I also had a chance to sit down with this talented young chef to ask a few questions.
Can you tell me about some of the changes made to the restaurant and bar? In Bar 1936, we replaced the lounge chairs with new high tops and we have these really cool toasting rails. The name comes from the hotel opening its doors in 1936. In the dining room, all the light fixtures are new, we replaced the chairs, have sliding barn doors for the PDRs [private dining rooms], and expanded the patios. Our back patio can fit about 100 people and we had that many last night for a private event. Our PDRs seat 20 with dividers or it can be opened to seat 50 to 60 people. We also have two gardens and I'm working with the gardener to get scheduled plantings.
Any items that have surprised you with how popular they are? Yes, the sweet corn, which is my version of creamed corn with a Mexican street corn play into it that we finish with a little miso churned butter. It will be off the menu in a couple of weeks, though, with the changing seasonality. I’ll be replacing it with Ramona Farms grits with Crow’s Dairy goat cheese, finish it with the miso butter, and then I made a syrup with huitlacoche that will go on top of the grits.
How often do you change the menu? Four times a year. We’ll make a small change and then we’ll do another change two weeks later, so half the appetizers and the entrées at first, and then the other half. It's easier to do it in two parts than an entire menu transition at one time. I have my staff involved in it too. It’s my turn to give them an opportunity. I have two great sous chefs and a lot of great, talented cooks that are hungry and want to learn. For the last two weeks, I've had meetings where we'll come in an hour early and sit down with The Flavor Bible. I'll tell them my ideas that I want to run with and then I'll say 'now the ball's in your court. I’ve talked to you about my vision, now tell me your ideas,whether it's a dish, five dishes, a vegetable you've found or a cool product.' Even if it doesn't make it on the menu, I'll have them develop a recipe card and run it as a special. There was always somebody there to help me and teach me, and I try to do the same for my staff.
Any future plans? I’m working on trying to get an outdoor kitchen built on the back patio. I would do cooking classes, cooking demos, and private events out there. Another cool thing we're talking about is on a Saturday taking a group of hotel guests to the local farmers market. We’ll go shopping and come back to the hotel to cook lunch. I’m looking forward to doing something like that. It will be awesome.
