New Season, New Menu: City Grocery Edition

With the changing of the seasons comes the changing of the menus for many of the restaurants around Oxford.

The use of seasonal and fresh ingredients leads to a revamp of menus all over town, and we want to keep Oxonians informed. For the next few weeks, HottyToddy.com will feature menus from restaurants all over town and aim to find out what’s new, what’s the best new addition and more from each restaurant! If you would like to have your new menu featured, click the link at the bottom of the story to send us an email.

City Grocery
We begin with one of Oxford’s most well-known establishments, and along with their new menu comes a new way for customers to pinpoint where their catch of the day comes from. Partnering with the Gulf Wild company, City Grocery uses their by-catch program to bring in 1-2 pound fish each day and use them on their dinner menu. Manager Meghan Scott-Anderson further explained what a by-catch is and how it benefits not only the restaurant, but the environment as well.
“If a fisherman is sent to specifically look for grouper and they happen to catch snapper, it’s still a high-quality fish, but it may be too small to get several orders of filet out if it. But instead of wasting it, we are able to use it here and take advantage of all of the products that come from the sea,” Scott-Anderson said.
Each and every fish comes with its own individual tracking number, and the customer can find all kinds of information on the fish that they are eating. The tracking number I received was 5061336, and if you go to gulfwild.com and enter the tracking number, you pinpoint the location that the fish was caught, what bait was used, which boat was used and even background information on the captain.

Chef Ralph Taylor is challenged with the task of designing each seasonal menu for the restaurant: a process he begins a long time in advance. Of reference, he began working on the next menu as soon as the spring menu was announced. The spring menu is highlighted with not only a Kayne West quote at the bottom but also a new selection of dishes that are sure to be to the liking of any true Mississippian. Taylor’s roots from the coast and travels as a chef have influenced some of the choices he’s made for the menu. His personal favorite is the braised lamb heart appetizer.
Along with the lamb, Taylor enjoys the simplicity of the whole fish, which is brined in white wine and other aromatic ingredients. The fish is then served whole with Mississippi brown rice grit salad, chimichurri sautéed spinach and a creamy lemon vinaigrette.
“I like to keep things simple and not have a whole lot of fussy stuff on the plate, and our whole fish is very simple,” Taylor said. “When there’s not a whole lot on the plate, everything has to be executed perfectly or else it doesn’t work, and that’s what we shoot for.”
A gallery of some of the newest items featured on the menu can be seen below:

The lunch, dinner and brunch menus have all been revamped for the spring, and all of them can be seen below:
Lunch:


Dinner:


Brunch: 


Dessert: 

Steven Gagliano is a writer for HottyToddy.com. He can be reached at steven.gagliano@hottytoddy.com. 
Let us know about your menu changes by emailing hottytoddynews@gmail.com. 
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