Eyes widen at the arrival of a treasure. Four craggy fried oysters sit in their shells on a blond salad of chopped apple and celery root, a minimalist Waldorf salad. The appetizer, cleverly staged on the backs of empty shells, could be mistaken for a main course. I pluck a hot oyster from the display and admire the sensation of crunch giving way to smooth. Then I tackle the cool, lightly creamy salad with my fork.
These days? You want to make a date with the American restaurant — swipe right at the prospect of a menu that reinforces its fresh and local approach with a map of its producers. Vermilion marks a return for Chittum, 47, who cooked here for five years before moving to Iron Gate and is among a handful of chefs who have made a dining destination of the two-story restaurant, its seating expanded during the pandemic to include the sidewalk on bustling King Street.
Not that restaurants can’t boast a little. Vermilion plays up beautiful speckled radicchio from Karma Farm in Maryland, in a haystack of a salad, with local sheep’s milk cheese and ruddy country ham. Like the oysters, the appetizer, crisp with chips of fried Jerusalem artichokes, is portioned for two. Try to get a little taste of everything in each spear of the fork. The free-range bison for the steak tartare comes from New Frontier in Virginia.
A main course of buttery scallops on a bed of shelling beans comes with a surprise: fritters that improve on scrapple, a staple of Pennsylvania Dutch cooking. Pig parts are mixed with brown polenta, parmesan and clove, rolled into rounds and deep-fried. Shazam! Chittum has figured out how to make a purse out of a sow’s ear, or at least pork shoulder and ham hocks.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Source: KPRC2 - 🏆 80. / 68 Read more »
Source: 6abc - 🏆 250. / 63 Read more »
Source: denverwestword - 🏆 315. / 61 Read more »
Source: cleveland19news - 🏆 70. / 68 Read more »
Source: cleveland19news - 🏆 70. / 68 Read more »
Source: screenrant - 🏆 7. / 94 Read more »