible to us today and for her imagination that the Friars enjoyed a bit of fun and foolishness (Folly) in the Mission wine cellars.
The Franciscan padres were obsessed with wine making and left an indelible mark in California that we enjoy today for all the missions are surrounded by wineries and some of the best wines in the world at the time. The missions serve today as Padre Serra intended--a place to gather, to enjoy, to appreciate, and to give thanks. Friars Folly's goal is to carry on the mission spirit today.
You’ll find a story behind each of the menu creations. For example, did you know that the “Classic Caesar Salad” was created on a whim by frazzled Chef Cardini in Tijuana’s Hotel Caesar on the 4th of July weekend in 1924 during a rush of Hollywood and people of the time pilgramaging to Mexico to avoid the restrictions of Prohibition? They had depleted the kitchen's supplies. On that day, Cardini made do with what he had, day old bread, romaine, eggs, Parmesan, lemon and Worcestershire sauce. He successfully added the dramatic flair of the table-side tossing "by the chef".
So much culinary and wine history right here in our own back yard! Stop by Friars Folly for more interesting historical food and wine history facts. Tami has the most extensive collection of Southern California wine industry history. Better yet, join the Friars Folly “WINE TRIBE” and receive bi-weekly facts about wine, food, history and Friars Folly live entertainment and wine tasting schedules. Go to www.FriarsFolly.com/WineTribe.asp and join free today. |
