chow
EAT IT!
Sweeter still at The Honey Pot
BY KRISTI MAIER | @triadfoodies
W
e recently found ourselves kid-free for an evening, so like any grown-up we headed straight out
to eat. The Honey Pot, located in downtown Winston-Salem, sounds “kid-friendly” actually. Heck it might be, but there was no kid in sight and nothing much that looks like kid food on the menu, though I’m willing to bet they could accommodate if necessary. The vibe at The Honey Pot is great for dates or an intimate evening with friends. It’s some of the best ambiance in the Triad. Cocktails are superb as well. We reviewed The Honey Pot in the summer of 2015. It was delicious. But since then, chef star on-the-rise, Harrison Littell, has taken over the Southern brasserie. Littell is a Winston-Salem native who worked for a time in Vermont before returning to his hometown and Five Loaves Catering. During his five-and-a-half months at The Honey Pot, Littell has added to the already impressive menu featuring farmers and foragers. “Matt Pleasants set up a really good platform here and we’ve expanded that to using Outer Banks sea salt and a number of other items,” Littell said. “We celebrate the community as much as we can. Most of our proteins come from 45 miles or less and all are from North Carolina, South Carolina or Southern Virginia, with the exception occasionally of lobster. Our flours, corn meal and rye from up near Asheville.” But sometimes creativity requires that you branch out. “Because of the type of restaurant we are, we do like to offer something exotic, but always paired with local ingredients,” Littell said. All totaled, The Honey Pot is now up to using 48 local providers and you’ll find them all mapped out on the back side of the menu. We’ll show you what we enjoyed, but please note that that menu will be changing out a few of its items in a matter of days. “We like to go through a full menu change every season, with a hyper local focus in-between those menu changes to highlight those seasonal items,” Littell said. In addition to a concise and seasonal menu, the wine program at The Honey
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JANUARY 11-17, 2017
Pot, headed by operating partner, Beau Tate, is one of the best in the area. The restaurant achieved the Two Glass Award by Wine Spectator and is the only restaurant in Winston-Salem with such an award. Tate is a certified sommelier through the Court of Master Sommeliers and is sitting for the Advanced Sommelier Course in April. He and the well-educated team do an incredible job of finding a meaningful pairing for your meal. They went out of their way to find the right wine for us and the suggestions were delicious. By the way, half-price wine nights are on Wednesday and we recommend you take advantage. As you know, I’m a big proponent of letting a chef surprise us. We didn’t quite go that route but we did tell our excellent server to suggest to his heart’s content and we obliged those suggestions because each sounded so tempting with the suggested wine. From the small plates…. NC Shrimp + Clams in Brodo With cured pork, white wine, shallots, herbs, cream and crostini. This was a light and refreshing appetizer that made you think of a mussels dish, without the mussels. We wanted something that wasn’t too heavy and this was great. The reason we didn’t want anything too heavy was because our servers enthusiastically suggested a Snack….
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