Just the name: A Farm Dinner, sounds wonderful. It brings to mind images of sweet vine ripe tomatoes and crusty homemade bread. Ryan’s Dinner had all the elements of a Farm Dinner but, turned them on their head in a surprising and magical way.
When I was 10 years old, my father took me to dinner at Cincinnati’s famous 5-star restaurant The Maison- ette. The waiter looked concerned when I smiled and told him I wanted the traditional lobster bake dinner. My father just smiled and said he’d share it with me. We ate every mouth watering bite.
So, when my oldest son turned 10 I took him to the Maisonette to carry on the tradition. When he wanted the hasenpfeffer, I thought it appropriate that he received the same concerned look from the waiter, who turned to me and said, are you sure? “Whatever he wants,” I said. He ate every bite.
Unfortunately, The Maisonette had closed permanently by the time my youngest son’s 10th birthday came around so we went to another fancy restaurant which was fun but didn’t really have the punch of a dinner at a 5-star restaurant. Then a few months ago I came across this…
Please is a unique “pop-up” operating in Cincinnati. For the last 2 years we’ve cooked dinners in everything from old bank buildings to popsicle shops to our current location, Carriage House Farm. This summer starting June 1st we will be moving all our dinners to Carriage House Farm in North Bend, OH. A short 25-minute drive from downtown Cincinnati, we will be cooking everything outdoors in a wood fire oven and a wood fire grill… no electricity! We take reservations 1 month out for 3 weekends in the coming month. The table will seat 13 guests each evening outdoors overlooking the farm.
So I emailed the Chef, Ryan Santos and here’s a little of the magic that happened. When we arrived we joined a small group getting a tour through the herb and vegetables gardens. Our tour guide Richard was casually holding a small frosty jug of home brewed beer in one hand and picking off little clusters of Wild Mountain Mint for us to sample with the other. As we made our way up the hill to the dinning area talking and introducing ourselves to the other guests I was feeling a strange mix of excitement and peacefulness.
The long wooden table was set with soft cotton napkins and what looked like the worn, wooden handled silverware Laura Ingles would have used. The other guests were arriving as Ryan was preparing the first course. The menu was a simple white piece of paper with the following words:
Snacks
Flowers
Chicken Poached in Egg Yolk
Spent Grains. The Beer it Made. Pig it Fed.
Zucchini
Goats Milk & Dill
Tomato
It was like introducing the meal with a poem that’s meaning would unfold as each course was set in front of us— each course a tantalizing work of art. Along with the first course, Richard generously offered us a glass of the cold jug of beer he’d carried up the hill. It had a deep, rich flavor without being overly bitter and it went perfectly with the two fine strips of locally made prosciutto and puff of fried spiced pork rind in the first course. Next, resting on a small piece of slate came the duck liver paté with pickled green tomatoes nestled between two homemade crackers.
The salad for the evening was a small wooden bowl filled with sliced baby cucumbers, drizzled with buttermilk and sprinkled with an array of brightly colored fresh flowers served with a slice of crusty Blue Oven Bakery sour- dough bread and freshly made butter. The main course was unlike anything I’d ever had before. Locally raised pieces of chicken nestled gently in a bed of fresh corn & cream, topped with crisp pieces of fried chicken skin and sautéed wild mushrooms that Ryan had foraged himself the morning before. The dish was finished with a rich sauce and sprinkled lightly with bright strands of corn silk so delicate they seemed to melt on your tongue.
As the pork course was placed before us, the poem started to unfold in a most curious way. Spent Grains are the remains of the grains used to make the local beer, a local farmer takes the spent grains back to the farm to feed to her pigs. We were eating that pig. I know this, because the couple who raised the pig were sitting right next to us enjoying the meal. So sitting at the table with us was the gentleman that raised the vegetables and the herbs, the woman who raised the pig and another woman who brewed the beer. Now that’s local.
The air was filled with an unusual amount of great conversations and laughter for a table filled with strangers. It made the evening special to know that all the separate elements of the meal were nurtured and prepared by people who love their work and have a great respect for what it takes to create a truly nourishing meal. But to have those same people sitting at the table with us, Richard who grew the herbs and vegetables, Fran and Trish who raised the pig, Lindsey who brewed the beer and Ryan who for- aged the mushrooms and created each dish… really gave me pause.
It put me in mind of a group of friends eating on the side of a hill in Tuscany. Then, as if on queue, just as Ryan moved to the desert course, a woman rode by on a beautiful palomino horse and disappeared into the woods.
The two desserts were so unusual and contradictory, I hate to describe them, because without tasting them, you’re likely to cringe at the combination. But trust me, they were simply amazing. The first was a small scoop of cinnamon zucchini ice cream placed on candied grated zucchini and decorated with a squash flower stuffed with fresh blueberries in a cream sauce. The second dessert was goat’s milk ice cream with dried sour cherries and a bright green sweet dill sauce!
To end the meal Ryan served us one fresh cherry tomato, skinned, lightly stewed and covered in a simple rhubarb sauce on a beautiful small slab of red wood.
As we all lingered over the last few bites, laughing and telling stories, Ryan sat on the wall sipping wine from a plastic container, talking to his team as they packed up and joining in on our conversation every now and then. A fine way to spend a summer evening.
Please is a local “Pop-up” restaurant that has been serving Cincinnati residents and their guests for over two years. For reservations go to pleasecincinnati.com
