Andrew Thomas Lee
The Catbird Seat turns nine years old this month.
That’s nine years of mind-blowing innovation on the plate from six different chefs who have poured their hearts out while under the eye of onlooking guests. Nine years of wild menus and sometimes wilder soundtracks. Nine years of transition, interpretation, and expression. Nine years, and still the most coveted reservation in town.
Now, pandemic be damned, was as good a time as any to usher in a new chef. After the abrupt departure of chefs Will Aghajanian and Liz Johnson in March, the restaurant sat as silent as the rest of the world for a few months, until incoming executive chef Brian Baxter returned from Atlanta to take the helm. Baxter, who has worked at both Husk and Bastion (as well as McCrady’s in Charleston, R.I.P.), has spent his years climbing closer to an executive chef role. At Catbird Seat, he’s ready to take off.
The format hasn’t changed. There’s a set price (now $135 per person) and around 10 to 12 courses. There’s an option for beverage pairings or cocktail and wine lists to add to the meal. Just wait until you hear from beverage director Cole Just, whose storytelling will take you on a journey—like to the hillsides of Greece where one bottle becomes an “electric, salty lemonade.”
Baxter himself is not a drinker so the decision to start the meal with a tea service brings things into focus. The tea will vary seasonally; it’s run through a Kyoto-style cold brew system that steeps the tea over several hours. It’s then infused with an assortment of fruits, herbs, and vegetables, all of which will find their way into your meal. As it sits, it takes on a violet blue hue. Consider it a roadmap, of sorts, as well as a palate cleanser between dishes.
Andrew Thomas Lee
Baxter started painting several years ago—surgery for a broken ankle took him out of the kitchen at one point, and he turned to old episodes of Bob Ross for inspiration and instruction. When he later moved on to watercolors, he took on a mentor, local artist Todd Saal, who is now doing all of the artwork for the space. As an artist himself, Baxter is thinking about color and the aesthetic of the plate, yes. But he’s also thinking about the interpretation of his food. Like art, he says,
“It’s not about it being good or bad. It’s that this is now my interpretation of what this dish or ingredient can be. This is how I think it should be served.”
His main objective is to keep the menu hyper-seasonal and local—and to keep the experience fun. Artists like Queen, Prince, Michael Jackson, and sometimes Metallica flow through the speakers.
“We’ve had a couple of nights when there’s a singalong,” Baxter says.
The plate can be a party, too. Baxter and the team coax flavors out of entire ingredients, from top to tail. A starter dish in late summer called “Tomato” showcased three bites: a tomato pie, a tomato sandwich topped with caviar, and a tomato nduja spread on toast. Combined, the bites not only set us up for the menu’s vibrant salt, acid, umami layers, it also utilizes the entire fruit in bold new ways.
The progression continued with lighter dishes, like an oyster topped with a cantaloupe and chile-lime ice, and a frothy bowl of broth that hides banana peppers with poached royal red shrimp. There was a sourdough crepe, which in late summer utilized a crop of ramps that Baxter secured in the spring. He dried or pickled every part of the bulbs, stems, and leaves, and nestled them into the crepe with escargot, infused them into a maître d’hotel butter, and dusted them as a fine layer of ramp powder over top.
More seafood appeared, getting bolder in flavor, like the combination of tender blue crab with slices of courgette, a type of heirloom squash. The two textures melded together under a biting Japanese curry sauce. On the side, a fried squash blossom just begged to be dipped into the sauce.The beef dish was a single spectacular slice of Bear Creek beef from a deckle cut, but the corn elements, a purée and corn muffins with hints of summer truffle, brought the beef into focus, all elements building into a harmonious bite—especially with a sip of beef jus on the side.
Andrew Thomas Lee
After a stunning palate cleanser of lovage ice cream topped with tomatoes and flowering herbs, Baxter brought us to his ideal finale—a progression of multiple desserts. (We counted six sweet bites.)
“I’m a big dessert guy and I’m always disappointed when there’s not enough of them,” he says.
His progression started with a divine yeast doughnut filled with foie gras mousse and doused in cherry cream sauce with dried cherries scattered about. Another was sprouted almond milk ice cream set over tart pickled peaches and topped with a lavender-infused cream frozen with liquid nitrogen. The textures changed as we ate and at the bottom, a honey-like reduction of pickling liquid offered a surprising finish. Finally, to close, it was a beef fat butterscotch resting beside a chocolate and hazelnut truffle for two decadent last bites.
Nine years in, and now with its seventh chef, The Catbird Seat experience hasn’t changed in that it’s still an escape from reality. And right now, Baxter is fine-tuning what that means.
“There’s all these terrible things happening in the world,” he says. “If guests can come in and forget about the world for two-and-a-half hours, we know we’ve done our job.”
The Catbird Seat, 1711 Division Street; thecatbirdseatrestaurant.com