Local chefs are rolling up their sleeves and rolling out their seasonal menus filled with some hot dishes to keep us warm. Several restaurants recently unveiled their new menus, tantalizing us with dishes filled with a variety of beets, meats, and starches. Presuming you’ll be gorging on leftovers next weekend, this weekend is the one to sample these new entrees.
Poogan’s Porch released their new menu last week. Chef Daniel Doyle and crew are putting a big emphasis on local this season, even incorporating local beer into a few recipes. Poogan’s is offering a pan-seared duck breast, served with Palmetto Lager braised Brussels sprouts, wild mushroom grit cake, and a blackberry jus. “The lager adds a bit of a bite to the sprouts and gives them a nice hearty taste,” Doyle says. A white ale jus makes its way into the restaurant’s crispy skinned red snapper, served with pear and sweet potato gratin and pickled beet slaw. Doyle also recommends the pan-seared grouper, served with pulled pork and goat cheese ravioli, tomato ham hock broth, and charred cream corn. “I liked how Asian dumplings incorporated pork, and decided ‘Why not do that with ravioli?'” Doyle says.
For those craving seafood, Granville’s is offering a fried organic catfish with blue cheese coleslaw, and then there’s Littleneck clams with a jalapeño fettuccine and bacon. The restaurant is also serving up a braised pork belly with Anson Mills grits and apple butter from regionally grown fiji apples. For those wanting to warm up, be sure to check out Granville’s spiced butternut squash soup, which includes creme fraiche and wildflower honey to counter the kick of those spices.
Graze is offering an original take on a Southern classic with pan-fried chicken livers, served with stone-ground grits, caramelized onion demi, and crispy speck. The livers are sauteed then hit with an apple brandy. The demi and caramelized onions are then tossed in the mixture and served over the grits. The restaurant serves a crab and artichoke stuffed lemon sole over arugula pesto, whipped risotto, Tabasco ver blanc, and crispy parsnips. “There wasn’t really any inspiration behind the dish,” Chef Derek Lathan says, “I just wanted to make something that would taste delicious.”
Chef Sean Park at O-Ku is offering some unique dishes on their fall menu. The Kobe Maru is an appetizer with mashed Japanese sweet potato, kabocha, and creme fraiche topped with a piece of kobe beef. The sweet Japanese acorn squash kabocha has also been made into a warming kabocha bisque. He also has a soft taco with fish and persimmon salsa that Chef Park says makes for a “very refreshing appetizer.”
Wild Olive’s new menu was unveiled last week. Chef Jaques Larson is getting local eggs delivered to the restaurant, which he’s used to create one of his favorite new dishes, a sunny-side up Sea Island egg with local arugula, pancetta, potato, parmesan, and local pole bean salad. “We try to do a Milanese dish every season; this one turned out really well,” Larson says. For the vegetarians, the restaurant is offering a local beet salad with Anson Mills farro, local arugula, scallion, pistachio, Split Creek’s Farm chevre, and olio verde. For the meat-lovers, the spot is running a venison special this weekend. The meat is served with cherry stuffed gnocci and greens, making for a dish that’s bitter yet spicy.
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