| A symphony of earth tones: mac-and-cheese, savory bread pudding, barbecued beans. |
Actually, restaurateur Beth Barden has been offering a dinner menu at Succotash, her year-old Dutch Hill bruncheonette, for the past three weeks. But I finally made it into the restaurant last night and I was very impressed.
Barden still doesn't have a liquor license but says that's in the works. In the meantime, her staff can blend up a fresh fruit-and-vegetable juice (we sampled a lip-puckering but great-tasting "limemade" made with cucumber, apple, pineapple, lime and ginger), hot tea, San Pellegrino or soft drinks, like Fanta orange in the bottle.
There's no official dinner menu yet, so Barden writes that day's offerings in green magic marker on a sheet of stainless steel mounted over the bar. It's not all that easy to read the descriptions, but the inexpensive prices caught my eye immediately.
The three entree choices offered last night -- wine-braised pot roast, butter-blackened cod, and gouda macaroni and cheese -- all included a succotash-and-derby sage biscuit and a choice of two or three side dishes. A dinner with two sides was $12, and a meal with three sides was $13.
| Pot roast -- better than your mom's |
Carrie actually could have made a sumptuous meal out of the side dishes (with the exception of the mashed potatoes, rich with Amish butter), and I made a mental note to tell my vegetarian co-workers about the selection: a mound of bright green kale that Barden had flash-sauteed in a pan with fresh garlic and olive oil, black-eyed peas in a kick-ass tomato-based barbecue sauce, and a fragrant, light wild mushroom bread pudding.
The long-simmered collard greens won't please a vegetarian (they're cooked with ham), but I loved them. The greens were topped with that feather-light biscuit made with aromatic sage and the succotash vegetables: lima beans and tomatoes -- with corn and cheese.
Dining with a lactose-intolerant friend meant that I could keep the decadently rich mac and cheese -- baked in a velvety creamy sauce made with gouda, farmers cheese, hard cheddar, wine-soaked goat cheese and a touch of white cheddar -- all to myself. I couldn't decide which I loved more: the pasta or the crunchy crust of cheddar and ground cracker meal. (Barden says with enough notice, she can make a vegan version of this dish.)
| Butter-blackened cod -- with mashers and collard greens |
Dinner service begins on Sundays at 5 p.m. and ends, says Barden, "when the last customer walks out of the door."
Barden plans to add weeknight dinner service after she receives her liquor license.
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