Frites, as literature

We check our yelp page like we check our email (compulsively and many times a day). Unlike our emails, we are usually ridden with anxiety and anticipation as those yelp reviews load (refresh browser...gulp...heart palpitations). So far, we've been blown away by the positive response from yelpers. Many of them have taken the time to write very thorough, thoughtful, and sometimes hilarious, reviews. One review in particular sent us all in a tizzy that we ended up doubled over in laughter behind the counter at Saus.

This review is from Dan(resembles Lenny Kravitz...he and his girlfriend, Heather, frequent Saus and are local yelpers). Is it too much to ask that everyone experience our food like this?
...

Dear Golden-brown Goddess,

Whilst wondering down the uneven cobblestones of Union st., enveloped by the cacophony that is the night life of Fanuiel Hall and yet feeling so alone, I passed you. In that fleeting moment my whole world changed. Just past Union Oyster, the oldest restaurant in Boston, and nestled between the many bars, I spied you through your window, the fluorescent light bouncing off your golden-brown skin like electrons off of a thin gold foil. You sat there there, seductively teasing me with your delicate form, your subtly yet purposefully curved form beckoning me to come to you as if you knew I couldn't stop staring. "No, I cannot--I will not succumb to such temptation. I have broccoli and carrot slices in my bag which are more than enough for me," I told myself, but we both knew that was not the case as my hand creeped towards the door knob. I craved your exotic (Belgian) taste. The tension was palpable as I entered your palace, and despite the lump in my throat and quivering hands I was compelled to press on. On my approach I was stopped by one of your many chaperons, your artisans; if I wanted to spend time you a tribute would be necessary, but frankly no price is too high to taste your deliciously soft treasures (not that it mattered of course, since you come in a variety of sizes for any budget; $4sm-$7lg). I made my choice, I wanted as much of you as I could handle, but to my surprise I was not yet done; another task awaited me. You minx! You knew all along that you came with friends, but observing my coy nature you decided to let me find that out myself. I was suddenly inundated with choices of condiments--almost all of them (homemade) mayo-based. What did I yearn for? How did I want to take you? With the subtly heat of a Chipotle sauce perhaps? The sweet yet spicy burn of the Green Monster? The complexity and richness of the asian Samurai Sauce? I wanted them all. I was determined to have you every which way.

Once I completed the transaction with your caretakers I was privy to watch you begin your preparation for our late night meeting as you delicately slipped into your hot bath. Embarrassed at my own voyeurism I tried to occupy myself with other tasks, like pouring the home-made ketchup into tiny paper cups, but your gently sizzle and scent in addition to my immense anticipation for the inevitable threw me into such a fit of ecstasy I dumped ketchup all over myself. It was then that you probably realized this was my first time, but you didn't laugh, you rather climbed out of your bath and continued your preparation, cooling yourself briefly and getting tossed with a little salt. Then you came to me--on a platter no doubt. Keep in mind I wanted to ravish you right there on the spot, oh deep-fried muse of mine, but I resisted. I quickly tucked you under my arm and took you away to somewhere more private, where our experience could be free from any prying eyes of onlookers, and frankly because I told my girlfriend I was picking you up.

Yes, she was about to join us, but you and I both knew that this would still be a very personal experience, and it was. On the elevator I held you close, judgment be damned. Once we were alone I quickly took you from your brown paper carriage and without hesitation began our tryst. I had to have you naked immediately--I needed to know exactly what I was getting into. First bite: delicious. Your soft interior perfectly complemented by your just barely crispy exterior. You came to me in so many forms; long, short, fat, thin, subtly under-done, subtly over-done, sometimes even in Siamese-twin pairs. As I gourged myself on you I realized that I had neglected your friends, the many sauces I had painstakingly selected with the guidance of your guardians. I plunged you head first into the off-white Bost-onion (a caramelized union, sour cream mix) and brought you to my lips.

Frankly my dear Saus, I want to swim in a bathtub of your saus...es.

oh--and they have waffles too.

It's not my first day, It's my 20th...

Twenty days in and we are having so much fun! The line between complete chaos and harmonious organization isn't as thin as it was in the earlier days. People actually come in and ask if we are a chain. Means we must look pretty legit, right?

Our website still says "Coming Soon" but you know...

Anyway, we are already making changes and growing. Presto Pesto is off the menu officially. (This means we need to get our menu chalkboard changed.) We want to replace Pesto with Green Monster, which has become one of our most popular sauces.

We are also toying with the idea of adding an item or two to the menu. Can't say much more there.. don't want to spoil the surprise... But write in if you have any suggestions or requests!

Looking forward to day 21 (and soon celebrating our one month birthday!)

Surekha Says...

The other day Tanya and I were discussing the characteristics of our waffle sauces with Surekha, the 4square Mayor of Saus, who happens to be a food writer, and she (on the fly) came up with the following descriptions that we obviously had to share...

Lemon sauce: "Lemon Luf" - If I were cat with a favorite sunny napping spot and one day just *happened* to find a basket of still warm, freshly laundered clothing in that spot, and somehow, obviously accidentally, crawled into this basket of laundry and rolled around and purred like a maniac, that's basically the same feeling as having some Lemon Luf Saus.

Homemade Nutella - Like a best friend, sweet and comforting, always there for you (chocolate), but not afraid to stand up to you and tell you that you're being crazy in the face (hazelnut).

Berry Berry - Like falling in love, it's sweet and tart, fresh but familiar, a taste you feel like you've known your entire life, but is still somehow new and exciting.

Salted Caramel - Ah, the little black dress. Sultry and classy, yet mysterious and slightly aloof.

She also left us with some of these menu suggestions...

Thoughts on awesome dishes you should most definitely (but not Mos Def-ly) put on the menu.

Heart attack breakfast, eh? - Poutine, deep fried egg, bacon parm sauce on top. Necessary. It's breakfast, right? Egg, potato, bacon, with a deliciously heart stopping amount of gravy and cheese.

Apple pie waffle - Straight up grab an apple and deep fry it. Crush it, smush it, whatevs, and throw some salted caramel on that bad boy. Deep fried apple sauce/pie filling. I'm so all over it.

Karmaberry saus - A balanced blend of salted caramel and berry saus. Just what your crazy new age uncle ordered. Seriously. He's sitting in the corner over there.

Garlic butter tossed frites - For serious. Possibly chili-garlic butter.

Malt vinegar mayo - homemade mayo either made with malt vinegar or blended with it. Yes.

And this is why, we have decided, our customers are the most amazing people in the world.

New Week, New Hours

A week under our belts and I think we are in a better place than Day One. Of course we still have some kinks (the first few waffles of the day get stuck to the waffle iron and break, our Nutella is a temperamental sauce-kept too warm it starts to separate, too cool and it gets goopey, and on and on...)

But we are learning. We haven't run out of waffles since Day Two. (Side note: This past Sunday we had to stop serving waffles to repair our waffle iron. But it only took us about an hour to repair something we learned how to repair on the spot! And we have a temporary solution if that should happen again- we brought in a single waffle iron as back-up).

We wanted to do late night early in the week, but we have learned from people who work at the local bars and from our own observations, that during the winter the government center area simply shuts down after 9pm.

Our new hours are as follows:
Mon-Wed: Noon-10PM
Thursday: Noon-Midnight
Fri & Sat: Noon- 2AM
Sunday: Noon- 8PM

These changes are our temporary spring (read: cold weather) hours. When it starts warming up and Bostonians come out of hibernation, we will extend our hours again.

One last note: these new hours have not been changed on our website yet (just like it still says "Boston's first street food cafe is coming soon!")... we are in the process of updating our website. Alright- back to cutting fries...

Also, happy birthday Chin. Enjoy your bday present (your day off!)

Day One, Lessons Learned

Yesterday was our grand opening! Phew, we are exhausted. But here we are- doing it all over again for Day Two.

We had a blast- that's for sure. Our customers are fantastic! We couldn't believe how excited people were to try our humble frites and waffles.

We are absolutely loving the feedback we are getting- we are learning some valuable lessons. A real-live Canadian came in and we had a long talk about poutine and she gave us some tips- which we implemented right away! It's all about layering we learned. Like lasagna. Keeps the heat in, melts the cheese, and it's all about the messy, cheesy experience.

The most important lesson of the day? How to prepare for the onslaught of people. We ran out of waffles and poutine! So- the most heartfelt apology to patrons who came in wanting waffles or poutine. We felt awful and tried not to send anyone away empty handed. We will try to never let that happen again. We literally had no idea what to expect for Day One. No idea how many people were this excited to try us. And we hate to let anyone down.

At the moment, we are eagerly awaiting our cheese curd order so we can be back up and running with poutine. However, if it's a waffle you crave and you are reading this right now: WE HAVE WAFFLES!!