Vern’s serves contemporary American cuisine in a small restaurant and received a Michelin star in Nov. 2025.  Daniel and Bethany Heinze opened Vern’s in July 2022 and named it after his late grandfather.  We were at Vern’s in Feb 2023 and had a great dinner but planned this trip too late to get a regular reservation.  However, they were hosting  a collaboration dinner called Volume’s that we could get a reservation for, so we did.  The dinner was in combination with 10 years of Maloof Wines and BLVCK SVM, a rapper from Chicago.  This was a new one for me as I’ve been to other collaborations with chefs and vintners but to introduce music was another level.  The was BLVCK SVM’S Michelin Man album from which he chose 2 selections to play with each course and they repeated if necessary.    It was one seating for about 24 at a long table with Sam talking with each guest and the Maloof folks presenting their wines.  The group of people was wonderful, as we were all into food experiences but the food tonight was a more mixed end result than what Vern’s is capable of.   I would still strongly recommend this restaurant and encourage you to try one of these collaborations if you can, but it’s hard for all parts to shine in the circumstances.  (It was also quite dark, which made photography difficult, so apologies for the photos).

Set-up

Food

Tuna carpaccio was draped over puffed grains, beet greens, beets and sumac.  The tender tuna slices were lovely with the crisped grains.  The greens were cooked and seasoned nicely too to make a tasty and fun combination.

 

Charcoal grilled shrimp wrapped with lardo-like guanciale, were topped with trout roe and in a sauce of citrus and aleppo butter.   This one was full of flavor and a bit of spice.  The gelatinous guanciale blended well witht he shrimp and the sweet spicy citrus sauce was perfect with the roe.  A burst of flavor in every bite.

 

Black truffle sausage agnolotti was with squid ink burnt onion.  This one faltered a bit.  The pasta was too thick and the sauce was almost licorice like (or was it just the color?).  I didn’t taste the truffle in the filling but the sausage was tasty otherwise.  The dish was monotonous somehow.

 

Wagyu beef tenderloin was plated with chanterelles and covered in tallow hollandaise.  Another slight stumble here with the rick thick sauce being pasty.  The medium rare tenderloin was tender but not rich with beef flavor.  The mushrooms were great though.  This may have actually been too rich – which I never thought I’d hear me say.

 

Dessert was a black currant sorbet topped with toasted meringue on a basil meringue disk.   The currant layer was quite tart while the meringue was sweet and the basil was basil.  Fun to look at but didn’t meld to me.