Chef Rob Connoley, the vegetable whisperer, explains each dish to his Bulrush dining audience. The creative chef brings a contemporary interpretation to historic (1820-1870) Ozark cuisine, before the time of canned goods, when everyday food was foraged or grown.
Everything Old Is New Again
Years ago I had a once-in-a-lifetime chance to eat at L’atelier de Joel Robuchon in Paris. At the time, I wondered why more chefs didn’t display their skill before a live and hungry audience.
I’m happy—change that to ecstatic—to see that Chef Rob Connoley is doing just that at Bulrush, the hot, new restaurant on Washington Avenue, that features “contemporary foods rooted in Ozark cuisine.”
A Bounty of Flavors
Rob scourers farms, fields and forests for his unique ingredients. Everything is locally grown or organically raised. In his kitchen workshop, he plays with flavors in exciting new ways. How does he extract such a panoply of tastes from such humble ingredient? Beats me. I guess that’s why I’m merely a food blogger, and he’s an esteemed chef. But he makes it look easy.
A Seven-Course Meal (Small Plates)
This acorn-shaped bowl held the first course, featuring purple-hull peas shown below.
Purple-hulled peas with Floriani cornbread, sun choke custard, and new season sorghum.
Anticipating the next course.
Course 2: Winter squash, ricotta mousse, pepitas, melon molasses.
Course 3: Fair Tale pumpkin gratin, lambs-quarter shio koji, pawpaw acorn mole, beef neck whipped cream, Szechuan pumpkin pie, fried onions. Sorry, but I ate Course 4 without photographing it. Rob described it as turkey mousseline, cornbread crumb, soured corn puree with fermented hot sauce.
Course 5: Roasted celery root, Saguaro apples, pumpkin aguachile, bok choy
Course 6: Pork cheek, collard greens, white bean puree, sorghum-glazed carrots, roasted pear demi-glaze. The pig jowl was so tender the knife provided on an attractive wooden stand wasn’t needed.
The unique restaurant format allows dinners to sit around a rectangular table, outlining the open-plan kitchen. You get a bird’s eye view of Rob and his helpers as they prepare and serve 7 different small plate courses. Instead of giving a dish a name, Rob describes it’s ingredients.
Some are familiar (pumpkin, eggplant, cauliflower, squash, apple,) Other items are a bit more unusual (sorghum molasses, pawpaw molé, lambsquarter, sunchoke, fried venison sliders, pickled elderberry, persimmons, purple hull peas). When I told him that the sorghum my in-laws served was always bitter, he explained that freshly made syrup is not like that. He was right.
Course 7: Bolero Carrot Cake with acorn miso, rye butterscotch, roasted pumpkin, malted milk crumb, and fuilletine crepes.
Despite the funky ingredients or combinations, there is nothing weird tasting or strange looking. The meal—the entire evening—comes together like a well choreographed dance. A soothing simplicity.
Treat Your Taste Buds to a Historic Ozark Holiday
The price is $100 for each diner, but that includes tip and tax. Drink pairing with each course can be had for $125 per diner. That’s not bad, when you consider this is more than a meal, it’s an experience, a discovery, and you get to talk to the chef as he delivers your plates.
Robin and JC at Bulrush
The bar area at the front of the restaurant.
The bar side menu for the evening projected onto the wall.
Chef Connoley cooks from a near zero waste kitchen.
Gift Giving
If there’s someone on your Christmas list that has everything, a gift certificate for an evening at Bulrush would be perfect. If you want less food, but still a taste of Rob’s inspired menu, there are tables and a bar in an adjoining room where you can get a more abbreviated meal. Whichever you choose, it’s a perfect prelude to a evening at the nearby Fox Theater or Symphony.
Bulrush. 3307 Washington Avenue in the Grand Center Arts District. Open: Thu-Sun 5p-10p. Reservation strongly recommended for the Ozark tasting, though walk-in seating is sometimes available. Changes daily. Chef-Owner: Rob Connoley.
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