April Heritage and Harvest Supper: 4:00 PM Reservation

This April, Heritage and Harvest Supper tells the story of migration: from West Africa to the Sea Islands to the American South to the Willamette Valley. Benne Seed opens and closes the evening for a reason: because it acts as the through-line of the menu’s story. Agricultural, cultural, sensory. It immediately signals the African roots of Southern cuisine, creates structural unity across the meal, mirrors the transition from forced migration to adaptation, and gives the meal a sensory “bookend.”

The amuse: Benne Wafer with Smoked Fish. Thin, crispy benne seed wafer, smoked trout or bluefish, pickled spring onion, Alabama white sauce. One bite, enormous cultural weight.

Starter: Crab cake on Johnnycake: crab cake, fried Johnnycake base, green garlic butter, jalapeño-carrot Escabeche. The Johnnycake is the intersection of Indigenous and African grains.

Mid Course: Lowcountry Perloo – a one-pot rice dish: Carolina Gold rice, shellfish, smoked sausage, holy trinity, low and slow-cooked until rice absorbs everything. This is the dish that fed people who had nothing but a pot, a fire, and what the water gave them.

Main (vegetarian): Carolina Gold Rice Pilau, charred cabbage, fermented peppers, toasted benne seeds. Main (non-vegetarian): Sorghum-glazed heritage pork with field peas and skillet cornbread. Sorghum and cane vinegar glaze, cast iron finished. Field peas on the side, skillet cornbread for the table. These dishes say Sunday Dinner without apology.

Dessert: Sorghum-custard sweet potato cornbread pudding. Day-old skillet cornbread, soaked overnight in sorghum-vanilla-bean custard, baked low and slow until set, with a lacquered top. Finished table-side with a warm rhubarb-cane vinegar compote and a bourbon creme anglaise. Toasted benne brittle shard on top closes the benne thread that opened the meal.