Viewpoint

REMEMBERING THE TALQUIN INN AND THE QUEST TO REPLICATE THEIR “HOUSE SALAD DRESSING”

By Ann Maruszak Jo (Josephine Marie Vespa Taylor) and her husband Harry A. Taylor were the owners of the famous Talquin Inn Restaurant, which operated in Tallahassee from 1946 until 1986.

An April 18, 1946 article in the Tallahassee Democrat states, “after serving two years in the US Navy, Harry will open a restaurant specializing in seafood and Italian dishes.”

Jo’s husband Harry passed in 1982, with Jo passing in 2009.

The Taylor’s children are: Peter “Butch,” Stephen, Harry, Patricia, Johnny, and William “Bill.” After the Inn closed in 1986, Stephen, Harry, and Johnny each opened their own restaurants in Tallahassee.

The Talquin Inn was country farmhouse-style inside and out and Tina Porter as waitress and friend-to-all completed the picture. She loved meeting people and worked at the restaurant for over 30 years. You can imagine in those earlier Tallahassee times the easy, comfortable manner eating there was. Tina knew everyone and even if she didn’t know you, she treated you like she did. Members of the State Legislature frequented the restaurant regularly and nicknamed her "Olive Oil." Tina passed in 2015.

Today, the restaurant site is part of the West Tennessee entrance to Tallahassee Community College. However, in the ‘40s it was identified as located at the intersection of SR20 and US90. The SR20 segment does not exist today. The road alignment was later changed to what is now called the Blountstown Highway. It was sometime between 1941 and 1949 that SR20 was constructed to turn left splitting off from US90, right in front of the Talquin Inn. Off the menu, the Talquin Inn offered delicious prime rib and T-bone steaks panseared in a skillet, a friend always ordered her steak “Pittsburg-style,” heavily seared outside and rare inside. The bacon wrapped shrimp was a customer favorite and I thoroughly enjoyed the fried chicken. Cuban bread baked by our local bakery, Tasty Pastry, was served with each meal along with butter and a house salad.

I have carried a constant memory for the restaurant’s House Salad Dressing. According to Lorrie Guttman’s 1982 review in the Tallahassee Democrat, “the regular tossed salad, just iceberg lettuce and tomatoes, was made interesting by the ‘house cheese dressing,’ a mayonnaise-based dressing with the color of pale Thousand Island and a mild taste of Romano cheese.” They also offered a “Wop Salad Dressing,” an oil and vinegar dressing with herbs. This

Photo credit: Geocashing.com

Opening Day ad in the Tallahassee Democrat: April 14, 1946.

1954-59 photo of SR20 splitting away from US90, which was then called the New Quincy Highway. Photo credit: FloridaMemory.com.

1954 aerial view of SR20 splitting from US90. The blue square shows the Talquin Inn. The Gulf Wind Motel is across the street, on US90. Photo Credit: Tallahassee Then and Now - 1954 to 2019 Tallahassee - Leon County GIS - https://tlcgis.org/.

Photo credit: https://www.worthpoint.com/.

CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE

story is about the “House Cheese Dressing” and not about the “Wop Salad Dressing.”

To this day, I remember everything about that dressing, the taste, color, viscosity, and appearance. I remember it so deeply that for the last 5 years I have tried to duplicate the recipe…from sensory memory and research. I have tried to find any clue that might guide me to developing a recipe to match it. I have learned though, that try as I might, it could be impossible to duplicate a 50-plus year-old recipe. Products have changed over time.

This is my story of discovery, of Remembering the Talquin Inn.

As I do not know any member of the Taylor family, I could not contact them for help. One of their salad dressing recipes was sold to Fincher Smith when the Talquin Inn closed for business, but I don’t know which one he purchased, the “House Cheese Salad Dressing” recipe or the “Wop Salad Dressing” recipe. He used the recipe when he owned the Paradise Grill in Tallahassee (what was previously a Tallahassee favorite, Mutt and Jeff’s and is now the Midtown Caboose). I could not ask him either.

I first started the process of discovery by thinking about what food products were available in Tallahassee in the ‘50s–‘60s. I do not know when the recipe was first developed but took for granted that was in that date range.

Believe me, products were limited in Tallahassee. I remembered the dressing included cheese, but what kind and how was it incorporated to make a smooth dressing? I tried innumerable trials but could not find the cheeses to match the color and flavor I was looking for.

Then, one year, while shopping the “Alternative Christmas” at John Wesley Methodist Church, I came across jars of Talquin Inn Dressing for sale, presumably donated by a church member, probably someone from the Taylor family, and bought 3 jars. That enjoyment further marked my memory of the dressing, but I still had no knowledge of how it was made.

There were lapses of time when I gave up or lost interest in solving my challenge, then for some reason I would once again be inspired and go after it again researching online to find a similar recipe to guide me, to teach me a technique or to show me possible ingredients.

I recently learned that Newspapers.com holds the full archives of the Tallahassee Democrat newspaper. I was able to find 1980’s restaurant reviews by Lorrie Guttman and by Ashby Stiff, and all kind of mention about the restaurant dating from the ‘40s to the ‘80s. The Inn was truly used as a “landmark” in Tallahassee back when 5 miles from the center of town was considered way out! It was used as a reference point. If you traveled west of town places were referred to as being, next door, three miles west, or across the street, from the Talquin Inn.

A few years ago, while attending an Osher Lifelong Learning class at the San Luis Mission, I overheard a classmate say she grew up near the Mission. The Mission, is in the neighborhood of where the Talquin Inn was located at 2759 W. Tennessee St.

I took the opportunity to ask my classmate if she remembered the Talquin Inn and she said yes, “I grew up with the Taylor children.” WOW! I asked her if she knew anything about the salad dressing and got my first clue. She said the recipe included three cheeses that were imported from Italy, but she couldn’t remember which cheeses those were.

It was a stretch to think that the Taylor’s actually imported cheese from Italy way back then, but I went with the clue anyway trying to figure out which cheeses were used, in what proportion, and what technique was used to produce the creamy dressing. After many attempts and many failures, I finally settled on three cheeses from Northern Italy, but after reading Lorrie Guttman’s article, I may have to do more tests using Romano cheese. I am doubtful that Romano cheese is used because Italians use ingredients produced in their region. The three cheeses I use come from northern Italy. Romano cheese comes from central Italy. Perhaps, though, the three northern cheeses together produced a Romano-like flavor that Ms. Guttman experienced. I will have to check it out.

So, on and on I went testing, but not quite getting there. I knew the recipe would be solved when on tasting, you could not put the sample-spoon down, and needed another taste. The dressing was that good.

Recently, after renewed interest in research, I came upon the Facebook page “You Know You Grew Up In Tallahassee If…” and it was there that I saw

confirmation that the cheeses were likely imported from Italy. A contributor wrote regarding the “Wop Salad,” “Jo Taylor, the owner, was 100% Italian and she named it that. Wop love was in every salad.” Jo was in fact Italian, her maiden name was Josephine Marie Vespa and I suspect she had some sort of contact in Italy to import the cheeses, which were likely not otherwise available in Tallahassee at that time. Lidia Bastianich, recently stated on her television show that Italian food products were not readily available in the U.S. until the ‘80s.

The three cheeses I selected taste good in my recipe but I still have no guarantee those are the correct cheeses or if I am using them in the right proportion.

Two other challenges remained, was Hidden Valley Ranch Salad Seasoning used in the recipe, and what brand of mayonnaise was used?

Again, I conducted many trials, each of which I documented so I would know the results, and not repeat failures.

I believe that Hidden Valley Ranch Seasoning was used, but which one, the product that uses milk and mayo or the one that uses buttermilk and mayo?

According to Wikipedia, Steve Henson, creator of Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing sold the product via mail order and later to stores in the southwest before going national. In 1972, Clorox purchased it and has continued to reformulate the product for the household consumer, a process I believe that continues on. Today’s buttermilk version is way saltier than I remember and that version didn’t produce the taste I was looking for. The milk version was better. The thing is though, I don’t remember Hidden Valley Ranch being a dominate flavor, nor do I remember that the herbs were very noticeable in appearance. Today’s milk version produces larger flakes of herbs than I remember.

For the Hidden Valley tests, I sifted the package to separate the powder from the herbs. I then ground the herbs with a mortar and pestle. Many tests later I arrived at a measurement for the powder and the herbs to use in my 2-cup dressing recipe.

Naturally, I also experimented with homemade versions of Ranch Dressing, in case the commercial version was not used in the recipe. Now for selecting a mayonnaise. Again, after many trials using Hellman’s Mayonnaise, Blue Plate Mayonnaise, and Miracle Whip, I chose Kraft Mayonnaise. Hellman’s was too eggy, Blue Plate was too lemony, Miracle Whip was way off. After first not considering Kraft, I looked at the ingredients and recognized that the ingredients were similar to what I was using so I tried that product and have stayed with it.

Another challenge to perfecting my recipe was how was the cheese melted and incorporated into the mayo. As I said, the dressing was smooth, creamy and had a wonderful mouth feel.

I tried any number of techniques. Was milk or heavy cream used to melt the cheese into a sauce? I settled on “real” heavy cream. Milk did not produce the desired viscosity and heavy whipping cream while OK was not what I think was used by the Taylors. I chose the “real thing” heavy cream without the added stabilizers that whipping cream has.

For the recipe, I heat heavy cream and a little cornstarch in a saucepot to 180 degrees and cook it just long enough for the cornstarch to cook, about 3 minutes. I grate the three cheeses and add them to the pot. The sauce is whisked, and brought back up to temperature at 180 degrees and cooked about another 3 minutes, but not to boiling! The cheese sauce is cooled and then placed in the refrigerator for an hour.

It's now mixing time, blend the mayo into the cheese sauce, add the herbs and the sifted Hidden Valley Ranch. Then refrigerate overnight.

I think my version of the “House Cheese Salad Dressing” is as close as I am going to get to the original. My memory was formed in the late ‘70s-‘80s with a refresh about 7 years ago with the purchase of the three jars of Talquin Dressing.

The quest to replicate the “Talquin Inn House Cheese Salad Dressing” has been a joy but most importantly it has been a joy to read stories and comments from so many patrons who are also grateful for their Talquin Inn memories.

I honor and thank the Taylors and Tina for giving me a wonderful memory of good eating and hospitality, and of a more leisurely time.