Opus 39, it's five-course tasting menu
displays the creativity and healthy possibilities of dining out

St. Augustine, Fla. A certain level of predictability has always lain at the heart of most restaurant menus.  After all, what's more gratifying than knowing your favorite dish will be waiting for you at your favorite restaurant upon arrival?
 
Don't expect that kind of assurance from Opus 39 Restaurant & Food Gallery.
 
The St. Augustine restaurant, open approximately three years now, prides itself on a five-course tasting menu that changes daily.  It's garnered a considerable local and tourist-based following for its efforts, which have included such unique compositions as Grilled Kurobuto Pork with Whipped Potatoes, Caramelized Onions and Ancho-Espresso Reduction and Lemon Sabayon Tart with Pinenut Crust, Kiwi Relish, and Roasted Pineapple Sauce (from its March 1, 2006 menu).
 
Opus 39 chef and co-owner Michael McMillan, a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in New York with more than twenty-five years of professional restaurant experience, opted for this ever-changing idea because it provided him the sense of challenge his previous places of employment lacked.
 
We do the five-course tasting menu for our own benefit.  It's a creative outlet that allows me to hire people who cook more for passion than for profession, said McMillan.  We prefer to cook for flavor and passion here.â??
 
The creation of Opus 39's daily menu is an all-day affair.  McMillan arrives early each morning, calls local purveyors of produce, meat and fish, and inquires about the area's freshest produce.  Upon learning that, he places his orders, and he and his staff begin brainstorming.
 
“Our menu is very much a team effort," said McMillan. “We look for ideas from the ingredients we get and bounce ideas off each other. Very few of our recipes are cooked by the book."
 
By 3:30 p.m., McMillan and his team have pretty much figured out what they will be serving that night.  By 4:30 p.m. the final menu gets posted on the Opus39 website, so the public can see what's in store.  Opus 39 is open from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., Tuesday through Thursday and from 5 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.
 
McMillan says one of the advantages to having a tasting menu is that it allows diners to eat healthier -- something they might not expect, considering the restaurant's gourmet offerings and elite wine selections.  (All of the restaurants bottles come from boutique vineyards with which McMillan himself has developed partnerships.)
 
“They are getting what's fresh and available to them that day, and the courses are smaller, even though it's five-courses.  Our protein courses are two-to-three ounces per plate. Though you may have protein in two-to-three of the meals courses, that's still healthier than getting a sixteen-ounce sirloin from a steakhouse.
 
Coincidentally, McMillan points out that his kitchen also creates an alternative vegetarian tasting menu each night as well, just in case his guests are not meat or fish-eaters.
 
“Sometimes it takes some convincing to let them [vegetarians] trust us in the kitchen," said McMillan. “They're used to going to a restaurant and having steamed vegetables with oil on it.  What we offer is above and beyond those vegetarian options.  Whatever we put out is the best we can do."
 
Also worth noting: McMillan believes the tasting-menu concept helps Opus 39 from a business perspective, enabling him to avoid typical restaurant pitfalls like worrying about projected weekly sales figures or turning yesterday's seafood into today's special.
 
“It's probably the easiest menu you can come up with to control costs.  It's not unusual for us to change a menu in the middle of a shift.  There's not a lot of waste involved," said McMillan.
 
Ironically, even with these good intentions, McMillan says it took some time for the public to catch on.  Not everyone liked the idea of walking into his restaurant blindly each night; in fact, he admits that in the restaurant's early days, he saw many people walk out because they didn't like that night's offerings.
 
“But we've found our target market and people are always commenting on how much they like the menu.  We get a lot of people from out of town, who like to come in and have one menu one night and another menu the next.  We enjoy offering a different and unique experience every time," said McMillan.
 
For more information about Opus 39, please visit www.opus39.com