|
|
 |
| |
January 4, 2010
Dear Mr. Coleman and Coleman Staff,
Just a word of thanks and appreciation for the lovely attention to detail you took to make dinner for your New Year’s Eve guests so special! We dined with you last year and did not feel nearly as welcomed or cared for as we did last year; although to be fair, the food and the atmosphere was equally exceptional! It has become our family "resolution" to dine with you on New Year’s Eve, and the complimentary champagne and cookies this year were truly an added surprise and treat! Our waiter was a fellow by the name of Andrew and he was very accommodating, knowledgeable and pleasant.
Thank you for the wonderful care to detail that you take in setting your establishment miles apart from the rest, especially on "special" occasions. Fine dining really ought to be a delightful experience and you truly hit a home run with us this New Year’s Eve. Best wishes in 2010.
Sincerely,
Deborah, Henry and Sarah Schultz
Harleysville
*****************************************************************
June 26, 2009
Hello Ray,
I wanted to write a quick note to let you and Chef Coleman know that we thoroughly enjoyed our dining experience last Wednesday evening. I was there with our company CEO entertaining a customer and his wife. We were visiting from Houston, Texas and our customer highly recommended the restaurant.
Chef Coleman personally came to our table to welcome us. He is delightful and it is clear that he sets that personality for this wonderful restaurant. Our CEO asked Chef Coleman to choose our meal. Everything was delicious, especially the bacon wrapped scallops, lamb and carrot cake. We all had a beautiful evening of delicious food and wonderful conversation.
Thank you so much for making the evening a success.
Regards,
Becky Rice
*****************************************************************
June 22, 2009
Hi Jessica,
I just wanted to let you know that the baby shower for Melissa at Coleman's was wonderful. The service and food were just perfect. Thanks so much for making it a wonderful day for our daughter and son-in-law. Take care.
~ Joan McQuade
*****************************************************************
May 18, 2009
Good Morning, Nicole:
I just wanted to thank you for all your hard work in setting up our Board Dinner.
Everything went like clockwork. Our members couldn't stop lavishing me with praise for choosing Coleman's - you can count on our business for all future Board Dinners.
I must also mention that everyone loved our server, Andrew. He was very attentive to everyone's needs & extremely pleasant.
Best regards,
Terry
LLRC
*****************************************************************
May 17, 2009
Hello,
My husband held a small surprise party at Coleman Restaurant for my birthday last night. We had not eaten at the restaurant before. I wanted to let the staff know that we were very happy with our dinner.
It was excellent--creative but not fussy, with top-notch ingredients (my scallops were some of the sweetest and most tender I've ever had). All our friends were impressed with the food as well. Please also convey our regards to Chef Coleman, whom we met several months ago at an event for Jefferson hospital.
Thanks for helping make this birthday party a memorable occasion...
Pia De Girolamo
Paul Mather
*****************************************************************
May 4, 2009
To the Staff at Coleman Restaurant,
On behalf of the Community Scholars Advisory Board, I would like to thank you for a wonderful lunch on Friday. You rose to the occasion and went above and beyond our expectations. Since we had reservations in Potomac, Maryland, the real Normandy Farm gave us a great day. To all the people at the retirement lunch, it is a story to remember. And they all have only positive and excellent things to say about Coleman's. Many of them will be back.
Again, many thanks for saving the day.
Sincerely,
Linda Diamond
*****************************************************************
February 9, 2009
Hi, Suzanne and Ray:
Our event on Saturday night was really lovely and my parents were thrilled with all of it. We even had your celebrity chef Mr. Coleman pop by which certainly added star power! It was so nice of him to wish my parents well. You and your staff did a wonderful job and I can't thank you enough for helping us to celebrate our parents' very special day in such grand style.
Thanks for everything.
Pam, Bob and Renee Wilson
*****************************************************************
January 29, 2009
Dear Suzanne,
I just wanted to thank you, Donna the manager, and all of the staff at The Coleman Restaurant for making my mother’s 70th birthday brunch such a wonderful celebration! She was one happy “Birthday Girl”, let me tell you! Mom, and our family and friends really enjoyed themselves, and were very impressed with entire facility, along with the private room, the excellent food, and the friendly and outstanding service! There is no doubt that the good folks at The Colman work hard to provide an extraordinary dining experience, because it shows. And by the way, kudos to the pastry chef! The birthday cake turned out to be way better than I had imagined. It was beautiful and absolutely delicious, and the raspberry sauce was a nice touch.
We are looking forward to coming back again for brunch, and to have dinner sometime as well!
Kindest regards,
Heidi Ebright
*****************************************************************
TICKET TO DINING: Coleman Restaurant celebrates its fifth
anniversary: Beer & BBQ, grilling classes enliven summer fare
By: Frank D. Quattrone - Ticket Editor
06/18/2008
Award-winning Chef Jim Coleman still remembers the first week that Normandy Farm was open to the public.
"Man, oh man - it was the second night the hotel was open. There were only 10 people here. But one was a mother who brought her baby. We had no cribs!" he recalls with a hearty laugh. "But we went out and got one, and had it here by midnight." He also laughed when he remembered the first Valentine's Day at Coleman Restaurant. "It was totally crazy! So many people. So much going on," he said, his eyes as wide as dessert plates. "But we learned from that first one. Now we have it under control."
"Another year," he said, "the sprinkler system broke in the porte-cochere in the lobby, creating a little flood. But we pulled it off and dried out and got back to business." On the eve of Normandy Farm's fifth anniversary (it opened on July 18, 2003), Chef Coleman - taking a rare break from his routinely busy schedule - took some time to assess where the restaurant, hotel and conference center is today.
"All restaurants are an evolution," he said. "They're never a finished product, never done. But we've built a loyal clientele. Instead of everything for everybody - then you'd be a diner - we try to be selective while offering as much as we can.
"Like Friday nights, we offer half-price bottles of wine in the dining room with dinner. No bottle of wine is excluded," he continued. "And we like to accommodate our guests. If they call in before-hand and want something special that's not on the menu, like duck, we'll do it!"
During the regular season, Coleman also loves doing his cooking classes in the Silos Ballroom. This season's Weber Grilling Classes, which take place on Normandy Farm's attractive terrace and cost $69 per person, include Fourth of July Grilling Class on June 24, Summer Deck Party & Wine Pairings on July 15, Game, Fish & Meats on July 29 and Labor Day Grilling Class on Aug. 5. Coleman, a world-class raconteur who loves to tell stories with his instruction, says, "It's more like dinner and a show. Many first-timers show up because of gift certificates they've received from happy customers at our restaurant. People get a hoot out of them.
"It's still kind of a secret, but it's so much fun. It's very entertaining."
The cooking classes include complimentary beer, wine and hors d'oeuvres plus a four- to six-course dinner. For such an accomplished chef, who studied at the Culinary Institute of America and served as executive chef at great establishments ranging from the Rittenhouse Hotel to the Great Wall Hotel in Beijing, China,
Coleman is unbelievably modest about what he knows.
Since 1996, he has also been hosting a weekly NPR radio show called "A Chef's Table" (also the title of his weekly column in the Philadelphia Daily News).
"I love doing the radio show. I learn so much. It's quite a privilege. It's awesome, really, to be able to interview nationally recognized chefs, authors and food personalities.
"A few weeks ago, for example, my guest was the historian Mark Kolanski, who wrote a book on Gloucester, Massachusetts and oysters. I learned all about the medical background behind certain foods. Amazing how much there is to learn! I love the history." This from a man who's already authored three cookbooks - "The Rittenhouse Cookbook: A Year of Seasonal Heart-Healthy Recipes" (Ten Speed Press, 1997), "Flavors of America" (1998) and "Flavors" (2001), both companions to his PBS television programs. He's now at work on "Healthy Flavors," a companion book to his latest PBS series.
Jim Coleman, the genial Texan who now makes his home in our area, has been the culinary star and the welcome, weathered face of Normandy Farm, whose history was celebrated in the last issue of Ticket. A fifth-anniversary celebration party for the whole Normandy Farm complex is in the offing for sometime this year. Look for information on it. To open the grounds even more to the public, Coleman's Restaurant has begun its second summer series of beer & BBQ events on the terrace, starting with a kick-off BBQ Bash on May 29 and continuing with its second, Hawaiian Luau, on June 26.
For $32.95 (plus a tax and service charge), guests can sample an incredible array of summertime treats, including Grilled Opihi Limpet, Drunken Onaga with ginger, Saki and Fried Maui Onions, Grilled Sesame Chicken & Papaya Salad with hoisin-balsamic vinaigrette, Grilled Tuna with yellow rice, green mango and coconut curry, Grilled Grit Cakes with grilled corn and green chili relish, Kim Chee, Char Soi, Haupia, Poi, plus mango bread, banana bread and Macadamia Fudge Torte, with featured beers from Victory Brewing.
Similar events, all beginning at 6 and ending at 9 p.m., will take place on July 10 (Jimmy Buffet BBQ, featuring Anheuser Busch), July 24 (Backyard BBQ, featuring international beers) and Aug. 14 (True Southern BBQ, with beers from Old Dominion Brewery). Call 215-616-8300 for reservations and more
information.
The restaurant itself, which offers inspired American country-style dining, remains one of the finest in the region, with dinner daily from 5 to 10 p.m. and lunch six days a week, except Sunday, when a lavish brunch rules the roost, and boasts one of the busiest banquet schedules imaginable. Featured lunch items range from "Jail Island" Salmon BLT and Crab Cake Sandwich (both $10.95) to Apple-Wood Smoked Duck Salad ($17.95), with poached pears, toasted pine nuts, crumbled chevre and spring mix in an orange-Frangelico vinaigrette, and Petite Filet ($17.95), served with roasted potatoes and jumbo asparagus over a red wine reduction. The spectacular Sunday Brunch ($25.95 for adults; children 10 and under, $13.95) includes a juice station, seafood station with raw bar and smoked fish), cold salads (including frissee, apple, walnut and blue cheese), hot buffet items (from French toast to Egg Strata with spinach, onions, tomatoes and cheese), omelette station, Eggs Benedict station and dessert station.
Dinner appetizers include Wild Mushroom Napoleon ($11), with double-smoked bacon and sautéed leeks in a Madeira sauce; Lobster Spring Roll ($132) with blackberry, orange and mustard dipping sauces; and Spicy Seared Tuna ($11) with seaweed salad, pickled ginger vinaigrette and wasabi.
Among the specialties of the house are Pan Seared Scallops ($29) with warm corn and asparagus salad and roasted garlic nage; Colorado Rack of Lamb ($38), with rosemary polenta, caramelized onions and dried figs in a lamb reduction; and Pan Roasted Grouper ($27), with spring onion risotto and rock shrimp stew.
Chef Coleman is delighted at the reception his restaurant has received since it opened and with the response to the hotel and banquet facilities as well. "It's nice to know we're open this long," he said.
"There's no question about it. We're here to stay."
*****************************************************************
News Bouche: Summer Chef Dinners
June 18, 2008
By: Adam Erace
Or head out of the city to Blue Bell, where Jim Coleman—yes, that Jim Coleman—is reprising the Normandy Farm Famous Beer and BBQ this summer. First up is a traditional Hawaiian luau scheduled for June 26, with Southern-style and Jimmy Buffet-themed ‘cues following on Thursdays from 6pm to 9pm. Sip on an icy Victory (or six) on the hotel’s scenic terrace and rest easy in the fact that you can stumble right over to the onsite hotel. With the barbeque costing only $32.95 per person, you’ll be able to afford one of the Carriage House Suites.
Also at Normandy Farm, chef Cole hosts Get Your Grill On, a series of cooking classes on the barbie. Sessions include Fourth of July grilling, game meats and fish and include complimentary beer, wine, hors d'oeuvres and a four-course meal. It’ll cost you $69 per person—ahem, belated Father’s Day gift; call 215.616.8300 for reservations.
*****************************************************************
|
|
| |
|
|
