Best. Meal. Ever.: Lunch at The Kennedy in Spartanburg, SC

By Renee Wright

After going on four decades as a food writer, and sampling cuisines around the world, I've always resisted answering the question that everyone asks: "What was the best meal you ever had?" However, a recent trip to Spartanburg, SC changed all that. I can now definitively say, the lunch served to a group of travel writers at The Kennedy was undoubtedly the finest I ever experienced. 

Part of the magic was the combination of talents that created the food that day. Chefs from three restaurants, The Kennedy, Cribbs Kitchen and the FR8 Yard, worked together in the kitchen, each contributing the best dishes from these three top Spartanburg eateries. 

Our host (above) was William Cribb, who - with partners - founded all three restaurants (as well as Willy Taco). Cribb was named SC Chef Ambassador for the Upstate region in 2017, tasked with promoting the state's culinary heritage and local food culture. It's a role that comes naturally to Cribb who features local products on all his menus. 

STARTERS 

While menus at The Kennedy change with the seasons, most meals start the way ours did - with Colonial Milling Cornbread accompanied by "essentials." The day we were there these included local honey and honeycomb, peach preserves, Jalapeno relish and watermelon pickles. 

 

Cribb's favorite cornmeal is produced by Colonial Milling, a first-generation family farm growing and milling heirloom corn into meal and grits just outside Spartanburg. Watermelon rind pickles come from the Bradford Watermelon Company, based on an Upstate farm where the 1850's era Bradford watermelon, once believed extinct, continues to be grown by descendants of the original family.

Cribb's talented young chefs show off their Warm Purple Potato Salad, tossed in duck fat and topped with pickled pecans.

Salads feature hydroponically grown greens, lettuces and herbs from another local company, Tyger River Smart Farm.

 A tossed salad is topped with a buttermilk dressing made from the juice from the house-made ricotta.

THE ENTREES!

Ah, the entrees... what came before was great, but the entrees stole the show. Perfect preparation, the freshest ingredients, thoughtfully combined flavors make all the difference.

Braised pork shanks, fork-tender and topped with a mossy coating of herbs, were an eye-opener.

I'm not a huge fan of chicken - or gravy either for that matter. But this locally raised pullet changed my mind, roasted to melt-in-the-mouth perfection (and I never use that word for food)... and I could have eaten the gravy as a soup. Southern grandmas would be jealous.

This Grilled B-Liner Snapper, sustainably fished by Abundant Seafood of Mt. Pleasant, SC, is stuffed with lemon slices and topped with herbs.

Smoked Duck Sausage held its own among the fancier dishes. It's produced by the chefs down at the FR8 Yard, a downtown biergarten built from re-purposed shipping containers that specializes in housemade brats and other sausages. 

DESSERT

For our dessert, Chef Cribb chose a Southern classic, Chess Pie, accompanied by Sweet Potato Gelato. 

Each course was accompanied by craft cocktails from The Kennedy's innovative bar staff. Many feature locally distilled liquors and cordials and are garnished with locally grown herbs.

You won't be able to recreate my meal at The Kennedy. As a matter of fact, the restaurant currently only serves dinner. However, the art-deco bar at The Kennedy (above) offers happy hour every day from 4 to 6 pm. And the Cribb family of expert chefs can be counted on for great lunches and dinner at Cribb's and the FR8 Yard.

For more information, see the Visit Spartanburg website. 

Paul Taylor honored in 2019 ADF season

American Dance Festival Celebrates the Work of Paul Taylor through dance and film

When Paul Taylor, aged 88, passed away in August, 2018, it marked the end of a remarkable career that spanned more than 50 years, an era that saw modern dance expand from its earliest beginnings to an international force in performance. Taylor worked with all the most significant choreographers of his time, beginning with Martha Graham and Doris Humphrey, and on to Charles Weidman, Merce Cunningham, Jose Limon, Jerome Robbins and George Balanchine. Along the way he choreographed nearly 150 different dances, a lifetime of compositions that today form an eclectic repertoire still performed by his company today. 

For many years, the Paul Taylor Dance Company has been a regular presence at the American Dance Festival (ADF), like the Lincoln Center, an annual date on the Taylor calendar. 

Like many other choreographers, Taylor got some of his earliest dance experience at the ADF itself. According to his PBS American Master bio, the 22-year-old college athlete landed a  work scholarship at the ADF in the summer of 1952 (when Connecticut College in New London, CT, was the festival's home base). By 1955, he had landed a soloist position with Martha Graham's company, creating the role of Aegisthus in Graham's Clytemnestra, her only full-length ballet. 

The American Dance Festival is dedicating its 2019 season to Paul Taylor and his legacy, through a series of performances and special events. 2019 is also the 50th year that the company has performed at ADF, which commissioned many of Taylor's original works. 

[A full list of Taylor works in the company's repertoire can be found here.]

Classics Redux

Recreations of classics from Taylor, Graham and Merce Cunningham bracket this year' festival calendar. 

On the opening weekend (June 13-15), Taylor 2, a select group of dancers that takes the choreographer's works around the world, performs Piazzolla Caldera, Taylor's 1997 take on Argentine tango, as part of the ICONS program. Also included in ICONS: 

• The Graham 2 company will perform Martha Graham’s Diversion of Angels (1948). 
•  Stephen Petronio Company will recreate Merce Cunningham’s Tread (1970).

Piazzolla Caldera

The same three choreographers are represented in the Footprints performance (July 19-20), which traditionally closes out the ADF season. The dancers this time are students attending the ADF Summer classes, who have been studying the pieces recreated by experts in the individual choreographers' styles. 

The students will perform Paul Taylor's Esplanade, considered one of his masterworks, which was inspired by the sight of a girl running to catch a bus. A groundbreaker when it debuted in 1975, the piece revolves around pedestrian movement, the ordinary everyday activities Taylor saw around him.

Also on the Footprints program: Martha Graham’s Dark Meadow Suite and Merce Cunningham’s How to Pass, Kick, Fall and Run.

Sandwiched between, the full Paul Taylor Dance Company will be in residence June 27-29, performing two different programs to give fans the chance to sample the wide range of Taylor's creativity. 

Program A, on Thursday and Saturday evenings, includes three Taylor classics never before seen on the ADF stage:

Aureole (1962), considered Taylor's first major success;

Scudorama (1963), a dark piece Taylor prefaced with a quote from Dante's Inferno; 

Promethean Fire, a 2002 work choreographed in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. 

Program B, scheduled for Friday night includes: 

Airs (1978), set to music by Handel;

Dust (1977), described by one critic as "a Goya-like vision of hell-in-life;" 

Company B (1991), a recollection through dance of life in the WWII era set to songs by the Andrews Sisters. 

The company will also give a Children's Matinee on Saturday afternoon. 

Taylor Extras 

In addition to the Taylor dancers, a number of people important to the Taylor legacy will be in Durham during the run of ADF. 

Bettie de Jong, Taylor's long time dance partner and rehearsal director, part of the company since 1962, will receive the 2019 Balasaraswati/Joy Anne Dewey Beinecke Endowed Chair for Distinguished Teaching award before the June 27 performance. De Jong is credited with dedicating more than fifty years of her life to preserving Taylor's work and teaching his dancers his style.

Pre- and post-performance talks will be moderated by Suzanne Carbonneau, a distinguished writer on dance whose credits include the Washington Post and New York Times. Currently she serves as Artistic Advisor to Paul Taylor American Modern Dance. Her authorized biography of choreographer Paul Taylor is due out soon from Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 

In addition, at noon on Friday, June 28, Carbonneau and Taylor company artistic director Michael Novak will discuss the choreographer's legacy and importance during a free program at the Ruby Lounge in the Rubenstein Arts Center next to the Nasher on the West Duke campus. The talk, which includes a complimentary lunch, is part of the ADF's Ruby Friday series.

The majority of the Taylor performances take place in the Reynolds Industries Theater on Duke's West Campus. An exhibit of photographs spanning Paul Taylor's career will hang in the theater's lobby June 13-July 20.

The film "Paul Taylor: Creative Domain" will screen on 

Wednesday, June 26 at 5 pm, at Duke's Rubenstein Film Center followed by a Q&A with Robert Aberlin, executive producer of the doc and Paul Taylor Dance Company board member. The 2014 documentary follows Taylor's creation of a single dance, offering an unequaled look inside the creative process of this legendary - and elusive - master.  

Like the other films on the ADF's Movies By Movers film festival calendar, admission to the screening is free.

For additional information on ADF performances and events, visit the 2019 ADF website.

Valentine's Cocktail with Hendricks Gin

Celebrate your love with this sweet take on a Gin and Tonic.

Island Romance 

created by Hendrick’s Gin Brand Ambassador Mattias Horseman

2 parts Hendrick’s Gin
2 parts Fresh Young Coconut Water
¾ part Lime Juice
1/5 part Tonic Syrup
2 drops of saline solution (Salt:Water ratio 1:4)


Combine all ingredients into shaker and add ice. Strain over ice or serve neat and garnish with 2-3 drops of rose water.

Find more recipes on the Hendrick's Gin website.

Drink, Drank, Drunk! Super Bowl Cocktails from Atlanta Restaurants

Flag on the Play from Bar Margot

Bar Margot's Super Bowl cocktail is concocted of Uncle Nearest Whiskey, Peychauds's bitters and sugar, a take on the classic Sazerac from Bar Margot bartender, Tokiwa Sears. Bar Margot serves lunch and dinner daily at the Four Seasons Hotel in Midtown Atlanta.

Uncle Nearest Whiskey, hailing from Lynchburg, Tennessee, has won numerous gold medals in international tasting events and was named among the Top Five Whiskeys in the World by Cigar & Spirits Magazine. The whiskey is based on the methods of Nathan "Nearest" Green, the first African-American master distiller on record in the United States and thought to be responsible for helping perfect the Lincoln County Process, a requirement in being categorized as Tennessee Whiskey. The distillery uses an 11-step, 25-day one-of-a-kind triple charcoal mellowing system that was hand-drawn and fabricated by engineers exclusively for Uncle Nearest. No other whiskey in the world utilizes this proprietary process.

Here's an easy and delicious recipe from the Uncle Nearest website:

Tennessee Gold

• 2 oz. Uncle Nearest Premium Aged Whiskey
• ¾ oz. Fresh Lemon Juice
• ¾ oz. Honey Syrup*

Put all ingredients into a shaker with ice and shake well for ten seconds. Strain into a rocks glass over ice.

*Honey Syrup: Heat equal amounts honey and water in a saucepan. Stir until combined.

Half Time from Davio's

Davio's Northern Italian Steakhouse's Super Bowl cocktail is a sweet and refreshing mix of Bird Dog Blackberry Whiskey, muddled fresh raspberries, Harpoon UFO Belgium-style wheat beer, topped with an orange twist. Davio's, located in Atlanta's Phipps Plaza, serves lunch and dinner daily, plus a great Happy Hour, 5-7 Monday - Friday.

Kentucky-based Bird Dog Whiskey produces a wide range of flavored whiskies, including blackberry, peach, praline, chocolate and honey jalapeno flavors, as well as flavored liqueurs such as cocoa cayenne and a line of barrel-aged bourbons named for various breeds of bird dog. 

For a fun winter party libation, consider picking up a variety of Bird Dog whiskey flavors and make Bird Dog Snowcones. Here's the recipe from the Bird Dog website.

Bird Dog Snowcones

• 1.5 oz. Bird Dog Flavored Whiskey (any flavor)
• Snowcone Syrup (any flavor)
• Shaved or Crushed Ice

Crush ice in blender, then pack a paper cone (or cup) with the crushed ice. Drizzle the flavored syrup and then 1.5 oz. of any Bird Dog Flavored Whiskey over the cone/cup of crushed ice.