Furikake Caramel Corn, a tackle Hawaii’s Hurricane Popcorn, is served as a complimentary bar snack at Palette in San Francisco./Picture courtesy of Palette.
Bars have lengthy served complimentary dishes of salted nuts, popcorn and chips to nibble together with drinks. Ostensibly, these free snacks are there to assist take up a number of the alcohol, however they do have a facet profit—the salt or seasoning makes clients thirsty sufficient to order a second cocktail or one other glass of beer or wine.
These days, bars have been elevating these freebies with chef-inspired touches and complicated taste profiles to higher replicate the meals facet of the menu.
“Cacio e pepe,” which interprets to “cheese and pepper,” is a traditional Italian pasta preparation, however at Rosie Cannonball in Houston, Cacio e Pepe Popcorn is the complimentary bar snack on supply. The popcorn is tossed in Parmesan rind-infused butter, black pepper and pecorino powder, and served with further grated pecorino and black pepper for patrons so as to add. The freebie has change into a crowd favourite to pair with the award-winning wine listing and artistic cocktails, stated a spokesperson.
Cacio e Pepe Popcorn at Rosie Cannonball./Picture courtesy of Rosie Cannonball.
Rosie Cannonball is a reside fireplace restaurant with a menu targeted on pizza, pasta and European-inspired dishes, and the complimentary popcorn supplies a style of what’s to return.
Delfina in San Francisco does the identical by infusing potato chips with that Italian taste profile.
The restaurant’s Cacio e Pepe Potato Chips are served free on weekdays from 5-6 p.m. to snack on throughout Delfina’s Apertivo Hour. The bar serves an ingenious spritz choice that works nicely with the chips and different seasonal bites, together with fava bean crostini. The snacks replicate the meals menu, which incorporates trattoria classics equivalent to Spaghetti Pomodoro and Grilled Calamari over heat beans.
One other San Francisco restaurant, seafood-centric Palette, affords a sweet-savory snack of Furikake Caramel Corn on the bar. The inspiration got here from Chef Dierdre Rieutort’s travels to Hawaii the place Hurricane Popcorn is in style. The island model combines buttered popcorn with furikake and mochi rice crackers.
“When Chef Rieutort advised her kitchen group concerning the distinctive snack, it triggered an in-depth dialogue round everybody’s popcorn desire,” stated a spokesperson for the restaurant. The talk revolved round buttered and salty vs. candy with a caramel that cracks within the mouth.
This sparked the concept to adapt Hurricane Popcorn by combining each preferences together with Palette’s house-made Japanese-style furikake. The ensuing Furikake Caramel Corn is umami-rich and boasts flavors and textures that improve the cocktail listing.
Daintree’s Hen Salt & Seaweed Popcorn./Picture courtesy of Resort Hendricks.
Hen Salt & Seaweed Popcorn is the complimentary snack at Daintree, a rooftop cocktail lounge at New York Metropolis’s Resort Hendricks. The crunchy popcorn encompasses a house-made seasoning and considerably displays the Australian-Asian influences and flavors of the menu.
Members assist make our journalism potential. Change into a Restaurant Enterprise member at this time and unlock unique advantages, together with limitless entry to all of our content material. Enroll right here.