
See, there’s more than one. There’s five -- the big ones for Ashley’s and Capital Bar and Grill, a smaller pastry kitchen, a couple of satellite kitchens. And it’s fitting there are so many spaces for the chefs to work, since there’s so much going on in the hotel.

When we arrived, we got to see some of the process that goes into the creation of the beef brisket. Everything in the beef brisket is just amazing. It starts off with the corned beef brisket. Ashley’s and CBG have their brisket shipped in from a Creekmore Farms in Kansas. The raw briskets are cured in-house with a sugar-salt brine. It’s rather fantastic.
One of the sous chefs was working on the vegetables -- potatoes and onions finely diced and placed in a skillet.




“A lot of places are. Breakfast is the new hot thing,” I shared.
“It is. We’re going back , looking at what people want for breakfast and how breakfast was served to previous generations. And we’re interpreting it here with as much locally grown produce and locally harvested meat as we can.”

Matt and I shared some sources for locally produced items and some background about our Arkansas ties. He became rather excited when I asked just how local Ashley’s came to the whole locavore idea. “I have to show you something!” he said, leading us to the back and the gigantic walk-in fridge

“Our bacon, we make in-house, right here. It’s pecan wood smoked,” Chef Matt started. “It starts with the Kobe beef of pork bellies -- Berkshire pork bellies brought in from a co-op in southern Missouri. We cure them with sugar, salt and spices in our walk-in cooler.” He walked us through the process -- the brining, the smoker that’s housed in the kitchen of Capital Bar and Grill, the specialty closet in Ashley’s kitchen where all sorts of meats dry age for up to a year, the finished bacon. It’s thick and smoky and smells of good wood and salt, and it’s one of the restaurant’s most popular items.



Those meats aren’t just used for Ashley’s breakfasts. They’re used in the cold meat and cheese plates served at the CBG, and they’re fabulous, not just pork but beef, duck, boar, sausages and lamb and sometimes even venison. Chef Matt showed us part of a young suckling pig from which he’s attempting to make his own very young prosciutto.
The smoker isn’t just for bacon. It’s where the pork butts (that’s shoulder to the layman) for those fabulous CBG pulled pork sandwiches are lovingly cooked for several hours. It’s where fish is smoked after curing. And of course, there’s the corned beef.

Of course, I had to share a little about Honeysuckle Farms with him.

“We do. We also use duck and goose eggs. We try to cater to our clientele. Not everyone can eat a duck egg.”
“And quail eggs are richer,” I added.
“They are.”
Back in the kitchen, I asked about the big long Chocolate Brioche atop one of the stations. “We make all our own bread here,” Chef Matt pointed out. “Croissants, bread, biscuits -”
“And the brioche?”

I shared my admiration of the dish -- before this particular interview it had been my absolute favorite thing they’d served. Of course, that would change by the end of the day.
We talked about the more locally produced items, how the chefs at Ashley’s utilize the expertise of Jody Hardin and the resources of the Certified Arkansas Farmers Market collective. Chef Matt told me about the eggs brought in by local producers and farmers that


locally produced sorghum and honey do the trick.
And then there are the jams and jellies. They’re all made in-house from seasonal fruit -- blackberries, strawberries in early summer, peaches, raspberries, blueberries, all made right there. The juice is fresh squeezed each morning. Pickles of all sorts reside in the pantry -- not just the typical dills but bread and butters, watermelon pickles, little ones and big ones. There are even tiny jars of housemade pickled carrots, pickled quail eggs and the like. These don’t usually make the menu -- they’re gifted to dignitaries and special guests at the hotel. I kinda wished I could garner that sort of treatment.

“We’d like to have our own farm,” Chef Matt told me. “Chef Lee is really interested in that.”
“What about growing your own herbs on property?”
“Maybe on the roof. We don’t have that possibility yet, but it might be coming.”
“And you’d grow everything?”

It was a fascinating chat, but after more than an hour around the kitchen I figured it was time we left Chef Matt to his work. Besides, we were hungry, and that’s where I could break out the camera and do my thing.



Our beverages were delivered, and while I was accustomed to the fabulous coffee I was shocked by the sheer orange-ness of the orange juice. I mean, it was ORANGE. It was sweet, not bitter, and I wanted to just have that and nothing else at that moment. It was perfect.


“The thing about froofy restaurants,” Grav later told me, “is that they do really good food but in small portions. I couldn’t finish them, they were so rich.” Made with War Eagle grits, cream and such right there, they were firm yet nicely textured. We argued about this -- my favorite grits are those from B-Side, but to be fair I can’t eat the Ashley’s grits because of the bacon. I was kinda jealous I couldn’t try his dish.


I was surprised by the sudden sweetness of the corned beef -- not that it was candy-sweet but that the caramelized vegetables in it were on the sweet side, contrasted even more by the salty corned beef. Add in the yolk that lazily creeped out of the egg I had punctured, and… it was THE taste of breakfast.

Now, an admission. I wrote an earlier piece about Ashley’s for Eat Arkansas. I was a bit discouraged by the idea of a breakfast that was unchanging and that didn’t allow for experimentation -- I mean, to me, breakfast seems to be the best place to experiment because there’s less variety in the morning meal. But I understand better now.
Chef Matt told me “There’s a lot of things that change with lunch and dinner, but breakfast basically remains the same.” He wasn’t saying there wasn’t room for improvement -- but that the improvement comes in the ingredients and how they’re prepared. If Ashley’s stays with this commitment to these ideals, it will be here longer than I will.
From a chefs point of view this place simple looks amazing. Good local food what else can one ask for..
ReplyDeleteChef Dennis