Valentine's Day

I am sitting here and watching the snow fall, the wind blowing like crazy, and I start to  think about Valentine's Day. This year it falls on a Sunday and we are not usually open on Sunday's this time of year, but we will be open for Valentines day from 5pm-8pm. So guys starting planning it now and call to make a reservation.

Remember we were voted #1 Restaurant in all of Detroit Area for Meal with a View. So enjoy a one of a kind dinner with a sunset over the lake.

We are going to serve a completely special  Pre-Fix Menu that day. This means the menu is pre-set. We will be doing a 6 course menu plus you can pair it with wine.

Menu will be:

Course One
Butternut Squash Bisque

Course Two
Frisee and Fennel Salads
Bacon Lardon's, Blistered Tomatoes, Cucumber, Goat Cheese, Charred Corn

Course Three
Crispy Chicken Leg Confit
Chili Corn Sauce

Course Four
Lobster Tail
Chipotle Lime Butter

Course Five
Beef Tenderloin
Grilled Potatoes

Course Six
Banana Fosters
Vanilla Ice, Caramel Rum Sauce with Bananas

Dinner for one is $25
Dinner for two is $50
Wine Pairing for all six courses is $18 for one or $28 for two people.

Treat your special someone and your self to the most romantic dinner around.

2016

2016 is here and we brought it in with a bang last night at Uri's. First I would like to thank all of our staff for a wonderful 2015 and all the hard work that you do for the restaurant.

This is the start of your taste bud explosion. This is an easy resolution to keep and follow through with. Every week we will be featuring some great new items that really explore flavors and cooking techniques. We are focusing on fresh root vegetables right now and pairing them with delicious items like oysters and clams.

We are also starting our whole chicken program over the next few months. So we will only be using whole chickens and using all of them. Every week there will be a chicken feature on our menu utilizing it in a different way.

Happy New Year To All
Shop Local Spend Local

News Years Resloution: Challange Your Taste Buds

A RESOLUTION WE CAN ALL KEEP

We are going to challenge you every week when you go out to eat to step out of your bubble and let your taste buds explore.  Now don’t get scared, this does not mean we are going to be unreasonable. Our menu will still host your favorites but our weekly chef’s features are going to explore fresh and seasonal products.  I am going to use these ingredients in several different ways each week. Sometimes they will be the star of the dish and sometimes they will be an accompaniment.

Depending on the item and how it sells sometimes it will be here for a full month featured a different way every week. Who knows it may even be added to our menu. One week it may be a protein, then a vegetable, then a fruit. What I do know is that our culinary passion is the focus of this restaurant and it will shine but we need your help and support.

Let us know some of your favorites and we will utilize some of them as we go or put our twist on them to shed them in a different light.

 

Things to look forward to at the restaurant:

Whole Chicken Program: Raised on our own farm- Charity Farms in Yale, MI

Wine & Food Dinners

Restaurant Week

Cooking Classes

The Best View in the Detroit Area

Farm to Table Items- Local and Fresh

Catering

Holiday Events

Game Room

What's Happening

Well it is the middle of summer now and everything is booming. The garden has been producing great zucchini for the past several weeks. Peppers and tomatoes are taking off now, also along with cucumbers. Having our own garden that we utilize mostly for the restaurant is great. We know exactly what we are getting and use organic and natural practices with our vegetables. No GMO's here.
So we had the Blues Festival and the Port Sanilac Festival over the last couple of weekends. I love these festivals. They bring great crowds down to the park and really do a fabulous job with there shows and music. The Blues Festival packed the restaurant all weekend plus you can still here the great music while your eating.

This coming weekend August 14th-16th we have the classic car and boat show in the harbor. Come check it out and enjoy a delicious lunch or dinner.

August 22 from 11am- 1pm we will be hosting a stop on the motorcycle ride benefiting St. Jude's Children Hospital. We are very excited to be apart of this.

One of the best things we have done this summer is partner up with The Barn Theatre for a Dinner and a Show. This has been a great partnership and we are excited to be with them. You must get out and see a show if you have not already.

What makes Uri's Unique?

Part 1

I believe in my heart that there are several things that make us unique. One of the biggest things is our kitchen dynamic. We are putting out top notch food all made from scratch with high school and college culinary students. Now most kitchens that are putting out food like ours would have an executive chef, sous chef, pastry chef, and several line chefs all that have been cooking for several years. Here at Uri's all our cooks except for one current students or prior students to the culinary arts program that I teach at the Sanilac Career Center. For many this is there first job and they are thrown into the fire, so to speak, to cook at a very high level much faster than any where else. These kids are very talented and dedicated to their craft.

Teaching is a new passion of mine and a huge part of why we opened up the restaurant last year. After teaching for a couple years I realized there are very few places in the local area that the kids from my program could go and get a summer job and really see if they wanted to go onto culinary school. When opening the restaurant I made a promise to myself to hire as many kids as I could and also find some other local restaurants that the kids could really learn from. So far this has been working great.

The level of respect that these kids deserve for working so very hard, in a very hot kitchen in the summer, plus the amount of hours that they put in is incredible. They have all earned my respect as a chef and I am proud to have them on my staff.

So I would like to say thank you to our students and staff that help mold these young adults because we know that can be challenging at times.
Kayla Crane
Beth Mckenzie
Gunner Stewart
Nick Kohn
Chandler Dumont
Kendra Crane

Why Should Menu's Change

Why do we change our menu at Uri's Landing? Why do we have a small menu with only several entrees on them? Well frankly I get very bored of cooking the same thing everyday. I like to keep my drive going and doing new things. We will always have our staples like perch and salmon, but I like to go where the market drives me. When beef prices are high we will have fewer steaks on, but have more seafood, pork, etc. We run a small menu because we are a scratch kitchen. We make all our own breads, chips, soups, sauces, mayo, bbq sauce, dressings. We whip our own butter and cut all our own meats, fish, we hand grind our burgers and meatloaf in house. We take time to garnish our plates and keep them simple but unique with our own little twist. My food will tell a story over time and you will know who I am, how much pride and love I put into each and every plate that we create.

Michigan's Season's
The main reason we change our menu is that our season's change. We are always using fresh ingredients and we try to use them when they are in season. At a minimum we will change of menu at least four times a year but I usually will do it more like six times. Now this does not mean it will be a drastic change, sometimes it may just be a few items. Sometimes I will change the menu if a dish is not selling very good. If people do not buy it, then they do not want it, therefore I will not offer it. My pet peeve is when you go to a restaurant and you have to flip several pages to read their entire menu. This tells you that they probably have not changed the menu in years simply because it is to big to change.

What does a big menu say when you sit down to read it? It says this restaurant is not great at any type of food, they are not using fresh ingredients, and they probably do not have a chef. Then because I am in the business I wonder who is cooking my food. Probably someone that has a degree in a different field of expertise but could not find a job, so they became a cook at the local restaurant. They usually do not care or have passion for what they are doing which means food safety and cleanliness is not up to standards.

I am not saying that places are not good because they have big menus or that my food is great and everyone will love it. Because this is not true. Everyone has different taste buds and everyone has there favorites. My roll as a chef is to take food from it's natural state and explain it to you in the dish it is served, so that you will now understand it and be able to taste it so you can make your judgment where you will like it or not.

One of the new things we are going to be doing this year is when certain items are in season such as Heirloom Tomatoes we will be preserving them ( just like grandma use to do) for when it is the off season. This way in the dead of winter you will be able to enjoy a great tasting tomato on your burger. Right now if you get a fresh slice of tomato on your burger it will be hard and unripe with no flavor. So this summer when all our wonderful vegetables and fruits are in season we will be preserving them for the winter time. A little taste of summer in the middle of a snow storm can change your day.

Chef Clint

What Drives a Chef

What Drives a Chef?

This is a question that every chef needs to know the answer to.  My favorite part about this question is that every chef has a different answer. This in a way helps many chefs stay current. It is very easy in  this business to become common. By common I mean nothing changes, you run the same menu for years, you come in have a routine, and then go home.  This is my biggest fear as a chef.

My fire inside the kitchen is a family thing. Being a third generation chef I was always looking for the approval of my parents with my father being a chef and my mother was a General Manager for restaurants. Once I started cooking full time that was my goal to hear my father tell me that I had done it, I had become a better chef.  Now that my dad has passed away I still look to him for my driving ambition.  When I am confused or stuck I simply ask myself what would my dad would do in this situation. Then I take that idea and make it better or put a twist on it.

I had my father and mother out for a private dinner once I had become an executive chef one night.  I gave them the treatment a six course tasting dinner. At the end of the dinner I sat down and had a night cap with them. That’s when it happened. The words that I had been looking for (with tears in his eyes) Clint you are going to be a great chef, much better than me.  Now that I have his approval as a chef I use that to never disappoint him.  To this day and for the rest of my life I will always look to my father for advice and approval which will cause me to keep driving forward and never become common.

Now my drive is helping young chefs. I am a culinary arts teacher at a local career center for high school juniors and seniors.  95% of my kitchen staff are students from my culinary program that are interested in culinary arts or are continuing their education for a culinary degree.  By being able to put out three star food with students is a huge success in my book. I know not know one restaurant within a hundred miles that can do this. Most of our diners have no idea that they are eating food from local high school and culinary college students. They think I have a highly trained kitchen staff.

My personal drive is to keep my family happy, be able to help others, and provide amazing food.

Chef Clint