I hope all of you had a great Thanksgiving with friends and family. I am sure most of you will be ready for a great cocktail after the whole Black Friday rush at the stores. In honor of the Small Business, like VOLT, American Express is offering a pretty great deal. The first ever “Small Business Saturday”, will be celebrated this Saturday November 27th. I am not one to normally put out shameless plugs to have guests in the restaurant, but I too clicked through the internet looking for that Black friday deal, so I thought I would share this one. If you register your American Express card with SmallBusinessSaturday.comthen you are eligible to receive $25.00 off your statement of you spend $25.00 or more at one of our local Small Businesses. My thought, $25.00 in post Black Friday Holiday shopping cocktails for free. I did not see any Black Friday Deals offering free drinks, did you? Of course this applies to any check at VOLT including those who have reservations for Table21. See you at VOLT on Saturday!

This deal brought to you by Bryan! oh and I guess AMEX

I too would like to take the time to thank all of our continued supporters throughout our first two years. There have been many great relationships developed over that time that means a lot to all of us at VOLT. As well personally I would like to thank my entire team for tirelessly working towards making VOLT a dining destination. I am grateful for all who have been here since it’s inception and those who just joined us. I would like to thank my partners for helping me realize my dream to open an establishment that I can be proud to hang my apron, it’s every driven chef’s dream, but not all accomplish it, so Thank You! for your support.
Also last and certainly not least my beautiful wife and son for putting up with the time away from home to help me realize my goals and aspirations, it’s a sacrifice I am very grateful for.
I, on the other hand would like to have a party, feel free to stop in, I would like to thank you personally for all you have done to help make VOLT a success!

Cheers,

Bryan Voltaggio

Frederick has a very lively weekend vibe with tourists enjoying the sites and shops of Market Street and the immediate area. Thus there is great opportunity for a brunch options that can represent Frederick’s dining potential. When I first acknowledged this demand, I was somewhat skeptical: Would we have enough time and staff to meet the need? How could we take traditional brunch fare and make it our own?

But as with many things in our first month of operation, we dove into brunch head-on this Sunday, and I’m pleased with our results. There were certainly some bumps that we will need to smooth out in the upcoming weeks - recipes will change and dishes will continue to come together. I particularly want to continue to understand how far can we go to take a very traditional service and create very unique dining experience. But our guests were satisfied and several vowed to make VOLT their regular Sunday brunch destination. I think this has great potential to be a creative outlet, especially in pastry. Our brunch bread service features a selection of muffins, scones, and brioche, the variety of which will keep our staff on their toes in the weeks to come.

Supporting local purveyors is one of the cornerstones of menu development at VOLT. We are fortunate enough to have a wide selection of suppliers from which to choose as well as a thriving weekly market. One dish that showcases this philosophy is our Monocacy Gold Cheesecake with Macerated Plums and lemon verbena sorbet featured on our seven course tasting menu. Both Cherry Glen Farm, owned by Diane Kirsch & Wayne Cullen in Boyds, Maryland, and Catoctin Mt. Orchard in Thurmont provide the local ingredients. From Cherry Glen we get an outstanding mild chevre with which we make our cheesecake, and from Catoctin Mt. Orchard, we receive fresh Methley Plums at the peak of their growing season. The two products come together to delicious effect on the plate and provide a snapshot of the wealth of local agriculture available to us.

www.catoctinmtorchard.com

Nancy Luse FNP’s Assistant Managing Editor and columnist for the Wednesday Food Section

We had a recent visit in the VOLT kitchen from The Frederick New Posts Managing Editior and Columnist for the Wednesday Food Section. During her visits Nancy, who is no stranger to the kitchen of course, helped prepare for dinner service. This is a snap shot of her hard work on one of the canapes for the evening. She prepared a spherical ravioli of pineapple with cilantro and vanilla sea salt.

Nancy, thank you again for bailing us out!!! and I look forward to having you back soon.

Taking lessons and posing for a picture

Pineapple spheres

Finished product

One of the tennants of the cuisine at VOLT is to use as much of the product - animal, vegetable, etc - as possible. So, when we received a baby pig thanks to, Sylvia at Four Story Hills Farm, I couldn’t wait to put that into effect. The most exciting by-product of our boon was a chicharrones canape which we served as a part of our seven course tasting. Chicharrones are otherwise known as crackling or pork rinds. We made ours by blanching and dehydrating the pig skin and then deep frying it at a very high heat. When its fried, the skin curls around into a tight coil, which we then pull from each end to get a longer, thin spiral. We then wind a delicate web of cotton candy around the spiral and finish it off with a dusting of curry salt. The combination is a celebration of the marriage between sweet and savory; the bacony pig skin crunches beneath the sugary cotton candy and the curry salt perks up both while engaging the palate.

Cheers!

Here is a look into our Sunday morning preparation. This is our third day of service and this is why updates have been very few and far between. We will begin posting images of dishes and more information about the VOLT kitchen.

Cheers!

We have witnessed many changes of the Houck Mansion as we bring VOLT to fruition. The carpet will be installed in the main dining room on the fourth, the chef’s dining room will get its final coat of paint, and the tile floors will get the final touch of grout. The transformation has been exciting and when we get through the weekend we should have one completed dining room. So sorry to say for all of the passer-by’s it is time to seal the windows for the last couple of weeks so we can bring the finishes to life and set the dining room for service. We want the opening of VOLT’s dining rooms to be surprise for all of our guests, one of the exciting parts of playing host is to see the initial reaction of our guests when they walk through our door. We are very close to opening and cannot wait to hear the call of the first order into the kitchen.

The face has been applied to the bar and the steel that will hold the glass top is in place. Our contractors have also have begun installing the back bar equipment. Today starts the priming for all rooms in the space. Painting had begun! By early next week we will be able to post a few shots to give a preview of the finished rooms. Our kitchen install has been delayed a bit with some needed adjustments to our plating table. We should have our kitchen in working order by the end of next week.

When not acting as general contractor during VOLT’s final construction weeks, Chef Bryan Voltaggio takes some time to be with friends and family and to enjoy the wonderful summer weather. This is one of two pigs being brined on ice with rosemary, orange halves, and garlic cloves to be smoked along with 25 chickens for 100 guests at a friend’s “A Good Ole Cosi Pig Pick’n” party this weekend.