A September Dinner at Farm Spirit

I’ve had Farm Spirit on my wish list for quite a while since they first opened a few months ago in mid June, and recently for our wedding anniversary F and I enjoyed a Saturday evening 12 course dinner there.

Farm Spirit is completely vegan, and their dinners are purchased by ordering online a ticket to one of their 9 or 12 course chef’s choice dinner courses. The tickets prices listed already include a gratuity, though beverages are extra and you can choose from individual wine glasses to individual housemade non-alcoholic drinks, or a flight of either of those. The flights can be pre-purchased on the website, or  you can order the flight or individual drinks at dinner and pay for them then.

Wednesday and Thursdays are 9 courses for $65, and Friday and Saturday nights offer 12 courses at $75. You arrive slightly before 7 PM which is when they open the doors for everyone. When they serve dinner they do so when everyone arrives and everyone gets their courses simultaneously, so don’t be late as you’ll hold everyone else up!

The 14 seats inside Farm Spirit are right at a chef’s bar, which will remind you of a omakase bar such as the chef choice dinners at Nodoguro, or Holdfast. You get to watch them plate every course, which is pretty impressive as they plate the next upcoming courses on each side of the two induction burners in the center.

I was pretty excited because F, who is vegetarian, never accompanies me to these kind of chef’s choice fine dining dinners and has never had the experience of seeing chefs running the pass and the incredible art for the eye that these food plates offer besides culinary art for the palate. Also, he has a much better cameraphone than I do (Nokia Lumia 1020 vs my Samsung Galaxy S4) that is incredible at picking up light.

The chefs of Farm Spirit are serious about their food, and serious about service that includes placecards for your assigned seats, replacing napkins when a guest is on a bathroom trip, and changing out silverware a few times (but not every course – each seating has a silverware rest used for a few courses before the next swap).

At the same time, Farm Spirit has a very laid back, playful vibe. During the 3 hour dinner experience, we saw a little dancing, a little singing, and the dining soundtrack varied from Under Pressure to Safety Dance.
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As you can expect at a farm to table restaurant like this, the menu changes based on the availability of what is at the Farmer’s Market or the various farms they buy directly from, which Chef Aaron Adams seems to be at pretty much everyday as he listed off seriously half a dozen markets and farms from where he sources his ingredients.

Alongside Chef Aaron is Chef Ricardo (who also is the man behind the handmade drinks and all fermentation be it pickles, kombucha or yogurt) and Chef Tim (tweezer master who also bakes the bread and is responsible for desserts), and the three men pow-wow every week to decide what the dishes will be.

But, here’s what we had on September 5th, 2015.

First Course

Smoked eggplant pureed with fennel jam on housemade bread

As I enjoyed my Tempranillo for the night, F had ordered the homemade non-alcoholic beverage flight so Chef Rico poured the Watermelon Mint Juice as Chef Adam explained the course and the philosophy of Farm Spirit and where they source their food.

Second Course

Celtuce, harukei turnips, peach puree, Soarer cucumber, fried walnuts

This was one of F’s two favorite platings because of the charm the plating of a plant made from plant. This was the dish Chef Aaron was adding the nuts when we first walked in to be seated as Chef Tim worked on plating the third course…

Third Course

Tomato Water, plums, herbs, basil oil, nasturtium capers, cherry tomatoes

As casual as Farm Spirit it, still felt too soon to be lifting bowls to our lips to drink every single drop of this course. Not sure we’d be shy the next time we have a bowl presented to us though.

Fourth Course

Summer Squash, ground cherries, arugula sauce, yellow tomato vinaigrette, calendula

You can’t help but admire what a pain this probably was to prep and plate but with such effect at the end. As Chef Aaron began to plate the next course (we saw the tomato leaves in sauce being warmed by him as we enjoyed this first squash course), Chef Rico finished plating with Chef tim this Summer Squash dish and shifted back to beverage director role as he poured the next homemade non-alcoholic drink, the Earl Grey Kombucha

Fifth Course

Squash Blossom stuffed with crushed potatoes, tomatillo, sweet corn, peppers and chilis, tomato sauce, tomato leaves dish

Chef Aaron read everyone’s minds in explaining that yes, see, tomato leaves are totally edible and his 90 something year old grandmother has been eating them for decades.

Sixth Course

Eggplant, coriander filbert yogurt, fried hazelnuts, fennel pollen, mint, dill

I think the Eggplant was just roasted, grilled, and smoked or some combination that involved more cooking than one fire element, despite being listed as simply eggplant on the menu. I loved how smoky the eggplant was, and the combination with coriander and pollen.
 

Seventh Course

Roasted (after Sous-Vide in aromatic herb bath) Carrot, smoked walnut milk, cabbage cider, golden beet juice

Has a carrot looked so good before?

Eighth Course

Chanterelles, celeriac puree, chervil, onion cream, chard

We loved how creamy the celeriac puree is to give us richness in this dish. It was dramatic watching this plate begin to be plated given it started with Chef Tim literally firing each plate with a blowtorch.

There was a little too much chervil in this dish for my taste that threw off the balance of the dish,  but still all the plates were scraped clean up and down the chefs bar. This dish was paired with the next homemade drink of the flight, Golden Beet Apple Ginger non-alcoholic beverage

Ninth Course

Filbert yogurt and ash coated potatoes with herbs on red beet kombucha with a River Rock presentation

Both F and I loved watching this plating happen since it was being done right in front of us by  Chef Aaron and Tim as they painstakingly arranged each element, picking just the right ingredients down to watching Chef Aaron carefully consider which potato from the roasting pan to use.

Tenth Course

Candied Sungolds, basil, rye, olive oil semi-freddo

Finally, the dessert courses right? So full already… the pairing of homemade beverages for this course was the Melon Pear juice. This was another dish where I thought it was slightly off balance because of the intensity of the basil sauce, though I have to admire its color.

Eleventh Course

Blackberry, olive oil cake, licorice mint, fennel pollen, anise glass

The white powder you see Chef Tim carefully plating with is olive oil powder. This and the next course were paired with Apple Fennel Thyme Scrub that is diluted a bit with soda water for effervescent bubbles.

Twelfth Course

Seascape Strawberries, aqua faba, lemon filbert cream, sorrel, hardy kiwis

We got to hear a little ode of love to aqua faba by Chef Aaron, who explained that this was a solidfier that can replace the traditional role of eggs in desserts – aqua faba is created from chickpea liquid, which means it is also gluten free and natural instead of a processed starch or gluten or soy. So that meringue you see up there on the plate – I could not tell the difference between one that would have traditionally been made from egg whites. So it definitely works and tastes right.

To finish, we were treated to a hot beverage service which included coffee or tea, and I went with the green tea. Chef Rico also gave us a little goodie bag of zucchini bread for us to remember Farm Spirit by later that night/the next morning.

We wanted to enjoy the food upon serving so that we could taste it at the peak of the intended temperature, but each plate was so gorgeous it was hard to limit myself to only 30 seconds of photo taking. I’m curious to see how Farm Spirit will find the upcoming winter where the produce variety dwindles from the summer and autumn bounty, and wish them all the best. I love the concept and the way they focus on really putting together unique flavor combinations. They really celebrate and show off that when you get the best product, you don’t need meat or dairy to enjoy deliciousness.