Those of you who are up on the Ann Arbor food scene will know this already, but two of the talented young chefs from the late and much lamented Lunch at Everyday Cook have joined forces to set up a gourmet take-out and catering operation, A Knife’s Work. They’re in the early stages yet — their web site is just up and running, and they seem to be distributing only out of Everyday Wines in Kerrytown, but they are cooking, and their changing weekly menu that is seasonally and locally inspired looks very promising. John and I were lucky to wander into Everyday Wines on Friday afternoon and happen upon the introductory special with all dishes half off. We picked up one entree to share between the two of us (eaten in between managing trick-or-treaters both incoming and outgoing). One entree hardly qualifies as criteria for a review, but let me call this an excited and favorable mention. In other words, the smoked paprika braised pork shoulder with amontillado sherry and stewed white beans was really good. As in we each took a somewhat harried bite, suddenly slowed down and went mmmmm.
At a list price of fourteen dollars, the pork isn’t cheap take-out (at the introductory rate of seven dollars it felt like a steal). The first week’s menu ranges from six dollars for soup to nine dollars for salad up to eighteen dollars for lamb shanks. But, for people like us, who, um, don’t get out much*, it’s a reasonable price for a nice meal that we don’t have to cook. Mary at Everyday Wines is happy to suggest wine pairings; with the pork we had a nice French Bordeaux. One entree is generous; it might be a little light for two, but with a green salad from home and a dessert of York Peppermint Patties and Snickers (hey, it was Halloween), it was just right.
I’m happy to see a new addition to the Ann Arbor dining possibilities and looking forward to trying more.
*Witness some chatter between me, Anne and Shana on “what did you do Friday night?” Shana: We went to Logan and watched the Halloween scene downtown. Anne: We had dinner at Cafe Habana and checked out the Halloween cabaret at The Blind Pig. Maria: We put Nick to bed and watched Return of the Jedi. One of these things is not like the other.
[…] It was good! Friday night we tried out the food from A Knife’s Work (that I wrote about on the blog this weekend). I’m really excited to try more. Saturday morning we had pancakes, of course, because […]