Farm-to-table facelift

Sister restaurants Tallgrass and The Bramble get a makeover

“They just weren’t in the mood,” said Johnna Hayes, general manager of Tallgrass Prairie Table and The Bramble Breakfast & Bar. 

She wasn’t referring to employees or even guests. Hayes was talking about the chickens who provide the locally sourced eggs for the restaurants’ farm-to-table concept.

When Tallgrass opened its doors in the Blue Dome District three years ago, it was the first restaurant to aggressively pursue the goal of using 100-percent locally sourced ingredients. It partnered with Living Kitchen Farm & Dairy, a working farm that also hosts intimate dinners on site, to grow many of those ingredients and provide the farm fresh eggs. But as any Oklahoman knows, our weather is unpredictable, and on the farm Mother Nature is in control. 

“Because of Oklahoma’s wildly changing weather, the chickens weren’t laying like they had initially,” Hayes said. “So when we can’t get 400 eggs for Saturday, we’re in bad shape because we have two brunches operating at the same time.”

Eggs weren’t the only difficult items to keep consistently in inventory. “If you run out of ribeyes on a Saturday by 7 p.m., you’re going to have more unhappy people than supportive at that point. And I don’t blame them.”

The menu was constantly changing to adapt to ingredient availability, so last week’s fried chicken wasn’t always on the menu the next.

“I love creative changes and there were amazing things coming out of the kitchen. But there’s a balancing act between creativity and consistency, and sometimes the two don’t go hand-in-hand,” Hayes said. 

This balancing act caused frustrations in the kitchen as well. Staff had to adapt to new dishes constantly with little opportunity to master their preparation, which translated to inconsistent execution. The guests noticed. Management noticed.

Every new restaurant concept experiences bumps in the road, and Tallgrass and The Bramble have had their share. But instead of slowing down, the two restaurants are finding alternate routes to the same farm-to-table goal while delivering consistent availability and dish execution.

“We are still respectful of the philosophy we were founded on,” Hayes said. “We are just reaching out in a different way—using a butcher who is sourcing that local product for us instead of us purchasing the steer directly, for example.”

Stephen Lindstrom, who started at Tallgrass over a year ago as a butcher and was recently named executive chef, has been instrumental in instituting new processes and a new menu. 

Lindstrom has worked in the restaurant industry for 17 years, putting in time at local joints like The Alley and SMOKE. Right before he began butchering meats for Tallgrass, he worked a summer at an exclusive restaurant found at the end of a dirt road 9,800 feet in the mountains of Colorado, where he foraged daily for mushrooms, wild berries and herbs. 

Now, he’s putting in 70-plus hours per week foraging Oklahoma, in a sense, for the most efficient way to still be farm-to-table fueled while also producing innovative cuisine for two restaurants out of one kitchen. 

“Having to divide your focus is the biggest challenge of all. You need to be two places and it’s not always possible,” Lindstrom said. “I have some really loyal cooks that are really great at what they do.”

Lindstrom taps his kitchen staff for ideas and creates a more collaborative environment, which lends itself to better execution of dishes and boosted morale for those doing the work. 

“Having everybody involved in building the menu has helped a lot. Not only do they know how to create it, prep and plate each dish, they are invested because they were part of the decision process.”

The menu is still roughly 50 percent locally sourced, much of which is the produce. Lindstrom can also easily track down local cheese, honey, and breads, and is always on the lookout for other novel items that can be used to create daily specials. 

He completely overhauled the Tallgrass menu, keeping only a few originals like the salads, the spicy fried chicken with red curry gravy and, of course, the roasted bone marrow and rye whiskey luge. 

One of the new additions to the appetizer menu is the pan-seared pork belly, accompanied by a subtly spiced beet puree and garnished with an apple puree. This dish demonstrates the focus on beautifully balanced flavors. The salty richness of tender pork belly is toned down with the sweetness of the apple, but given depth by hints of clove and cinnamon in the beets.

The scallop dish again demonstrates this balance. The scallops themselves are well-seasoned and seared, but the preserved Meyer lemon that imbues the creamy risotto delivers a mellow citrus zing from an unexpected source, enhancing the scallop’s natural flavor.

The Bramble’s menu was left mostly unchanged, but the business hours are expanding in a big way. Starting on Valentine’s Day, The Bramble will kick off its first evening service for a limited number of guests. Going forward, the restaurant will open for breakfast and lunch, then will reopen for happy hour and will serve dinner until 11 p.m., Monday through Saturday. Brunch will still be served on Sunday until 2 p.m.

In the coming weeks, Tallgrass’s dining room will get a minor facelift with a brightened interior and lighter-hued paint, along with added banquette seating for 40 in the front dining area. A new mural will be added to the building’s exterior, along with new logos and more cohesive branding. While making these updates, guests will occasionally be directed to The Bramble next door. They’re aiming to be finished with all construction by mid-March.

“We want to make ourselves more approachable—from the food, to the interior, to the playlist,” Hayes said. “Tulsa has taught us a lot in the past three years about what they want. Now, we’ve learned how to balance it all to give them what they want more consistently in a more accessible atmosphere.”

For more from Angela, read her article on where to get juiced.