Do you remember when our French Onion soup was called Five Onion Soup, from our original menu 25 years ago? It’s the same basic recipe, but we may have lost an onion variety or two along the way–quite a few chefs since Chef Z have found simpler ways of doing things, for a variety of necessary reasons. It is STILL served “browned and bubbling.” It is NOT still $3.95. ๐
Do you remember our wings being named after “Ben Butler,” the civil war veteran who hailed from Lowell? They were served “medium hot” or “rebel yell.”
Did you know that we had a tomato and mozzarella salad named after The Prince Grotto? Do you remember the Prince Grotto? That salad will return to the menu for this summer, in time for our 25th anniversary celebration on Friday, June 7th.
Tom Kha coconut chicken soup was on our original menu–one of our many attempts to bring global influences to downtown–way before the current proliferation–now a growing culinary United Nations of sorts (Greek, Portuguese, Southeast Asian, Japanese, Mexican, African..what am I forgetting?!) If you did not know…The VIet Thai restaurant opposite City Hall offers a pretty good version, albeit sweeter than ours was. Its my favorite soup. Look for it at moonstones in the near future…
Do you remember Cajun Chicken en Croute–baked in pastry with a brush of sweet-spicy Cajun-rosemary butter. What a nightmare it was trying to get those out of the kitchen golden and puffy in less than 15 minutes! Look for THOSE at the 25th anniversary party!
Do you remember some of MY favorite dishes from 25 years ago–that just didn’t sell well!! Chef Z’s Turkey-Cashew Pate, The roast Long Island Duck with Maple Bourbon, The Holy Panoli “blessed with caramelized onions and ground sausage” and the paella?! That’s right. Cobblestones original menu had paella. It STILL doesn’t sell in Lowell–although the hummus finally does. You win some, you lose some.
Do you remember the Fried Scallops? Lobster roll? Quesadilla? The Total Pig Pen? Courtney’s Garden? Chicken Parm? Scampi Dinner? (The title “Shrimp Scampi” really annoyed Chef Ed. It means, Shrimp Shrimp. I was not “allowed” to call it Shrimp Scampi!)
How about the Big Dipper, the Pita Primavera, Courtney’s Garden, the Eggplant Wedge, the Fettucine Primavera and/or ALfredo? We were thinking of our vegetarian friends 25 years ago too! (Although Ed insisted that the very best Primavera was made with chicken broth. He wasn’t lying.)
Do you remember the clam chowder, the Reuben, the Texas tips, the Prime Rib, the French dip, the classic Caesar, our NY Sirloin, the Yorick chicken? You better! They’re all that remain from the original, (original!) menu.
Stay tuned for the many Cobblestones classics that we will continue to special, or bring back to the menu, or… prepare and share with you for the celebration on Friday, June 7th. You are (still!) invited and we really hope you join us. It begins at 6pm–live music, a beer truck, passed hors d’oeuvres, a grill (always a grill!), some raffles, some cigars, some other stuff… and a great many very fine folks! (All to benefit the Plath Family-Cobblestones Culinary Scholarship at Lowell High School). See you soon!
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