Courtesy of Bradley Dry
Chef Bradly Dry will be in town from Tulsa, Oklahoma, for a one-day brunch and dinner event at Bulrush.
On January 22, St. Louisans will have the opportunity to dine with the culinary force behind the popular FX series Reservation Dogs when Bradley Dry pops into Bulrush (3307 Washington Avenue, 314-449-1208) as a guest chef. Day, who was in charge of craft services for the hit show, will be hosting brunch and dinner service at the Grand Center restaurant that day, promising a delicious window into Cherokee cooking and Ozark foodways.
A veteran culinarian who has worked in a variety of restaurants around Tulsa, Oklahoma, Dry has become an important voice in telling the food stories of indigenous peoples. In addition to his work with Reservation Dogs, Dry is also a collaborator with the Osage restaurant Tocabe in Denver, Colorado, and Bon Appetit magazine, and he is currently working alongside Connoley with the Smithsonian to bring an Ozark foodways festival to Washington, DC later this year.
For his Bulrush events — a brunch and two dinner seatings both held on the 22nd of this month — Dry will draw upon the Cherokee traditions he learned from his grandmother, who has been his greatest culinary influence.
"Each dish is based off something I learned from my grandma and my community,"
Dry says. "Our family is originally from Georgia, but we now live in northeast Oklahoma and northeast Arkansas; the way my grandmother taught me to cook is Appalachia-based. I'm really excited about showing that."
In announcing the brunch and dinner events, Connoley emphasized the importance of having voices like Dry's represented at Bulrush, which has made it its mission to shine a light on Ozark cooking.
"Bulrush has been committed to presenting a complete history of the Ozarks since its inception," Connoley said in his announcement. "However, when it comes to the role of indigenous and enslaved people, we believe that it is not our story to tell, but the story must be told. We continue to bring in outstanding chefs who can tell their own story, working with the Bulrush team, and supported through our reparative restauranting principles."
For the day's brunch service, Dry will be serving a selection of Ozark and Cherokee-influenced dishes, such as bison biscuits and gravy and acorn stew with pumpkin-sumac waffles. At the two dinner seatings, guests will be treated to a seven-course feast featuring items such as a creamy corn soup with hominy, a traditional Cherokee dish made with grilled hen of the woods mushrooms and cauliflower, green beans and pork, fried squash with root vegetables and a beet sauce, chicken with succotash, bison meatballs over pumpkin puree and a riff on quintessential Cherokee porridge-like dessert that he will be serving as a pecan praline-laden ice cream. Both brunch and dinner will also feature beverages made using the local Switchgrass Spirits.
Brunch with chef Dry will begin at 9 a.m. and run into noon, or until the food runs out. Reservations are not accepted; the brunch is a first-come, first-served set-up, and all food is served a la carte. Tickets to the dinner seatings are currently sold out, though the restaurant is adding interested diners to a wait list through its reservation system.
"I'm really excited about this," Dry says. "It's going to be challenging, but it's also going to be a lot of fun."
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