Okay Onions, someone just sent me this asking me if I had heard of it . . . . not only have I not heard of these places, I have no idea what it is . . . . I know, I know - this is my neck of the woods so I should, but I’ve never heard of it. It is located in what I believe to be a generic office building. From the website I can’t understand what the heck it is or what to expect from it . . . it also serves pizza - which of course you can’t sous vide . . . serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner according the online menu - but it is located in an office park, so is it targeting the work crowd? I just am so confused. . . .
Has anyone else heard about this? Know anything about it?
Oh my. It looks like the “Sousviderie” is one of the Craft Food Hall Project’s brands. It appears to me like an entrepreneurial effort that is is expanding after starting in a Lowell, MA office campus.
That first Craft Food Hall, which I have driven by, is inside the Crosspoint buildings, formerly known as the Wang towers. I assumed they were there to serve as an on-site dining option for office workers.
From what I can gather from the website, Craft Food Hall has now opened at CityPoint in Waltham with another Waltham and a Lexington location on the way.
Maybe the sous vide idea is another way to offer speedy meal service for folks on lunch breaks? Dunno.
ETA: The sous vide concept puts me in mind of a news item showing that the popular fast-casual chain Panera recently fired an employee who posted a video showing that the chain’s macaroni and cheese is frozen, bagged and reheated at their locations. I have to think this kind of prep helps a chain to maintain consistency, speed and price point. Something that might not occur to me because I’m not in the business.
I dove into the website a bit. The owners formerly operated Crazy Dough’s over by Berklee which was fine in a pinch before Sox games.
The Waltham space sounds rather appealing - sounds like the owners are striving for a casual place to hang out a la Mighty Squirrel where kids have some space to get out some energy while parents can chill with food and an adult beverage. My interest is piqued honestly. Maybe we will take a jaunt to Waltham this weekend now that spring onion has recovered from a bout of pneumonia. I will report back if we do.
Do you remember when the Blendtec blender came out, and there were all those commercials and memes about “Will it blend?” It started out with foods, and then moved to phones and other non-food items. I have a similar tag line involved to drum up marketing support “Can it be sous-vide’d?”
To keep this on track, the location is a bit too far for me to visit while I’m car-less. Still not sure I get what interactive sous-vide experience is – is this like Fire & Ice, but without the constant grill smell you come out with? I guess I’ll wait for more information about the food before deciding if it’s worth a trip.
Placing food in low temperature water bath, isn’t very different from using microwave to reheat prepared food. Maybe if this method is used correctly, canteens will have better food, but the waste of plastic.
Agreed - they are both “reheating/cooking” methods but they are different.
I’d actually rather have something sous vide than nuked . . . . . I’m just confused by the tag of “interactive sous vide” - do you buy stuff out of a vending machine and drop it in a communal hot water bath? Are they reheating it for you? What is making this “interactive”? And some things take a while to cook sous vide . . . I’m not waiting an hour for my meal . . . and some things need to be seared off after cooking sous vide . . . all types of questions.
I’m not upset about the concept, just completely confused by what to expect.
I know the end results are very different. But I’m referring to the fact that once the package is sealed by the in a preparation kitchen, they can then be shipped everywhere with the procedures and time instructions to staff to cook. It’s more or less mechanical. It’s considered special because the setup is expensive now, and it’s not very common. But with a breakthrough in technology and drop in price, it will be getting more and more common.
The setup today is not special nor is it expensive. Look at the Anova sous-vide heater for home use, about $100 and it keeps a very exact temperature. Sous-vide is not using for reheating but for cooking food to an very exact temperature.
