Prior to the invention of recipes, cooks passed on their culinary wisdom by word-of-mouth and smoke signals from charcoal grills. Discover dishes that survived the test of time with today's Groupon: for $20, you get $40 worth of Mediterranean cuisine and drinks at Adriatic Cafe Restaurant.
Adriatic Cafe's chefs summon ingredients from land, sea, and spice rack to form a menu of Italian- and Greek-influenced dishes. Diners appease the urge to eat Russian matryoshka dolls by devouring the nested flavors of the adriatic chicken ($12.90), a chicken tenderloin stuffed with smoked meats and wrapped in a layer of bacon. A simmering sauce of garlic, butter, and white wine coats scampi-style shrimp atop a bed of rice ($12), and a savory gravy graces both the braced lamb shank and its mountainous side of mashed potatoes ($17.50). Sweet crêpes ($5) envelop myriad saccharine ingredients including fruit, Nutella, Eurocream, and Valentine's Day cards.
Pale-blue runners stand out next to white table linens and napkins folded like crowns to wipe away crumbs or declare guests King of Dinner. A ring of tall chairs borders a bar made of dark, polished wood to display three tiers of bottled spirits. A stone-walled patio entrances guests during warmer months with a verdant collection of plants and the incidental music of a trickling fountain.
Groupon Says
The Groupon Guide to: Advertising Soup
In this economy, soup isn’t going to sell itself. Only the perfect commercial is going to get those cans flying off the shelves. But what are the elements of a good soup ad?
The setting can make someone immediately yearn for a bowl of the hot stuff. Good settings include:
• A wealthy person’s farmhouse glowing warmly in a snowy wooded area (farmhouse should show no signs of actual farming)
• A small but cozy shack standing on a craggy cliff over a violent sea
• A bread factory
The main character is the viewer’s connection to the soup. It should be:
• A loving yet endearingly inept dad. He is in decent shape, not too handsome, and wearing a sweater and/or tucked-in collared shirt.
• A Victorian sailor’s wife. She is pale and beautiful, yet jagged. It has been a hard life.
• A bunch of working-class bread-factory guys who are hungry but tired of all this dry bread.
The story of the ad then whips the potential customers into a soup-eating frenzy by depicting:
• The dad’s son playing in the snow. The dad wants his son to love him but he cannot prepare a meal on his own. He makes the son soup, and the two bond over a game of checkers in front of a fireplace. Mom does not interfere.
• The wife gazes longingly at the sea during a windy, daytime rainstorm. She misses her husband’s warm, hearty arms but finds solace in a thick chowder that possesses those same qualities. Just as she finishes her bowl the husband kicks down the door. He has returned from his voyage and he has brought her many exotic hats.
• The bread-factory guys make some soup and have a crazy party wherein they dip the dry crusty breads into the steaming bowls with much joviality and merrymaking. What a day they’ve had.
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