Monday, August 20, 2012

Samantha Stephens, she's oat-standing

Okay, so last month I discovered that Yahoo's new CEO was part of the cupcake cult along with me.  Now I read that there's a woman in New York who is one of the secret Order of the Oats, another food obsession of which I am a card-carrying member.

Samantha Stephens is the owner of a place called OatMeals.  It's basically a house of oats.  You get a bowl of oatmeal and a buffet of toppings to choose from, like a froyo shop.  And we all know how much I love those.  What really puts it over the edge for me is that along with the traditional sweet oatmeal concoctions, Stephens also has toppings for those who have discovered the wonder that is savory oatmeal.  Health and budget brought oatmeal to Stephens initially, but like the rest of the Order, it's oatmeal's potential to be transformed into an endless variety of combinations.  Although the whole health angle gets a little skewed by the possibility of adding in bacon.  But hey, bacon is good for the soul.

All I know about Stephens is what I read in Serious Eats and on the restaurant's website, but it's enough to make me like her.  She left J.P. Morgan to open this shrine to oats, adorned with various oat-y memorabilia, and offers toppings like figs and gorgonzola based on the rationale that 'You see salads topped with [it], so why not oatmeal?'  She even offers baked goods made from oatmeal and oat flour.  Oatmeal cookie dough truffles?  This is the exact toll price to cross the bridge of lifetime friendship with me.

I'm still vaguely planning to get myself up to New York eventually, and this place is now on my list of things I must do.  And if Stephens just so happens to be there when I visit, we might just become BFFs.  We can reenact the bowl-sipping scene in 'Beauty and the Beast' and make a serious dent in that 50-pound sack of oats.

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