Is that seriously how I look?

The crowd sufficiently awed by my bartending prowess (and primed for more listening with a drink in hand), my presentation was followed up by Pastry Powerhouse Tori, who rolled out a panoply of new desserts, including a creme brulee and possibly the finest vanilla ice cream ever created (it certainly bested every vanilla I’ve ever had).

As you can probably imagine, the audience was by now tipsy off a combination of liquor and sweets, and so it fell to Anthology Coffee purveyor and guest workshopper Josh Longsdorf to attempt to sober them with an explanation of coffee plant varietals, and a taste of several types all grown in one region of Colombia to accompany his telling. His subject matter was near to my heart, as part of the team that oversees the inter-Vellum coffee program, and Josh’s presentation did an admirable job of illustrating the wide variety of flavor profiles in the different bean types.  Big ups to Josh for taking time out of his evening to drop some knowledge, and a hearty thanks from the whole Vellum team too!

Finally, wine Maitre d’ and fellow service captain George proposed a new color pallet for the Vellum front of house dress code.  The way the front of house staff dresses at Vellum is one of the things that’s most noticeably different about Vellum from our fellow Main street establishments, and this difference can, if handled incorrectly, set us apart in a negative fashion (no pun intended).  George sought to iterate the positive aspects of our clothing-related differences from other restaurants, major ones being our ability to shift our colors to more seasonally appropriate hues, and our ability to gently assert our individuality while also presenting a professional and friendly appearance to our guests.

So that’s last week.  Two weeks prior to that, front of house jack-of-three-trades Brian presented a drink of his own, a Hendrick’s gin and cucumber gimlet.  He and his audience discussed the indescribable flavor profile of cucumbers, as well as the varieties of cucumber available for consumption and how they differ, and lastly his methods for introducing cucumber into the drink, and how he might be able to up his drink making game by experimenting with different sources of acidity.

Head bartender Travis also gave us all a taste of a new addition to our beer menu, an imperial saison ale from Brewery Vivant, called Zaison.  He also filled us in on the history of saison ales, and how an imperial style saison is somewhat counter to the beer’s original purpose.

This leaves only the middle week to recount to you, and so we arrive at the mystery, for I was not in attendance that week, having instead gone with Josh K and Bret from heart of house to see the Red Wings host the Los Angeles Kings in a match of hockey-playing.  I could recap the game for you (it was fun), but it turns out I have no idea what happened that week, and so a mystery is afoot!  What really happened two Wednesdays ago*, what aren’t we being told/doing-the-telling-of about Vellum Wednesday Workshops?  I seriously have no idea, you’ll have to come to this week’s to find out!

-Neil.

*Caroline: I was, as always, in attendance. I do not follow sports.

The week of the Red Wings verses Kings brought Mason Borders into the kitchen to describe the errors in our water service. As the force behind our support staff, Mason spends the majority of his time running up and down stairs keeping our water pitchers fresh and glasses of our guests full. He presented many solutions including installing a new faucet on the 2nd floor–definitely on our wish list for the future.

One of our hosts and reservationists, Nhu, gave an amazing account of her visit to Italy and the town of Schiavon in the Veneto region. She visited the Poli Distillerie and learned the distillation process of their honey grappa. There were pictures and, of course, samples.

We cook for vegans daily and needed to think of a vegan version of our “snack” that we present to each table. Omar worked on a recipe and came up with a barley chip snack with pickled radish and, instead of caramelized cream, white bean puree. The finishing touch to the small amuse was chive oil.

While we are taking a graduation break from workshops this week, join us in the kitchen next Wednesday around 11pm!

At Vellum, we have your ‘rule breaking’ table.

 We have the entire community in mind when it comes to dining out at our ‘Communal Table.’  Imagine a table of perfect strangers sharing food, drink and conversation. It might seem like something out of Portlandia but it seems to fit in Ann Arbor quite well so far.

Here are few things about the communal table at Vellum:

1. Chit chat between strangers is very normal and welcomed. It won’t be weird.

2. Guests can sit side-by-side or across from each other. We’ve even seen different parties play musical chairs in order to talk to more people.

3. You can request to be seated there or simply walk-in and ask for the communal table.

4. Service at this spot is no different than anywhere else in the dining room.  You can order an appetizer or the 7 course tasting menu–whatever suites your fancy.

We do recognize that this may not be the ideal situation for every guest that steps into our dining room.

While we encourage the idea of community in Ann Arbor, we are also pleased to accommodate a more traditional dining experience at any one of our other 30 tables.

Whatever the case, we’re excited to see you here soon.

Cheers,
Matthew Johns (Maitre d’)

Another Wednesday has rolled by, this time I remember all of it! Here’s what happened:

Kevin introduced us to a classic Thai dessert, water chestnut soaked in sugar beet, coated in tapioca, and served in a broth of coconut milk and rose water. The idea to introduce us to this came from the way Vellum loves to approach food items from unexpected directions, and when Kevin was himself first shown this dish, it was presented to him as a “dessert soup,” a decidedly non-western conceptualization of what dessert can be.

Next, Tori demoed an awesome new idea for dessert: shot glass sized samplers! She reimagined all of our current dessert menu items into smaller, four or five bite versions, opening the door to the possibility of a guest ordering every dessert on the menu without the risk of contracting type 2 diabetes in one (totally awesome) night!

Omar debuted a new amuse-bouch that’s been several weeks in the making: a barley chip topped with a chive purée, caramelized sour cream and a pickled radish. If our last snack was like an upscale sour apple Jolly Rancher (and in my opinion, it was), then the new one could probably be called “sour cream and onion chips for the fabulously wealthy” though we might think of something a little more catchy. The point is, I’d like a bag of them, and you can watch a 3 second video of them being created here.

Drew, our stage (pronounced “staaaaahhhhj” [it's French]) took us on a food tour of her summer in France, including her version of house churned butter, which she called “apartment butter,” cornbread, and fresh squeezed lemonade. One wonders if maybe she actually spent a summer in say, Georgia, and was perhaps terribly confused about geography? Nevertheless, it was a delicious journey.

That’s all for workshops last week, stop in tonight after service (loose starting time is 11pm) and see for yourself what awesome creations will be next!

Cheers,
-Neil.

Three weeks ago we had an awesome presentation from Charles on the power and importance of social media. I think all who were there would agree with me that his main point was that I deserve a raise.

JK gave another scintillating presentation, again demoing a potential appetizer for our spring menu. This time it was salmon and shallot in a blueberry consommé, watch him assemble the dish at the link below:

JK makes an app

Two Wednesdays ago our Coffee Maitre D’ Foster made her own vermouth, one bottle of sweet and one dry, and dropped some knowledge on us all about the, uh, vermouthing process.

Emma filled us in on the tobacco that fills our hand rolled cigarettes, which it turns out is from Denmark but sold as blend 96 from Maison Edwards in Nickel’s Arcade. There was a lot more to her presentation than that but I guess you should have come to the workshop if you were curious.

Matt P (Captain) spoke about Austrian winemaking, which traces its origins back to the ancient roman era, and shared with us an amusing story involving antifreeze and taxes. He focused mainly on one grape varietal, Grüner Veltliner, and gave us all a taste to boot!

Matt pleasing the crowd

Andre and Duncan from the kitchen teamed up to create a lamb belly snack as a possible addition to the Happy Hour offerings, topped with pickled zucchini and with a crispy pita cracker underneath it. If it ever does make it to the menu, I will be ordering a hundred of them.

That brings us to last Wednesday’s presentations from Travis, Thomas and Darshay.

Travis told us all about Umami, and his efforts to develop his own palate to detect its presence in his cocktails. From those efforts sprung a featured cocktail the next night, which he’s calling the Spa, and which I’m calling delicious.

Thomas spun some interesting tales about his favorite spirit, Cognac, and treated us all to a taste, and Darshay presented another beautiful appetizer, this time with trumpet mushrooms and bay scallops.

There was maybe a fourth presentation that I don’t remember so I can’t tell you about it, of course, if you had come to the workshop you wouldn’t need to rely on my spotty memory to find out what happened.

So, you know, take the hint: come see us this Wednesday evening!

Cheers,
-Neil.

In some cases, it is because the language used in the menu is so spare, like with the Smoked Walleye, which is further elaborated upon as “Apples, Jalapeno Emulsion” which if you’ve ever seen our Walleye, you’ll understand when I say this is like describing the Sistine Chapel ceiling as “some bible-y characters, two of them touching fingers,” or Las Vegas as “a town; some gambling occurs.”

In some other instances, it seems there’s so much to describe, we’ve elected to mention none of it.  This is particularly true of Vellum’s Vegetable Salad.

The Vegetable Salad boasts some 30+ ingredients (look, I’m a writer, not an abacus), none of which repeat themselves on the plate, every plate being slightly different than the one before it.  The idea is for no two bites of this salad to be the exactly same, even if you ordered the salad every day of the week.  If you are ordering this salad every day of the week though, while I can’t really fault you, I feel like maybe you should be expanding your horizons a little?  Are you on some kind of “totally unique salad” diet?  Where did you hear about this diet?  Have you consulted your doctor about this, because sure, one of those 30+ ingredients is a beet puree, but I worry you may become iron deficient if you aren’t supplementing with something else, perhaps our Greek-style lamb?

Outlandish-salad-diet person, you are distracting us from the issue at hand!  We’re discussing understated menu items, specifically the Vegetable Salad.  Does anyone out there have a suggestion for a new name, perhaps? How about “Panoplied Vegetable Array over Lettuce” or “Smorgasbord Salad”?

Or, maybe, and this is an extremely dubious maybe, but maybe it’s actually better to be surprised by the most dazzlingly colored and beautifully arrayed collection of vegetation this side of a tropical rainforest.  Let us know what you think.

Cheers,

-Neil.

Efforts to take video of the process by which we make our butter have been unsuccessful, due largely to the fact that actually watching it happen is similar to watching grass grow (if grass grew in a mixing bowl and was accompanied by the loud whirring noises of machines.)  Labor-intensive would be the wrong phrase to describe what it takes to make butter; making butter is will-intensive.

In words then, the process is as follows: heavy cream is mixed until it becomes whipped cream, then agitated further until it abruptly turns from cream to butter.  We then take cheesecloth and press the butter by hand, separating out the buttermilk.  The buttermilk is then given to local stray kittens used for various other recipes in-house, and the butter is salted, then formed into cylinders, cooled, and finally sliced.

We often make light of the straightforwardness of the process, emphasizing the importance of making sure that the mixing bowl is in the “up” position so that the mixer actually mixes the cream when it is turned on, the difficulty of opening a dozen containers of Guernsey’s heavy whipping cream and pouring them all into one bowl without spilling, remembering to use cheesecloth to extract the buttermilk when the mixer has done its work and not say, wax paper, or making sure not to set the butter on fire instead of placing it in the refrigerator.

But all kidding aside, the butter we make at Vellum showcases what we believe in here; ingredients make all the difference to start, but it’s the attention to detail that makes the final product so memorable.  Our butter is salted, not salty, creamy and rich, not oily, and warm and soft, not… on fire.  So next time you dine with us, take a moment when it arrives, and consider the butter–we certainly have.

-Neil.

Wednesday Workshops was full of guests last week. In the past we’ve had unsuspecting dinners join us in the kitchen on a whim but this past week brought guests to Vellum just to for the occasion.

We were excited to see a handful of regulars join the festivities as well as a few local restaurant people and one of our coffee purveyors Josh (Anthology, based out of Detroit.)  The idea, that people are willing to take time out of their week, stay up later than usual on a Wednesday and even drive quite a ways to get to Wednesday Workshops, astounds us.

The first person to present a workshop was Matthew Johns. He’s usually wearing a blazer and dress shoes welcoming guests in the door and suavely arranging the seating throughout the dinner service.  Matthew departed from his dining room background and shared his research about knives and which style to use for each technique or ingredient.

Omar (savory) did his workshop about Middle Eastern flavors–something underutilized in the Vellum kitchen so far. Raised in Dearborn, Omar grew up eating shatta–a garlicky eggplant spread–but never had attempted the recipe himself.  With guidance from his mom, Omar created his own shatta using eggplant, onion, shallot, jalepeno, poblano, garlic, crushed red pepper, bell pepper and olive oil. His mother should be proud. It was quite delicious.

The final workshop was from Darshay (savory.) She had been telling all of us for the last two weeks that her project was on aprons and how to tie them more efficiently. We never really believed her but she kept her actual topic so secret, nobody knew what she was going to talk about until she started. Darshay astounded the crowd with a fully developed, precisely executed and extremely thoughtful beet salad. Not just any beet salad–this one had dehydrated goat cheese. Beautiful presentation and impressive work. Darshay exemplified what workshops are trying to achieve and we are looking forward to future workshops that take after hers.

Stop in! 11pm on Wednesdays. Vellum kitchen.

We have received praise from many guests. Life changing experiences for some. We are changing perceptions, changing how some eat. It really can be a beautiful thing, what we are trying to do.

On other occasions, however, a combination of misperception and a lack of mastery on my part have turned out less than revelatory experiences for guests. Hence, this post is dedicated to tweaking and tinkering–what is necessary to succeed.

Below you will find a series of dishes on the debut menu that have been changed dramatically, nixed altogether, or just lightly tweaked. Hopefully it provides some insight to Vellum’s process.

Mastering Balance: Spaghetti with Mussels, Fennel, Piment d’Espelletee, Lemon Juice and Salmon Roe

The spaghetti dish was a simple mix of fine Setaro pasta from Italy, slowly poached mussels, lemon, pepper from the basque, fennel fronds and salmon roe. All of those components are inarguably beautiful together. We simply couldn’t get the balance correct and the guests were not excited about the dish. Whenever the dish went out, the reactions were good at best. It was 86′d from the menu fast and efficiently.

The Counterpoint

The citrus dessert is a dish that felt like a puzzle with one piece missing. Each element of citrus was beautiful in and of itself. There was no tying cohesion, however, and therefore the dish felt very “one note” as a friend suggested one day. We ended up adding a sour contrast that came from a creme fraiche mousse and this tang completely brought the dish together. The counterpoint.

The Collective Palate

My father, a veteran restaurateur whose 40+ year experience in the Ann Arbor market has made him somewhat of an expert on the Ann Arbor palate “highly suggested” a steak on the menu. We couldn’t possibly have just another steak on the menu so we did some research on the best steak in the world. We came up with a restaurant in Spain called Asador Etxebarri. It is a very simple restaurant that grills almost exclusively. We discovered that they take 5+ year old cows that were well taken care during their life, age them for 50 days, and finally grill them to perfection. Beyond any other steaks I have seen, they take on this brilliant purple color to them.

At the moment, we have a much simpler steak on the menu, however, we are experimenting and we can’t wait to tell you what we find as a result…

More Counterpoint

Pork began as a simple trio (shoulder belly and loin) with pears and mustard greens. The greens were a simple feature that neither added nor detracted from the simplicity of the dish. It was, in a sense, useless. The richness of the pork was overpowering at times and simply one-note. We decided to add two variations of mustard–one whole-grain and one smooth. The effect of the mustard created a much more rounded dish. The greens, however, reached another level when we decided to make a ham broth that elevated the entire dish. We made a concentrated ham broth and used it as the liquid to braise the greens. Much more satisfying. People are loving the belly and the loin most often, however, I’m not completely satisfied with the tenderness of the shoulder just yet…still tinkering

Locavore CRAZE

I’m both very happy and somewhat surprised that the Michigan walleye dish was going to be the most popular fish dish on the menu. Served with braised apples, brandade, brioche breadcrumbs, and an onion broth, it seems like we have struck a chord with people’s obsession of all things local. Initially, however, the dish was seen as “bland and mushy.” Instead of poaching the fish in white wine, we sautee it with the remnant butter made from the brioche breadcrumbs. We also add more breadcrumbs for more textural contrast. The onion broth also takes on a lot of coffee-like notes to it due to the fact that it is roasted and then juiced. That’s why we add some coffee grounds to reinforce that smokiness and to add one last final, if tiny, accent.

Blandness and Misperception

I’ve had guests rave about the flavor in some of our dishes. In those exact dishes, I’ve had guests claim that there be more flavor.

To me, this effect is an amazing thing that I am sure chefs encounter throughout the world on a daily basis. To me, this is a question of palate and what it means to make something full with flavor. Simply put, the chef must find a way to get the majority of his target demographic to think his food is flavorful. Another blog post where I have much to say…….

Bone Marrow

People in this city are loving bone marrow and when they get our dish that is out of the bone, they can sometimes feel a bit crestfallen. The experience of using a tiny spoon to pick out all the marrow from the bone is savored by many and they sometimes feel as though we stole that experience from them. We are excited, in a way, that this minor novelty is taken away and people can simply savor the humble and extraordinary ingredient that is marrow. We have not adjusted this dish.

Seasoning

I recently read an interview by the great chef Daniel PATTERSON of the Michelin 2-Star in San Francisco, Coi, and he made an insight that I found to be revelatory. When dining out to eat anywhere in the world, the idea of salt levels are universally agreed upon. Some thing that is under- or over-salted is a truth–right or wrong.

An important concept that characterizes and palate of a chef, Patterson says, comes through the way in which chef’s balance the other taste profiles such as sweet, bitter, sour, acidic, savory etc.

Teaching the cooks how to season with salt is very, very difficult, however, it’s also one of the most important lessons they can learn. What is even more difficult to teach than salt levels is the amount of sweetness, acid and bitterness that, as the chef, you want to come through in all of the dishes. That’s an on-going lesson where we feel we are improving every day.

-Peter.

Two people from the dining room and two from the kitchen are assigned each week to present a new recipe, technique or research project. The goal of these workshops is to explore subjects more thoroughly and help advance our menu, service style and the identity of Vellum.

So far we’ve had three rounds of Wednesday Workshops.

Week one saw Tori (pastry) presenting decorative sugar work to display on our dining room shelving and Josh K (savory) proposed a spring consommé snack inspired by gazpacho with bright green avocado oil. From the dining room, Will (bartender) discussed the intricacies of malolactic fermentation and George (captain/ wine maitre d’) gave a lively oration on the birth and evolution of “fine dining” in western civilization.

 (Josh K)

The following week, Robyn (captain) passed around a mead quick-bread while explaining the process of making mead and the importance of thoughtful honey production. Bret (savory) wowed the group with bacon powder, Michael (host) spoke about the influence of music on a dining experience as a song written and performed by him played, and Andre (savory) reimagined our apple snack as a squash snack.

 (Robyn) (Andre)

Our third Workshop began with Char (captain) making her first foray into ice cream-ery, featuring bourbon as the main flavor component (to the great joy of all present.) Josh D (savory) spent the week working on chicken wings that he brined, cooked in duck fat and then fried just before serving them to us.  The great number of international guests we’ve had from U of M inspired Brandy (dining room support) to research the etiquette and dining customs of different Asian cultures. Tim (savory) explored the world of reverse spherification and bartending by creating cherry spheres to float in a Manhattan, and Karina (host) demo’d a hand made pasta with citrus zest incorporated into the dough.

 (Char)

(Bourbon Ice Cream)

 (Josh D)

(Brandy)

 (Cherry Spheres) (Karina)

This week we will have Darshay (garde manger), Omar (savory), Matthew (maitre d’ of the door) and Emma (dining room support) giving their Wednesday Workshops.

Come and observe! Timing varies slightly week-to-week but give us a call and we’ll be happy to tell you the status of the evening (73 49 29 49 29.)

-Vellum loves its ingredients, so we’ll regale you with the finer points of how everything you’ll find on your plates and in your bowls (not to mention your coupe, up, and highball glasses) are transformed from farm fresh basics to exquisite revelations of modern cuisine.  While we’re at it you might learn a few other things, like what exactly a coupe glass is, and where ours come from (in case you were admiring them.)

-Vellum also loves its people, so expect features that highlight the extraordinary team we have assembled here, and find out about some hidden talents or knowledge we maybe haven’t tapped into yet!  How exactly we as a restaurant can utilize staff knowledge of say, German philosophers or dentistry remains to be seen, but rest assured we’re prepared for those eventualities.

-Two words, one punctuation mark: Wednesday Workshops!  Every week, the staff of Vellum and interested guests gather after service and showcase some of those aforementioned hidden talents.  This is where we find out about the new recipes our chefs are experimenting with and the cocktails our bar team is concocting, but it’s not only that.  It’s also where we can play fast and loose with the idea of what counts as “work-related,” and talk about things like (just last week for example) malolactic fermentation and its use (or lack thereof) in wine, or even the book we just read that told the coolest story about the ambassador that brought the modern service style to western Europe.

The VRBT is just getting started (see, I knew that would come up again) so check back often and expectantly, we’ll be updating regularly!  While you’re eagerly awaiting our next post, why not come see us in the physical realm?  We’re at 209 South Main Street in beautiful (albeit presently snowy and cold) downtown Ann Arbor, tell the folks at the door the blog sent you, we promise they won’t call you crazy!

Cheers,

-Neil.