Ash to Unveil New Menu at Iron Horse Hotel
Going from classic American to eclectic fine dining, the restaurant reintroduces itself Oct. 3.
Chef de Cuisine Eric Zangara. Photo taken Sept. 20, 2024 by Sophie Bolich.
The new chefs at Ash Hearth & Bar are cooking with fire.
At least, that’s the driving force behind the new menu at The Iron Horse Hotel‘s in-house restaurant, 500 W. Florida St.
Executive Chef Franklin Perdue and Chef de Cuisine Eric Zangara have spent several months perfecting the revamp, which combines open-hearth cooking with fine dining methods and farm-to-table ingredients, yielding a lineup of dishes that’s polished, but not pretentious, unexpected and yet approachable.
Rich, hay-smoked bone marrow is balanced with a hint of Maldon salt and coarse pepper, then piped onto rustic sourdough for an indulgent opener. Olive-fed wagyu beef tartare is lighter, but equally indulgent, served with charcoal oil and other accoutrements atop a rye crisp.
Thinly sliced elk with hearth-roasted carrots and ancho dukkah is a standout entrée, as are the beef ribs, complemented by a scallion ash and black lime rub, and layered with sweet and spicy sauces, warm eggplant conserva, bread crumbs and fresh herbs.
The new menu is set to officially launch on Oct. 3.
Perdue’s culinary career includes executive chef roles at Riverbend, a private club in Kohler; the Kenosha Country Club; and Opus at The Belfry House. He also served as head chef at Central Standard Craft Distillery when it opened in 2021.
At Iron Horse, Perdue said he feels free to cook to the fullest extent of his imagination.
“I’ve cooked a lot of different cuisines throughout my career, but I’m at the point right now where I don’t like to be boxed in by one specific,” he said. “I like it to be more eclectic and highlight the seasons as well.”
That means leaning on locally sourced vegetables and herbs from purveyors such as Farm Happy, Baby Mama Botanicals and Hundred Acre, whose products get dressed up in hummus and goddess dip for Ash’s hearth-roasted crudité or strewn atop butterflied branzino and finished with briny caper vinaigrette.
As peak harvest season gives way to brisker weather, Perdue and Zangara are preserving the bounty through fermentation—tangy huckleberries, funky strawberry gochujang sauce and punchy red cabbage agrodolce appear throughout the menu, adding depth to herb-crusted elk rack, fork-tender beef ribs and parsnip-stuffed pasta, respectively.
Keep an eye out for future additions, including red kuri squash miso, which could hit the menu in the coming months.
Fermentation isn’t the only ancient technique employed at Ash; a blazing fire roars in the restaurant’s open kitchen, bringing layers of smoke and char to nearly every dish on the menu.
The open flame allows for the use of unconventional tools, such as the flambadou, which funnels sizzling beef tallow over fresh oysters; persimmon kombucha mignonette and a dab of tangerine kosho cut the resulting richness.
“It was definitely a learning curve, but an exciting one,” Perdue said of live-fire cooking.
The restaurant’s complimentary bread service is also going old school, harking back to the Neolithic period. Chefs Perdue and Zangara are finalizing a multi-grain bread that features einkorn wheat flour, a varietal dating back more than 8,000 years.
“It’s my first time working with it,” said Perdue, noting that Iron Horse owner Tim Dixon is “a huge advocate” for organic and heritage ingredients, as well as whole-animal butchery.
In fact, the kitchen is currently making its way through a 130-pound yellowfin tuna — most of which was used for a raw bar at the hotel’s anniversary party in mid-September. The remaining bones are being turned into garum, an umami condiment similar to fish sauce.
Perdue said he’s found the ideal partner in Zangara, who most recently served as executive chef at Carbon Steak.
“More than anything, he just brings a really good and positive attitude,” Perdue said, also praising the chef’s unique perspective and artful presentations. “Eric does a super awesome job on the Wagyu beef tartare. I mean, it’s beautiful.”
The reimagined Ash is a departure from the restaurant’s previous focus on classic American cooking; a recent menu features a wide variety of meat-based entrees and sides including broccolini and sour cream mashed potatoes.
The new menu is pared-down by comparison, offering four starters, four mains and two desserts. A list of accompanying cocktails will make its debut alongside the food menu next month.
Starting Oct. 3, Ash will be open Thursday through Saturday from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.
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