At the Table – C-VILLE Weekly

Oakhart Social’s chef knows no boundaries

I am old enough to remember when cooking was not cool. Before entire networks were devoted to it, cooking was relegated to the nerdy back room of public television. The prototypical chef was the bumbling Muppet Swedish Chef, while rock stars like Animal were the cool Muppets.

Today, chefs are the rock stars. And, cooking has never been cooler. While the effects of this trend have cut both ways, an unquestioned benefit is the birth of a new kind of American restaurant—casual and unfussy like the popular spots of the past, but where it’s okay to be passionate about food.

A premier example is Washington, D.C.’s Rose’s Luxury, once named best new restaurant in the country. Two decades ago, the notion of mobs of young people waiting for hours to eat at a restaurant would have been absurd, but that’s now the norm at Rose’s Luxury. Its former sous chef, Tyler Teass, formerly of Clifton Inn, just moved back to Charlottesville to run the kitchen of the new Brasserie Saison on the Downtown Mall. When he got back, I took him to our own exemplar of the new breed of restaurant, Oakhart Social, to see what he thought. And though there were thankfully no long lines, similarities to Rose’s were many.

Oakhart chef and co-owner Tristan Wraight came to town in 2014 from Chicago, one of the nation’s capitals of the new genre. And, he is a disciple of the new way—“more casual, more affordable and more inclusive.”

Not surprisingly, Teass loved Oakhart Social, which he says shares both design elements and service style with Rose’s Luxury. The sparse, comfortable space with brick walls painted all white was once an auto service station. “Very warm and friendly,” said Teass. Indeed, Rose’s Luxury is known for happy, caring servers who are genuinely passionate about the enterprise and their guests’ experience. Oakhart’s servers get it, too.

As for the food, Wraight cooks whatever he likes without boundary. “I’m interested in tasting different dishes that are unrestrained by coursing, ethnicity or genre,” Wraight says. Instead of appetizers and entrées, the menu simply lists items from smallest to largest, allowing diners to choose whether to construct a traditional meal, or just order a bunch of things to share. We opted for the latter.

First came a gift from the kitchen, fluke crudo, Teass’ favorite dish of the night. Delicate slabs of Mid-Atlantic fluke, lightly brined in a solution of salt and sugar, joined dollops of salsa verde, with added crunch from toasted bread crumbs. “Very well-seasoned and simple,” praised Teass.

Next came Teass’ second-favorite dish of the night, wood-fired oysters. Oakhart Social has one of the only wood-burning ovens in town, and uses it for nearly everything. Here, Big Island pearl oysters from Monday Creek take a quick trip to the oven with bacon fat and citrusy, herby gremolata. When done, they receive a touch of seasoned panko for texture. “I normally don’t love warm oysters,” said Teass, “but those were really tasty.”

Wraight’s wife is vegetarian, and since she is his muse, vegetables are an inspired choice. “Vegetables are infinitely more versatile in flavor, texture and color than meat,” says Wraight. For a playful riff on peas and carrots, Wraight chars local baby carrots twice on the grill, and tops them with fresh pea shoots, sweet and spicy pecans and his own buttermilk ranch dressing. Delicious.

But Wraight loves meat too, and his current favorite dish, chicken liver mousse, came next. Livers of River Oak Farm chickens take an overnight milk bath before a quick sear, and are then blended with capers, sherry, mustard and butter until silky smooth. Served with Virginia apples, pickled shallots and grilled Albemarle Baking Company pain de campagne, the dish would make a great meal in itself.

Fried trout was the night’s best example of boundary-free cooking—not fusion, where a chef forcefully combines two cultures’ cuisines, but rather cooking without classification at all. A brined North Carolina trout is deep fried and served whole with a light pea and ginger purée, herb salad, shaved fennel, pickled chilis and fish-sauce vinaigrette.

“Guests expect so much out of restaurants nowadays,” said Teass after our meal. “And it’s a real challenge to hit the mark between casual and approachable and food that is well sourced, prepared, plated, executed and priced.” A challenge, yes. But Oakhart Social meets it.

Kardinal Hall brings the biergarten to a new level

Oktoberfest may be the ultimate celebration of food and beer. Here in Charlottesville, though, the festival’s signature Bavarian fare can be hard to find. Enter Kardinal Hall. Opened last year by the team behind Beer Run, the beer hall and garden filled a gap in Charlottesville dining with food and drink it calls “Alpine.” Truth be told, Kardinal Hall does not tout strict traditionalism in its eats and suds, but instead blends in a healthy dose of innovation, with great results.

Two area experts on these topics are Jerome Thalwitz and Jason Oliver. Classically trained at restaurants in Bavaria, chef Thalwitz has spent the last three decades running the Bavarian Chef, the destination-worthy Madison restaurant founded by his parents, where German classics join inventive specials. Oliver, meanwhile, is brewmaster of Devils Backbone Brewing Company, among our country’s most acclaimed brewers of German-style beers. What better companions for a Kardinal Hall dinner during Oktoberfest?

Oliver calls German food “perfect for beer,” especially crisp pilsners, which he says counter the sourness of Bavarian pickles, and the fat, salt and spice of sausages and charcuterie. Take the charcuterie board that began our meal. On a large rectangular wooden board, piles of savory country pork pate, pastrami of Free Union Grass duck and smoked Autumn Olive Farms ham lay beautifully beside small white bowls of assorted house pickled local vegetables, which I consider among the best in town. “I respect that they use a lot of local ingredients,” said Oliver.

If German food is perfect for beer, so too is German beer perfect for food, and Kardinal Hall has the best selection of German beer in town, along with an assortment of American craft beer. “German beer is so approachable,” said Oliver. “It’s beer for the people!” The Rothaus Pils was such an ideal beer pairing for our charcuterie platter that Oliver said it was like another ingredient in the food. From food back to beer back to food, “there’s a seamless enjoyment of eating and drinking,” he said.

Next came a nod to tradition: a plate of Oktoberfest sausages with spaetzle and local oyster mushrooms. The sausages were from Binkert’s, the same Baltimore producer used by the Bavarian Chef. For one of them—weisswurst—Thalwitz requested a side of currywurst sauce, thus creating one of his favorite classic German street foods. Also a standout was the spaetzle, which reminded Thalwitz of dishes he made in Bavaria. “Paired with Weihenstephaner Festbier,” said Thalwitz, “it was a superb combination.” Other sausages on the menu are also well-sourced, from The Rock Barn and Sausagecraft.

Kardinal Hall’s chef Thomas Leroy is not from Germany but from France, where he trained before coming to Charlottesville to run adventurous kitchens like Bizou and Zinc Bistro (now closed). He has been with Kardinal Hall since even before it opened. “Leroy’s skill set, experience running a variety of kitchens and familiarity with classic European techniques made him a natural fit,” says Kardinal Hall co-owner Josh Hunt.

And so, while Leroy has the skills to nail the classics, he often breaks from tradition with playful riffs. This is the aspect of Kardinal Hall that Oliver likes best. It’s the same approach he uses for Devils Backbone beer: “inspired by tradition but not handcuffed to it.”

The signature pretzels, for example, are made fresh daily, and with a glistening golden crust, look just like ones you’d see in Bavaria. They even come with obatzda, a classic Bavarian condiment of brie, ricotta, mustard, onions and paprika. Take a bite though, and you’ll discover a twist. For the dough, Leroy uses a house sourdough starter. While atypical, Thalwitz thought it added a nice, subtle flavor to the pretzel.

A further break from tradition is Leroy’s favorite thing on the menu, and perhaps the dish of the night. For the spice-rubbed brisket sandwich, Leroy coats brisket in mustard powder, paprika, onion and garlic, smokes it for three hours, and then braises it in beer and broth for seven more. The brisket rests on Amoroso rolls from Philadelphia and is topped with mustard remoulade and a German slaw of red cabbage. Thalwitz said the delicious slaw was just like the one at Bavarian Chef, all the way down to the caraway seeds that studded it. “We serve it with practically everything,” he said. And, he loved the sandwich’s ingenuity, combining traditional themes like Bavarian slaw and Philly cheese steak rolls to create an “excellent, modern dish.”

In fact, that captures the whole experience. As Thalwitz said after our meal: “Kardinal Hall has the feel of going to a traditional German biergarten while tweaking old-world foods with local, trending ingredients.” Or, as Oliver put it, “Kardinal Hall is an American beer hall that takes its inspiration where it wants to, not where it has to.” Prost to that.