Trummer's Revamps Menu, Adds Cocktail Omakase

Trummer's on Main's new chef, Austin Fausett, started at the Clifton restaurant last week, and he's already reworked the restaurant's menu. Trummer's new culinary program will debut in June, and it reflects both a new approach to its food offerings and a new cocktail program to go along with them.

Fausett, a veteran of such kitchens as Central and The Inn at Little Washington, has reorganized the menu into four sets of offerings, with a handful of selections for each category. There are seasonal items, vegetarian items, a portion devoted to low country cooking and a contemporary section, which allows the chef to be a bit more experimental. Share plates such as charcuterie and oysters, as well as seasonal desserts, are available as well. Some of the chef's debut dishes include a prosciutto wrapped pork tenderloin with collard greens, grilled peaches and bourbon glaze, as well as a Chesapeake Bay rockfish with asparagus risotto, golden oyster mushrooms and morels. A tasting menu option will be available, too.

Trummer's has always been known for its cocktails, regardless of who's in the kitchen, and the menu changes have allowed co-owner Stefan Trummer to rework the restaurant's drink offerings as well. Similarly, the drinks are grouped into several themes, including mocktails, before-dinner options, light cocktails (for those who want less alcohol), bottled cocktails, signature drinks, large format offerings (served in kind of a punch bowl style) and after dinner drinks. Some of Trummer's popular drinks remain, such as the white grape-flavored Titanic cocktail.

A new move for the restaurant is a Cocktail Omakase menu. For $110, customers get a six course cocktail tasting, along with some bar snacks prepared by the chef. The menu requires reservations, and is only available for the four seats at the end of the bar (sounds kind of Minibar-esque). Fausett is playing around with some new bar menu items as well, such as bourbon-glazed sweetbreads with smoked mayo, peaches and watercress.
· All Previous Coverage of Trummer's on Main [-EDC-]

Austin Fausett [Photo: Trummer's on Main]