Lunch menu becoming more popular
Published in the July 8-21, 2015 issue of Morgan Hill Life
By Marty Cheek
Lunch-time chef Nicholas Harms melts butter to prepare a savory sauce in the kitchen of 88 Keys Cafe.
Photo by Marty
Cheek
Since it open in 2013, Morgan Hill’s 88 Keys Cafe has grown as a foodie destination, attracting patrons who enjoy time relaxing with friends over a gourmet dinner and fine wines while listening to live jazz or blues music. But owners Mark and Susan Gaetano have a secret with their restaurant. The popular cafe three months ago started opening daily from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. to offer customers a fast and friendly fine-dining lunch experience. The word is starting to spread of the excellence of the mid-day meal menu at 88 Keys.
Nicholas Harms divides his time during the day as the Monday and Tuesday chef for the lunch at 88 Keys while at night he works the kitchen at the five-star San Martin golfing resort CordeValle. People who usually go for lunch in downtown Morgan Hill are learning they can get a tasty noon-time meal by going a mile or so east and crossing over Highway 101 on East Dunne Avenue to 88 Keys, he said.
“For lunch, we just have an awesome atmosphere here and a great staff,” he said. “Where we are located is a little bit out of the way, but as more people come in and experience us, they find that it’s just as good or even better compared with what’s offered in downtown.”
Harms’s career in the restaurant business started 10 years when he moved from Orange County to the Bay Area and studied at the International Culinary Center in Cupertino. He loves creating mouth-watering cuisine for 88 Keys lunch customers.
“It makes me so happy to see someone experience a good meal,” he said. “Just this last weekend, someone told me that they had the best meal in their life — and that is just one of the greatest things to hear as a chef. It’s just the best thing.”
88 Keys Cafe’s Wednesday through Sunday lunch-time chef is Ricardo Cortez who also works dinners at CordeValle’s kitchen. “Our lunch-time food is very good and very familiar for families who want to get together or for friends,” he said describing the menu. “Everything is delicious. A lot of people like our summer salads right now because it’s so hot.”
88 Keys offers a variety of lunch options. Among them is a crispy calamari ($11) served on arugula with a lemon basil vinaigrette. Salads include a delicious smoked trout salad ($10) that’s served with pickled shallots, fresh cherry tomatoes, Fresno peppers, toasted shaved almonds with a lemon basil vinaigrette. The simply scrumptious golden roasted beet salad ($10) comes with pistachios, spiced goat cheese, apples and shallots.
The lunch menu offers special plate items including butternut squash ravioli ($12), tortellini ($14) served with pancetta and garlic in a light tomato sauce, and deep fried fish and chips ($12) served with cole slaw and the 88 Keys house fries.
“Our pasta is excellent,” Cortez said. “We build the ravioli dish by getting butternut squash and pureeing it with a little bit of honey, shallots and spices. Then we get melted butter, sage, garlic and shallots, and place it over the ravioli with some Parmesan cheese. It’s delicious.”
The restaurant’s burger and sandwich options provide a range of meals for every taste.
“Our most popular items are the crab and shrimp melt ($12) and the 88 bird sandwich ($11),” Harms said. “We have fresh crab and shrimp that come in almost every day. And the 88 bird is a tender chicken sandwich accented with our pesto mayonnaise. We put fresh tomatoes and avocado on it.”
Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays the menu expands to offer a brunch-like sampling that includes crispy chicken breast served on house waffles ($14), the Benedict 88 ($12) which is a classic American poached eggs dish served with Florentine sauce, and the cream cheese scramble ($10) which is a flavorful concoction of eggs, cream cheese, chile, and bacon.
The secret to making a lunch meal a memorable experience is to get creative with the ingredients, Harms said.
“It’s thinking out of the box, what you can combine interesting flavors with to make them pair,” he said. “That brings people in to experience something new. I consider this a fine lunch-time dining experience. I do my best to keep it fine dining style as much as possible because that’s what I know.”
