A wood-fired restaurant on the Oregon coast. One fire at the edge of the bluff, the Pacific behind it. We cook over alder, apple and hickory, and only once the smoke has gone thin.
The fire
It burns in a ring of beach stones twenty paces from the dining room, where the kitchen can see it and the wind can reach it. It’s lit at two in the afternoon and fed by hand until the last plate goes out.
The first wood
Light, quick, a little sweet.
The wood this coast has always smoked its salmon over. It burns fast and clean and leaves the fish tasting of the fish.
For black cod, chinook, the oysters’ mignonette, and the salt we boil down from the cove.
The second wood
Slow, sweet, patient.
Prunings from an orchard up the valley. It takes its time, turns duck skin a deep mahogany before it flavours anything, and goes back into the apples for the tart.
For duck, pork belly on Sundays, and the apples themselves.
The third wood
Strong, dark, used sparingly.
The only wood we ship in; hickory doesn’t grow anywhere near here. It’s the bacon-dark one, so it gets the short rib for fourteen hours and nothing else.
For the short rib. That’s it.
White smoke means a hungry fire.
Wet wood, or not enough air. You can taste both.
So we wait.
That’s the smoke we cook on. You could read a newspaper through it, and the fish tastes of the fish, not of the fire.
Tonight
The room
Thirty-two seats under a cedar ceiling the smoke has been working on since the day we opened. Six of them are at the counter by the indoor hearth. The rest are at spruce tables along a window forty feet long, and the Pacific does what it likes on the other side of it.
You’ll leave smelling faintly of alder. Everyone does.
Reservations
Two sittings a night, at 5:30 and 8:15. A $40 deposit holds a table for up to six and comes off your bill. Cancel a day ahead and it comes straight back.
Any night we’re open, either sitting, up to six of you.
Six seats facing the indoor hearth, first sitting only. The whole menu, cooked in front of you, paid when you book.
Seven or more, or something to celebrate? Call us on (541) 555-0172.
Visit
Wednesday to Sunday. Dinner from 5:30; the last sitting is at 8:15.
Closed Monday and Tuesday, when the fire is out.
The fire is lit at two. If you’re early, come and sit by it.
Bluff Road, Corran Cove, Oregon.
Turn west off Highway 101 where the spruce close over the road, and keep going until you can smell it.
Eleven spaces on the bluff. The fire is out in the weather, so bring a jacket.