THEWHEEL
DEAL
Serving appetizers
by cart at State
Bird Provisions in
San Francisco
HEMISPHERESMAGAZINE.COM
•
NOVEMBER 2013
35
FREDA BANKS
FOOD & DRINK
FOOD
ROLL-UP
Dim sum–style fine dining restaurants
put the cart before the course
BY SALLY KOHN
THE NEXT TIME
you’re eating out, don’t
be surprised if your waiter rolls up to
your table with a li le extra baggage: At a
number of restaurants around theU.S., the
Chinese dimsumtradition of serving food
from carts has sprung up in restaurants
that don’t serve Chinese food.
The trend is taking off in part because
the dimsum–style approach allows diners
to curate their own tasting menus—per-
sonalized romps through multiple small
plates without the major commitment of
an entrée. In fact, the trend’s popularity
may be due in part to the rising appeal of
the appetizer as the entrée has gone out of
fashion—a theory put forward by every-
one from James Beard Award–nominated
chef Alex Stupak to
Los Angeles Times
restaurant critic Jonathan Gold. There’s
also the idea that farm-to-table foodies are
taking their obsession with knowing the
provenanceof theirmeals one step further:
They don’t just want to know about their
dish before ordering, they want to see it.
Take Gunshow, Top Chef finalist Kevin
Gillespie’s newest restaurant in Atlanta.
There, staff and sometimes Gillespie him-
self carry or roll out trays of small plates
for customers to consider. This can be a
boon to diners who would have a hard
time imagining what suchmodern dishes
as pork skin riso oandCarolina-stylepork
ribs with peaches ’n’ cream slaw would
look like. Not sure if you’ll enjoypotato and
roastedmushroomgratinwith spring pea
salad? Simply take a look. “It’s the perfect
fit for our culture today,” says Gillespie.
“People are interested in quality food.
They want to know where it came from.
But they also have short a ention spans.”
Th e two - y e a r - o l d S t a te B i r d
Provisions, a much-hyped,
