Photo by The Restaurant Project
I literally fell into a Roadhouse trap right when I walked in the kitchen. I thought it would be bigger.
With all the genuine giddy excitement from the Abdo brothers and their partners, you might assume that Dalton & Wade, their new North Loop whiskey bar and restaurant we let you in on last winter, would be HUGE! I'm actually grateful that it's not. Whiskey needs cozy.
Tucked down the driveway off Washington just past DejaVu, across from the Hewing Hotel, is the new T3 building which will house offices of the young and tech-driven, including those of Amazon. It will also house Dalton & Wade, which sits nicely on the ground floor with a ton of parking out the back and a garage door that rolls up to the off-the-NOLO-grid patio. You know what else it has? Whiskey. Let's just start there.
That's some damn refreshing sweet tea!
This isn't a craft cocktail bar, it's a whiskey bar with some 200+ whiskies (and a few tequilas). Head barman Chris Massey is no stranger to craft, after years in the Borough enclave, but here he's focused on celebrating American whiskey and easy drinking. Witness his Sweet Tea, which is black tea laced with Jim Beam Rye and lemon, that comes out of a tap from a pre-batched keg. Nothing but ease and quick sipping on that one.
Old Fashioned in the front, Punch in the back.
Cory's thrifted punch bowl.
But even drinks that are more apt to be fussied over, are kept in line. There will be four versions of Old Fashioneds and the one I sipped was called The Wade. It was beautiful and lifted with a house spiced orange syrup but not overwrought. There's also a house punch made with Old Crow that will rotate seasonally. The current one doesn't read as high octane, but kinda is. And check out the thrifted punch bowl that owner Cory Abdo found which they'll actually put into use, if you dare.
And that's really the vibe of the place, it's sort of an amalgamation of found pieces, of Western and Southern and Country all at the same time. It celebrates the sticks, with a bit of style.
You feel it right when you walk in, with the kitschy paint-by-number mural on the wall. Hang out on the giant leather couch while you contemplate the leather-belt-woven chandelier. All of it was created by a local artist.
The bar stretches along the length of the room, with a rough cut rail dividing the space between standers and booths. It feeeeels like whiskey, for all the lighting and colors, let alone the bottles decking the back bar. Not for nothing, a good joint needs a juke, and they have one. It's wired into the sound system so that when you drop your dollars for DeBarge, it will supplant whatever music's playing overhead. Proceed with caution, young ones. But what of the vittles?
Matching the space, they're playing a Southern/Western/Country game. Meaning, there's pimento cheese but there's also hotdish and a bologna sandwich. It's home cooking, roadhouse cooking that has nothing to do with tweezers or dots of sauce.
Smoked brisket with carrot pudding and greens
House smoked brisket with carrot pudding and greens.
Corn bread with buhhtah. And I know you see that banana pudding with Nillas in the background.
Pimento cheese toasts: let the battle begin.
A spread with creamed corn, rye biscuits, BBQ chips, roasted chicken, hand pies, and perhaps the way you might plate up your Meat&3.
But that's not to say it's average. Those biscuits are made with locally milled Baker's Field flour, those hand pies are a proprietary version of bourbon laced Tipsy Pies. The creamed corn is kicked with thyme, the roast chicken's been basted with Fulton beer, and that potato salad is better than your mom's. It's true that chef Scott Pampuch has been consulting on the menu, but the chef in the kitchen will be Eli Renn, formerly of the The Golden Nugget in Minnetonka. Both chefs and owners kept telling me, "you can't take life too seriously." Ok, I'm in for a whiskey tinged meat loaf and shore lunch Shangri-La. Pampuch took it further, "There's enough divisiveness in the world. Sometimes when faced with having to choose between ranch and blue cheese, you have to go with both." Welcome Minnesota White Sauce to your world, it may help heal us all.
Before I even knew what I was doing, I ate all the Minnesota White Sauce (ranch + blue cheese).
Chef Eli Renn appreciating a cold one.
Is North Loop ready to pull some country time chilling? Give it a shot when Dalton & Wade opens next Wednesday, July 19th for dinner seven nights a week. They'll be serving from 4pm until late night, later still on the weekends. Sip sweet tea, meet some new crews, dip a chip and take life a little less seriously for a night.
