FOOD & DRINK

dependent on warm spices than its southern counterpart. It’s served with a deep-fried Chinese-style cruller for dipping into Tran-Dean’s bottomlessly beefy 36-hour stock infused with lip sticky-collagen.

“When there’s a classic, I don’t like to fuck with a good thing,” she says. “In the north they say the south can’t make good soup because of all the herbs and spices—”

“It muddles it,” says Hollinger.

The two remaining weekends—which benefit the west-side mutual aid group Earth’s Remedies—are but a preview of what the pair hope to introduce on a permanent basis after Tran-Dean’s maternity break. In the meantime she’ll be helping out with private dining and menu development at Oriole, while Hollinger continues to work at Aya, but the goal is to have a permanent place all their own.

“The whole point of this project is to just push and see how far we can go; just to create something new,” says Hollinger. v

@MikeSula