Photo courtesy of Tim Drescher of Kuva Coffee.
Chef Ari Jo Ellis’s super-quick path to opening her first solo brick-and-mortar place, The Cut, started with a simple phone call in mid-July. “I called Bob Brazell [of Byrd & Barrel and Good Fortune] to talk about how to start a business. I was thinking two years ahead, but after we’d talked a bit Bob asked ‘How badly do you want to do this?’ I realized I wanted to do it a lot,” Ellis says.
Brazell and Ellis sat down with Matt Thenhaus at The Fortune Teller Bar. Brazell knew Thenhaus needed someone to take over his small kitchen when Tanya Brown closed her business, The Little Dipper, after service on July 29th.
Thenhaus knows beer, booze, and cocktails well, but running a food operation isn’t his thing. He has the kitchen, the dining room, and plenty of hungry customers. The inventive space-sharing arrangement he devised with Brown nearly two years ago made good sense for both businesses. Brazell knew Ellis’s style would be a good fit for both. Luckily for all, the stars aligned. Thenhaus and Ellis struck a deal. The Cut, will open at the end of August, featuring a small and manageable sausage-forward menu.
Thenhaus couldn’t be happier. “I'd always imagined this place with sausages — like a German beer hall,” Thenhaus says.
Ellis plans to bring a world of sausages to The Fortune Teller. “We’ll have an original straight-up brat with grain mustard and sauerkraut made in house. I’m working on a BLT brat. I see it as a bacon brat topped with microgreens and tomato jam,” Ellis says. “Tomatoes should still be in season at the end of August,” she adds.
Seasonality, and fresh, local ingredients, are keys to Ellis’ cooking style. “I’ve only ever worked for people who source locally,” she says. “It’s a given. I never thought of running my own place any other way.”
Ellis plans to make a veggie sausage brat using MOFU tofu. “Veggie brats require a synthetic casing, which I won’t use,” she says. “Mine will be an uncased, ground veggie brat.” Think Bosnian cevapi or Thai saam sausages.
An Asian-inspired brat flavored with soy, ginger and garlic is in the works. “We’ll top that with house made bulgogi barbecue sauce, kimchi and fried rice noodles,” she says. “Plus, we’re on Cherokee Street. I’m working on a chorizo dog, too,” she says.
The breakneck pace Ellis set to open doesn’t surprise those who know her well, her mentors in the culinary scene.
“She’s worked with a lot of talented people and I'm stoked to see her come into her own using the skills she picked up along the way,” dealmaker Bob Brazell says.
Her mentors include some of the city’s finest chefs, including James Beard rising star Rick Lewis, who depended on her skills at both Quincy Street Bistro and at Southern. “When I followed Rick to Southern, we had kicked around different ideas for me. When it became clear chicken would be the focus, I told Rick I wanted to study butchery and how to break down meat. He picked up the phone and called Chris Bolyard [of Bolyard’s Meat & Provisions] and said ‘Ari wants to learn more about butchery.’ I got the job,” Ellis says.
We contacted Bolyard for his thoughts on Ellis’ first solo venture. “We're excited to see Ari take the reins at Fortune Teller,” he says. “We have every confidence in her ability to create a killer menu that’s approachable and interesting. She's got thick skin and can handle the pressure of running a line. We can’t wait to check it out.”
Ellis’s latest work as a line cook at Kounter Kulture put her under the tutelage of super-chef Mike Miller and front-of-house pro Chris Meyer. The Asian sausage Ellis plans to offer reflects their influence.
“This has really been super low-key,” Ellis says. “No one really knows except my friends. And Kounter Kulture, because I had to give them notice. I talked to Such and Such Farm because I want to use their pork, but now – a lot of people will know,” she says.
“I don’t have a logo, or a Facebook page, so I’ll be busy this weekend,” she says. “This week I got my LLC and I went down to City Hall for permits and licenses. I’m working on the menu. My personal goal is to be open by the end of August.”
Look for this much-anticipated move from one of the city’s up-and-coming chefs.
