and yet it happens all the time ...
In the race to provide the most up-to-the-minute news about restaurants that are opening, we have a glut of news this summer about
restaurants that aren't open at all! It's sort of a side-effect of the burgeoning blogosphere that food bloggers (and major media outlets) simply throw up pictures of interiors without diners, cover restaurants without menus, interview entrepreneurs without functioning businesses — yet. It has gotten to the point where you read headlines about a "new" eatery only to find it's so darn new it's opening in a few months!
Well, we don't intend to do that with this post, although it does concern one of the restaurants our local media outlets have awaited with bated breath: Selden Standard. The not-yet-opened restaurant is giving the public its first taste, and that's reason enough to get into the how and when of things.
The folks behind Selden Standard — including former MT food critic Evan Hansen and former Roast chef Andy Hollyday — are hosting a pop-up dinner at Ferndale's stylish craft cocktail bar, the Oakland. Hansen tells us it's not going to be a huge production, "some cool bar snacks and small plates with [the Oakland's] crew's drinks," but it will provide a foretaste of the menus that Selden Standard will offer.
Officially, the event will feature cuisine "highlighting locally sourced ingredients, captured at the peak of their season, including ceviche with summer vegetables, yogurt marinated chicken skewers and garden tempura with herb aioli, among others." It sounds creative, and we're tempted to characterize it with some sort of buzzword stew, like "casual upscale locally sourced fusion fare" or something. Hansen, thankfully, breaks it down for us better than we could.
“Our restaurant is obviously going to have plenty of larger items," he says, "but we also want people to be able to come sit at the bar with something more interesting than standard pub fare. That’s what Andy will be preparing at The Oakland — interesting, seasonal flavors in just a few bites.
"As for the food
yeah, it's like the restaurant. 'New American' or 'contemporary American.' No single culinary influence
just good, flavorful ingredients. At this event in particular, it's all casual, mostly finger foods. We tried to only have one item that you'd even need a utensil to eat."
It sounds tasty to us. What's more, the Oakland's bar staff will be mixing up a new creation just for this event called the Paloma, made with tequila, lime juice, grapefruit soda, and a pinch of salt.
Curious? Want to try out Selden Standard's "upscale tastes, casual vibe" before anybody else? It all begins at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, July 22, at the Oakland Art Novelty Co., 201 W. Nine Mile Rd., Ferndale; entry is free, menu items and drinks are a la carte. With limited seating and space available on a first-come, first-served basis, there could be a wait. Call 248-291-5295 as long as one hour before your party's arrive to be added to the wait list.
