Have you been to Fenimore’s at The Q since their refresh this summer? We finally got a chance to pop in for a look around (and for some amazing comfort food!), and can’t say enough about the changes to the space. Beautiful new wallpaper to match the historic look of the hotel, sleek new tables and chairs, classic black and white hex tile around the bar, and a gorgeous new banquette…with perfectly styled built in shelves to boot!
On top of the beautiful decor, the food was perfection - classic, yet elevated. We were excited to have a chance to catch up with Chef Colin Miner (who you’ll remember from our story on Park 26 over the summer) to chat about some favorites on the menu that will keep you coming back this winter.
On the Secret Menu
I took over the Fenimore’s menu in September. And immediately I thought that we should have a secret menu that only the locals know about. I don't mean to date myself on this one, but there was a commercial Michael Keaton used to do and it was like you tell two friends, and then they tell two friends, and it went from two blocks to four blocks to eight to sixteen blocks. So that was the idea with the secret menu.
So our most popular item on the secret menu is our buffalo chicken dip - it's like everything good about Super Bowl Sunday. And we serve it with pretzel chips - we actually take the pretzel sticks and we slice them thin and then crisp them in the fryer. We finish it with a little bit of jalapeño oil - we de-seed the peppers and take out the membrane so that relieves a lot of the spice.
On the Vegetable Risotto
Our Risotto uses pretty much everything in the Fenimore’s house salad, except in Risotto form. We start with a little pat of red wine shallot butter. Instead of using cheese - because I feel like sometimes when people add too much cheese to a risotto, it becomes like cement - the red wine butter is the only dairy that we use in it.
So we start with the butter, some vegetable stock that we make in house, and the risotto, and we just let that get creamy, throw in the roasted tomatoes and portobello mushrooms, and then a handful of fresh spinach right before we plate it. Then we top it with some chive oil that we make in house, and some really, really fine sliced chives as well.
On the Perfect Burger
We do a Wagyu beef patty for the burger. I like to use the bib lettuce because - instead of using the romaine, let's do something a little bit different! And on top of the patty, you have a pork sausage - so you have an eight ounce patty, a three ounce sausage, and then we add three ounces of peppers and onions. And then we add four ounces of housemade Mornay, which is a really nice cheese sauce. So essentially you're looking at just over a pound of food - not including the onion rings!
On Elevated Mac and Cheese
I think a very, very important thing with mac and cheese has to be the noodle. A lot of people go with the elbow and I like it, it’s classic. But when you use the gemelli, it has deeper crevices in the noodle itself, so it actually picks up more of the cheese. For the most part, you don't have any leftover sauce in the plate when you’re done. We top it with these panko bread crumbs, so for every bite, you're going to have that crunch. It’s taking that nostalgia of mac and cheese and just elevating it a tiny bit.
On the Blondie Sundae
So the Blondie Sundae was actually created by one of my line cooks since I like to give them the chance to create something of their own on the menu. He took a traditional blondie recipe and turned it into a Brown Butter Blondie Sundae.
You have the scoop of the ice cream right in the center. You have both white chocolate and dark chocolate in there. And then the ice cream is topped with a spice caramel. Initially, we thought about going with just caramel - but we elevated it a little bit. We added chili powder, cayenne pepper, nutmeg, cinnamon, and all spice. And it's not hot, but there is that little nice little kick. That's the first thing that you catch is the spice aroma, which is my favorite thing.
Colin Miner, Chef de Cuisine
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