Bulrush's fall tasting menus feature innovative to-go fare

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Photography by Kevin A. Roberts

This article appears in SLM's November 2020 issue.

In addition, in conjunction with Perennial, a local nonprofit, Bulrush is co-costing a virtual family style fall brunch on Sunday, October 25. Pick up food between 9 and 10 a.m. at Bulrush; the virtual event begins at 11 a.m. Tickets available online here.  

When Rob Connoley opened Bulrush, last year, he did something that no other fine-dining chef had ever done: The James Beard Award nominee offered Ozarkian cuisine of the 1800s, presenting it as a highly personal coursed experience to 24 patrons at a seating.

If ever there were a concept ill prepared to handle a pandemic, Bulrush was it. Rather than change the concept or mission statement, however, Connoley created a not-so-logical alternative: a "park-and-dine" experience (five courses that can also be picked up or delivered).

Two current dishes speak to the fall season. A warm salad showcases a football-shaped Sibley pumpkin (a product of historic, heritage seeds) that becomes sweet when roasted. Connoley uses pawpaws (foraged by the chef in the spring) to sweeten an otherwise spicy 16-ingredient mole that's garnished with pickled pawpaw blossoms and foraged amaranth seeds, puffed in a skillet. 

The savory, smoky, sweet, and spicy salad is served with a massive turkey thigh from Buttonwood Farms that's simply seasoned, seared, and confited. The novel sides include cast-iron fried cowhorn okra, grown in a backyard in Kirkwood, and house-made hominy of Floriani Red Flint corn.

This is just a sampling of the constantly changing dishes that Connoley is preparing this season, and patrons have responded to the rearrangement. As Connoley says, “I never felt comfortable trying to come up with plan B to respond to the pandemic, so we came up with a new plan A.”