During a hard hat tour of construction at the chic boutique Distrikt Hotel this summer, it was revealed that the cryptic name of the restaurant, “or, The Whale” was a literary reference to Herman Melville’s masterpiece, Moby Dick.
Now that it’s fully open, Chef Dennis Marron and staff are writing their own story — the menu is listed in chapters — and the natural question is, “how’s, The Food?”
Pretty special, if a preview dinner Wednesday night at the new Downtown seafood and chophouse is any indication: Wellfleet oysters expertly shucked by the house bivalve wrangler and a Jubilee Farms 74-day, dry-aged steak, sous vide directly into a vat of clarified butter at 120 degrees, then flash seared at 600 degrees.
It nearly liquefied upon eating.
Mr. Marron, who came to town in 2015 from Washington, D.C., to open The Commoner at the Hotel Monaco, leads the team behind the restaurant. Michael Anderson heads the bar, and Eric Moorer is the beverage director.
“This is better than I hoped,” Mr. Marron said, while taking a moment to survey the scene around him. “This is the dream restaurant I’ve had in my mind for a long time,” he added, noting that he had a place in the works in Alexandria, Va., that never came to fruition.
“This led me in a better direction.”
Menu wise, Mr. Marron said he is most excited about the “Duck Duck Goose” burger — a decadent blend of ground duck leg and breast with duck fat mixed in and duck confit on top, and seared fois gras.
“You need a nap after it,” he said.
Mr. Marron worked with Strada Architects on the design in the former Salvation Army building. It’s a two-floor layout that’s spread over what was once the gymnasium. An upstairs bar and entrance is along a former running track; the main dining room was the basketball court.
The interior is clean without being antiseptic and decorated with nautical lithographs and Audubon-type prints of sea birds. The bar area’s wallpaper is of 1940s style pinup sailor girls. Ship ropes run across the ceiling. Downstairs the bright orange flames from the wood-burning grills in the open kitchen stand in warm contrast to the blue subway tile walls.
Mr. Marron said that he worked with Strada Architects to get “all the stuff that was stuck in my head onto paper. We finally got all the details done, and now it’s about consistency.”
Mr. Marron will open a second restaurant, Merchant Oyster Co., on Butler Street in Lawrenceville this fall.
or, The Whale: 436 Boulevard of the Allies, Downtown; 412-632-0002; https://www.orthewhalepgh.com
Dan Gigler: dgigler@post-gazette.com; Twitter @gigs412
First Published: September 14, 2017, 8:21 p.m.
