Woodberry Kitchen Event

As a seasoned events planner I adore a restaurant that serves incredible food, has knowledgeable staff and a great ambience. I am loyal to Woodberry Kitchen for these reasons. They have gone above and beyond for the company I work for and value us as clients.

It is no shock that we returned for a client event with customers that come back to Baltimore twice a year. Woodberry Hall is a great private space with a wonderful lofty ceiling.

Everyone sits at long farm tables and is served a feast. It reminds me a little bit of what I image Hogwart's dining hall would be like.

I snuck into the kitchen to get a peek of our charcuterie boards.

They are curing all of their own meats now as you saw in my back-of-the-house tour with Nancy a few months ago.

Guests were treated to a lovely cocktail hour.

Spiced hot pecans were on the table to nibble.

Chive biscuits came hot out of the oven moments before the bus arrived. The pastry team gets big ups for these little babies.

The devilish eggs were added before landing on the tables.

And course salt was added to the butter.

The guests arrived and the party started.

Hors d'oeuvres were passed. The pork belly and cold slaw on a brioche crouton was a big winner.

Blue fish and horseradish sauce.

I nearly died when I saw our dessert sampler boards being assembled.

This was the pasty chef in charge for the night.

After being too tempted in the kitchen I ran back to enjoy the meal in progression. We all sat down for welcome announcements and our courses were served. We started off with an incredible Roasted Carrot Soup.

Next was the Truck Patch Spinach Salad with roasted pecans, goat cheese and cranberries.

At first glance this looks like killer mac and cheese. Second glance, maybe a sweet potato casserole. No my friends this was a Winter Squash Gratin. It was creamy and savory and a great pairing to the entrees.

There was a choice of two entrees to include Springfield Farm Beef Ribeye, cobbler potatoes, roasted sweet potatoes, carrots, griddled onion and house steak sauce.

Or the Chesapeake Bay Rockfish & Marvesta Shrimp Stew, Yes We Canned tomato, lima beans, and herbed rice. 

Spike was away for the early part of the night so Nancy stepped up to the plate to explain the farm to table mission of Woodberry Kitchen to our guests. She introduced us to the new oyster shell recycling program. This video by www.starchefs.com shows you how WK is honoring the Chesapeake Bay and whole animal butchering on-site.

It pays to be pals with the pastry chef at any restaurant. Nancy called during a pre-planning meeting saying that Isaiah wanted to know in regards to the party, "what are we doing for Nelle." I always love a good dessert sampler but also know that the sinfully dark chocolate pudding is by far one of the most incredible items on their menu. So Isaiah made smaller versions of the chocolate pudding in little Weck jars. 

I also asked if he could somehow make a smaller version of the Cake 5 dessert. 

The result was the most beautiful display of sugar infused goodness. I need a Food Lovers Companion to get the terms correct but there were chocolate tarts, peanut butter cookies, mini Cake 5's with salt and peanut dust, sunflower seed brittle, heart shaped cookies and sugared fruit included. The macaroons are the best this side of the Atlantic Ocean. 

The only way I can still fit into any of my clothes is by enjoying things in moderation. It is tough with so many amazing places to enjoy in this fair city, but just having a little sample of the dessert platter is satisfying enough. Plus they gave me a few macaroons for the road.

Spike did make it back in time to say hello to our guests and gave me one of the kindest compliments ever regarding my food photography. I'll take photos of your food any day Spike. 

It's great he and Amy can strike a good work life balance. Spike and Katy were rock climbing earlier in the evening.

As I was closing out our bill at the bar I saw one of the barista's, Beth, with this beautiful latte.

I have to learn how to do this. Allie, can we have another private lesson please? Be careful, I may ask you to teach a group of 20 if you are successful with me.

Finally, as guests departed they were all given newly roasted coffee from Counter Culure as their gift. It was from Ethiopia (Harfusa Yirgacheffe) and I've been drinking it this week. It is bright and fruity. The ground bean smelled like blueberries to me at first whif. I'm starting to find words for coffee finally. The gifts were such a great way to end a perfect evening.

One thousand, million thanks to Spike and Amy Gjerde for hiring the best staff, supporting the greatest farmers, giving back to the Bay and being cool as hell to boot. Thanks also to my company for affording me the opportunity to work with such incredible venues in Baltimore on multiple occasions. Isaiah, Cake 5 and pudding. Holla! Nancy, I couldn't do it without you sister. We've both come such a long way from that first meeting three years ago. This event couldn't have run any smoother, been any tastier and been more perfectly timed. I appreciate you more than you know. You are so damn good at your job!!! You should be very proud of what you do. 

Woodberry Kitchen Brunch

This is a re-post from my Slow Food Baltimore Post a few months ago.

When we moved to Baltimore two and a half years ago my husband found Woodberry Kitchen and said it looked amazing on-line. He had me at farm-to-table. We went on our first official Baltimore date there the night we moved in. I had applied for their special events position but was hired at my current job before Spike and Amy, the owners, got back to me. I asked the waiter if I could meet Amy. She stopped by our window table and said Spike immediately wanted to hire me from my experience at Restaurant and Asia Nora and apologized for not calling sooner.

Luckily, in my current job I get to frequent this amazing restaurant for work dinners, private events and culinary promotional trips for Baltimore.

The Gjerde's have done an incredible job creating a relaxed, hip environment without it ever seeming pretentious or too cool. You won't find a white tablecloth

in the place or fresh flowers on the table. The paper menus are printed daily on letter press menu cards. When you enter the main room, the old warehouse building has taken on a church-like quality with hand blown glass lanterns and arched windows. The waitresses wear vintage 1950 style aprons and the check comes to you on a vintage painted tin tray. We often risk the reservation line and jump in at the bar.

Last weekend I went to my first brunch, and as the jazz duo's bass notes wafted through the room I ordered a latte. I appreciate the care that goes into every detail. I'm a bit of a geek for Counter Culture coffee and all things latte art. I mean, three little hearts! How do they do that? This roaster is just different and has a cult following. They know their coffee bean farmers and took Spike on a trip so he too could meet some of them. Atwater's sells their coffee at Belvedere Square and I believe has cuppings.

For brunch we started off with the espresso glazed donuts. The folks living in Hampden are much depressed since loosing our beloved New System Bakery that had been in business for 88 years before closing a few months back. Their donuts were so light and airy, and lacked the synthetic taste you get at fast food places. Biting into the fresh out of the frier donut from Woodberry Kitchen brought me back to a trip to Trenton, Kentucky I had as a child. My great aunt made handmade donuts, and Spike's had that same cakey, old fashioned quality with a fine crisp to the edges. The espresso glass was delicious and I only wish I had more to dip on the side.

I ordered the crab cakes Benedict. The eggs were nicely poached, the home fries

perfectly seasoned and the Hollandaise Sauce was thick and creamy. The flavor of the crab cake didn't over power the dish and tasted fresh from the sea. All the flavors together were just a party in your mouth. We are so lucky in Maryland to have the crab cake as our state staple dish, but this isn't your daddy's crab cake. It doesn't have any filler. They make all of their breads in-house and Isaiah, the pastry chef, told us that he had just perfected the English muffin recipe. It was so fluffy with nooks and crannies to boot.

My husband had the biscuits and gravy. Again, this is not the white, sausage gravy

from my past that tasted like paste mixed with aged sawdust. This gravy was packed with pork sausage from the cute guys at Truck Patch Farms and was so rich.

Woodberry Kitchen has become our second home in Baltimore and the entire staff

greets us like we were Norm from Cheers. We were tickled to receive their letter press Christmas card with the brick oven on the front. We have provided figs and fig leaves from our "Stone Hill Farm" and sent them fig preserves as a Christmas present. We only live two miles from the restaurant so we may be the most local "farm" they have yet.

You can spend a night here for a wedding anniversary, sit down at the bar after a long day and grab a flatbread and beer, or have candied bacon for breakfast on Sundays. I find that using Open Table works the best for reservations. And you can always shoot them a request using askus@woodberrykitchen.com