1) You apply via your LinkedIn profile. Not sure if legacy carrier + the social media brand that was Facebook for old people before Facebook was just for old people is the kind of synergy you want, but maybe?
So, Craigie on Main is open again tonight with a $39 special -- one better than a .38 special, for sure. It's interesting that placees that I know of that are open are neighborhood focused* (COM, Northern Spy in NYC), while the places that are shut, (too many to name) are not, by and large. It's not as if the Spies or Maws' guys are foraging lichen in the snow for tonight's meal, but it does raise a question about restaurants that is broader. We've all been talking for a long time about food miles, and foodsheds, etc. True enough, but this food does not a) cook itself or b) eat itself. If we care about sustainability (a strong maybe, maybe?), it seems worth it to add where cooks and servers come from, and how they get to the restaurant, and where customers come from, and how they get to the restaurant.
A restaurant that's not snowed in today got me thinking about this back in December. At my last meal at Husk, it seemed as if a large proportion of the patrons were eating there either as their first stop after getting off an airplane, or their last stop before getting on an airplane (there was luggage to be wrangled in the foyer). I like Sean Brock's food, and I'm glad the restaurant is successful, and is getting the buzz it warrants. However, given Brock's local focus, it's ironic that the equation has shifted from flying the food to the people to flying the people to the food. I guess what I'm trying to say is, Hold On Loosely:
*Yes, COM is expensive, and NS ain't cheap, but then, they're located in pretty pricey neighborhoods. Indeed, the great thing about the $39 special is that it gives a chance for folks who are within walking/mushing/XC distance to eat in a non-birthday/anniversary moment.
Was initially surprised to hear of plans for a Husk outpost in Nashville. The Cod is on the record as a fan of H. Sean Brock's work, but given that his thing is an intense focus on the local, it's odd to see him open a place that is 550 miles from his two Charleston places that are within a stone's throw of one another. I could imagine a similarly-conceived restaurant engaging w/ the foodshed of western TN as opposed to coastal SC, but it seems bad for the brand to slap the same name on it.
On the other hand, it might not be Brock's call. Husk and McReady's are owned by the Neighborhood Restaurant Group, which also owns two non-Brock properties, and the owners may well have a different vision of Husk than the chef does. More than one chef-owner has reminded me that Brock is not a chef-owner, and the existence of Husk Nashville may be evidence of that heirloom chicken coming home to roost.
Via the unstoppable Princess Jinx, you can file brand new Late nite BYOB sammich restaurants under things the Cod is definitely not mad at This one's in Charleston, called Butcher & Bee. They give zero indication of effing around. And they are doing a little bit of pickling too. From the looks of the space, expect a room that feels like a mix of Cochon Butcher, the Helsinki airport, and Snake & Jake's. There they are on the Twitters, where you can track the schedule for opeining.
Get on over to Eater and read the interview w/ Sean Brock. It does the best job I've seen of articulating the vision he has for Husk. One thing that Brock emphasizes which bears repeating is that Southern food is a blanket term for a variety of distinct regional cuisines, rather than a specific cooking style. As a result, Husk is a rigorously ingredient-driven and compelling restaurant, while in the hands of a lesser cook, the food from the South rule would have been somewhere between an albatross and a gimmick. Go read the whole thing.
Especially nice to see some love for noted Gamecock polymath David Shields, who evidently has a terra cotta army of himself holding it down at the distingushed professor day job, so he can produce a definitive guide to heritage vegetables.
Also, if Charleston is not on your summer itinerary, Sean Brock will be making a return visit to Tony Maws at Craigie on Main on July 12th. When Tony went to Charleston this spring, it went down like this. Craigie will have more deets on this meal this week.
I hope that this guest cheffing thing catches on. Folks in the Southeast seem to turn up in one another's kitchens on the reg, but it would be fun to see more. In particular, I'd like to see Sean head to LA for Lou(Brock).
Stop me if you've heard this before... an idealistic young man from Boston heads to the Carolina Lowcountry to put his ideas into practice. The last time, true enough, it did not go so well. This time, however, the idealistic young man is Tony Maws of Craigie on Main, and instead of attacking Ft. Wagner, he will be cooking with Sean "Husk" Brock at Brock's other* restaurant, McCrady's. The Cod and the cinetrix will most definitely be in attendance, and hope to see you guys y'all there.
Click to right for details, and move at a brisk Yankee pace lest ye be left out. Rather than Broderick taking a Mine' ball in the ribs, forecasts suggest it will be a collab like the one below:
After a surpisingly long interval, the Cod loses his Charleston cherry today. I hear there are baskets and stuff. And I imagine mostly we'll be eating Charleston Chews? If you have a better idea, holler.
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