Spring Hill/ by Shelley Lance, Blog Editor
I celebrated my birthday dinner last night with my favorite guy, Frank, at my favorite joint outside of the Tom Douglas Restaurants- Mark Fuller and Marjorie Chang Fuller’s Spring Hill. We had the best table in the place- a ringside seat right across from the kitchen where we could watch Mark and his crew plating each dish under the heat lamps (photo top right). (The downside- if you can call this a downside- is that both Frank and I are now thoroughly bewitched by the Spring Hill burger after watching so many of these plump beauties come out of the kitchen dripping with cheese and piled high with fries! Must order a burger next visit!)
For our first course, with a glass of champagne, we shared the steamed clams with razor clam sausage and tomatoes, drizzled with aioli and topped with croutons, served in a big white bowl (photo second from top left). Sublime. One of my favorite dishes at Spring Hill is the “vegetable tasting.” In the summer, Mark features home-grown produce from his own backyard here, but, surprisingly, this wintry version of the dish (photo 2nd from top right) was just as inspired: a silky smooth little bowl of potato celeriac soup with a crisp leaf of kale, two little potato blini topped with pickled apple slices, two crostini topped with hen of the woods mushrooms, and caramelized cauliflower with aged provolone soubise. Even the flatbread was fabulous- perfectly marked on the grill so you could taste a little char with every bite.
We almost skipped the sweetbreads for fear of getting too full but… well, it was my birthday, right? Mark makes the BEST sweetbreads- crispy, light-as-a-feather nuggets that are soft and moist inside (photo third from top left). The garnishes were not just for show. Pile your fork with a chunk of sweetbreads dredged through a little buttermilk mustard sauce, topped with a tiny piece of honeycomb and a bit of razor-thin julienned kohlrabi slaw. That is a divine bite of deliciousness!
For my entree, I ordered another appetizer- beef steak hot & cold (photo 3rd from top right). A neatly shaped square of steak tartare sits on a pool of egg yolk. Next to it are slices of seared rare Wagyu sirloin. A little pile of “potato crisps” are good for scooping up the tartare which tastes almost buttery rich. The charred edges of the sirloin contrast with the rare center of each slice for another riff on beefiness.
Frank had super tender sliced duck breast served with a rich, cheesy spaetzle, Brussels sprouts, cranberries, and apple choucroute.
Garrett Melkonian, who very recently left his Pastry Chef position here at Tom Douglas Restaurants is now working with Mark, so we could not stint on desserts. After a light and refreshing intermezzo of jasmine ice orange julius topped with a pouf of milk mousse, we had both the popcorn hushpuppy and the whole wheat carrot cake, paired with a glass of 20 year tawny port. The hushpuppy (photo top, left), with its molten caramel center, scoop of brown butter ice cream, and morsels of caramelized popcorn, is just as good as everyone thinks it is. But I enjoyed the carrot cake just as much (photo bottom). Little squares of buttery, moist, light-textured cake paired beautifully with piña colada ice cream. Piña Colada ice cream may sound like retro culinary silliness (grasshopper pie anyone?)- but that creamy little scoop was packed with marvelous flavor.
A perfect meal and a perfect birthday- thanks to everyone at Spring Hill!
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