Surprise: My Favorite Ramen Slurps At A Farm-To-Table Restaurant (For Now)

Ramen at White Oak Tavern

I stumbled on my favorite local ramen at a "guys night out" at White Oak Tavern.

White Oak is a casual bar and grill trying to push seasonal dishes and farm-to-table ideas on Rte 40 in Ellicott City.  It's working a middle ground with aspirations for high-end meals, but a casual feel a little less expensive that a meal in DC or Baltimore.

Coming soon to Rte 40

It hit a home run with everything on my night out.  A brussels sprout appetizer that looks so good that we each ordered had one as an appetizer.  Then a main event of rich, dark broth cooked with chewy noodles, bok choy, and a just-cooked egg.

This is part of a "Surprise" series that I'm writing as I try to start blogging again.  Come back for more in the next few days.

A real restaurant reviewer would focus on the delicious broth.  A ramen expert could explain why that savory liquid paired so well with the tender noodles.  But I'm going to tell you about the pork belly.

It was the best pieces of pork belly that I've ever had in my life.

Slightly crisp,  Rich pork flavor.  No fattiness.  It was firm like a piece of meat, and it reminded me why pork belly has been a craze.  With a really good beer and the brussels sprout appetizer, it was as good a meal as I remember eating this year.  Now, it was a pricey bowl.  I don't remember exactly, but it was an out-to-eat dinner price like $15-25.  Absolutely worth the price, but entirely fair to compare it with the equally-fun ramen at Matcha Time in Ellicott City.

Ramen at Matcha Time

But it will be a blast to start comparing White Oak to Matcha Time to Uma Uma.  Uma Uma is the ramen and yakitori restaurant that has been planning and constructing since Spring 2014.  They're close now.  (Update:  I just heard that they plan to open on December 23, 2015!)  They had chairs there when Lil' Chow and I walked past 10 days ago.

Uma Uma sounds like a place that Lil' Chow will love -- soup, noodles, rice and chicken.  They're between Lighthouse Tofu and Boston Chicken on the north side of Rte 40.  When you check them out, walk around the corner for dessert at Tous Les Jours.  That French bakery by way of Seoul has great pastries, coffees, drinks and a great atmosphere to hang out.

But back to the White Oak dinner, my friend and I had a really good night.  It's a basic decor, more like Frisco Tap House than Aida Bistro.  But they're pushing for really interesting food, and the place impresses me.  I'd love to hear if other people can comment below with recommended dishes or reports about dinners at White Oak.

Folks have been emailing me about the Uma Uma sign.  I appreciate them all.  I'd love to hear from folks if they see it is open or (even better) if they get to try the food.

First Thoughts On White Oak Tavern: Some Real Success And Warmer Seasons On The Way

White Oak's burger, fries and housemade ketchup

MEMO
To: Richard Gorelick, Baltimore Sun
Date: March 20, 2014

We had a fun night at White Oak Tavern, but we hope that you'll let them get a few more months under their belts before you visit.

White Oak is new Ellicott City restaurant that aims to celebrate local farms, seasonal food, and craft beers.  It's a friendly place, newly-renovated with wood and stone and newly-joined into the "farm to table" trend.  It's a smart place with real ambition.

There's nothing better than meeting a restaurant that wants to show off its wares.  I read the beer list, and I couldn't pick between two.  The waitress went straight to offering tastes of both.  Two tastes.  Both excellent beer.  Both described perfectly.  And one was just wrong.  I clearly don't like beers with "caramel."  I ended up with a hoppy, bitter IPA that absolutely made my meal.

The fun parts of our meal were corn bread, a burger and a great dessert.  The menu has small plates and entrees.  They're trying for seasonal food.  They're trying for local farms.  They're trying to be unique.  The corn bread comes in a dense, moist wedge sparked up by a thin layer of melted cheese.  The burger comes with house-made ketchup, a tangy sauce, and Atwater's brioche roll that made it stand out.

"Cookies and Cream"

All those make White Oak a definite place to check out -- especially if you want to try 30 taps of craft beers with good food to go along.  Folks are guaranteed wings, burgers and hearty fare that's a thoughtful step above most places.  They should seek out the kitchen's special effort -- like extra sauce on that burger.  We just want you and your Sun colleagues to hold off a few months so that White Oak can work out what it means when the waitress says "farm to table" and the menu has entrees in the 20s.

Mid-winter is never a fair time to judge a seasonal restaurant, especially one that wants to thrive on Maryland produce.  On the winter menu, the only vegetables on the small plate menu were deep-fried mushrooms, so the farm product that drew us in was a beet salad that turned out to be a mistake.  Cubed beets.  Slivered fennel.  Huge chunks of soft onion.  Oranges and goat cheese, all with a cup of quinoa dumped alongside.

My fear is that a real restaurant reviewer would stop in his tracks.  Nothing held the salad together.  The flavor was flat and bland.  The fennel was too small to crunch.  The onion so big that it felt sad.  I want to see more quinoa in the world, but the next menu will hopefully edit that salad.  My hope is that spring and summer will bring vegetables so delicious that White Oak can really put them front and center.  Maybe the vegetables listed as "ala carte" are special enough be like small plates that we have had Pure Wine Cafe or Woodberry Kitchen.  We realized afterwards that we might have enjoyed kale or broccolini.

It takes ambition to be something special, and it takes time to work that ambition into meals like Woodberry and 8407 Kitchen Bar where this "farm to table" trend makes drama from simple ingredients.  While we're waiting, I'm going back to White Oak for more dessert.  We had a "Cookies and Cream."  That's vanilla ice cream served with dark gingerbread cookies.  Ice cream from South Mountain Creamery in Middletown.  Cookies made with real ingredients that leave threads of ginger and a deep, intense flavor.

We both agreed that White Oak's cookies ranked up with Le Comptoir, which makes many of the best desserts around.  If anything, we'd want them notched into the ice cream so we could pick them up for dipping -- rather than lined with chocolate sauce and put under the ice cream.

White Oak is a cool place, and it's definitely worth seeking out on Rte 40.  I want success for this round of new restaurants that want to be special enough to draw diners from across the county and reviewers from Baltimore -- White Oak, Gadsby's Bar American, the Highland Inn, and Petit Louis.  I want to give them time to do all that work.

Could someone explain the allure of beer lists on televisions?  Kloby's Smokehouse has them.  White Oak has two in the dining room.  I don't have young eyes anymore, but I can't read them across the room.  Even when I can, it is just a name.  White Oak had a terrific two-page beer list with a paragraph on each beer.  The descriptions helped me pick -- and made me want to order more.

Race On Rte 40: White Oak Versus Sonic

More incremental news on some of the restaurants coming to Ellicott City.

White Oak Tavern posted on its Facebook page that they had an inspection cancelled today, so they're hoping to do that tomorrow and then open in a week or sooner.  This is the farm-to-table restaurant coming to the Enchanted Forest shopping center.

Earlier this month, the Sonic coming a little farther west on Rte 40 posted on its Facebook page that they're hoping to start site work in February and open over the summer.

(Update:  Did Chutney open in Columbia?  This is the Indian place replacing Akbar's.  Jeff commented on the HowChow Facebook page that Chutney's Web site says that it opened on the 17th.)

On White Oak's page, Tony joked by asking which one would open sooner.  Opening any restaurant is an enormous job.  So I'll take them when they arrive -- but I think we're still waiting for Petit Louis in Columbia, Ananda in Fulton and a bunch of other new joints.  Hat tip to Gina, who noted the Sonic post.

White Oak Tavern Opens In A Week; The Menus Will Be Posted By Deena Over Five Days

The new White Oak Tavern appears set to open on Rte 40 in the next week, and Deena is posting the menus over the next five days on Deena Days.

The White Oak replaces Jilly's, and the new crew is taking up the seasonal, farm-to-table banner.  Looks like a mix of salads and small plates for $5-12 and then entrees from $12-25.  The menus -- which highlight the places where they're getting meat, cheese, coffee and more -- are definitely worth checking out.

Today, Deena posted the winter dinner menu.  Or check back for all of Deena's posts about the White Oak to see her add the other menus.

If the White Oak folks say that they're opening in a week, then I suspect that they may have already soft-opened to work out the kinks.  Anyone know?  Has anyone been?

New Chef At Twist & Turn, New White Oak Promises "Farm To Table" Pub -- All On Twitter

It is a new world.  I posted yesterday about a possible new chef at Twist & Turn and an apparent new restaurant to replace Jilly's, and confirmation came back on both via Twitter.

From chef Bruce Allen's Twitter feed, you can see that he is leaving Sonoma's and joining the Twist & Turn Tavern in Highland.  I had heard that the place had picked up the front-house manager from Facci on Johns Hopkins Road.  They're also building an awning for new outdoor seating.

The White Oak Tavern Twitter page leads you to Facebook where you can see photos of the place, promises of "farm to table" pub food, and mentions of chef Greg Mason.  It looks like they're marrying the seasonal food trend with the "taphouse" model of many beer options.  I'm never happy to hear about a place closing, but it sounds like White Oak wants to offer something special in the new place.

Anyone know the plans at either place?  Timing on changes at Twist & Turn or opening at White Oak?