Six months ago on a rare day off, I ventured to Bleu, the restaurant in the Westin Hotel across from FedExForum. I’d heard good things about their Build Your Own Sandwich menu at lunch, and wanted to give it a try. I built a sirloin steak sandwich on a Kaiser roll and was quite impressed.
Now Bleu has taken the build-your-own concept in a different direction: They’ve added a Build Your Own Pasta menu to their lunch menu. Here’s how it works:
For step 1, you choose your protein. Choices include grilled chicken, shrimp, sirloin, clams, grilled sausage, meatballs, mussels, or ground beef. The overall price of the dish varies, depending on which protein you select. Prices range from $8.99 to $10.99.
In step 2, you choose your sauce. Sauces include marinara, alfredo, pink vodka cream, alio, or spicy Southwest cream.
You add your vegetables in step 3. Choices are roasted red pepper, mushrooms, caramelized onions, broccoli, tomatoes, spinach, edamame, olives, and eggplant. You can pick up to three.
Choose your pasta for step 4. You can choose spaghetti, cavatappi, penne, orecchiette, or pappardelle. (I’m including Wikipedia links in case some of those pasta types are unfamiliar. I assume spaghetti needs no explanation.)
You have the option of an add-on ($3.99) for step 5. Add-ons include shrimp, mussels, meatballs, ground beef, grilled chicken, clams, grilled sausage, or sirloin.
Drinking alcohol in one’s lunch hour is usually not advisable, but I’d be awfully tempted to ask my server to recommend a glass of wine to go with my pasta masterpiece.
Since I work in Horn Lake, I haven’t had a chance to try the build-your-own-pasta menu yet. However, if it’s as good as Bleu’s BYO Sandwich menu, there is no doubt it will be a big hit.