Tart and crunchy fried green tomatoes topped with grilled shrimp and set on a bed of perfectly spiced gazpacho. Delicately seared plump scallops mingled with sweet peaches, curly frisée, and bathed in balsamic brown butter. Perfectly roasted chicken with a hearty panzanella salad studded with seasonal vegetables.
Fine food at Dressel’s Pub is not new, but the specials these days will make you sit up and take notice. A step up from the already good fare, they’re the work of new executive chef Michael Miller.
Miller joined the CWE pub as sous chef this spring at the invitation of general manager Chris Meyer; he was given the top job at the start of the summer, replacing chef David Sullivan. His goal is to move the menu toward seasonality, using locally sourced ingredients as much as possible. “I’m not crazy about the term gastropub, but we want to change the idea of what you can get at a pub,” Miller explained. “If you want a burger, we’re going to make sure it’s the best burger. And if someone wants five courses, they can have that.”
A self-taught chef, Miller spent five years honing his craft in the restaurant kitchens of San Francisco before returning to his hometown to ply his trade. A two-year stint as a line cook at Monarch and, most recently, six months at Niche sharpened his skills further and introduced him to local producers.
Miller is in the process of overhauling the full menu; look for it to debut this fall. “It’ll just elevate the food,” Miller promised, though he hinted at items like a deconstructed shepherd’s pie and special dinners, like beer dinners or meals featuring a local farm, once per quarter. “It’ll be playful, fun, and approachable.”
In the meantime, Miller’s putting his stamp on the pub’s fare by running creative dishes like those above for two to three weeks at a time, depending on ingredient availability. So on your next visit, be sure to ask about the specials.
Editor's Note: Relish paid a visit to Dressel's last Friday night, unannounced and unrecognized, and from the list of specials--a wahoo served med-rare, the aforementioned scallops and roasted chicken--one could tell there was indeed fresh talent in the kitchen (fortunately, the obligatory pub chips w/ rarebit sauce and the lamb burger remain unchanged). The high point of the visit, however, was the service, as good as any in recent memory--at any local restaurant. What pub were you in when fresh silverware was placed, side plates changed out, water refilled unobtrusively, fresh water glasses provided prior to entrees, and crumbs removed prior to dessert? Thought so, never happened to us either. The server in question is a guy named Torre, a former GM at Dressel's. In the past, we'd been content sidling up to their handsome, well-worn bar; now, after such a refreshing and technically-perfect service experience in the restaurant proper, we'll seek out Torre like an Irishman does a perfectly-poured Guinness (and you can find that there, too).
