Review: Chef Logan Ely’s tasting menus surprise and delight at Savage
There is no menu at the new restaurant in Fox Park, only a selected number of courses.
Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
Poached mullet with half-cooked, half-fermented cabbage and a fish stock with herb-stem oil
It’s not as if we have a choice. There is no menu at Savage, only a selected number of courses. Choose the size of the parade with which you wish to be entertained: a few snacks, seven courses, or 12—with wines to match, if you like.
The hay arrives four courses in. It’s a flurry of ebony snowflakes scattered over a pudding of shaved pheasant slivers in a caramel-hued slurry of puréed apples, accompanied by LEGO-size cubes of rutabaga. The flavor of the pheasant is deep, savory, bringing out the sweetness of the squished apples. The hay-ash gratin lends an aroma; it’s as if one is dining at the edge of a harvested meadow in September, the stubble set ablaze to nourish the soil over the winter.
And it is only a couple of bites. “Courses” here are barely larger than a Costco sample, little more than a taste. Chef Logan Ely flirts with your palate. This is less a meal than a series of sensations. Flavors and textures ricochet and bounce.
Ingredients are unlikely—shiitake mushrooms with oat ice cream—assembled with flair and a bold confidence. It’s a dining approach taken by the consistently brilliant Stone Soup Cottage and, more recently, by the now-shuttered Privado.
A limited number of diners (Savage has just 20 seats) sample a series of chef’s tastings. All of the action takes place right in front of guests, accentuating the experience. A long bar and comfortable stools bracket a kitchen that functions as center stage. The setup focuses attention on the executive chef and his assistants, who rise to the occasion.
Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
Chef Logan Ely
At one point, for example, the chef appears to be rolling out a sheet of scarlet pie dough, but it emerges as—get this—beet chicharrónes, crispy and crackly, with a smooth, cool lemon-and-cucumber emulsion and charred lemon peel for dipping. You’re marveling at how these purple-red shards are as airy and tasty as the pork originals, but the chef’s moved on: He’s drizzling a smoked oil over a mousse of yeast with sliced turnips and onions. It’s an amazing dish. The smoked oil (“it smells like an old barbecue pit,” the server says, grinning) adds a fragrance that tantalizes even before you get the spoon to your mouth—and you’re in a hurry to do that because you’re wondering, “What on earth does a yeast mousse taste like?” (It tastes like rising bread dough smells.)
Black is now mandatory for hip restaurants; the bar and ceiling are charcoal, and there are the requisite exposed-brick walls and Edison bulbs in the former A&B liquor mart in Fox Park. Notice that the kitchen’s heat comes entirely from induction stoves. “Gas is dirty, and the stoves are hard to clean,” the chef says. He’s leaning over a plate of mullet, skimming a blowtorch over a swirl of braised cabbage atop the fish and frosting it in jet. Much underused, the mullet is firm, white, and delicate; a light touch of fish sauce adds a salty smack.
The wine selection is thoughtfully constructed; it’s fun to see what vintages the house selects for each course. Begin with a Homestead unfiltered cider for its fizzy, full body.
Those crocks on the shelf in back? They’re vinegars—made from leftover wines, another inspired idea—curing. Also up there are pickles: peaches, plums, black garlic that’ll have roles in future dishes.
Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
A palate cleanser arrives: an icy slush of juniper-mint granita over an alabaster blob of panna cotta tinted with the essence of evergreen. The sweetness is restrained; the prickly aroma of juniper is accentuated by fresh evergreen twigs curled into a nest that holds the bowl.
That bowl—as well as most of the dishes—is a significant part of Savage’s charm. Hand-thrown by local ceramist Phillip Finder, the rough-textured stoneware is delightful to hold and beautifully proportioned. One of those bowls is used to present a finishing course, a dollop of toasted oat ice cream topped with finely puréed shiitake, accompanied by a drift of crunchy roasted rice. Now we’re just messing with you, right? Nope. The meal ends on the same note on which it started: perceptions challenged, surprises going off on your palate, presentations artistic and imaginative.
Can Savage join Stone Soup in the ranks of stellar restaurants serving innovative multicourse menus? It has all the ingredients, in terms not only of food and drinks but also of the talents in the kitchen and the undeniably cool setting. Spend an evening here, taste what’s offered, and decide for yourself.
The Bottom Line Multicourse menus featuring wildly matched ingredients yield remarkable results.
