Foodie Chap w/ Bartender Josh Trabulsi & Chef Luke Knox of The Burritt Room & Tavern

The Burritt Room & Tavern at the Mystic Hotel in San Francisco offers much for the seeker of quality cuisine and well crafted cocktails. At the helm in the kitchen is Chef Luke Knox. Running the bar show with an ace team of bartenders mixologist Josh Trabulsi. The relationship between bar and kitchen here is a special one. The recently launched BR Table, a communal table with a set menu nightly gives both helmsmen an opportunity to combine energy and creativity. Luke creates a five course locally sourced menu (with cheese & dessert) for eats and Josh perfectly pairs with artisan cocktails or world class wines.

More on Luke's story. Having spent ten years in high profile restaurants like Bouchon and Aureole Las Vegas, he brings a minimalistic style to food, precise attention to detail, and an engaging persona to Burritt Room + Tavern at the Mystic Hotel. A graduate from Le Cordon Bleu in Portland, OR and a student of the cooking practices of both Charlie Palmer and Thomas Keller, Knox is known for making dishes with signature Palmer progressive American flair along with a distinctive creativity of his own. That creativity is personified on the plate by a light, clean and local approach to cooking.

To Burritt Room + Tavern, Knox brings the wide variety of modern techniques he refined at Aureole Las Vegas , coupled with a renewed approach to the modern American tavern menu. Chef Knox escalates the dining experience at Burritt Room + Tavern by enhancing flavor profiles with minimal manipulation and using the freshest product Northern California has to offer.

In 2013, Chef Knox was named one of Zagat's 30 Under 30.

As for Josh. He started off his bartending career mixing cocktails and pouring wine at chain steakhouses in Boston, his original stomping grounds. However, the turning point of his bartending career came while he was living in Los Angeles, realizing the true craft of the bar, mixology, through his work at the Beverage Alcohol Resource educational program. Led by the most prominent figures at the forefront of mixology, the program revealed to him the real artistry associated with distilled spirits and cocktails and changed the course of his career permanently.

With his newfound knowledge, Josh was hired as the lead bartender, bar manager and sommelier at top Southern California hotels, including The Hotel del Coronado and Preferred Hotels in San Diego and Los Angeles. After gaining great momentum as a notable figure in the bartending world, he started his own bar operations and consulting company, Rum Runner, where he opened the much lauded cocktail bar, The Witherby Room in San Diego, and operated specialty craft bars at major corporate events and high-profile weddings.

Now the bar manager and mixologist at renowned chef Charlie Palmer's Burritt Room + Tavern located in the new Mystic Hotel in San Francisco, Josh is truly passionate about the mastery of the classics. While he does enjoy the creation of new drinks and ingredients, he much prefers to perfect the equations of the original classics of the pre-prohibition Golden Age of Cocktails. His personal favorite is the iconic Sazerac, a simplistic cocktail composed of just four ingredients including bitters and absinthe. But it's creating that perfect Sazerac every time that is his true obsession. He can be found daily behind the bar at the Burritt Room, mastering the Sazerac and other classic creations, a far cry from those two-pour drinks back in Boston.

Do yourself a favour and venture to downtown San Francisco to the Burritt Room on Stockton Street. Book a seat or two at the BR Table and enjoy a flavorful feast paired with killer cocktails or world class vino. It's $105pp and well worth every cent. Each guest will leave with a date stamped menu and notes on each artisan, purveyor or rancher that contributed to your BR TABLE experience. And to boot, you will depart with a happy tummy and a night of food memories to share with others. The max at the table is 12. You could book for an entire group or just for two and have the chance to dine with new like-minded foodie friends.

Meantime, ladies and gentlemen enjoy my Foodie Chap chat with Chef Luke Knox and Bar Manager Josh Trabulsi.

Cheers, Liam!

KCBS Foodie Chap Podcast:

(credit: Foodie Chap/Liam Mayclem)

Drunken Chicken
w/ fried brussel Sprouts, speck Ham and pickled mustard seed dressing

Drunken Chicken Ingredients:
1ea whole chicken 4-5lb
3can light beer
2T kosher Salt
1T brown Sugar
1T chopped herbs
- thyme
- Rosemary
- oregano

Directions:

In a small saucepan over mid heat combine the 2cans of beer, salt, Brown sugar, and herbs and bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve the salt and brown sugar. Transfer to a bowl and put over ice to cool the liquid. While the liquid is cooling per heat the oven to 275 degrees. Place the chicken a 8x10 pour the liquid into the bottom pan as we'll as the 3rd can of beer. Roast in the over for 60 min, basting the chicken with the liquid every 15 min. In the last 15 min of baking turn the oven to 450 for caramelization.

Remove the pan from the oven and allow the chicken to set for 30 min to cool and absorb more flavor, the. Remove the chicken from the pan strain the liquid back to a saucepan and reduce be half this well be used as a jus for the chicken.

For best results inject the chicken with some of the liquid before baking.

Pickled mustard seed dressing
1c creme fraich
1/4c Dijon mustard
1T pickled mustard seed
1/8 apples cider vin
1T fresh chopped tarragon
Salt and pepper to taste

Direction:
Use any standard pickling recipe to pickle the mustard seed.

Once pickled, mix all ingredients together and serve with the chicken, the jus, fried or roasted Brussels and some thinly sliced cured ham

Enjoy!

For more on The Burritt Room & Tavern, visit www.charliepalmer.com