Chef Ian Boden helmed The Shack restaurant for almost 10 years, garnishing two semi-finalist nominations for Best Chef mid-Atlantic.  In 2022 he and his wife Leslie decided to take it to the next level and open a more upscale culinary venue with attached guest suites.  They chose a 1926 Montgomery Ward kit house and redecorated as well as modernized the kitchen.  They chose the name in honor of Chef Boden’s and his wife Leslie’s daughter’s middle name and son’s nickname.  After a year of work they opened in March of 2024 and serve a 5 course tasting  menu ($120) for 20 guests Thursday through Saturday and a longer Kitchen table tasting ($300) menu for 4 guests.  For the shorter menu there are two seatings and optional dishes you can add to your menu,  while the Kitchen is one time a night and is a 3 hour extravaganza.  There is a bar with a few seats and an a la carte menu.  The menu changes regularly with seasonal variations but many ingredients are preserved at their peak and brought out to integrate into current dishes.  In additon Leslie decorated 3 guest suites and those that stay are treated to a 3 course breakfast while on Sunday the breakfast is open to the public.  We were thrilled to book a room and try the former and new restaurants.  It makes a fabulous weekend getaway and one I suggest you try – you can roll from your kitchen seat up a short flight of stairs to a most pleasant room and then venture down in the morning and eat more of their cooking.  It’s a place I would certainly endorse and go again.

Set-up

 

Food

Some broth of chili, white aspargus and muscat grapes started the meal.  It was delicious.

 

A Parkerhouse roll and butter was made with duck schmaltz and caraway seeds.  The cultured butter was seasoned with fermented ramps.  The roll was lightly crisped on top with a good yeasty interior.   It was good with or without the tasty butter.

 

A trio of snacks were next – Murder Point oysters, liver mousse, and smoked whitefish.  The oysters were seasoned with capers and red pepper and were a briny delight.  The smoked whitefish was creamed and on a very seedy cracker.  These were excellent.  The thin shells were stuffed with creamy liver mousse, apple butter and black walnuts.  These were outstanding both in flavor and texture.

 

Royal California White Sturgeon caviar, sour cream and an egg yolk were on a soft freshly made pretzel.  The pretzel had a great texture and was perfect with the lovely caviar.  It was fun eating.

 

Japanese Ruby big eye snapper was combined with pomelo and olive oil.  The fish was killed in the Japanese style, ikejime, to better maintain its quality and then dry aged one week.  The pomelos were from New Jersey and sweetly delicious.  The combination made a winning dish.

 

Asparagus was topped with mandarin alongside a buttermilk, dashi and scallion sauce.  They have sourced these asparagus from the same farmer for 18 years.   They were first blanched and then chilled with the mandarin trim.  They were tender with tons of flavor made even better with the sauce

 

Razor clams, grapes and chili made up the next dish.  Dry vermouth was made into a syrup seasoned with ginger, verjus while espelette and white fungus added additional flavors to the dish.  A final touch was lemon vinegar and puffed rice and chrysanthemum.  This one had tons of great flavors and a nice crunch.  It was one of my favorites for the night.

 

Bay scallop ceviche was seasoned with a kumquat like fruit.  The other spoon held yellowfin tuna with leek vinaigrette.  Both good but the scallop was my favorite of the two.

 

A ramp pierogi was topped with morels, parsley root, trout roe, peas, and grilled ramps then seated on some parsnip purée.  It got its green color from spinach and the pasta was cooked perfectly.  It was an excellent blend of flavors.

 

Softshell crab was combined with shug (Middle  Eastern sauce of herbs, chili and oil), radish and spring onion.  This was great, but then I love fresh soft shell crabs and this one from Chesapeake was so sweet with a light crispy coating and a terrific sauce.   Lots of texture in this tasty combination.

 

Ora king salmon tail, from New Zealand was roasted and seasoned with salt, pepper and citrus then plated with Key limes.  It definitely had “stiction” – which to me signals a nicely cooked piece of salmon.  There was a surprisingly large amount of meat on the tail that would have normally been discarded.  It was tasty.

 

Foie gras torchon was served with onion marmalade.  The Hudson Valley foie gras had been cured for a week and then hung for 30 days which must have intensified its flavor.   It was divine as was the onion marmalade,  I didn’t need the cracker but it did provide a textural contrast.

 

Dry aged ribeye was served alongside sunchoke gnocchi in their take on a steakhouse classic.  The beef was dry aged 3 weeks and topped with a salad, all on a red wine sauce.  The gnocchi was a gratin topped with fried sunchoke.  Both the dishes were very good, but the amount was starting to catch up with me.  So very tasty though….

 

Firefly Farms mountain top cheese was garnished with roasted strawberries. The goat’s milk cheese was from Maryland and uses blue cheese as a ripening agent rather than ash.  It was creamy good but those strawberries made me swoon.

 

Banana sticky toffee pudding was topped with cocoa ice cream and crumbs.  Lots of textures in this sweet package and plenty of flavor in all the components.

 

Las treats included (at 3:00) Pâte de fruits that was watermelon flavored and fine.

(bottom left), Malcom’s coca-cola cake had boiled icing and was sweet with lots of peanut flavors.

(top) Strawberry pavlova was excellent with a crisp meringue and some more of those wonderful strawberries.