Triad City Bites — August 2018

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

AUGUST 2018

Curated By:

Mission Pizza NapoletanA’s Pizza Mission

Also featured in this month’s Issue: Spicing up Ramen

Dinner Guest

The algorithm of kitchen management

M

by Jay Pierce

ost people don’t understand how slim the margins are in a professional restaurant, including many — if not most — who open their own eateries. But behind the cuisine, there is delicate

algorithm at play.

In culinary school, we learned that the most successful restaurants maintain a prime cost (labor plus cost of goods) close to 60 percent, manage to limit fixed costs (rent, taxes, utilities, etc.) to about 30 percent and hope to make a 10 percent profit. I don’t know how that compares to other industries, because this is what I’ve done my entire adult life, but I can assure you it is tough to get by on 10 percent.

Unseasoned restaurateurs often believe that raising prices cures all ills when not enough money is flowing to the bottom line.

But the market will only bear so much in terms of pricing.

The true craft in running a restaurant is not buying low and selling high, but by controlling costs through efficiency.

In the local restaurant game, we buy from small-business owners who need to charge a fair price to survive in their endeavors. Since we pay more for many of our ingredients, but sell the resulting dishes for prices on par with restaurants that are buying everything from big box/one-stop shops, we must find ways to maximize the return on our investment. As a chef that means getting creative. When I buy broccoli, I don’t cut off the stalks and throw them away, as most folks do at home; I concoct a recipe for pickled broccoli stalks and include it in a Korean bowl.

I make them so yummy that I buy broccoli just to make the pickles, and have to get creative with the prized florets.

When I’m making new menu items, I like to go to the farmers’ market and ask vendors what they have trouble selling. The answer is usually bones, root vegetables or other

ugly specimens — basically my stock recipe.

Good stock is the backbone of hearty greens, braised meats and any amazing soup, but it’s too easy for kitchen peeps to buy concentrated base instead of roasting and simmering bones to serve that end. Therefore, bones get turned into dog food. If we buy bones to make our own stock, we buy something undervalued, provide a service to the farmer, create a new task for our employees and deliver and incomparable dish to our patrons.

Throughout my career, I have always found ways to turn unwanted or unappreciated ingredients into something to be celebrated, desired. I’m not inventing things usually, just tapping into that subsistence tradition that existed before we all depended on supermarkets - whether that be pickling watermelon rinds, making chowchow from Swiss chard stems, vegetable stock from onion skins, carrot peelings and mushroom stems, or devising a ramen special to burn through some porkbone broth.

A good friend of mine showed me a cool trick.

We buy lots of tomatoes.

Tomatoes seem to all ripen at the same time. When some tomatoes begin to turn, sporting blemishes or cracks, the rest of the tomato is not lost. Cut out the bad spots and freeze the remaining tomato on a baking sheet. When frozen, it can be placed in a freezer bag. To make tomato sauce, transfer the frozen tomatoes directly to the oven in a roasting pan. The skins tighten up and are easily removed, before pureeing the roasted pulp to yield a smooth sauce.

Ultimately the goal of any chef or restauranteur is not just providing great tasting food and drink for an adoring public, but to keep the place profitable enough to provide for its staff and ownership. Social media scores and television spots are nice, but insuring that all of the food that comes in the back door needs to leave through the front door (meaning it’s purchased) not in the trash or in someone’s coat, is the key to success.

1618 Midtown $$-$$$

1618midtown.com 1724 Battleground Ave. GSO 336.285.9410

The true craft in running a restaurant is not buying low and selling high, but by controlling costs through efficiency.

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Triad City Bites

1618 Midtown’s General Manager and Certified Sommelier Stacey Land met with “grape expectations” when the restaurant was honored by Wine Spectator magazine with a 2018 Award of Excellence. Land earned the distinction of Certified Sommelier from the Court of Master Sommeliers in 2017 and is currently studying for her Advanced Sommelier exam. She is also a Certified Sake Advisor and winner of the 2016 Domaine Serene Somm Select challenge. The Award of Excellence identifies restaurants whose wine lists feature a well-chosen assortment of quality producers along with a thematic match to the menu in both price and style. It’s a reflection of the restaurant’s mission to deliver an outstanding beverage program around Land’s growing talents. Midtown carries 120 carefully chosen selections, and keeps an inventory of 1,500 bottles. “I look for balance when creating the list,” says Land. “For every off-the-wall blend of Greek indigenous varietals there needs to be something comfortable and easily recognized, like a New Zealand sauvignon blanc.” 1618 Midtown, along with sister restaurants 1618 Seafood Grille and 1618 Downtown, is home to several celebrations of wine including winemaker dinners, tastings, culture classes and the 1618 Book* Club (by “book” we mean “wine”).

August 2018

Kitchen + Market $$-$$$ nattygreeneskitchenandmarket.com 2003 Yanceyville St. GSO 336.656.2410

Burger Batch $-$$

burgerbatch.com 2760 NC 68 HP 336.875.4082 237 W. 5th St. WS 336.893.6395

The Kitchen+Market continues its evolution at Revolution Mill with the opening of the upstairs Board Room, featuring a limited menu of share-ables curated at the Board Station (Pictured above: shrimp ceviche, steak tartare, charcuterie board, deviled eggs + libations). The smaller space and bespoke menu offer a peek inside the mind of Kitchen+Market owner Kayne Fisher on a more intimate scale. Together with the main restaurant, the Deck outdoor tavern, the downstairs Market and the rolling grounds and towering stacks of Revolution Mill, the Board Station brings another facet of the Kitchen+Market experience.

Melt Kitchen & Bar $-$$ meltkitchenandbar.com 1941 New Garden Road # 116 GSO 336.763.5445

Melt made its name with a top-shelf panini menu that utilized fresh ingredients, fresh cheese and bread baked expressly for the purpose of being hot-pressed into a crispy, gooey work of art. In its new location on New Garden Road, Melt has twice the seating space, bar and lounge seating and a bigger kitchen, enabling an expansion of the menu.

All the favorites remain: the duck-fat fries, the “Almost Famous” Brussels sprouts, the house-made pimiento cheese, the award-winning BLT. But the burger and taco menus have swelled with new items; there are more small-plate options to share or start the meal, a new slate of salads, vegan-friendly options and more. No need to make a reservation — just come on by.

August 2018

Sweet-toothed novelty seekers can’t look away from Burger Batch’s playful milkshake menu. These aren’t the shakes of romantic Norman Rockwell paintings; the decadent concoctions tower over classic milkshake glasses like charming parodies of 21st Century intemperance with ingredients as far ranging as Nutter Butters, caramel corn, fudge, Froot Loops, Graham cracker and marshmallows.

The It’s a Surprise shake is the belle of the ball: a cake-batter shake rimmed with rainbow sprinkles and topped off with cotton candy and a slice of birthday cake. Customers looking for something slightly more traditional will find Banana Time, a banana pudding shake sporting Nila wafers and Captain Crunch, and the Black & White, a classic Oreo shake donning a crown of cookies. Looking for something sweeter than the brunch crew? Try the Breakfast Club, featuring just about every multicolored cereal on the market and a Rice Krispy treat. There’s something for everyone, even the peanut butter devotee in the group.

Triad City Bites

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Mission Pizza NapolEtanA’s Good pizza doesn’t happen by accident.

Peyton Smith, owner of Winston-Salem’s Mission Pizza Napoletana, knows good pizza comes from tradition — in this case, Napoletana pizza, the original pizza, which is the only kind they make. It’s about ingredients, sure, and Mission Pizza uses only the best.

Technique is important too: pies go into a wood-fired oven that can hit 1000 degrees, blistering the crust in about 90 seconds.

That’s why Mission’s pizzas have been named the best in the state by Charlotte Observer food writer Kathleen Purvis.

But like all food, pizza is about people.

So at the beginning of the summer, Smith took four of his best pizza folks on an extended pizza binge in New York City, both as a reward for making the best pizza in the Triad day after day, but also to tie them into the grand tradition of which they are a part.

“It was an opportunity for experience,” Smith says, “and for us to see where we stand, how other teams are executing at a high level in the big city.”

He also invited a bunch of his pizza bud-

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Triad City Bites

August 2018

die an the tha Ma the

Piz stu to us the

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an be for the the thi tan Str the

s Pizza Mission

es from Orlando, Chicago, New York City nd across the river in New Jersey to join on e jaunt. The 12-member crew hit no fewer an 10 pizza joints throughout the island of anhattan, eating everything they could get eir hands on along the way.

It started with slices Downtown at Joe’s zza at 10:30 a.m., and then the thin-crust uff at Martina on 11th Street. Then it was on o Kesté Pizza & Vino, where Roberto Caporscio makes what is widely acknowledged as e best pizza in New York City.

“He’s become like the godfather, so to peak,” Smith says.

Song’ E Napule made the cut because it’s n authentic hole in the wall in SoHo, and ecause of proprietor Ciro Iovine’s passion r the form. They hit the Woodstock under e High Line on the West Side, Motorino in e East Village, Joe & Pat’s for tavern-style in crust, Una Pizza Napoletana for Neapolin, Scarr’s for the old-school stuff and Prince reet Pizza for what Smith says is “probably e most Instagrammed pizza in New York.”

It was fun, riding through Manhattan on a

August 2018

tour bus with a bunch of pizza nerds and sampling the best the city has to offer. And it provided something invaluable to the culture at Mission Pizza.

“Every day, down here on Trade Street, we operate in a vacuum,” Smith says now from the counter of his own pizza temple in the Arts District. “The guys always wondered what kind of product we were putting out — the look, the taste, the smell, the traditions. They didn’t know how

it all compared with what we do every day. They just had to buy in without knowing the difference. I mean, Phil had never been on a plane before.”

The trip confirmed what Smith had been telling his staff all along: that they are engaged in the ancient practice of Napoletana-style pizzamaking, in much the same way it was done 300 years ago in Naples, and that their pizzas can stand right up the with the best.

“It gave them a lot of pride to

Mission Pizza $-$$

missionpizzanapoletana.com 707 Trade St. WS, 336.893.8217

understand where our product is on a national scale,” Smith says. “They got really inspired by all these pizza people doing their thing, carving out their own little slices of the world.”

The team will travel back to Manhattan in October for the New York Pizza Festival, pitting their pies against the finest pizzamakers in the world in its undisputed pizza capital. And after their pizza mission, they know they’re up to the task.

Triad City Bites

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The Quiet Pint $$

Find them on Facebook.

1420 W. First St. WS, 336.893.6881 Gather at the Quiet Pint for pub trivia hosted

by Geeks Who Drink every Tuesday evening at 7:30 p.m. This is team trivia and winning teams will be awarded prizes in the form of Quiet Pint gift cards and craftbeer schwag.

Follow the beer menu in real-time with the TapHunter App and receive notifications when new beers are tapped. Live music season will be starting soon — follow the Quiet Pint on Facebook to see the schedule.

Jerusalem Market $$

jerusalemmarket.com 310 S. Elm St. GSO, 336.279.7025 5002 High Point Road GSO, 336.547.0220 Since 1989, the Triad’s favorite Middle Eastern Grocery built a loyal following near Adams Farm with its international market and sandwich counter in the back. Jerusalem Market specializes in imported groceries and ingredients, and the most unusual soft-drink cooler in town. It’s newest location, downtown on South Elm Street, carries a full board of specialty sandwiches using ingredients like Italian mortadella and salami, Turkish dried sausage and in-house butchered lamb and beef. Fresh-made baba ghanouj, tabouleh and “the best hummos in the world” every day, with organic produce and locally-sourced ingredients whenever possible.

Open for lunch and dinner. “You will be pleased.”

Mary’s Gourmet Diner $$

Mozelle’s Fresh Southern Bistro $$

Mary Haglund owns breakfast in Winston-Salem.

Her first venture, Mary’s of Course!

Which opened in 2000, was the original farm-tofork restaurant in the city. There she solidified her relationships with local purveyors and her commitment to real, local ingredients, as well as her biscuit recipe. Her egg dishes are legendary, her pancakes sublime. And the specials board always has something interesting. Open only for breakfast and lunch and the sweet spot in between, Mary’s Gourmet Diner is a WinstonSalem original.

If you are not familiar with tomato pie, you may not understand the special place that the version at Mozelle’s Fresh Southern Bistro holds among Triad foodies and non-foodies alike. The singular combination of tomatoes, cheeses and herbs between two handmade crusts is the closest thing to an indigenous pizza style that the South can lay claim to. Mozelle’s, situated in the heart of the Historic West End of Winston-Salem’s downtown has been serving up an exemplary version of these tomato pies for going on 10 years, with no signs of slowing down. The menu is rounded out with enough classics of the Southern culinary canon to earn it a place on Open Table’s list of 50 Best Southern Restaurants. Grab a glass of wine from owner Jennifer Smith’s carefully curated wine list, mix in Chef Jay Pierce’s local farmers’ products that star in tantalizing seasonal dishes and nightly specials, and you have a recipe for a memorable meal.

marysgourmetdiner.net 723 Trade St. WS, 336.723.7239

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Triad City Bites

mozelles.com 878 W. Fourth St. WS, 336.703.5400

August 2018

Flash in the Pan:

Summer ramence

O

n the fifth floor of the apartment where I grew up, my young culinary horizons were broadened by a Korean family down the hall. By second grade, I could hold a bowl of rice to my mouth and shovel it in with chopsticks, thanks to the diligent coaching of Christina, Wendy and Karen, who were about my age. The Park girls also taught me how to carefully pull noodles, one by one, from a bowl of

by Ari LeVaux high-end Japanese instant ramen.

Sometimes their parents doctored the ramen with the likes of seaweed, green onion and egg. It hampered the noodle games, but by college I had some valuable life skills, along with disdain for my dormies and their cases of Top Ramen, to which they proudly added hot dogs and canned chicken.

Today, I doctor with produce from the farmers market, but I still use the Park family’s instant ramen of choice: a Japanese brand called Sapporo Ichiban.

Japan is the undisputed birthplace of ramen, but nearby Korea never developed a culture of ramen bars, those storied humble kitchens where fresh noodles are served in slowly-simmered broth. Without that background, most Korean eaters, like their American counterparts, first experienced ramen in packaged, instant form.

Since my early education, ramen is having an extended moment, and Korea has been a leader in this worldwide phenomenon. The land that gave us K-Pop produces some of the most over-the-top versions of packaged ramen, with multiple flavoring packs delivering spices, oils, and freeze-dried proteins and vegetables. But the favored brand among South Koreans, since about the mid-1980s, is Shin Ramyun, a simple, spicy, beef broth-based formulation that’s become an iconic South Korean comfort food.

During these hot days of summer, piquancy is an unexpected asset to a hot bowl of brothy ramen, as temperature-heat and spicy-heat combine like a double negative to create their polar opposite. Your face gets steamed as the hydrating liquids warm your belly, while the chile heat lights a refreshing kind of fire inside, making you sweat profusely, which cools you off dramatically. While chilled soups get a lot of attention in the sweltering heat, they aren’t eating gazpacho in the infernos of Bangkok, Saigon, Chengdu and other hot Asian places where the soups are hot, spicy and brothy, not to mention full of noodles.

In addition to cooling off, I like to use spicy ramen as a way to absorb seasonal vegetables as they appear. Wild dandelion and nettle ramen during mud season, pea and zucchini ramen in spring, which, in turn, give way to the umami-rich tomatoes and corn late in the season.

In this country, most fresh ramen — the kind served at the places where hipsters wait in lines around the block — includes a choice of miso, soy base, or tonkatsu (aka pork bone) broth. When it comes to instant, I actually prefer the chicken or regular flavors of Sapporo Ichiban. But regardless of noodle brand and even flavor, I like to carry on the tonkatsu tradition of adding bacon and eggs to the ramen, but a Korean may use beef ribs instead of bacon, and that’s totally fine.

Different ingredients must be added at different times, depending on how long they need to cook. I start with bacon (just a basic flavor, no honey or maple — I like pancetta). Cook slowly on low to make it a little crispy, and leave yourself time to remember ingredients you want to add.

Then, anything else that may benefit from some time simmering in bacon grease. Mushrooms are one option, though I think you would want to add butter, which is just fine in ramen. Zucchini, radish and garlic are also good early additions. Tomatoes can be added now, so they have time to spill

August 2018

their juices, along with half an onion, which can add flavor but be easily avoided later on. Toasted sesame oil adds a great flavor to most ramen, and now is as good a time as any to add it. Stir it around to even out the brown, and place the dry brick of noodles atop everything else in the pan, and cover. This gets the noodles cooking, ever so slightly, in the steam of the simmering veggies. Meanwhile, start a kettle of water on the stove.

When the water boils, add the last round of ingredients to the pan. In my case, that includes a cracked egg and maybe some tofu. Sprinkle the flavor packet onto the stuff in the pan, along with an appropriate amount of chile powder, if using, and pour in the water. I like it brothy, so I add a cup or more than I’m supposed to.

The boiling hot water will continue to boil as you add it to the pan, and will create a bit of steam, so turn on the vent and be careful. Now you can add anything that needs just a bit of cooking, such as peas, corn or pieces of cabbage. Pea shoots will get tangled up in the noodles, which is fun.

You can also add mustard greens, frozen shrimp or scallops, meat from a rotisserie chicken, or anything else that could use a little cooking, or add to the broth. Make sure noodles are submerged. It should take about two minutes for the noodles to cook, then kill the heat.

Taste the broth and add seasoning sauces. I like a dash of fish sauce, a splash of soy, a tablespoon of oyster sauce, but it changes depending on the soup base. If I’m using beef flavored I add hoisin sauce. Sometimes a little black pepper is nice. Cook for a minute, covered, and serve alongside a garnish plate of raw veggies to add on top.

These garnish veggies include fresh herbs, radicchio, green onions, seaweed, fresh cucumber slices, iceberg lettuce and even slices or wedges of low-acid heirloom tomatoes like brandywine. These veggies may wilt a bit in the heat, but will still provide a fresh crunch. The Koreans, of course, like to add kimchi.

Last but not least, the spices. I recommend sliced jalapeños and a squirt of sriracha, but there are many ways to add heat to a bowl of noodles, chile powder (added already) or adding your favorite hot sauce while eating.

As the sweat drips and the back of your neck begins feeling pleasantly cool, remember that loud slurping is a sign of respect to the chef in authentic ramen houses. So let your inhibitions go and dive in. Heck, I won’t even complain if you add some mayo. Just remember to bring a towel.

Triad City Bites

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SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

Burke Street Pizza $

Local 27101 $

Burke Street Pizza has gone green at all its locations. No more plastic straws, Styrofoam take-out containers, plastic bags or foil and plastic trays, with a pledge to eliminate most of its plastic waste in the coming months.

They’ve installed high-efficiency LED lighting and switched to pizza boxes and napkins made from recycled materials. In celebration, BSP has partnered with A/perture Cinema for a screening of A Plastic Ocean, about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a miles-wide mass of free-floating plastic garbage in the North Pacific. Showtime is Tuesday, July 10 at A/perture at 7 p.m. Find the event on Facebook. And visit Burke Street Pizza at its original location on Burke Street, or the one Robinhood Road.

Local 27101, located in the heart of downtown Winston-Salem, balances a casual ambiance with local classics re-imagined by Executive Chef Patrick Rafferty, and with the savvy of the management behind the Millennium Center. They feature fresh food made fast, and there’s fare for everyone: Burgers with seasoned crinkle cut and sweet potato fries. A legendary hot dog. Fresh shrimp and oysters for po-boys — grilled, fried or sautéed — and made-to-order salads that go beyond the basic house with Caesar and a Cobb. Local 27101 has local wine and beer, free delivery throughout downtown Winston-Salem and the West End. And they cater, as well — either on location, on site at Local 27101 or one of the many chambers of the Millennium Center. Closed Sundays.

Uncle Buzzy’s Fried Food $

Bites & Pints Gastropub $

burkestreetpizza.com 1140 Burke St. WS, 336.721.0011 3352 Robinhood Road WS, 336.760.4888

Find them on Facebook.

1510 First St. WS

Uncle Buzzy’s specializes in creative carnival food: fried, smoked mac and cheese, porchetta meat cones and turkey legs as well as burgers, hot dogs tacos and the sort of deepfried experimentation for which the genre is becoming famous: funnel cakes, fried Oreos, ice cream tacos on waffles. Owner Dave Hillman partnered with Chef Brian Duffy, best known as the kitchen guy from the television show “Bar Rescue,” to flesh out the carnivalfood concept and add classic American street food. A Nashville chicken sandwich. Disco fries. Poutine. There’s a smoker in the kitchen for pork shoulder and anything else the guys want to experiment with. Beef gets roasted in house and served four ways: Italian-style, a Chicago favorite with a jus-soaked bun; shaved into a Philly cheesesteak; served on a salty kummelweck roll for the Buffalo, NY favorite beef on weck; and done exactly like Dave remembers it from the original Buzzy’s in Boston, the First Street Bomber. Uncle Buzzy’s is open now on First Street for takeout only.

thelocal.ws 310 W. Fourth St. WS, 336.725.3900

bitesandpintsgastropub.com 2503 Spring Garden St. GSO, 336.617.5185 Chef Kris Fuller, queen of the Crafted empire in Greensboro and WinstonSalem, joined with longtime Westerwood Tavern owner Mike Bosco to create Greensboro’s only true gastropub. Fuller’s menu takes bar food to the next level, with an eclectic slate of delectables suitable for sharing or grubbing down solo: boiled peanuts, shrimp tempura, chicken and waffles, melts, salads, a full component of burgers and hot dogs and even a kids’ menu. Bosco’s bar has all the necessary accoutrements. Open every day in the Lindley Park section of Spring Garden Street.

Don’t see your business? Call Brian at 336.681.0704 to get listed.