June 28, 2017 – After years of celebrating the vegetable bounty of the Salinas Valley, is the Monterey Peninsula hungry for meat? We’ll soon find out when chef Todd Fisher’s sizzling new 7D Steakhouse opens on Thursday, to be followed in August by chef Fabrice Roux’s new Carmel Valley Chophouse.
Officially called the Seventh & Dolores Steakhouse, the new venture is run by Folktale Winery with a team that not only includes Fisher, but also chef Jeremiah Tydeman, previously with Alvarado Street Brewery & Grill, and Joe Valencia, a veteran of Rio Grill and Porter’s in the Forest, in the front of the house.
The Folktale Winery team is taking on the concept of a great American steakhouse and launching it over the top in what proprietor Gregory Ahn is calling a ‘boutique steakhouse.’ In the few days running up to the opening, the 7D team invited friends, family, media, and community members in for sneak peak. including Edible Monterey Bay.
Something to note: if you go, go hungry. Everything is big. Big portions, big flavors. The menu is similarly big…and more than a little overwhelming. Thankfully we had a patient–and helpful–server who fielded our questions about the different cuts of meat. She skillfully guided us to exactly what we wanted to try.
We started with the Diver Scallop Crudo, which was served in a passionfruit and gin vinaigrette, drizzled with chive oil, and topped with fresh grapefruit.
Though chef Todd recommended the Red, White, & Bleu salad, we opted for the Warm Napa Wedge which was a seared head of Napa cabbage with fresh avocado, radishes, and grapefruit topped with a spicy miso dressing.
And, for our main courses, we ordered the 24-ounce Cowboy steak, which is a bone-in ribeye, crusted in bleu cheese and the Niman Ranch rack of lamb, that was served with a rhubarb and red wine gastrique with roasted endives and fingerling potatoes.
Normally I would skip dessert after such a filling dinner, but we couldn’t resist the descriptions of the sweet treats. I chose the Revival Ice Cream Lemon Meringue Sundae which included three scoops of lemon ice cream, large slabs of meringue, housemade coriander caramel, and two Luxardo cherries. And we ordered the Peanut Butter Cremeux that would satisfy a grown-up Reese’s lover.
7D was, as Ahn described, a food experience. Every single dish was plated like a work of art though I never once thought: that’s too pretty to eat. Everything was colorful and elegant. The meal was a delight for the eye as well as the palate.
“Much like Folktale, we want this to be a food experience,” said Ahn. “We want the guests to experience the thrill of discovering a new dish, to feel the joy of gathering together. We’re asking ourselves, ‘What can we do tableside?’ and ‘How do we tell a story about our food?’”
Fisher is sourcing his meats—beef, lamb, and pork—from Niman Ranch. The Bay Area-based operation raises livestock sustainably and humanely on a consortium of family-run farms. Some of the 7D beef offerings will be dry-aged in a customized dry-aging facility at the ranch for a month before being delivered to Carmel.
While the full steak experience has diners picking their cut, choosing their sauce, dressing their steak, and picking their sides, the menu is not completely carnivorous. Fisher offers plenty of salads and vegetables sides.
He elevates the traditional creamed spinach by adding toasted garlic; he raves about his Red, White, and Bleu salad made with radicchio, endive, and gorgonzola cheese. And for the seafood lover, there are crab cakes, clams casino, and his riff on the fried calamari appetizer includes blackened Padrón peppers with a charred lemon vinaigrette and aioli.
Folktale’s Seventh & Dolores Steakhouse aims to balance the lively nature of steakhouse with intimacy and a sense of community. Future plans include the addition of a mezzanine and expansion of the menu to include breakfast and lunch.
About the author
Camilla M. Mann has crammed a lot of different jobs into four decades: florist, waitress, SCUBA divemaster, stock photo agency manager, stroller fitness teacher, writer, editor, and au pair. But, if she had to distill who she is today – tree-hugging, veggie-crunching, jewelry-designing mean mommy who loves to cook but hates to clean. Thankfully her husband and their boys clean like champs. Her current culinary goal: grow conscientious, creative kids with fearless palates! She blogs at culinary-adventures-with-cam.blogspot.com
