The Shack, a tiny former doughnut shop, barbecue joint, and bar (and the list goes on) is just outside of downtown Staunton in a small building with a changing menu. For the last several years it has been under the kitchen of Chef Michael Skipper but it was started by Chef Ian Boden in 2014.. Boden retained ownership but now runs Maude and the Bear. The Shack has just 26 seats in its 400 square feet and is named for Chef Boden’s wife’s grandmother’s home. Some of her best memories are from that time and the current Shack is doing the same for diners today. A very casual place with the walls decorated by photos from Leslie’s past. Chef Skipper was the longtime sous chef when Boden was running the kitchen. The place features small sharable plates of handmade pastas and wood-fired pizzas, Thursday through Sunday. They don’t have a website but post the week’s menu on their Facebook page. There are some prix fixe options, wine pairings and the pastas come in a two sizes. We chose our own wine and assortment of dishes to share. It was outstanding with tons of flavor and interesting combinations of ingredients. This place won a Beard award for best new restaurant under Boden and Skipper is living up to its heritage. Put this on your list of places to go as soon as you can.
Set-up
Food
Cavatelli (small order) was sauced with fermented black bean, clam ragu, and Wagyu breasola with a rosemary chili crisp. The cavatelli were mixed with squid ink to give them the dark color and the pieces of clam and wagyu gave this dish a really fun texture. The pasta bits had a perfect al dente texture too and the combination was compelling.
Rotolo Verdi (small order) was stuffed with beef ragu and duck fat onion alongside a parmesan cream sprinkled with pickled turnip dust. The spinach in the pasta gave it the green color and it was visually striking. The coiled pasta was cooked perfectly and delicious when mixed with the cream and ragu. Two very good pasta dishes and strikingly different.
Wagyu beef was on ramp chimichuri with morels, crispy shallots, rutabaga and mache. Wow – this every good. Some fun peppers were in the mix too and the sauce was full of flavor. The meat came sliced and was tender and juicy with good beefiness. It was great alone but with the sauces and crispy shallots it was out of this world good.
Pork spare ribs were seasoned with leek salt, cilantro, and cherry pepper on peanut mole with cherry pit. There were two meaty ribs on the plate with one being more succulent than the other but both still very tasty. The mole had a good depth of flavor to make this a fun dish.
Vanilla ice cream was on peanut milk jam with whey caramel. The caramel was made with the leftover whey, from when they made ricotta. The peanut butter flavor was minimal but the caramel was sweet, sticky and good and it was a nice creamy ice cream. A smaller dessert but good flavor.
Pavlova was made with burnt honey ice cream, lemon verbena syrup and confit citrus. It was topped with crunchy stuff to give it even more texture than the crisp meringue on the bottom. This was a bigger dessert with more texture variation and lots of fun flavors.
