Always In Season
Dyron’s Lowcountry always serves a bounty of in season fare.
By Jan Walsh
Owners Dyron and Sonya Powell are passionate about fresh, local produce as well as Gulf fish and seafood. And it shows. Each of the four seasons, Dyron’s serves farm fresh products, as soon as they come into season: strawberries, blueberries, heirloom tomatoes, truffles, ruby red grapefruit, peaches, okra, root vegetables, farm eggs, soft shell crab, red snapper, royal reds shrimp, yellowfin tuna, Louisiana crawfish, Florida stone crab claws…
The dinner menu changes nightly, other than their famous favorites. Some of us would revolt if their fried chicken were not always on both their dinner menu and their Sunday brunch menu. And tonight’s dinner decisions are difficult because we want it all… For example, tonight’s fish and seafood includes grouper, red snapper, flounder, trout, shrimp, oysters, lump crab, halibut, and salmon. Plus, two steaks and a pork chop are also options, along with the chicken, of course. And countless fruits and vegetables accompany these proteins or are available in their own standalone dishes.
As a starter, Kev selects Cast Iron Seared and Braised Pork Belly, and I opt for Harvest Farm Tomato Salad. His plump, tender and meaty pork is served atop an incredible Indian Corn johnny cake, accompanied by sweet corn velouté, roasted BDA peppers, and candied sunflower seeds. My tomato salad is a colorful and delicious variety of dead ripe, heirloom tomatoes. Paper-thin slices of farm fresh cucumbers candied sunflower seeds, and crisp, golden fried okra crown the tomatoes, adding lovely layers of texture and flavors. Highly recommended!
For an entrée, Kev debates among the Captain’s Platter fried in Alabama cornmeal, wood fire grilled Niman Ranch Bone-in Pork Chop, and Greg Abrams Red Snapper before finally deciding on the snapper. It takes a lot for me to forgo Dyron’s seafood or fish. But tonight, I came for the vegetable plate cooked en papillote, in paper. So the Southern Farm Vegetables En Papillote it is. Kev’s snapper is lean, firm, and moist in texture and sweet and nutty in flavor. It floats on a bed of creamy, speckled cheese grits and crisp, fresh green beans. The snapper is adorned with Wild Louisiana Crawfish and a lemon white wine butter sauce. Yet I steal his scrumptious crawfish before he can object. My Veggie dish is absolutely to die for! Tender, tasty bites of broccoli, squash, corn, potatoes, peppers… A marvelous menagerie of an entire Southern summer garden is unfolded in parchment paper. Each veggie is tender crisp and bursting with bright, steamy, summer fragrance and flavor. And as a side to the dish are fried okra in a beautiful buttermilk crème Fraiche, oil of Aleppo Oil, and pickled Bois d’Arc sweet peppers. A phenom dish you must have before summer ends!
Dessert at Dyron’s Lowcountry is always a must. Tonight, we share a Chilton County Peach and Pecan Cobbler made with a crust of their famous biscuits and vanilla ice cream. And we pair this fruity, gooey, crunchy, and comforting dessert with Maderia, Charleston Sercial. This wine is among The Rare Wine Company’s Historic Series Maderia. Dry Maderia was popular in Charleston, during the 18th and 19th Centuries. And the Charleston is the driest of the series, which also includes Maderia: Savannah, Boston, and New York. The pecans of the cobbler meld with the caramel notes of the Charleston Maderia, putting this pairing over the top!
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