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Moving Forward, Looking Back

Sophisticated ‘farmhouse food,’ complete with the canning & curing, at The Pinyon

Last year, Bon Appétit magazine decreed Boulder the “Foodiest Town in America,” describing it as “a bellwether of a changing food culture across our land.” The magazine cited our “first-rate” and “top-tier” restaurants, “talented food artisans” and “concerned farmers,” and pointed out that we have one of the best farmers’ markets in the country. So where does a trend-setting town, long known for a commitment to local, organic and sustainable, go from here?

If you ask up-and-coming executive chef/owner Theo Adley, the priority these days is “putting the right thing on the plate.” Adley, 28, opened The Pinyon in Boulder in December—a simply decorated, clean-feeling, modern restaurant with an open kitchen, one wall lined with glass jars of preserved goods, and wall-to-wall windows looking out onto east Pearl, a few blocks from the pedestrian mall.

He and chef de cuisine Phil Grubisa serve what Adley calls “farmhouse food,” but this ain’t your grandma’s biscuits-and-gravy fare. This is thoughtful, lovingly sourced and carefully created food that takes an innovative approach to time-honored traditions. “It’s not just about serving what’s local,” he says. “Even Con Agra food is ‘local’ somewhere. It’s about terroir, and what’s appropriate to the land. And it’s about building tight relationships with producers, knowing how your food was grown or raised, and making some sacrifices—like paying a little extra to those producers, in order to support them and eat ethically.”

Growing up, Adley spent summers at his family’s 100-acre farm in the Niagara Escarpment in Canada. With no TV, he found himself hanging out with neighbor farmers, gaining an appreciation for the connection between people, food and the land. Today, he spends a great deal of time researching before choosing his food sources and producers, and it shows in almost every dish his restaurant serves, whether at dinner, lunch or Sunday brunch. The Pinyon Breakfast ($15) includes its “famous” fried half-chicken from Colorado’s Red Bird Farms, bacon from the Nueske family, who have been smoking meat since the 1930s, a scallion pancake, and two eggs. A dinnertime small plate—Benton’s smoky country ham with baguette, housemade butter and preserves ($8)—features “ham guru” Allan Benton’s country ham from Tennessee, which is painstakingly prepared and preserved using old-fashioned techniques.

Adley is particularly proud that many of his mushrooms, wild greens and wild herbs are foraged by Running Squirrel, an octogenarian on the West Coast who ships through Mikuni Wild Harvest, a hugely successful foraging company that supplies celebrity chefs like Mario Batali. Foraged items include the ramps and greens he serves with his smoked pork shoulder ($16) at dinnertime.

Extending the Seasons

Adley “staged” (trained) in restaurants in London and New York, as well as at famed Colorado restaurants such as The Little Nell in Aspen. He recalls the day when Little Nell’s executive chef Ryan Hardy, well known for his artisanal programs, asked him: “What do you do when everything is ready [to eat] at the same time?” So Adley learned how to preserve, can, salt, smoke and cure food when it was ripe or ready, which allows The Pinyon to offer a wide variety of surprising, delightful tastes and flavors while staying true to its mission to respect the seasonality of food, even in Colorado’s extremely short growing season.

In fact, the restaurant was named after the pinyon pine, a tree that grows well in this area, whose seeds—pinyon nuts—were a staple food of Native Americans. “The Native Americans and Colorado pioneers were smart, and they knew what was good for them,” Adley says. “They had to plan ahead. They stored and preserved food when it was available, to use the rest of the year when it was scarce.” The restaurant’s logo, a horseman looking backward while in full gallop, reflects Adley’s admiration for those who eat well now by learning from the past and planning ahead for the future.

Adley’s house-cured lox seems to melt in the mouth. As a small plate at lunchtime ($10), it comes with asparagus, a duck egg, pickled red onion, crispy capers and a farmer cheese. Both his butter and his farmer cheese are made using cream and milk from Longmont’s Diamond D Dairy. The farmer cheese is also available as a small plate at brunch, lunch and dinner, served simply with fresh herbs, black-pepper honey and grilled bread ($8).

“There’s only two of us cooking in the kitchen, but we still make as much as possible in house. If we find someone who can make it 20 times better than we can, then we’ll use their product instead,” Adley says with a laugh.

The outstanding Pinyon Burger is a perfect example of what Adley calls “taste meets ethics.” Housemade English muffins are used as buns; the patty is a combination of brisket and short-rib beef, and it is served with housemade ketchup and fries for $9. Sautéed mushrooms or onions, Grafton Village Cheddar, maple-braised bacon, country ham, and roasted tomatoes or red peppers can be added for $1 each.

“There’s 50 ways to stand behind what you do,” Adley says. “It’s a chef’s responsibility to source ingredients and execute dishes in as pristine a way as possible At The Pinyon, our ingredients and execution go hand in hand.”

Freelance writer Kuvy Ax, a Boulder native, promotes Colorado food and wine through her PR company, Cutting Edge Marketing. She is a member of Slow Food and Les Dames d’Escoffier.