Underrated not overstated: the making of a young chef
T-Byrd's/District Elleven/bird tree cafe Chef Dustin Archuleta deserves the spotlight; a data science-driven “best restaurants” list; we relish brunch at Jax + more food & drink news & events
“Chef Dustin is a visionary in the culinary industry. His talent in my personal opinion exceeds our city.”
That’s Ashley Brown, Chef de Cuisine at Four by Brother Luck, speaking about Dustin Archuleta. He’s Executive Chef of Choice Restaurant Concepts, overseeing food service for the adjoining T-Byrd’s Tacos & Tequila (the flagship brand), District Elleven (the sophisticated whiskey bar) and bird tree cafe (the cute coffee cafe). Choice is a Side Dish Dozen member, as you by-now know. And this is partly their story, but it’s mostly the story of their chef, who’s seen the businesses through recent challenges and put them on their paths of excellence. It offers a broader picture of chef life and passion.
Brown, a recent Chopped competitor trusted to represent the name of a Top Chef, to say something of her own acumen, goes on to call Archuleta “underrated,” saying “his dishes are absolutely stunning, well thought out, and elevated.”
The two chefs’ kitchens are just a block apart on Tejon Street. They met through former Four pastry chef turned front-house hospitality extraordinaire at D-11 Colby Schaffer (who’s now lending his charm to Allusion Speakeasy). “Colby brought him to Four to see my kitchen — chefs love to see other chefs’ kitchens” she says, as a humorous aside. “From then on, whenever my team and I would grab a drink at D-11 after our shift, Dustin and I would connect and often try each other's dishes for feedback. (She would later cater his wedding.) Seeing the way he thinks, executes and delivers is amazing. He’s intentional. I'll never forget a Lamb Roulade he wanted to put on the menu. I tasted it, and oh my god, I told myself, ‘girl, you need to get on his level!’
Choice Restaurant Concepts co-owner Michael Thompson has high praise for Archuleta as well, saying “he gets flavors.” As just one example, Thompson says he works several days a week in Denver and eats widely there, but can’t find a Chicken Tinga to to beat his chef’s at T-Byrd’s: “It’s the best it’s ever been,” he says, noting Archuleta has revisited all the base recipes, making improvements. “He’s come in after nine years and rebuilt our brands after a lull, and made them so much better. We’re seeing them take off again.”
Behind the scenes, Thompson says “Dustin’s got the best attitude of anyone and fosters an amazing kitchen environment. We haven’t had turnover. He’s had people working for him for years now, some who came with him from his last job.” If you’re wondering why you should care about that, think about how it translates to your plate. To simplify it, assume happier employees have cultural buy-in and give a shit about their product. “Even as a line cook, Dustin came up with amazing dishes. We quickly realized he was really good.” So after Archuleta left for experience elsewhere and Thompson heard he’d re-filed an application a few years later for an open sous chef position back at the company, he emphatically told the exec chef: “yes, hire that guy!”
But that’s getting ahead of the story. Let’s review the company’s quick history, dating to T-Byrd’s launch in its original location on Kiowa St. in mid 2016.
Michael, who goes by “Mikey” to friends, and his wife Crystal Byrd Thompson moved to the Springs in early 2012 from Fort Worth, Texas “as part of the green rush — we were entrepreneurs in the cannabis industry,” he says. They were opening co-owners of Emerald Fields (which they sold out of in 2022, though he still co-owns a grow in Denver). Crystal was the area director for Christian Dior cosmetics in Colorado and Utah for over a decade, but now focuses fully on Choice’s trio of eateries and bars. Both of them worked in the industry growing up. “We always wanted to own our own place,” he says. Once Emerald Fields was doing well, the entrepreneurial bug and a “pride in ownership” lured him into pondering what’s next. He was the young buck among the cannabis investors and desired something of his own. Okay, but why tacos?
“Where we come from there’s a taco shop on every corner. We grew up on Fuzzy’s. There wouldn’t be a T-Byrd’s if there wasn’t a Fuzzy’s.” After living in the Springs for a year and noticing tons of Mexican places but no real, devoted taco shops, they took notice of Denver’s hipper spots like Pinche Tacos (since renamed Tacos Tequila Whiskey because the world sometimes shuns fun … I digress). Pinche had turned the old-model, counter-ordering format into stylish sit-down service with fittingly competent cocktails. “We started thinking differently about tacos,” he says. While eating $1 tacos and $2 margs during a Jose Muldoon’s special one night, he says he and Crystal decided “If cannabis works out, we should open a taco shop.”
Okay, but why three more shops then: D-11, bird tree cafe and Mood, all launched at the start of 2020? (They retired Mood at the end of 2023, relocating T-Byrd’s to its space.) “People were resonating with what we were doing,” he says, “and we wanted to capitalize on the traction we gained.” They were living in Boston then, as he’d taken a job with a cannabis grow there. Crystal had left her cosmetics job and wasn’t happy. They talked about returning to the Springs to be closer to family after a couple years away. Before they departed New England, they were thinking about the next concept they’d like to do. They’d been enjoying the tapas scene around them, hence what became Mood. Crystal took it on as her creative project.
They partnered with a couple guys who bought their building (formerly housing Paris Crepe) and due to its connected nature — one kitchen serving all three spaces — they quickly found themselves conceiving multiple brands, not just one. It just made sense. Something about the giant old safe door that connects the front restaurant to the back made Mikey think of a whiskey speakeasy, as did the rear alley access. And why not a high-end cocktail and allocated whiskey program, with member lockers and more? As for a coffee cafe, “Crystal is a coffee head,” says Mikey, and the layout was perfect for it. Once again, she took design lead, imparting a bright, feminine feel to balance D-11’s moody, dim-lit bar. They served breakfast all day and Kolaches as a nod to Texas’ Czech immigrants (which for a stint left the menu but have returned full force). Mikey at least had a hand in naming the Rick and Morty sandwich (with fried mortadella, pimento, cheese, egg and beer onions), a stoner’s delight that’s now a flagship item.
Between the three brands, there’s a lot of leeway for Chef Archuleta to play across casual, mid-tier and finer dining, from breakfast bites to tacos to gourmet entrées and desserts. I met up with him one afternoon recently at T-Byrd’s to taste his revamped tacos and other happy hour and lunch specials. I knew him well enough from many chats in D-11 following whiskey dinners, where I too have been impressed by his prowess, but I didn’t know his whole backstory and how he came to be the “underrated” chef he is today. (Perhaps this article will serve to remedy that.)
The first thing to know about Archuleta, 32, is he’s not a culinary school grad, but a student of life in various kitchens, dating back to cooking with his Portuguese grandmother as a kid. His first job was from ages 14-17 at Taco Bell, where his mom worked in a franchise’s upper management. Next came six months each at Carl’s Junior and Wendy’s, a brief return to Taco Bell, then he followed a friend to Jose Muldoon’s.
“Fast food teaches you a lot, like how to move and how to do things right, quickly, because you have to. You follow rules until they become a habit. I learned basic kitchen etiquette, how to keep a clean station, and pick up slack, like help the dishwasher when it was slow. But Jose’s changed it for me,” he says. “Cooking from scratch, learning technique and timing.”
After a year there he took a two-year industry hiatus, ready for a change. He did odd jobs like painting work and made music as a hobby, but eventually found himself back in a kitchen, at Jorge’s in Old Colorado City. There, he picked up more knife and prep skills and speed, but after another year bounced back out of the industry, this time into roofing for a stint, and then cross-country moving, loading and unloading peoples’ houses. It was during that time he learned he was to be the father of triplets. It forced him to start thinking seriously about a career.
“I didn’t want to be the prototypical chef, but I always had a knack for cooking and blending favors. I was denying it. I started watching a lot of Chef’s Table, and landed an interview at Moxie with Chef Ruthie Poole. I learned further discipline and advanced techniques.” (Moxie was a shorter-lived vegan spot on Eight Street.)
Next came a move to Scottsdale, Arizona to be near his wife’s family for help with the kids. He landed a sous chef position at an upscale casual spot working under an Italian chef named Gian Franco, who grew up in Venezuela but was classically French trained, with experience in high-end sushi. Franco taught him the art of homemade pasta and “made me fall in love with the craft of cooking,” Archuleta says. “I learned so much about giving all the fucks about what we were producing. If you called Grana Padano ‘Parmesan’ he’d all but slap you. Don’t call pasta ‘noodles’ — call it ‘pasta.’ We changed the menu every few months. I thought: ‘Wow this is exactly what I want to do.’ Do things well, make beautiful food, make people happy and respect the craft and ingredients.”
After a year there his family moved back to the Springs and he applied online for a kitchen position at Urban Steam, not ready to take the title of “chef” still. But in short order he began writing the house menus. Though he was given room to experiment, he grew bored with making waffles, so he applied to Mood as a line cook in 2020.
At Mood, he was one of two junior sous chefs, which ultimately led to some internal power struggles after the head chef left and the other sous took over, by the way he tells it. After an uncharacteristic-for-him screaming match one day he decided to return to Urban Steam, just in time for the COVID pandemic to hit. He created family-style to-go dinners, and once dine-in resumed, he was finally given the green light to launch a gastropub-style menu with rotating specials, chef dinners and the creative programming he desired. He says that was growing business, but he fell out with the owner and showed himself the door.
By this time, a new exec chef at Choice was seeking a sous chef, and that’s when Mikey said “yes, hire that guy!” when he learned it was Archuleta. Just a couple months later, the head chef departed for another gig, leaving the top spot vacant. Mikey and Crystal felt confident inviting Archuleta to take it. That put him in charge of Mood, D-11 and bird tree at the time, as T-Byrd’s and its shorter-lived, wings-focused offshoot The Dirty Byrd had its own kitchen manager. He quickly got to work writing menus and revamping things. He later inherited the overhaul of T-Byrd’s once Mood had closed and T-Byrd’s moved in.
What remains today of The Dirty Byrd’s legacy is a monthly-rotating wings dish at T-Byrd’s which Archuleta enjoys tinkering with. For February, it’s a gochujang-forward, faintly sweet Korean BBQ sauce “with a lot of sesame and pear — I’m in love with it,” he says. For March he’s planned a Jamaican-inspired green jerk from one of his dad’s recipes, big with fresh jerk spice, thyme and lime essence. D-11’s current menu also hosts a Szechuan-lavender wing that’s something to be experienced.
In the last few years in his role, Archuleta says he’s learned to be a good operator, not just a chef. He’s refined systems, focused on training his team, costed-out menus effectively, organized a full recipe book to create consistencies and revisited items one-by-one seeking improvements. “My team loves and hates me,” he jokes. “We’ll do the same thing for 6-8 months, and I‘ll suddenly say ‘fuck that recipe, I’m sick of this. Let’s learn something new, add a new technique to something.’ These incremental changes will keep us in a growth mindset and trajectory. I would hate to plateau.”
The effort shows in T-Byrd’s being the best it's been, according to Mikey. Not just the Chicken Tinga, but the carnitas (a new focus on sourness), barbacoa (a swap to Asian clove proving meaningful), and on and on. “Dustin has brought an authenticity to the tacos,” says Mikey, noting they’ve gone toward a Mexico city style and away from the initial Tex-Mex style. (Mikey and I had a good laugh recalling how I didn’t write a very favorable review for the OG T-Byrd’s when I reviewed it for the Indy at the time.)
One particular sensation, if you haven’t yet tried them at happy hour, is the Thai-inspired pork belly bites with a chile-citrus glaze, made with mirin and aji amarillo paste. Another delight is the poignant touch of a traditional mole poblano sauce with hints of anise and chocolate, on the nachos, which blends beautifully with the house queso for a dynamic, layered flavor overall. Even the borracho beans, started from dried (not canned) pintos, cooked with Pacifico or Negra Modelo, are leveled up. As is the house cilantro-lime rice Archuleta formulated, for which he mixes roasted poblano, onion and garlic into paste that he adds to long-grain rice. “We tried to pack too much flavor in before,” he says. “We want it to still be the blank canvas it is in the meal, just good white rice, but give it some top-note fresh qualities and aromatics with lime zest and bay leaf and cilantro.”
He encourages anyone who hasn’t tasted the new flavor of T-Byrd’s to visit and give him a try. “We’re working tirelessly to gain everyone's trust back,” he says. “No matter what we do as a restaurant group, we are going to do it well.”
His next project focus, he says, after he finishes some more back-end work with bird tree cafe — where multi-threat mixologist/barista Allie Johnstone does legit cheffy things too by making her own bitters, bases, oleo saccharum, etc. and creating awesome drink specials — is to work on D-11’s next menus with his sous chef Joelle Stone. He wants to get it on the map as a late-night dining spot and would love to offer a dessert bar soon, working with his pastry and lead prep cook Joel Blantz. Past experiments have included fun touches like matcha ice cream bars with puffed rice shells, and I’ve been served some stellar sweet items at special whiskey dinners.
As we wrap up our chat, Archuleta, having thoughtfully detailed his chef arc, station-by-station and lesson-by-lesson, re-emphasizes how formative his time in Scottsdale was, and how it’s shaped his revival of Choice Restaurant Concepts. “That place literally changed me,” he says. “The ethos it instilled affects everything I’m a part of now. Do things well. Give respect to the ingredients and technique. Pay homage to the craft, or it disservices the whole thing.”
All-Day Happy Hour Sip With Schnip at T-Byrd’s Tacos & Tequila
We’ll be rockin’ 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., Sunday, Feb. 23 — come by when you please.
*Happy hour all day, with $5 chips & queso, $3.95 tacos, $4 nachos, $4 Altos tequila shots, $3-$4 beers and $6 margaritas.
*Free Side Dish Schnip "Sip" in District Elleven for subscribers.
*One-day-only Side Dish "Tepache Latte" at bird tree cafe, created by rockstar mixologist and barista Allie Johnstone.
*Free parking in the adjacent city garage (Sundays always free).
*Schnip plans to be there the whole time; drop by for brunch, lunch, a midday snack or dinner.
Ranch Foods Direct’s Goulash with Edelweiss
Edelweiss joins Side Dish for its February collaboration recipe with Ranch Foods Direct. The legacy German restaurant shares their fantastic recipe for Goulash. It calls for your choice of Callicrate beef. At Edelweiss, they tend to use shoulder, chuck or diced stew meat, and you can add a little pork if desired to add richness. “Goulash is a great dish for making the more affordable beef cuts stand out,” says Owner Dieter Schnakenberg. Ranch Foods Direct’s broth bombs will come in handy, too. Try the dish at Edelweiss on Mondays, when it’s a special, served with spaetzle.
Also, check out Ranch Foods Direct’s heart-shaped ribeye steaks for Valentine’s Day.
A data science-driven “best restaurants” list locally
You might recall the comprehensive Wings in the Springs story that loyal Side Dish subscriber Matt Sayar contributed to this newsletter in November, 2024. (It’s still timely and worth a read, if you haven’t already.) Anyway, I didn’t realize just how much of a data wizard he is, as Product Manager at a cybersecurity company by day. But this week he sent me a link to a personal project he just published on his own website, titled “Where are the best restaurants in my city? A statistical analysis.”
Now, there’s nerding out, and there’s Sayar’s next-level effort, which even has a table of contents and details his own code writing to comb Google Maps for food reviews. It ultimately rank spots with the best ratings. He even builds heatmaps to illustrate high-rated restaurant concentrations in town. Many spots aren’t surprising, he writes, but “there are some hidden gems that I was happy to unearth.” Seven spots in the top 12 I’ve written about or reviewed recently: Arelita Authentic Cuban Food, Crepe Amour CO, ArkCleoRich African Kitchen, Shah Kabob House, Taste of Ethiopia, Momo Korean, Bunzy’s & Booze and Por Favor Tacos & Tragos.
I don’t want to steal his thunder by detailing too much more. I want you to head to his site and read through the project data yourself. I asked him how long he spent on it total, and he said around 20-25 hours over the course of a week. “Gathering the data was honestly the easy part,” he says. “The longest part was writing the post in a fun way. I tried to straddle the line between luring in those with technical chops but keeping it interesting for folks that just want to see the list. Two very different audiences! Hopefully it's a fun read for everybody.”
Bites & Bits
• Shortly after my early January visit to Marigold & Go at the Creekwalk, the company closed the location (on Feb. 1) to “pour more of our love and energy into Marigold Bistro” as a note on their website reads. The same notice said breakfast and lunch service would move to the Bistro with new hours coming soon. Marigold Café & Bakery at Centennial Boulevard remains the brand’s longstanding flagship eatery.
• The iconic, historic Navajo Hogan at 2817 N. Nevada Ave. — listed on the National Register of Historic Places, built in 1935 — was sold last week. Longtime local restaurateur Johnny Nolan, who’s owned it since 2011, confirmed the sale to Side Dish. The spot has been closed for quite some time now, suffering two fires in recent years. I have plans to follow up with Nolan very soon for more details, and aim to connect with the new owners as well. Stay tuned.
• Help fight food waste with the Too Good to Go app — “the world's largest marketplace for surplus food” — where local businesses can post deals to unload surplus product so it’s not thrown out. The app is location based, obviously, so you see special offerings around you when you open it. I’ve keep an eye on it for a few weeks now, and can say it’s not widely in use here, as the same half-dozen spots keep posting on it, places like Garbanzo Mediterranean Grill, Hurts Donut Company and Whole Foods. But perhaps sharing it here and with more friends and businesses will encourage wider use and draw better participation.
• A short coffee pricing update via Ryan Wanner at Golden Pine Coffee Roasters, excerpted from his newsletter: “UGH. That's all I can say. Commodity coffee pricing is at levels never seen before, my raw coffee price has jumped 30+% in the matter of a few weeks, and there's not a lot of optimism that the cycle is going to reverse any time soon. I am actively working with importers to set up forward contracts on the coffees, which will lock the pricing at current levels. If there are other bumps, I'm hoping that they will be minimal, but I will assure you of one thing: I will not go down to 10-ounce bags like quite a few specialty roasters have. I will stay with 12-ounce (16-ounce for espresso).” (… Now there’s shade-grown coffee, and throwing shade … I was trying to turn that into a clever joke but this is as far as I got.)
• My Neighbor Felix just added DIY meal kits to its offering, nearly five years late to the COVID pandemic party. (I kid, I kid… ahem.) A little info on them from a press release: “Created by chef and culinary director Ricardo Villalobos, the kits include detailed instructions paired with quality, Colorado-proud ingredients to craft a signature My Neighborhood Felix dish like carne asada fajitas, pollo mole tablas and flautas without any of the prep. For home chefs needing a little extra guidance, chef Villalobos has demonstration videos on the My Neighborhood Felix website’s online ordering page.” Place orders via their website link above.
• Colorado food producer Dan Hobbs of Pueblo Seed & Food Company in Cortez, Colorado — who was a guest on my State of Plate podcast — has been posting online to share concerns over the (let’s call it unintended) consequences of USAID’s Food for Peace’s shutdown by the White House. He shares this article about how Kansans grain elevators now have no market for sorghum. On his social media post earlier this week, he wrote: “In light of the Feds trashing the U.S. Sorghum market this winter and disrupting national and local farm and food systems, this venerable plant has been on my mind all week. I also naturally got to thinking about the alliances between industrialists (Rockefeller, Vanderbilt...) and the politicians of the late 1800s. Robber Barons: ‘Those practices included unfettered consumption and destruction of natural resources, influencing high levels of government, wage slavery, squashing competition by acquiring their competitors to create monopolies and/or trusts that control the market, and schemes to sell stock at inflated prices to unsuspecting investors. The term combines the sense of criminal (‘robber’) and illegitimate aristocracy (‘baron) in a republic.’ Farmer Alliances all over the country effectively countered the pervasive corruption through education, cooperation and policy. I also got to thinking that Sorghum is a survival food. It came to the Americas with the slave trade. It is an extremely drought tolerant, nutritious grain that can also be used for syrup, molasses and animal feed. Eating sorghum is patriotic and a moral act.”
Side Dish Dozen happenings
The Seared Steer Steakhouse: Visit the Springs’ newest steakhouse and enjoy hand-cut steaks, slow-smoked and seared over live fire. All fried options use beef tallow and all sides, sauces and desserts are made from scratch. Tallow Be Thy Name.
Eleven18: Check out our Cocktail Club Social, Feb. 16. Knife Fight, 8 p.m., Feb. 19. Four by Brother Luck: New winter dishes include lamb stew and duck green chile.
Bristol Brewing Company: Time to plan for Firkin Fest! Grab tickets here (while they last) for sampling one-of-a-kind cask conditioned ales from Colorado breweries.
Goat Patch Brewing: CC Hockey nights in the taproom, 7 p.m., Feb. 14, 6 p.m. Feb. 15. Bleating Heart Night, 5-9 p.m., Feb. 18 benefits the Colorado Springs Conservatory. Trivia, 6:30-8:30 p.m., Feb. 19.
Red Gravy: The next Sunday Supper Club on Feb. 16 features some of Gordon Ramsay’s most popular dishes, including Beef Wellington, and Sticky Toffee Pudding. Four wine-paired courses are $150 inclusive.
Stellina Pizza Cafe: Date Night is back at Stellina. Through Feb. 28 enjoy a four-course, prix-fixe menu for two. $60 per couple; get a full carafe of house-made red Sangria for $35 more.
Kangaroo Coffee: Story Lounge Valentine’s Open Mic at our Hillside Coffee House, 6:30 p.m., Feb. 13. Feb. 14 we’re celebrating our Trinidad Coffee House One Year Anniversary in the Marketplace. Heartfelt surprises at all locations, Feb. 14-16.
Allusion Speakeasy: Ride the Hogwarts Express for dessert with a walnut-studded chocolate fudge frog with butterbeer eggnog, peppermint and a cranberry snowball. Wobbly Olive: Happy hours, 4-6 p.m. weekdays, half-off cocktails from our full menu.
Edelweiss: We’re full for Valentine’s Day but running our V-Day specials through the weekend: four courses for $95/couple. Dessert is a double Belgian chocolate mousse cupid heart with raspberry truffle.
Odyssey Gastropub: New menus are out. Enjoy Korean pork belly bites, miso mussels and our Dover Sole entrée.
Rasta Pasta: Happy hour daily from 3-5 p.m. with $3 Red Stripes, $4 rum punch and $5 munchies.
Ascent Beverage: Proudly distributing regionally made brands like Apple Valley Cider, 1874 Distilling, Jackson Hole Stillworks and Backwards Distilling. Find our products at your favorite bar or fine liquor store.
Upcoming events
Feb. 14: Abuelito Mexican Stout release at Red Leg Brewing as part of special Stout Month releases. Read this quick Q&A with their head brewer that’s all about stouts.
Feb. 17: Fight Night at Cocktails After Dusk. 6 p.m. $25 includes three full-sized cocktails from the evening’s competitors and hosts, plus small bites.
Feb. 19: Knife Fight #2 at Eleven18. 8 p.m., free to attend. Dine/drink and spectate. Wobbly Olive’s Steff Waun vs. Four by Brother Luck’s Maria Composto. (Here’s my short recap of Knife Fight #1 last month.)
Feb. 20: Reading the Landscape of Fountain Creek Liquid Lecture Series with CC and the Fountain Creek Brewshed Alliance at Goat Patch Brewing. $1 off beers, 6-7 p.m.
Feb. 20: Girl Scout Cookies and Beer Pairing at Mash Mechanix Brewing. 6-8 p.m., $25 tickets includes a flight of four beers, each paired with cookies.
Feb. 21: For the Love of Flavor dinner with Baon Supper Club at The Carter Payne. 6 p.m., $95, five courses and a welcome drink; $20 more for Local Relic beer pairings.
Feb. 22: Chili Cook-Off at WestFax Springs Brewery. 1-4 p.m. $10 to enter, or get a ticket to spectate; options for tasting, voting and beers included. (I’m co-judging.)
Feb. 23: All-Day Happy Hour Sip With Schnip at T-Byrd’s Tacos & Tequila. Anytime 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. $5 chips & queso, $3.95 tacos, $4 nachos, $4 Altos tequila shots, $3-$4 beers and $6 margaritas. Free Side Dish Schnip "Sip" in District Elleven for subscribers. One-day-only Side Dish "Tepache Latte" at bird tree cafe. Free city garage parking on Sundays nearby.
Feb. 26-March 1: Wine Festival of Colorado Springs featuring the wines of California’s Central Coast.
March 1: The Mumbo Jumbo Gumbo Cook-Off in Manitou Springs.
March 5: Colorado Pint Day at participating craft breweries.
Parting shot(s)
If you’re noticing the in-progress design changes to reflect outgoing and incoming members with my Side Dish Dozen graphic (thanks Ryan Hannigan for that work), you’ll see a member I have yet to formally announce: Jax Fish House & Oyster Bar!
They’re coming aboard as of March, and ahead of that, they happened to have just re-launched lunch and brunch hours: 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., Wednesday-Friday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. weekends. They invited me to stop by at brunch to check it out and we damn near overindulged (for the sake of shooting photos, of course). The whole lunch menu remains available on weekends as does the raw bar, but there’s a half-dozen specials just for brunch service, including an Oscar Omelette and smoked salmon melt.
We went for the french toast (with blueberries, maple butter and chantilly), scrambled egg hash bowl (with smoked bacon, potato hash, hazel dell ’shrooms and onion jam) and the blackened shrimp & grits (with the Anson Mills grits cooked into breaded cakes, smoked bacon bits, collard greens and preserved okra butter). If you can only do one, it’s the shrimp and grits that bowled us over. Oh, and you kinda have to add the lobster deviled eggs as a starter — epic yum.
For drinks, we sipped coffees and worked our way through some cocktail samplings. The light Carter’s Strawberry Cooler (in our friendly bartender’s hands in the above photo) gets strawberry-infused vodka, mint, lemon, muddled strawberries, simple and soda. The lavish, cream-based Coco Slide pairs whiskey liqueur with cream sherry, dark creme de cacao, dry orange curaçao, caramelized orange, mole bitters and shaved orange chocolate garnish. Jax’s Bloody Mary calls for cucumber-infused vodka for a refreshing touch. And The Fog (served warm) blends Tuaca, Earl Grey tea, lavender bitters (which I request an extra dosing of), Irish cream and simple syrup. It’s great paired with sips of coffee on the side.
Thanks for sharing the Good to Go app. I love the concept of preventing food waste. I downloaded the app and hope to see greater participation among our local food industry.