New dishes, drinks, décor and an expanded garden will be on display at Oct. 7 celebration
Tarpy’s Roadhouse in Monterey reopens this week after a one-week “instant makeover” inspired by Executive Chef Michael Kimmel’s organic kitchen garden out behind the restaurant.
Not quite as frantically as on Restaurant Impossible, but workers were scrambling over the past few days to remodel the interior. It’s out with the white linen tablecloths and napkins, and in with the rustic look—new carpet, new lighting, rough-hewn wooden tables and black linens—all in time for the restaurant’s 20th anniversary party on Sunday, October 7th.
New “lighter” menu additions are part of the makeover, including a vegetarian dish of Griddled Polenta with Mediterranean vegetables and roasted Portabello mushrooms in Madeira wine reduction; and a seafood entrée of Wood Grilled Maine Dry Pack Sea Scallops on Edamame-Garlic Puree, with cherry tomatoes, sweet corn, carrots and baby spinach.
The bar is also getting a facelift, with new crystal and a couple of new cocktails that use fresh muddled berries and herbs like thyme and lemon verbena from the garden out back.
While chef’s gardens are currently de rigeur at restaurants serving local and sustainable ingredients, Kimmel was way ahead of the curve. He started Tarpy’s garden as a refuge from the bustle of the kitchen shortly after arriving 15 years ago.
“When I first moved out to California, my grandmother lived in Capitola and had a wonderful garden full of all kinds of vegetables and flowers,” he recalls. “I really enjoyed helping with it and found that putting my hands in the earth was great therapy.”
Tarpy’s garden occupies a steep hillside that gets plenty of morning sun. Terraces have been carved out over the years by Kimmel and his kitchen staff. “Prep cooks, sauté cooks, dishwashers, we all work out there in the garden and enjoy its beauty on our breaks,” he adds.
Edible flowers from the garden have become Kimmel’s signature garnish on each dish from his kitchen—geraniums, nasturtiums, coreopsis, bachelor buttons and cornflowers are his favorites. “After all, you eat first with your eyes,” he says.
The popular restaurant serves from 8-10,000 diners each month, so growing all the vegetables needed to serve them would be impossible in the current garden. But Kimmel grows his herbs and a variety of winter greens like Black Russian Kale, Bright Lights Swiss Chard and Bloomsdale Spinach “to add a touch of garden ingredients to the dishes”. Swank Farms of Hollister supplies the restaurant with the bulk of its produce.
There are plans afoot, however, to expand the kitchen garden. Owner Tony Tollner—whose Downtown Dining group also owns Montrio Bistro and Rio Grill—brought in garden guru Mark Marino earlier this year to oversee the expansion and transformation of the original garden.
Over the summer Marino brought in nutrient rich soil, planted vegetable starts in the greenhouse and added a plant propagation area. He is also working on creating a meandering path through the garden.
“There are lots of similarities in the restaurant and the gardening business. It’s the little things you do that matter, like hosing off the shrubs so they sparkle,” says Marino, who also manages kitchen gardens at Bernardus Lodge, the Post Ranch Inn and Carmel Valley Ranch.
Assisted by prep cook Juan Aquino, Marino has also tried to limit the amount of harvesting that takes place so the garden grows lush and remains a sanctuary for Tarpy staffers. “These are busy people doing hard work, so to have this serenity here is invaluable. They come out here all the time to release the pressure,” he says.
Marino and Kimmel will conduct public tours of the garden during Tarpy’s 20th anniversary party on Sunday, October 7th from noon to 3pm. There will be live music, tastings of new menu items and luscious wines. The event is free but reservations are required.
About the author
Deborah Luhrman is publisher and editor of Edible Monterey Bay. A lifelong journalist, she has reported from around the globe, but now prefers covering our flourishing local food scene and growing her own vegetables in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
