About Us & Our Philosophy

"The art of dining well is no slight art, nor the pleasure slight."

                —Michel de Montaigne

We Support the Slow Food Movement

This means that we prepare each dish from scratch to order using the finest ingredients. We encourage our guests to take as much time and care savoring their meal as we take preparing it. Creating a less stressful and more pleasurable and healthful dining experience is our ultimate goal. Therefore, if you are in a hurry, please return at a time when you can relax and dine with us.

In our cooking practices, we make these commitments:

• to encourage sustainable agriculture by consistently increasing our purchases from such sources;
• to feature seasonal menus reflecting the freshest ingredients;
• to use as much locally-grown and organic produce as is available;
• to purchase only sashimi-grade seafood that is on the Monterey Aquarium's "Seafood Watch List" as a "Best Choice" or "Good" alternative;
• to buy such grass-fed and locally-grown meats as are available.

Our Green Commitment

As a member of the Green Chamber of Commerce we have made a commitment to reduce our carbon footprint and to use and encourage sustainable agriculture. This goes beyond just changing lightbulbs and our ongoing commitment to recycling.

• In our most recent renovation, we installed all EnergyStar-rated equipment.
• We have stopped selling bottled water; instead, we have high-efficiency water filters installed on all drinking water sources. This reduces our contribution to landfills--and reduces the bulk of material we must ship across the country and from overseas.
• In the future we will continue to strive to further reduce our business' carbon footprint and to encourage others to follow suit.

Cell Phones

To enhance the dining experience for all concerned, we request that our guests turn their pagers & cellphones off (or at least set them to "vibrate"). If you must use your cell-phone, so as to avoid disturbing our other guests (and to improve your reception) we request you step out of the main dining room. Cell phone use in the bar and on the patio is perfectly acceptable.

Pricing

For decades, retailers have been "fudging" their prices. When they feel they need another dollar for a given item but fear the increase in price will hurt business, they charge 95¢ or 99¢ so we won't notice. Well, it's time for honest pricing. We're not just pretending to lower prices, we've reduced them an average of 15% while keeping the same great quality for which we've been known for years.

Wines & Beers

We want you to enjoy your wine or beer as much as we enjoy serving them to you.

Beers

Just like a fine wine, beer needs to "breathe." This aeration allows the bouquet, or "nose" to develop and also brings out the full flavor of the Lager or Ale. We will always pour your beer to achieve this.

By serving beer in a chilled pilsner, we keep it from developing too great a head. If you prefer one of our carefully selected Lagers or Ales closer to room temperature—the way Europeans drink them—we will gladly serve it that way, though we may still offer a chilled glass to bring it closer to the temperature found in European pubs.

We serve our Belgian ales in a wine glass--the traditional Belgian way.

Wines

We take as much care and pride in serving our wines as we took in selecting them. The temperature of each type is precisely controlled so that they will be at their peak flavor. We will not serve an over-chilled White wine--it would be nearly tasteless. Nor will we serve a Red at over 60°F. Our Rosés, Champagnes and Dessert wines are handled just as lovingly.

When your wine is served, we suggest you take as much time savoring it as you would your food. First, swirl the wine (except champagnes) to develop the bouquet; this is why the glass is not filled to the rim. Once you have enjoyed the "nose," tilt the glass and notice the color; every wine has its own distinctive shade. Swirl again and look through the glass to see how long the "fingers" take to develop; this will let you "see" the wine's "body" even before you taste it. The body is part of the wine's character, and great wines vary from light- to full-bodied.

Before sipping, once again savor the nose. Take some wine into your mouth and aerate by gently drawing air through it. Roll it across your tongue as you pick out the unique flavors of the wine you chose. Then swallow and experience the "finish;" wine has a flavor, texture and dryness/sweetness in the back of the throat separate from those on the tongue.

We hope this advice will enhance your drinking pleasure.

Chef Shevek

Chef Shevek M Barnhart is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY and has been cooking professionally for 35 years. He is presently the Executive Chef and co-owner of Shevek & Co. Restaurant in Silver City, NM. He has cooked in venues as diverse as Moosewood Restaurant (the most famous vegetarian restaurant in the world) in Ithaca, NY, the Café Sparrow (one of the originators of what later came to be known as California cuisine) in Aptos, CA, and the historic Ivy Inn (classic American and Continental foods from the colonial era to the present) outside Charlottesville, VA.