The Week:

PLEASE NOTE:  THE BRANCH IS CLOSED FOR A PRIVATE FUNCTION THIS SATURDAY, AUGUST 23, We apologize for any inconvenience...

If you haven't seen it yet... here is the link to our episode of You Gotta Eat Here!  Our segment starts at 14 minutes... there are some commercials, but the last third of the show is all us…

episode link

South of the border?  Try ‘Hola’ (google it, it works…) So, there you have it!  Watch out for the wild tofu!

Food:

Regular Menu:

Along with our signature items (listed here), our in-house menu includes specials that change weekly or even more often depending on seasonal availability...

Appetizers:

Soups of the Day are always made from scratch using fresh ingredients, cup, $2.99; bowl, $5.99
Green Salad: greens, shredded fresh veggies, seeds, choice of dressing: creamy ‘Branch’ or apple cider vinaigrette, small, $2.99; regular, $5.99, dinner sized $11.99
Caesar Salad: Romaine lettuce, parmesan cheese, bacon, tomato-garlic Caesar dressing, croutons, $7.99
Brisket Sliders: bites of our famous brisket on toasted cornbread with BBQ sauce and slaw, $8.99
Chips & Dips: corn chips, with sour cream, housemade salsa & guacamole, $8.99
Taco Salad (dinner size only): choice of smoked beef brisket, house-roasted chicken, or smoked tofu, with greens, cheese, salsa, sour cream, guacamole, beans, and corn chips; dinner sized only, $16.99

Entrees: all entrees come with cornbread and a choice of soup (Caesar salad, add $.99) or salad...

Texas BBQ Plate: all BBQ Plates come with housemade bbq sauce, potato salad (substitute roasted or mashed potatoes for $1.99), slaw, beans, onions & pickles $22.99; choose one of the following (add a second choice for $3.99):

• Beef Brisket: OUR SPECIALTY! Heaps of tender 100% local hardwood smoked and braised beef from the Wallace Beef Co-op.
• Smoked Tofu & Portobello: with peppers and onions.
• 1/2 Chicken: (or choose either 1 piece white meat or 2 pieces dark) from Lyon's Family Farm
• Spicy Sausage, local beef and pork, made in collaboration with the good folks at the B&H grocery-- house smoked!

Blackened Trout: locally farmed rainbow trout filets seared in cast iron with Cajun spices, served over veggie etouffée and rice with remoulade, $21.99
'Wild Tofu' Enchiladas: corn tortillas stuffed with peppers, smoked portobello mushrooms and tofu, smothered in chile-tomato ranchero sauce and cheese, served with beans, rice, salsa, guacamole and sour cream, $19.99
Steak Special: ask your server...
Branchburger: (does not include choice of soup or salad) 1/3 pound 100% local, naturally raised beef, thick & juicy, on a toasted bun with tomato-garlic mayo, grainy mustard, lettuce, onion, tomato; with roasted potato wedges, more aioli for dipping, and pickles, $13.99 ($10.99, with $.99 toppings Friday and Saturday, 5-7pm only) Add:
• cheese: $2.49
• guacamole: $1.50
• bacon: $1.99
• blue cheese: $2.99
• jalapenos: $.99
• fried egg: $1.99
• sautéed mushrooms or onions: $.99
• gluten-free Kaiser $.99

please note: our famous burgers are fresh ground locally, in a small facility; as such, we are comfortable serving them ‘medium’, a.k.a. ‘a little pink’. If you have another preference, please let us know and we will prepare it to your liking.
*Veggie version available on request, try our house-made vegan and gluten free black bean patty!

Desserts:

Sticky Toffee Cake: with caramel sauce and real whipped cream, $5.99
Nicole's Magic Mousse: super rich chocolate mousse cake with a cookie crust... how the heck is this thing vegan?!  Magic, of course... Nicole Magic. 6.99
Apple-Strawberry Crisp: local apples & strawberries, caramel sauce, real whipped cream $5.99
What’s the scoop? Add a single scoop of ice cream to any of the above (or enjoy it on its own), $1.49
*all our housemade desserts are 100% gluten free!

Wednesday & Thursday:

BBQ Bonanza!!  Come check out our NEW Wednesday and Thursday special! The meal includes a choice of our famous house-smoked beef brisket or a roast 1/2 chicken from Lyon’s Family Farm in Spencerville, mashed potatoes, cornbread, BBQ sauce and slaw… it is available every Wednesday and Thursday, from 5pm to 9:30pm, it is hot and ready when you are, and either plate is only $15.99.  That's right, just freakin' $15.99!

Friday & Saturday:

Burger Bonanza!! Join us this and every Friday and Saturday between 5 and 7pm for a Burg-o-rama! We chargrill a big pile of burgers over real hardwood on the Big Black Smoker, serve them (with all the usual fixings, including roasted potato wedges and housemade pickles, mustard and tomato-garlic aioli...) It's all for just $10.99, with any of our add-ons (cheese, bacon, blue cheese, onions, mushrooms, even a fried egg!) for just 99 cents each! Dine in or take it home, but remember, the special price is only on Fridays and Saturdays between 5 and 7pm… (as always, gluten free and vegetarian versions are also available…).

Wednesday-Saturday:

Family Takeout Dinner, $44.99: Designed to feed a family of four, our takeout dinner now comes with a roasted 1/2 chicken (from Lyon's Family Farm), 3/4 pound of our famous 100% hardwood smoked beef brisket, a side of seasonal veggies, a tub each of black beans, mashed potatoes and coleslaw, our own zippy BBQ sauce and cornbread… The full dinner is hot and ready for pickup between 4 and 6pm, Wednesday through Saturday, if you call before 3pm. Add some Mac n’ Cheese for the kiddos for just $4.99.

Music:
 

Friday 22 - Doug Hendry and LOTS of friends...

Saturday 23 - closed for a private function, we apologize for any inconvenience...

Sunday 24 ~ Rubber Boots Buffet, 2-8pm and Open Mic 3-6pm. THIS WEEK the open mic is hosted by Chef Bruce... For those who are new to the clan, the Sunday Open Mic/Rubber Boots Buffet is a family friendly, fun, community day that welcomes musicians of all skill levels. We mix up the music schedule a bit with guest hosts like Greg Kelly and the Ukulele Kemptville Experience (UKE), and occasional 'Birthday Tribute' events, where participants are encouraged to play songs by an artist whose birthday is on or near the Sunday in question; While all that happens, the Rubber Boots Buffet is being served... it is an all day, all you can eat comfort food extravaganza (other menus such as pub grub, kids and a dessert menu are also available) and the whole day is a place where you can meet your neighbours, come in for a beer or a pot of tea, stay for a bowl of homemade soup and a song or two and leave with, well, a whole new batch of friends. Everyone is welcome—and yes, that means you! We’d love to see you this Sunday…

That’s all for now, thanks for reading!

Bruce & Nicole

Sustainability Fair

For those of you that have been with us all along, it will come as no surprise that we are not only involved with the Sustainability Fair, we are on the organizing committee, that means giving up a bit of our rare and precious free time every week to make sure this important event is a big success… For the rest of you, since this is Earth Day, I hope you don’t mind if we take a moment to share with you a bit of heart and soul… The Branch, from day zero, has been committed to the philosophy of sustainable living, we used to say environmentalism, but ‘environmentalism’ alone, without a philosophy of community and cultural resilience is only survival, not building a future.  So now we say Sustainable Living.  In case you were wondering. What does that mean to us?  It means that we always choose local foods, services and products, whenever possible to reduce our carbon footprint; we use organic foods for most of our pantry staples and almost everything we buy from abroad; we use biodegradable cleaners, compostable and/or recycled and/or recyclable containers and paper goods every time; we buy only small farm meat products, raised humanely and naturally, usually from someone we know… We seek out new ways to save energy, water and we do other things like minimize packaging, composting, making things from scratch to insure that it is clean and free of environmental toxins… But Why?  That’s a whole other question…  Nicole and I met at an organic restaurant in San Francisco, both of us far away from our homes.  It may seem strange that an Ottawa girl and a Texan would have much in common, but as we got to know each other, we realized that we did… We were both that weird kid in both of our families that insisted on reusing Christmas packaging, on teaching our parents to recycle, on finding better, healthier and cleaner food for ourselves and for the people we cared about… We both felt sad that a planet (and many of its inhabitants, come to think of it,) which we both felt such a strong affinity for was in such a sorry state with pollution, abuse, ill health and neglect… And perhaps MOST importantly, to our very cores, we both believed (and still believe) that with a little work and a little faith, that people could, that WE could fix that.  It is that belief and that optimistic set of core values that has sustained us (as the Branch) through 7 years of hard work, ups and downs, trials and tribulations, successes and failures (good and bad, sickness and health…)

So I guess that what I’m saying is this: we love cooking, serving, being a part of this wonderful community, being a part of the culture through supporting music and the arts… But those things are all just WHAT we do.  Come out this Sunday to the Sustainability Fair if you’d like to find out more about WHY.