Timberyard has a rustic feel with well spaced, good-sized wood planked tables, brick walls and candles everywhere. Small lights hang from the ceiling but it a fairly low light level which makes the photos a bit grainy since I won’t use flash. A wood-stove and seating area are in the middle of the long room. The background music is eclectic in the dining room and rain sounds accompany you in the bathroom. The building had been an actual lumberyard and hardware store up to 5 years ago, thus the name Timberyard. Service is friendly but not overly engaging. However the pacing was quite nice. They offer 3 different tasting menus, 4, 6 and 8 courses with optional drink pairings. Portion sizes are well controlled so the 8 is not too much food.
As we looked over the options we were brought nice crusty rye bread, butter, mild dill pickle and piece of cured meat. All were tasty.
A couple amuse bouche start the meal. First was a pickled, then barbecued carrot and a carrot top emulsion with hazelnut pesto on a cracker. The carrots were really smoky and crisp and the emulsion was equally tasty and savory. Simple but very good.
Smoked eel was topped with sweet beet root and covered with thin sweet slices of beet. The eel was delicious and mixed well with the beet.
The tasting started with cured scallop served with kohlrabi, pine, horseradish and sorrel. The scallop was raw with an almost nutty flavor. The pine was the flavoring in the broth and thankfully not too strong which worked great with the sweet and delicious scallop.
Mackerel with salt gooseberry, cucumber and watercress was next. The mackerel had been lightly seared and the cucumbers cut into balls. The nice mackerel was not overpowering probably because it was super fresh and had been cooked just enough to give that slight stick that you often get with good salmon. All the ingredients worked really well together to produce a very good course.
Octopus was served with burnt apple sauce, fennel and herbs. The apple went really well with the octopus but some of the herbs were overpowering. A bit of dill worked best in my opinion.
Partridge was served with Jerusalem artichoke, hen of the woods mushroom and pear. The partridge was tender and nicely cooked white meat and great with the delicious mushroom. The artichoke seemed to have been peeled and sliced ultra thin. A small piece of the liver was also on the plate and it was juicy and delicious. A wonderful savory sauce added even more to this tasty plate.
Hake was paired with razor clams, seaweed butter, salsify and smoked purée of potato. The rubbery clams paired nicely with the sprinkling of herbs and the hake was perfectly cooked. Each ingredient on the plate was excellent alone but also mixed well with all the others.
Mallard was served with squash, black garlic, endive and truffle. The duck was cooked nicely rare on top of a black garlic – truffle sauce mixed with some squash juice. A piece of the heart was chewy goodness and a nice surprise. Lots of flavors here and tasty bites, but in this case they were all best when eaten in combination.
A palate cleanser was an extra. It was made of sheep’s milk sorbet with mint. The very creamy sorbet was refreshingly wonderful and the mint was a tasty addition.
Meadowsweet was malted caramel with milk foam and hazelnuts. The creamy ice cream dusted with malt and hazelnuts was yummy deliciousness. It was a perfect amount of sweetness.
Fig leaf ice cream with damson, plum and goats milk yoghurt was the last course. It was very good but had a few too many ingredients for my tastes. It did have a crumble of something on the plate but textural contrast was lacking here.
