What do kimchi and frites have in common? Head to Le Garage on Wed., March 18 to find out.
The two local restaurants are teaming up to host a Korean-French Mashup Dinner in Le Garage’s bar and bistro, beginning at 5 p.m.
“We actually had our holiday party for our staff at Dooby’s, and after we got to know Phil [Han] we started tossing around the idea and thought it would be cool to have them over at our place,” says Brendan Kirlin, owner and beverage director of Le Garage.
Chef Tim Dyson, known for serving up his creative Korean-inspired specialties at Dooby’s, and Chef Eric Bos, known for his novel take on French cuisine at Le Garage, have put their heads together to create an a la carte menu of eight small plates to be featured for the special night.
Although French and Korean fare may seem like they’re on opposite ends of the spectrum, the chefs have taken signature ingredients from each cuisine and mixed and matched them in dishes like fried pork belly with Brussels sprout kimchi and an onion-based soubise sauce, rock shrimp with Sichuan peppercorn gastrique, lamb rack with green curry and white beans, and mussels and frites fused with tobokki (a Korean rice and fish-cake dish).
Beer pairings and cocktail specials will also be available to accompany the inventive eats.
“They’re pretty different styles of cooking and it’s not something you see offered a lot,” Kirlin says. “Asian fusion has been done before, but not to this extent.”
From the quarterly Light Up Lexington event, to the frequent chef takeovers at Artifact Coffee, it’s safe to say that pop-ups and chef collaborations are becoming a Charm City trend.
Kirlin says that he’d love to host more mash-ups.
“Collaboration is such a good way to keep interest in the local food scene,” he says. “The Baltimore restaurant scene is so tight knit. The more we collaborate and have each other’s backs the more enhanced it becomes.”