The Scotch Egg at Wexler's. A lightly poached egg rolled in the burnt, smoked ends of beef short rib, breaded, fried, and served with a homemade hot sauce and a sweet tea gastrique
When it comes to upscale barbecue, there are a lot of different ways a restaurant could go. Some simply serve traditional American barbecue with high quality, sustainable ingredients. Some restaurants apply haute cuisine cooking methods to traditional American barbecue recipes. And others, like Wexler’s, use barbecue in the loosest term possible.
Not too long ago, I had the pleasure of experiencing Wexler’s, a modern American restaurant with barbecue inspirations in San Francisco’s Financial district. What does that mean, exactly? According to head chef Charlie Kleinman (former co-chef at Fish and Farm), this means working with traditional barbecue flavors in new forms, rather than the concept of barbecue as a whole.
More words and food porn after the jump.
A great example (and the most popular item on the menu) of Kleinman’s philosophy is his Scotch Egg. The Scotch egg was actually invented by a London department store, Fortnum & Mason, in 1851. It traditionally consists of a deshelled hardboiled egg, coated in a sausage mix, breaded, and deep fried. In Britain, the scotch egg was commonly served cold as a picnic food, but in the U.S. , British-style pubs tend to serve the eggs warm with a dipping sauce.
The innards of a very beautiful, barbecue-inspired Scotch egg at Wexler's in SF.
At Wexler’s, they forgo the traditional Texas smoked beef brisket for a more sophisticated smoked beef short ribs. For the Scotch egg, they take the burnt eggs of the smoked short ribs and press them around a lightly poached egg. Then the egg is breaded, fried, and served with a homemade hot sauce and a sweet tea gastrique (vinegar syrup), which, when eaten together, taste like distinctly like a deconstructed barbecue sauce.
Wexler’s take the inspiration of barbecue and applies it dishes from other cuisines, a concept I have personally never experienced before. I cannot wait to go back and try more! Have you ever experienced an upscale version of barbecue? If so, where was it and what did you eat?
~LTG!
