Gwynnett St | this guy's food blog

I’ve said before that I’m often fairly slow to put up posts about meals. Well..here’s one from about three months ago that I’ve had queued up on my wordpress page for quite awhile with pictures attached and just waiting for a few words. A late January dinner at Gwynnett St with Rocky. I’m not sure how relevant this will be since just days ago the restaurant announced that Chef Justin Hilbert has left the team and former sous chef Owen Clark will be taking his place. For what it’s worth, here’s what was for dinner:

Whiskey Bread with cultured butter. I really liked the crust. It was nice of Rocky to give me both end pieces.

Sunchoke. The sunchokes were served crispy, sliced, and roasted with cheese. Along with hazelnuts, purple watercress and a kick ass alpine cheese broth. The roasted and sliced chokes were both great, but the crispy ones got soggy with the broth.

Kohlrabi and Turnip. The kohlrabi was compressed with yuzu and soy. The turnip compressed with a dashi. Served with Iberian ham both shredded and in a mousse. Very impactful flavors in the vegetables. The turnip was awesome with its pairing, a Mosel Riesling Spatlese. Great work with roots.

Snails roasted with meyer lemon. With farro in an onion soubise, pickled onion, and crosnes. Super solid dish. Great flavor balance between acid and richness. The texture variety was a lot of fun. The crispness of the crosnes was superb, and Rocky had fun putting them atop the snails acting like they were shells.

Blood Dumplings. With parsnip noodles, roasted apple, and trevisio. A fantastic balance all together: the iron flavor of the blood, the bitter radicchio, the more vegetal than sweet parsnip, the soft texture of the dumplings, and the crisp and crunch of the vegetables. A vegetal local rose from Bedell Winery on Long Island was a fun pairing.

White Bean Tofu. With smoked white beans, carrots, and a few other roots. A few alliums in the dish had a wonderful char. The caramelized onion broth was spot on with a great fragrance.

Ocean Trout. A well-prepared piece of fish. Some sweet earthiness from salsify and golden beets. Some ocean accents from nori, wakame, and roe. A little bitter acidity from red veined sorrel. Superbly matched with the slightly sour dark berry earthiness of a cru Beaujolais from Julienas.

Duck. With brussels sprouts and prune. Super rich. Hard-hitting. With a huge wine to match; from Cadillac, Bordeaux.

Fennel & Grapefruit. Cool dessert with good bitter to sweet ratio and a resounding, cool herbaceousness.

I can’t recall anything really specific here. Something in the vein of a take on a strawberry shortcake. I remember it being awesome with the Pineau Des Charentes.