02/16/2019
When you sit down at a table at P.O. Press Public House and Provisions for Sunday brunch, take my advice and place the following order: a basket of biscuits, an order of bacon and your choice of brunch cocktail.
Then you can leisurely peruse the menu, a feat that might take a minute with all the tempting offerings from which to choose. P.O. Press’ menu items are not your everyday brunch fare.
Just off the historic Collierville town square, P.O. Press Public House and Provisions opened in October. And for a girl who spends most of her time in Midtown, I can say without any hesitance that P.O. Press is worth the drive.
The restaurant is the creation of caterer Jimmy Gentry, chef and owner of Paradox Catering, and Chris Thorn, a well-respected sommelier and restaurateur. Gentry runs the kitchen, and Thorn manages the front of the house of their restaurant, which is open for dinner and Sunday brunch.
Let’s get back to talking about those biscuits and that bacon.
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Brunch at PO Press Public House & Provisions
The biscuits ($9 for a basket of three) are as unique as they are big. Sous chef Cole Jeanes, who many may remember from his restaurant Kinfolk in the South Main Market food hall, added his specialty to the brunch menu when he joined the kitchen team.
Jeanes describes the biscuits as “more of a drop biscuit than a layered style biscuit.” On the savory side, they are flavored with herbes de provence and get their richness from European butter. They are cooked in a pan that has been brushed with duck fat to give the bottom a caramelized crunchy texture.
Served warm, the top is brushed with honey butter and sprinkled with Maldon sea salt flakes. P.O. Press serves them with a seasonal house-made jam. Jeanes will be leaving the restaurant in March to join the soon-to-open Comeback Coffee in Downtown Memphis, but Thorn assured me the biscuits will remain on the menu at P.O. Press.
The bacon is also an original. Gentry cures and smokes pork belly in-house to make his crispy hickory-smoked bacon. You can order it to share for two ($5) or four ($9), depending on how many guests are at the table.
Gentry has teamed up with City Block Salumeria to offer a selection of house and locally cured charcuterie on the dinner and brunch menus. It’s another great way to start your meal while you look over the menu.
A farm-to-table concept in the true sense of the term, the menu at P.O. Press is dependent on the offerings that local farms can produce, sometimes changing daily but always changing seasonally. Gentry sources his beef from Claybrook Farms, a large part of his produce from Wi******er Farm, mushrooms from Bluff City Fungi, and eggs and dairy from Marmilu Farms.
At dinner, vegetables are given a starring role, with an entire menu section devoted to produce. Brunch, our subject today, focuses as much on vegetables, but the commitment to locally sourced ingredients is a theme throughout the oft-changing offerings.
Those Marmilu Farms eggs, not surprisingly, show up in many of the brunch dishes. In most cases, eggs are cooked to a perfect 63 degrees, creating the ideal soft-boiled egg.
Corn Mash ($13) is a featured produce offering on the dinner menu, and Gentry gives this popular item a brunch spin for his Sunday menu. Gentry whips stone-ground grits with fresh corn and mascarpone to create this bowl of rich, creamy goodness. Gentry tops it with a seasonal vegetable — on a recent visit it was roasted kabocha squash — tallow roasted pepitas, cheek bacon and one of those 63-degree eggs.
Brisket ($16) is another brunch item. It is a dish that is pretty simple and straightforward but beautifully executed. Served over creamy grits, the thinly sliced brisket is fork tender and flavorful. This dish also is served with a 63-degree Marmilu Farms egg.
Venison ($18) also has a prominent place on Gentry’s menu for brunch and dinner. On one of my brunch visits, the venison was country-fried and served with kimchi marinated yams and a chimichurri sauce. It was a tasty and modern spin on the Southern country-fried steak.
Gentry describes his menu as “common ingredients that have been elevated with modern techniques.” The corn mash and country-fried venison dishes are prime examples. As you can tell by the descriptions of the dishes, this is not the same brunch fare you will find at a breakfast joint. Instead, it’s a breakfast-orientated reflection of the restaurant’s dinner menu.
Dishes are also artfully plated.
The smoked salmon ($12) offering is almost too pretty to eat. House-smoked salmon is served over wedges of focaccia and garnished with ribbons of cucumber, pickled red onions, capers, fresh dill and compressed apples. Even a bowl of yogurt ($8) is a work of art with fresh berries, granola and a fruit puree swirl.
If you're not hungry for breakfast items, P.O. Press does offer a seasonal fish dish and a roast beef hoagie ($14) with au jus sauce, beer cheese and sweet potato fries.
To complement their food, P.O. Press has an extensive bar program that may be one of the best in town.
“Great food deserves a great beverage,” Thorn said. “We have worked hard to offer the perfect cocktail for before or after dinner.”
Local bartenders Nick Manlavi and Mitchell Marable created the craft cocktail program.
The bar has a more artisan focus, using domestic spirits from smaller distillers as well as handcrafted bitters, shrubs and other mixers.
“We are making cocktails like they did pre-Prohibition,” Marable explained. “You can always make something better than you can buy.”
All the cocktails are named for albums, songs or musical groups. The cocktail menu changes about every three months, with a new menu just released last week.
Marable described one of his new cocktails, the Mexicola ($12), named after a Queens of the Stone Age song: “Herradura Anejo tequila vegetable notes are matched to a bell pepper syrup and tamed a bit by the earthy addition of a beet shrub and lemon. The real star here is what happens after a sip and then a bite into the sherry brined cocktail onion that hangs on the side.”
The wine program focuses on what Thorn describes as “the quality of the wine.” The offerings are heavy on the domestic side, but Thorn added that it has “nods to France, with wines from Burgundy and the Rhone Valley, as well as Spain, which was an influence on the menu.”
For a sweet ending, head back to the starter part of the menu and order the Dutch Baby ($10). Served in a cast-iron skillet, this sweet breakfast item is served with brown butter, molasses and seasonal fruit. Paired with a cup of French press coffee, it’s the perfect fortification for the drive back to town.
Jennifer Chandler is the Food & Dining reporter at The Commercial Appeal. She can be reached at [email protected], and you can follow her on Twitter and Instagram at .
At a glance
P.O. Press Public House and Provisions is open 5-10 p.m. Monday through Saturday (bar opens at 4 p.m.) and 9:30 a.m.-3 p.m. for Sunday brunch.
Rating system based on 4 stars.
Where: Historic Collierville Town Square, 148 N. Main St.
Reviewer's choice: Basket of Biscuits ($9); House-cured bacon for two ($5): Corn Mash ($13); Smoked Salmon ($12)
https://www.commercialappeal.com/story/entertainment/dining/2019/02/15/p-o-public-house-and-provisions-sunday-brunch-collierville/2716816002/
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