CHEF’S TABLE

A COLLABORATIVE KITCHEN

STAFF TEAMWORK AND A FOCUS ON QUALITY HAS BEEN THE KEY TO RELISH CRAFT KITCHEN & BOURBON BAR’S SUCCESS

BY ALEX DIXON ǀ PHOTOS BY MASH PHOTOGRAPHY

When Sharon May began planning a restaurant in 2009, she knew she wanted it to have approachable Southern comfort food in an upscale atmosphere without a hefty price tag. As an established Raleigh restaurateur with more than four decades of experience, May had just parted ways with her restaurant partners and was in the beginning stages of planning Relish Craft Kitchen & Bourbon Bar. She joined forces with Kim Berryann, director of operations; Miguel Balderas, kitchen manager; and Balderas’ wife, assistant kitchen manager Laura Ortega. ”We ended up with an eclectic skill set,” May says, “and the ability to produce the food that we do.”

Since Relish opened, May is often asked who the head chef is. And while there has not been an official head chef throughout the restaurant’s 11-year history, she says the combined ideas and execution of May, Berryann, Balderas and Ortega have more than made up for that.

“The truth is that Kim, Miguel, Laura and I have been inspired by our own personal collections of recipes and cookbooks that we have modified to suit our commercial kitchen and our own individual taste preferences,” May wrote in a blog post describing Relish’s approach to cooking. “We all brought with us a joint love of eating in interesting restaurants around the world, pouring through beautifully laid-out cookbooks for inspiration, and watching countless hours of Food Network chefs to ‘borrow’ ideas and make them our own,” she says, adding, “OK, that part is mostly me.”

REINVIGORATING RELISH

Relish Craft Kitchen & Bourbon Bar has built a reliable customer base with favorite dishes and ingredients across the menu—whether it’s the BBQ Pork Burrito Mojado or the pimento cheese that goes into the restaurant’s appetizers and sandwiches. And while nearly everything on the menu is homemade—even down to the various salad dressings—May says maintaining an affordable and convenient price point is a priority. The restaurant rotates certain dishes out seasonally to add variety to the menu, such as a featured mac and cheese—the latest being a Baltimore shrimp version served with Old Bay seasoning and Parmesan cheese.

Relish is known not only for its food, but also for its adventurous and expansive bourbon menu. During the restaurant’s initial phases, May focused primarily on the food and let the bartenders “do their thing,” she says, without setting a particular focus on the drinks menu.

But her approach changed after a night out in downtown Raleigh with a group of friends. During this outing, the bourboncentric cocktails she drank led to an epiphany: Relish’s drink program could be so much more. This realization inspired her to take her bar managers to The Crunkleton in Chapel Hill, where they met owner, namesake and bartender extraordinaire Gary Crunkleton. May hired him to train the Relish staff and help reinvigorate its drinks program—from the selection of bourbons to the training of the staff.

This passion was reinforced for the Relish staff during a trip to Kentucky, when they learned much more about bourbon through distillery tours and tastings. They took their learnings back to Relish. Now, Relish’s drink program uses house-made ingredients and esteemed bourbons, from the ginger syrup and fresh lime juice in the Moscow Mule, to the Oak N Smoke with Basil Hayden’s bourbon, ginger liqueur, fresh lemon, honey syrup and angostura bitters served in a smoked glass. Relish guests can also try the “Find Your Grain” bourbon flight, which includes a variety of bourbon types, such as the traditional Russell’s Reserve 10 Year bourbon, Larceny’s wheated bourbons and 1792 Small Batch bourbon, which is made with a high-rye mash bill.

BISCUITS, BREWS AND BOARD GAMES

In 2019, shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic began, May and Relish expanded into the former Dos Taquitos space next door to add more kitchen space, along with a new dining concept: The Kitchen Table at Relish—Biscuits, Brews and Board Games. May says she was inspired by board game cafés while on a trip to Europe and wanted to bring that atmosphere back to Raleigh. The café boasts more than 400 games in its collection, and “gametenders” provide expertise to each guest group by catering to their preferences, then suggesting and teaching games.

Early into 2020, however, The Kitchen Table at Relish closed so that May and her team could focus on the growing demand for takeout during the pandemic. The board games concept reopened in early 2022 with a few tweaks, including a focus on simpler prepared foods, like meats and cheeses instead of biscuits.

“No lecture intended, but so many of us— myself included—spend so much of our time connected to people only through technology. Finding ways to spend time just talking with no screens has become a bit illusive,” May says. “But playing board games sets the stage for some of the best conversations about life and learning, and they are also perfect ice breakers that can encourage a group to find common ground.”

RELISH'S GINGER PUREE AND MOSCOW MULE. RECIPE ON PAGE 68.

RELISH'S PIMENTO CHEESE FRITTERS. RECIPE ON PAGE 68.

RELISH’S GINGER PUREE AND MOSCOW MULE

GINGER PUREE INGREDIENTS 3 cups of diced fresh ginger (no need to peel it) 1 cup of fresh-squeezed lemon juice ¼ cup of sugar

GINGER PUREE DIRECTIONS Combine all ingredients in a saucepan. Bring the mixture to a simmer and cook it over medium heat until it is tender and almost all of the liquid is gone. This should take around 10 minutes. Transfer the mixture to a blender and puree until smooth. Add 6 cups of water and blend the mixture again. Strain the mixture and keep it in the refrigerator. This recipe yeilds about 3½ cups of puree.

MOSCOW MULE INGREDIENTS 1½ ounces of vodka 1½ ounces of ginger puree 1 ounce of fresh lime juice 1 ounce of agave syrup

MOSCOW MULE DIRECTIONS Build the drink in a pint mixing glass; stir it and then pour into an ice-filled copper mug. Top the drink with a splash of ginger ale and squeezed lime. PIMENTO CHEESE FRITTERS

INGREDIENTS 4 cups of shredded sharp cheddar 4 cups of shredded pepper jack 1 tablespoon of onion powder 1½ teaspoons of cayenne pepper 1½ teaspoons of black pepper 1 cup of mayonnaise 3 ounces of canned pimentos, chopped Flour, milk and unseasoned breadcrumbs for coating

DIRECTIONS Combine all ingredients—except for the flour, milk and breadcrumbs—and mix well. Scoop the mixture into 1-ounce balls and place them onto a sheet pan, then put the pan in the freezer for 20–30 minutes. Remove the pan from the freezer. Coat each fritter with flour, dip them into buttermilk, then coat them again with dried breadcrumbs. Deep-fry the fritters in batches for about 2 minutes in 350-degree oil (just until golden brown—too much longer will cause the fritter to implode). Serve the fritters with Yah’s Best Hot Pepper Jelly for dipping. Recipe yields 40–50 fritters.

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