Table Side Interaction Is The Best

One of the greatest joys in the operation of a restaurant is talking to the guests at the table. The experience from our side is similar to having friends over to your home for dinner. When patrons are enjoying their meal and talking about how much they like a particular entree or the design of AZUR, the feeling is an intense "pride". No matter what negative incidents may have occurred that day (oven goes out or ice maker stops working), it all just fades away.

Upcoming Chef Series Dinners

AZUR just finished distilled AZUR - a five course tribute to distilled spirits. No rest here. We already have completed the menu for the June Chef Series which will be a Japanese seven course dinner featuring sous chef Justin Clark. Then in July, AZUR will be offering a Virtual Kentucky Bourbon Trail Chef Series with bourbons from distilleries along the official Kentucky Bourbon Trail which is in it's 10th year! As always, we are accepting ideas for August. Make your recommendation by inserting "Themed Dinner" in the subject line and sending to info@azurrestaurant.com.

Too Many Televisions in Restaurants

Lately, the trend has been to add televisions to the interior of restaurants of all types of restaurants. They're replacing artwork on the walls with several televisions tuned to a multiple stations. What happened to conversation over dinner? It seems we are forgetting about the connection between sharing a meal and being social. Inviting someone to dine with you is a personal experience that should not be intruded upon by other distractions (e.g. television). Life is passing by swiftly enough. Dinner should be a time to slow down and enjoy the food and the company of others. Interested on how slowing down can have a positive impact on your life and others around you? Explore www.slowmovement.com

AZUR Pushes Molecular Cuisine Further

Question: What does AZUR's executive chef do with extra time away from the kitchen? Answer: He pushes his culinary skills even further. While others were grilling out, he obtained additional ingredients to create interesting spherifications, reverse spherifications, caviars, foams, temperature resistant gelatins. Also obtained for experimentation were transgutamase - a type of meat glue and isomalt to produce clear sugar spheres to encompass liquids. Sounds more like a lab than a kitchen but the uniqueness and flavor explosions are incredible! Should be some interesting creations coming from the AZUR kitchen very soon.

distilled AZUR - A Study of Spirits and Their Ingredients

Several months ago, we started kicking around ideas for a dinner with distilled spirits as the theme. Doing research, AZUR discovered that the concept of using spirits in entrees was very limited except rum. We also polled our customer base through Facebook to seek input. The resulting menu would become "distilled AZUR" which essentially takes five spirits and deconstructions them to their base ingredients. Then, we created a five course menu using the ingredients in the dish as well as the spirit itself. To us, the concept didn't seem to be that extreme; however, we have had several people ask us to explain the dinner. We like the fact that the food is thought provoking and in keeping with our adventuresome offerings. Executive Chef Jeremy Ashby enjoyed the challenge as well. AZUR will be hosting distilled AZUR: May Chef Series Dinner this coming Thursday, May 28 at 6:30 p.m. If you're intrigued, follow the link for more details. http://azurrestaurant.com/chefseries.aspx

What's the Difference Between Whence & Quince?

One is an adverb meaning from what source, place or cause and the other is an often forgotten fruit. The Quince fruit is harvested in Argentina; however, there are growers in the United States. Quince is generally made into a paste and can be served with cheese or with fattier cuts of meats. When is the last time you had Quince served with your meal?

Would You Be Scared?

It is not uncommon for the average person to believe that restaurants have one of the highest failure rates of all start-up businesses. Many believe the percentage to be between 75-90%. Even representatives in the industry quote the same statistics.

In reality, the failure rate for new restaurants is the same percentage of all new businesses across all industries. (Drum roll) the percentage is about 60%. Granted that is a high failure percentage but considerably less than 90%.

Fortunately, the entrepreneurial spirit of all start-up business owners gives them the courage to face the odds and go for it (restaurateurs included). Would you be scared to face even the 60% failure rate?

What is Fleur de Sel salt?

Fleur de Sel means flower of salt in French. It is considered to be the finest quality and it is never used in the actual cooking. Fleur de Sel is reserved for use during the final plating just prior to serving. It is acquired through the straining of sea water in baskets as it has been done since ancient times. This process makes Fleur de Sel very expensive.

Bourbon is whiskey but not all whiskey is bourbon.

Lately, the popularity of bourbon has been on the rise. Bourbon County, Kentucky is credited with being the origin of bourbon but there are many distilleries in Kentucky. In fact, there is even a Kentucky Bourbon Trail http://www.kybourbontrail.com/ which features eight distilleries that one can tour. They are celebrating their tenth year. Now, the statement was made that "bourbon is whiskey but not all whiskey is bourbon" because by federal law bourbon has several legal requirements. The major ones are: it must be made in the United States, it must consist of at least 51% corn, it must be distilled at less than 160 proof and it must be aged a minimum of two years in new, charred oak barrels. The barrels have significance to the final product but that's another story. AZUR is proud to offer approximately 20 bourbons (small batch, single barrel and multiple barrel) for your tasting.

Ever Heard of Healthy People 2010

The idea was to educate the entire United States population about the benefits of eating daily portions of fruits and vegetables. In turn, health would be improved and various diseases would decline in the population. The last report indicated that no state reached the Healthy People 2010 national objectives for fruit and vegetable consumption. Change is slow but they are still pushing the objectives. Learn more by going to www.healthypeople.gov

Good-bye Lake AZUR

Since AZUR opened in 2004, we have been plagued with water run off from the 2,500 s.f. of patio every time we had a hard rain. We tolerated it for years as one of those "trade offs" of having such a large area of hard service with a slope to the side of the restaurant. We even christened the water that would stand on the patio for a few hours "Lake AZUR". Finally, we hired professionals to perform an analysis and to design a solution. AZUR is implementing the solution this weekend. Basically, we are adding a long trench drain to the outside edge of the patio awning to catch the water as it comes down the hill, thus, preventing it from pooling in the middle of the covered patio. We are anxious to see it tested to say the least. Good-bye Lake AZUR?

AZUR Brochure Revamping

After nearly five years, we thought it was time to revamp the AZUR brochure graphics and content. It's interesting to see how media has evolved in just five years. In the past, we had the industry standards such as: address, phone number and website. Now, we added the blog, Twitter and Facebook to our information. In fact, they have become our primary means of communicating what we're doing at the restaurant on a daily basis because it's almost in real time. Though the brochure does accurately portray our overall concept, but it is just a snapshot in the continuum. Tomorrow, something may inspire us and we'll pursue it which changes AZUR a little moving forward.

distilled AZUR May Chef Series Dinner

AZUR has completed and posted the "distilled AZUR" May Chef Series dinner which will be held on Thursday, May 28 at 6:30 p.m. Executive chef Jeremy Ashby is well pleased with the final result. Utilizing distilled spirits is relatively uncommon in the culinary world with the exception of rum. This dinner will present vodka, rum, gin, whiskey (bourbon) and brandy (cognac) in each of the courses, respectively. The concept for this Chef Series is deconstruction of the ingredients used to produce the spirits as well as using the spirits themselves within each course. This is a very unique offering and one of the most complex from a culinary perspective that AZUR has offered to date. More info at http://azurrestaurant.com/chefseries.aspx. We are really proud of this one and have received many comments of interest. For reservations, call 859-296-1007.

What's in a Name - AZUR?

To make a long story short, AZUR restaurant & patio took Azure (a blue sky or purplish blue) from the English dictionary and dropped the "e" to make it our own. Years later, we often see that our old friend - Spellchecker often corrects the spelling to "Azure" when it's used in print media. Not a big deal - what's in a name? We'd rather be known for our innovative cuisine. Plus, the vast majority of our loyal customer base easily make the connection to AZUR. For those of you that are slightly confused if you see "Azure" mentioned in reference to a restaurant in Lexington, Kentucky, they meant to write AZUR. We don't even want to discuss the pronunciation variations.

Craving Morels

Just received a report that Morels [mushroom] are popping up out of the ground. These tasty fungi treats are a favorite of many. The best way to prepare is simple. Egg wash with coating of flour, salt and pepper. Then fry in pan of butter and serve. Look for AZURInsider in the woods of Southeastern Iowa this coming Saturday. Maybe Friday!

Don't Miss Patios and AZUR

In the current issue of Southsider magazine, AZUR was included as a "Don't Miss" patio in Lexington, Kentucky. We appreciate being included and work very hard to make our patio not only attractive and inviting but also festive. This includes hosting live bands and special events such as the Labor Day weekend Latin Bar-B-Que on the patio. To view the excerpt for the article, please follow the link http://azurrestaurant.com/Azurout.aspx