Weekend Update for Friday Se 30, 2011

Written on September 30th, 2011, by Gus Rancatore

After last night’s Ig Nobel’s when the Mayor of Vilnus, Lithuania received the Peace Prize for driving a tank over luxury cars that ignore traffic rules I can write that today Central Square looks as beautiful as that nation’s capitol, and Cambridge Parking Czarina Sue Clippinger has yet to get a tank to perform her duties. We are all safe.

At 5PM there is a preview of the Glass Pumpkin Sale at MIT. Its worth seeing just because every town should have a field full of glass pumpkins. Tomorrow from 10AM to 5P is the main event. Arrive early for the best selection.

We are not doing Breakfast@TheBigTable this weekend but we will next weekend, October 8/9. We open at 9AM for coffee and pastry and ice cream

There is Fashion week in MIlan and Rome and New York. For Cambridge residents this is IgNobel weekend. Tomorrow, on Saturday, at 1PM in Room 26-100 at MIT there will be lectures from this year’s winners and some hits from the past. No paper airplanes but a rewarding experience for everyone. We will be open before and after this event for coffee, pastry, ice cream and arguments about the validity of certain prize winners.

Also on Saturday, at 11AM until 3PM or when we run out of ice cream we will be giving away samples at Pemberton Farms on Mass. Avenue in North Cambridge, near Rindge Avenue. The shopping is great and the samples are free.

The Brattle is showing Pearl Jam 20 and Cremaster 1 + 2. I never dreamed of such a double bill.

Flavors for Su Se 25, 2011

Written on September 25th, 2011, by Gus Rancatore

We are not serving Breakfast@TheBigTable this weekend. We will next serve breakfast on Sa/Su Oc 8/9.

Today is the last day of the Scoutmob offer. It ends when we close at 11PM. Be sure to go to Scoutmob.com.

These are the flavors we have right now which can change quickly when we are busy and we have been very busy because of the weather and the Scoutmob offer.

Tomorrow the weather changes and the swelter ends. We resume our typical fall weather that we share with Canada’s Atlantic provinces and Scotland. Ahhh.

French Vanilla
Belgian Chocolate
Nocciola
Goat Cheese Brownie
Hydrox Cookie
Bourbon Vienna Finger Cookie
Chocolate Chip
Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
Cardamom Coffee
Lemon Espresso
Red Carrot (which is purple in color and actually tasty)
Blackberry Lime
Bourbon
Just Fluff
Strawberry
B3
Sweet Cream
Buckeye (all the way from Ohio, Chocolate Peanut Butter)
Cinnamon
Green Tea
Ginger
Mocha
Grape Nut
Bananas Foster (with rum)
Cake Batter
Mint Julep
Rum Raisin
Butternut Squash with Grahams & Chips (tastes like Pumpkin)

Pink Grapefruit Sorbet
Bourbon Peach Sorbet

Fluff Festival in Union Square and Lafayette Square

Written on September 22nd, 2011, by Gus Rancatore

This week Somerville Main Streets is sponsoring their annual celebration of the invention of Marshmallow Fluff. There is a small chance Michelle Obama will visit. When this festival was first inaugurated they asked us to make ice cream using Fluff. This was not the greatest suggestion or request we have ever received. It is not quite as good as the request for Megachip ice cream we got from a computer chip manufacturer who very briefly made the world’s biggest or fastest computer chip. And we all have a lot of affection for the Girl Scout troops who sell us cookies for Girl Scout Cookie ice cream. We also made a flavor for the Archdiocesan Choir School which we cleverly called Agave Maria. It is a chocolate ice cream made with agave syrup. Over time we were surprised to discover that we liked the overly sweet ice creams made with Fluff, including Fluffernutter (with peanut butter), Fluff Krispies (with Kellog’s Rice Krispies) and simple Fluff. We like the flavors and so do a lot of cutomers. So don’t go to Union Square, Allston. Go to the other one.

http://unionsquaremain.org/2011/09/schedule-2011-fluff/

Paul Caponigro on Main Street and Newbury St.

Written on September 22nd, 2011, by Gus Rancatore

Much has changed in the neighborhood since we first opened in 1981. The neighborhood smelled sweetly of candymaking and Topp’s Donuts. But the best thing was the quiet presence of the Polaroid Gallery across from what is now The Royal East, but was then Colleen’s Chinese restaurant. When winter afternoons slowed to a crawl I could walk down the street and visit. I have fond memories of the employee show -for heavens’ sake- when I would see photos taken by and of our many customers who worked at what was then Cambridge’s biggest company. Sadly Polaroid is gone although there are efforts to revive the distinctive film. It was at that gallery that I first encountered the beautiful, spiritual photos of Paul Caponigro. The photogrpaher was born in East Boston and studied at Boston University. He does not shoot exclusively with Polaroid film. This summer I saw a wonderful selection of his work at Maine’s Farnsworth Museum. Until October 4, The Pucker Gallery at 171 Newbury is showing more of his photography.

http://www.puckergallery.com/exhibitions.html

Flavors for Sa Se 17, 2011

Written on September 17th, 2011, by Gus Rancatore

They change quickly when we’re busy. This is a new version of German Chocolate Cake: spicy butterscotch sauce on chocolate cake and coconut flakes

French Vanilla
Belgian Chocolate
Hydrox Cookie
Cake Batter
Chocolate Chip
Salty Saffron
Burnt Carmel
Cocoa Pudding
Malted Vanilla
Strawberry
Goat Cheese Brownie
White Russian
Sweet Cream
Butter Chocolate Chip
Espresso
Earl Grey
Salty Caramel
Purple Carrot Ginger
Malted Chocolate
Sugar Plum Sherry
B3
Vienna Finger Cookie
Cookie Dough
White Coffee
Sour Cream Vanilla Bean
German Chocolate Cake
Khulfee

Coconut Sorbet
Strawberry Sorbet

Jennifer is always working.

Written on September 15th, 2011, by Gus Rancatore

Jennifer Dunn makes all our cakes and all our Toto Pops, which are our own hand-made popsicles. Two very different directions. Today she has been making cakes with Chocolate Chip ice cream and with Belgian Chocolate ice cream. She is also making Lime Rickey popsicles, and Raspberry Lime pops.

Breakfast@TheBigTable returns this weekend

Written on September 8th, 2011, by Gus Rancatore

After a week of wet weather to start the school year Breakfast@TheBigTable will return this weekend. Saturday Se 10, from 10AM >2PM and Sunday Se 11, 10AM>2PM. We plan to do Breakfast on the second weekend of every month.

This weekend the menu includes

Creamy Egg Sandwich: scrambled eggs on a toasted ciabatta roll 5.75
Fried Egg Sandwich: spinach pesto, carmalized onions and feta on 7-grain bread 5.75
BLT: heirloom tomato and Bibb lettuce on toasted brioche
P3: pancakes, peach butter and pechy maple syrup 8.25
Chicken and Waffle: chicken hash in a waffle, fried egg with spicy ketchup 9.25
Sophia’s Greek Yogurt with granola and honey 4.25
French Brioche Toast: with NH maple syrup and whipped butter 4.25

Fresh Orange Juice 2.50

Coffee from Batdorf & Bronson and Barismo.

There is also an Ice Cream Showdown in Somerville. We’ll be sending the Antonino Rocca of ice cream, Goat Cheese Brownie to represent us.
At the Somerville Armory there is a belly dancing festival

http://massraqs.com/about/

The Brattle is recalling a wonderful time in Miami and American cinema by showing Scarface.
Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel is at New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall

http://necmusic.edu/calendar_event/2011-9-10

The MFA Film Program is showing The Reach of Resonance about musicians and sound artists

http://www.mfa.org/programs/film/reach-resonance-0

The Cambridge Popcorn Society recommends The Hedgehog at the Kendall Square Cinema.

D.C. Denison of The Globe reports on our Google Offer

Written on September 7th, 2011, by Gus Rancatore

http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2011/09/07/google_joins_the_group_on_bargain_hunts/

Google joins the group on bargain hunts

First Boston-area deal is from ice cream shop

By D.C. Denison Globe Staff / September 7, 2011

Add one more name to the list of online discount sites vying for dollars from Boston area shoppers: Google

The Internet search giant is bringing its online daily bargain site, Google Offers, to Boston and four other cities today. It joins dozens of online discount services that have been launched since Groupon.com inaugurated the concept three years ago.

Google Offers was inaugurated in Portland, Ore. three months ago, and was launched in New York City and San Francisco last month.

Google’s product is similar to Groupon, which pioneered the “daily deal’’ online coupon in November 2008. Since then dozens of discount sites have been established, including the number two daily deal site, LivingSocial, now partially owned by Amazon.com, and sites from Facebook and Yelp.

The Boston Globe’s online site, Boston.com, has its own daily deal site, called Boston Deals. And a business-to-business site called RapidBuyr launched in Boston last month, targeting small and mid-size companies seeking bargains on office equipment and other products.

Last month, however, Facebook shut down its deal site, and Yelp reduced its online couponing staff by half, indicating the sector may be saturated.

Raymond Boggs, vice president of small and medium business research at IDC, a Framingham research firm, said that Google’s brand recognition gives the site a good chance of success, even in a crowded market.

“The Google name is so visible, and it’s such a compelling brand, that it’s already on people’s radar,’’ he said.

Eric Rosenblum, Google’s director of product management, commerce, said that to participate, users need a Google ID, the same ID they would use for the company’s other products, like its e-mail service, Gmail.

Google Offers uses Checkout, the company’s own payment service.

The first deal on the site is a half-price offer from Toscanini’s Ice Cream in Cambridge’s Central Square, down the street from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Mimi Rancatore, co-owner of Toscanini’s, said it was an easy decision to partner with Google Offers.

“I’m not the tech type,’’ she said, “but I mean, they are Google. They are a big deal.’’

Rosenblum, who is based in Mountain View, Calif., said he took an active role in selecting Toscanini’s as the Boston-area launch partner for Google Offers.

“I still have fond memories of their burnt caramel ice cream,’’ he admitted.

D.C. Denison can be reached at denison@globe.com.

Ice cream flavors for a grey First Day of School

Written on September 6th, 2011, by Gus Rancatore

French Vanilla
Belgian Chocolate
Grape Nut Raisin
Rum Raisin
Chocolate Chip
Burnt Caramel
Mango
Cookie Dough
Coffee
Butter Chocolate Chip
Cocoa Pudding
Vienna Finger Cookie
Maple Walnut
Strawberry
Cake Batter
Sweet Cream
Salty Saffron
Fluffernutter
Khulfee (cardamon with chopped almonds + pistachios_
Chocolate No. 3
Peach
Blueberry Lemon
Wort ( Cambridge Brewing Company’s Golden Ale before fermentation)
Butter Almond
Fresh Mint
Goat Cheese Brownie
Buckeye ( peanut butter + chocolate from Ohio)