Back in action…

I’ve long been a major proponent of all of Karen Carrier’s restaurants. She mixes a combination of awesome style and design with excellent, unique food at all of her spots, so I was definitely excited to finally get over to her newest spot Bar DKDC. At the new place, she is bringing international street food to Cooper Young. She mixes the great food with an awesome collection of cocktails, so it is a great place for dinner or to chill out over drinks.

Chill beverages.

Rums all over the place on the drink menu. Cuban dishes on the food menu.

Shrimp.

Corn fritters with a blueberry jam. Awe….some.

Meat pies. All about it. These were great.

Fish club sandwich. One of my all-time favorite sandwiches is next door at the Beauty Shop, another Karen Carrier place. This one is a spicier cousin, and it is delicious. If it is on the menu, give it a shot.

This is their fish stew. Spicy, delicious.

Basically, it was an awesome menu of spicy Cuban food. Bar DKDC is an awesome spot for drinks, great eats, and a good time. Hit it up after work sometime this week and find out for yourself. See you there!

-Thomas

You want to go to there:

Bar DKDC
964 S. Cooper
Memphis, TN 38104
901-272-0830

Sunday night sees a huge event in Memphis. The Friends of James Beard are hosting a dinner at Andrew Michael Italian Kitchen, home of Andy Ticer and Michael Hudman, who were recently named as Food & Wine’s best new chefs. Pretty awesome how this is all coming together. Anyway here are the details:

Friends of Beard dinners are held around the country and modeled after dinners at the eponymous Beard House.  These special evenings bring together talented chefs to collaborate in a single kitchen for a multi-course menu.

On Sunday, Chefs Ticer and Hudman will host five up-and-coming guest chefs from various regions for the 7-course meal: David Posey of Blackbird in Chicago, IL, Jason Fox of Commonwealth in San Francisco, CA, Jason Stanhope of Fig in Charleston, SC, Jeff McInnis of Yardbird in Miami Beach, FL and Stephanie Prida of Manresa in Los Gatos, CA.

The theme of the evening is “Know Your Food, Know Your Roots.”  Each chef will be encouraged to use products rooted in their respective regions, and to create a dish that symbolizes their “roots” – whether their hometown, their present city, their ancestry or childhood inspirations.

All proceeds from the event will go to benefit the James Beard Foundation, a not-for-profit culinary organization whose mission is to celebrate, nurture and preserve America’s diverse culinary heritage and future.  Proceeds from Friends of Beard benefit dinners are divided equally between the Foundation’s scholarship program and general operation.

Tickets are limited and can be purchased by contacting Brittney Andres, Marketing and Events Manager, via email (brittney@enjoyam.com).

Know Your Food, Know Your Roots
Friends of James Beard Benefit
Sunday, April 14, 2013
Andrew Michael Italian Kitchen
712 W. Brookhaven Circle, Memphis, TN 38117
5:30 pm Cocktails, 6:00 pm 7-Course Meal
General Public $300, JBF Members $250
7-courses including beverage pairings (tax and tip included)

This is a pretty spectacular lineup of chefs that represent some of the best restaurants around. It should be a legendary dinner.

I passed a few interview questions to Andy and Mike, and here’s what they said about this event.

Eat Local Memphis: What’s it mean to have these great chefs sharing the kitchen with you?

Andy: “We could not be more excited about the chefs coming to town for our dinner.  We think these guys are the up-and-comers, that they are going to be household names in the near future.”

Michael: “Really the whole idea was this ‘new guard’ of young chefs doing things that got us thinking.  We really just brought in people we really wanted to cook with.  It’s crazy to see what comes out of some of these dinners – the collaboration inspires everybody.  And you make friends that you keep in touch with for years, real camaraderie that comes from having the same goal of perfection and working the same insane hours.  We can’t wait for April 14.  It will be our first time meeting some of them, and we’re already inspired by the conversations we’ve had over email and phone.”

Eat Local Memphis: As James Beard nominees, can you share how important the Beard House is to American cuisine?

A&M: “It’s everything.  The James Beard Awards are every cook and chef’s ultimate goal.  Those awards really recognize the folks in our industry that have been working so hard for so long to elevate what we do.  The Beard House is where the magic happens. It’s is the home of American cooking.  It’s where up-and-coming chefs like ourselves can go and cook for a wider audience.  It’s such an experience for a chef to cook there – there’s nothing like it.  It’s like the Olympics for us.

Eat Local Memphis: What does it mean for Memphis to have this event and to share out style with these great chefs from more-established food cities?

Andy: “One of the main reasons we wanted to host this dinner was to give Memphians a chance to eat the food that these guys are cooking; no one will pretend Memphis has the food scene of Chicago, but we can eat a meal that Chicagoans would go nuts for here in our hometown for a night.  While we’re a much smaller city, we do have a style here. At our restaurants we practice southern cooking with Italian roots; we’re looking forward to showing other dedicated chefs what this means to us.”

Eat Local Memphis: Where will you take them to eat to show off Memphis?

Michael: “We sort of have a list of our favorite spots in Memphis. It’s not what some people might expect.  We love Jerry’s Sno Cone, and Bryants Breakfast.  Of course we’ll make a Muddy’s run, and show them Gus’s Fried Chicken. Cozy Corner is a must.  We’ll get lunch at Las Tortugas.  Some are coming in on Friday, so we’re looking forward to cooking for them at AMIK.”

Eat Local Memphis: Thanks so much!

So, short version. If you can, you should go. Sounds incredible.

-Thomas

I started out by just filling up my plate with a nice variety of the appetizers that they had out. You can see some flank steak, some house smoked salmon, a little shrimp and grit, a deviled egg, and some potatoes. All good. Real talk.

One of my favorite plates (for the record, I shared all of this food with some friends at the table), was this roasted asparagus with Benton’s bacon and a fried poached egg. You heard that right, they took one of the greatest items in all of fooddom, the poached egg, and breaded it up and fried it. Genius.

Whenever I go to a new place, I always ask around and see what my friends have to say about it. The buddy that I called told me in no uncertain terms that I must get the shrimp and grits. It was really good. Great flavor and awesome tasso ham gravy. Is shrimp and grits the ultimate comfort food? It is at least in the argument.

Next up was the great little sliders made with Donnell Farms beef and some pimento cheese. If you’re noticing that Alchemy does a great job of taking simple items and making them better by adding a little twist or an extra ingredient or flavor, you are getting the idea. They do a really good job on the details, which really makes it all standout. Look at those nice custom made buns from Jason Doty at Bluff City. Details.

Say someone comes up to you on the street and offers you some potatoes. He tells you that you can have them prepared with duck fat or without, which do you choose? Obvi, you take the duck fat. Check out that beautiful hanger steak served with delicious duck fat fingerling potatoes. What’s the extra detail besides the duck fat, you ask? Well, that’d be the nice smoke paprika aioli that goes with it all. Yum.

I saved the best for last. These spicy chili roasted fish tacos were off the chain. I know that isn’t very descriptive in the foodie vernacular, but that’s what I have to say about it. If you want be to break it down any further, I would say they were awesome, and they are the first thing that I will order next time I go to Alchemy. How’s that?

Bonus Points

I actually did go back to Alchemy after this meal but before writing this. The next trip was for a drink and a chance to say bye to a friend that recently moved to the very far left side of the country. At the bar, I will typically order a N/A beer, because that is easy. Alchemy didn’t have any, so they offered to make me up a mocktail, which I greatly appreciate. Most times I don’t even ask, because the majority of bars don’t put much effort into that (high praise to Nick at Hog and Hominy and Andrew Michael for making it happen out there). They came back with the most awesome cucumber/citrus mocktail.

Bars would be much more fun for the non-drinker if more people would put their cocktail know-how into making non-alcoholic drinks. So, thanks again for that!

Wrap up

Hit it up. After work, Alchemy looks pretty calm and easy to manage. Late at night, the word is that it gets fun and loud, so whatever you are looking for, this place has it on offer. See you there.

-Thomas

You want to go to there:

Alchemy
940 South Cooper Street
Memphis, TN.
901.726.4444

First, there are the vices:

1. Drinks
2. Gamling
3. Loud Music
4. Dancing

Second, there are the good things:

1. You are a philanthropist. Snazzy, eh?
2. Your ticket makes life better for the students that work with the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Memphis

There are a couple of levels of tickets. Your $40 GA ticket will get you beer and specialty drinks, while you $75 VIP ticket gets you access to those plus a full bar plus some food from Central BBQ. And, your VIP ticket means that an extra $25 is going to a good cause. My advice is to get down there and have a good time for a good reason. Spend the extra to go VIP, because it is all for the kids.

Get your tickets online and save yourself some time.

-Thomas

Apologies for the cellphone photos, which definitely aren’t as good.

Our bartender/server was Johnny, and he hooked me up with a great n/a drink to get started. This was a n/a version of their Morning Refresher, which came out as ginger beer, lime juice, Sprite, and a cucumber. It was awesome and refreshing.

We opened up with a pretty eclectic set of starters, one for health and refreshment and one for comfort. Up first was a brulee grapefruit. It was incredibly sweet and refreshing.

Basically, I love a good grapefruit, and there is nothing wrong with torching the sugar on top with a blow torch.

Biscuits and gravy for comfort. These were baked up awesome and tall, and the gravy was rich. What more can you ask for?

A side benefit of running around town with a professional baker is that sometimes her friends that bake will send us out a little sample of their own baked goods. One of my favorite baked items in Memphis is the scone at Sweet Grass. Every week they have a different scone, and they are always awesome. Get them.

For this mega-brunch, one in which we admittedly went a little crazy, we got a couple of entrees. K started it up with the steak and eggs with the truffle fries.

This was decidedly awesome. I mean really, what do you expect?

I got the totes awesome duck hash with Henry Bain sauce and the fried eggs. Everything about this dish is good. And lastly, because we are insane, we ordered dessert. Who says “no” to chocolate peanut butter pie? Who? Not me…

I will admit that we had one bite and then took the rest home. Eyes were bigger than the stomach, or so they say.

Last thing. I always have really good service when I go to either of the Sweet Grass restaurants. That was the case again with Johnny offering us up great food, drinks, and conversation. It was a really enjoyable Sunday, and I’d reckon most of you would enjoy it just the same. See you there!

-Thomas

You want to go to there:

Sweet Grass
937 S. Cooper
Memphis, TN 38104

Patrons will also be barred from tucking in their shirts and dumping roast beef down their collars, which the company acknowledged had been a recurring problem in its Dallas and Memphis test markets.

Read more. You’re welcome.

-Thomas

If you’d like a primer on why it has been so awesome in the past, take a look at the last couple of Clan Gordons:

2010 – The Clan Gordon English Dinner

2011 – The New Orleans Clan Gordon Dinner

Enough with the past, let’s get on with it.

Preppy Kitchen

Clan Gordon officially started on Christmas morning when everyone got their own custom family aprons with the really awesome Gordon family crest. Since K’s dad really goes to extreme lengths to make this incredible dinner, the kids will try to get over to his house to serve as line chefs during the process. K and I went over early on the afternoon of the dinner to lend a couple of hands.

We jumped right in by helping with the stuffed mushrooms with the bechamel sauce.

Smooth, slow stirring as it thickens up.

Team work.

Almost ready. Check out that bechamel now mixed with all the delicious chopped prosciutto.

Here they are, ready to go into the oven. We helped out with a few other final details before heading home.

Cannelloni waiting to go into the oven. This would turn out amazing, more details when we get to dinner…

The stuffed quail wrapped in speck waiting for cooking. Beautiful.

Here’s Ks stepmom’s amazing cheesecake hot right out of the oven. I will explain later, but I’m normally not a huge cheesecake guy, but I guess that is just because I have never had a cheesecake that was this good. It was light, airy and amazing.

Table is set and ready for action.

Dinner Time

Later that evening, we all arrived at the Gordon house and got started.

Cocktail, Canapes, and Company

For these family dinners, we go back to dressing up for dinner and starting the evening with a cocktail hour. Every course during dinner would have a dedicated wine pairing, but this was a good chance for people to start with some sparkling wine or cocktails of their choosing.

Always room for for a White Russian, even during the Italian dinner. If you’re wondering, bydand is the Gordon clan motto, meaning steadfast. Party cup roadies elevate any party, just sayin’.

During cocktail hour, we got the first taste of K’s dad’s masterpiece dinner. He baked some fresh tuscan bread and made two variations of this amazing liver pate. I could have eaten all of it. It was insanely rich and awesome. The only thing holding me back from killing the whole ramikan was my experience at previous Clan Gordon dinners. One must pace oneself, lest he run out of room before the end of the meal.

Belly in our Bellies

The antipasti course at the table was the product of a serious long-term planning. In February of 2012, we all went over to the Gordon house to make homemade bacon, and while doing that K’s dad started some pork belly confit, so after 10 months it was time to bust it out.

Here’s the belly out of the skillet before getting plated. So good.

Here it is served up with polenta and a cherry reduction. This combination of sweet and salty was awesome with the polenta. Also, it was pretty darn awesome to eat something that we had put together so long ago.

Primi – Can I Canneloni

Next up was a serious Italian masterclass. While researching the menu, K’s dad found this recipe, and it was described as only being made on the most special family occasions, so it was perfect for this event. After hearing about how much work it takes to make the cannelloni and then to make the tortellini that goes inside it, I can see why it is such a rare treat.

Here it is baked up after being covered in more bechamel sauce. Inside is the tortellini and prosciutto. This was unreal.

Look at that. Tortellini stuffed with spiced chicken in side a prosciutto wrap inside a spinach cannelloni topped with bechamel. Gimme a break.

Secondi – Stuffed Quail Stuffed Me

So, after the pasta course, you naturally have a meat course. This one was incredible. K’s younger brother delivered the speck from a recent trip to New York, and it served as the outer layer around some de-boned quail and provolone cheese. It was topped with a little honey, and it was insane. The quail was so tender. I know it is related to chicken, but it had so much flavor. Really speaks to the benefits of branching out in the poultry family.

Plated up with them were the decadent stuffed mushrooms that we had worked on earlier in the afternoon. Find a recipe for them online and make them, serve them at a party or at lunch or whenever. Dang Gina.

Just Desserts

Every dinner must come to a close at some point, and this one closed with the light, airy ricotta cheesecake that you saw come out of the oven earlier. So many cheesecakes seem too dense and too smooth, and it is like they loose something in the translation.

This was cheesecake like you would imagine it should be. Served with this potent raspberry vinegar, which was so good that you could probably have sipped on a shots worth, it was a delightful end to such an awesome dinner.

Bydand

So, I mentioned that the clan motto meant steadfast earlier. What I like so much about these dinners is the coming together of a family that holds on to that ideally dearly. They are steadfast and supportive of each other, and it is truly a blessing to be involved with such a good group. That each year that passes ends in an amazing dinner is a bonus, like a celebration that this family is and will continue to be. Cheers to Clan Gordon and here’s to an awesome 2013 for the whole family. And cheers to you and your family in 2013. Hope it is an awesome one. See you out there!

-Thomas

So, do yourself a favor and head on over to Muddy’s tomorrow for some free pie. You can also enter to win a membership in the Pie of the Month club, which is pretty much incredible.

See you there (no doubt)!

-Thomas

Read here.

Anyone want to ride? Or better yet, anyone want to drive?

See you there.

-Thomas