young mother restaurant
Noah Daboul
RICHMOND, Va. — Richmond'south food scene is making a improvement amid the still-lingering pandemic. As erstwhile pop-ups like Pizza Bones and Cobra Burger abound into their new brick-and-mortar spaces, others make names for themselves.
Daniel Harthausen's labor of beloved, Young Female parent, is a newcomer to the scene. It sets itself apart with a focus on Japanese cuisine, sake pairings and strong front of house service, bringing a fine dining twist to the Richmond pop-up scene.
Harthausen is a nutrient service veteran of many Richmond kitchens, including being the bar manager for Brunch and Supper. He bartended at Common House and also managed their coffee program. He left the position on Sept. sixteen to return to Adarra, where he serves and bartends.
Harthausen greeted me with a shot of espresso and water. It was a simple act, merely he put care into it. It wasn't just the espresso and h2o; it was the saucer information technology was on, forth with the accompanying teaspoon and silverish tray. He poured my h2o and fifty-fifty asked to movement the table because of the slight wobble; all indicative of his eye for service and particular.
Immature Mother was initially supposed to be a Sicillian food pop-upward. Harthausen says he thought well-nigh the proper noun more. His mother had him when she was 19 and he was the center child in a military machine family where the dad was never abode.
"It became this thing where I would love to transform this name into something that'due south kind of an homage, merely too this concept of figuring it out but doing it beautifully," he said.
Harthausen started Young Mother to reconnect with his Korean roots. After growing upwards in a house that was shut to its heritage, he found that he was likewise part Japanese through a Deoxyribonucleic acid examination. He said that it's a study of Japanese and Korean history through food; focusing on how the two cultures have interacted and learned from each other throughout history through their proximity, merchandise, colonialism and more.
Growing upward, Harthausen was always searching for an respond to why he experienced what he did being an Asian American. When he lived in Korea in his teens, he said that nobody saw him as Korean because of his American upbringing.
"The nutrient aspect is that I never had a very strong connection with my culture growing upwards except for the nutrient my mom fabricated me," he said. "I think that'south a similar story for a lot of people, it's very comforting."
Harthausen joked that Young Mother may have even started out of a little spite. His erstwhile popular-up at Flora (now formerly Poor Boy's) ended poorly. Harthausen took a hiatus from cooking, and continued his piece of work in front-of-house. He learned bartending and tabular array service. When one of his old cooks jokingly said he didn't cook anymore, Harthausen got fired up.
"I felt that I had a lot of unfinished business; this thing that I never really put my full capability into," he said.
Harthausen has been in the service industry for almost nine years, starting at a coffee shop in Hampton Roads called Aromas where he would make sandwiches and salads. He got into the industry out of necessity, having no other option for income.
He went to college for a twelvemonth in Pennsylvania but ended upwardly leaving. He wasn't welcome at dwelling, he says. So he decided to come to Richmond later hopping from couch to couch in friends' homes.
"I establish this notebook the other mean solar day that I had when I showtime moved to Richmond, and the first thing it said was: 'I want to work in a total-service eating place,'" Harthausen said.
While working at Alchemy, he was approached by the possessor to create a dejeuner menu. He had several ideas, but says he settled on rice bowls. The connections he made in those kitchens helped him get a foot in the door with his other ideas. The Rogue Gentlemen owners approached him when they wanted to do a Japanese concept.
"I had a total kitchen at my disposal and I was only 22 at the time," Harthausen said. "I think information technology was ane of those situations where I was a little too young, but I learn actually well by being thrown into situations."
This is where he started In Hause, a concept to correspond different cultures' foods in a serial. Harthausen said information technology was a fun exploration for him while still trying to make some money.
After working the brewery popular-up circuit for a while, Harthausen began to brand dumplings for In Hause. He says that people went crazy for the dumplings, but this is what ended his residency at Flora. Harthausen said he lost a lot of coin during the residency and the whole experience left a bad taste in his mouth most cooking. He even thought that he wouldn't cook over again.
Harthausen said that he was able to make important connections through this, which put him in a space where people could discover him.
"It wasn't like I was just a line cook in really nice restaurants," he said."I was this dude who was doing all of these concepts and inviting people to come consume and try the food.".
Harthausen turned his attention to bartending, front of firm service and vino.
Harthausen developed 16 custom cocktails for the ambitious cocktail plan at Brunch, but he said cocktails weren't exactly what people wanted in a restaurant open up from morning through early afternoon.
"I barely had a year of experience with bartending and I would rely heavily on my cooking techniques and incorporate different syrups," he said.
Harthausen discovered wine and sake when he left Brunch and started bartending at Restaurant Adarra, a fine Basque-inspired restaurant in Jackson Ward.
Eatery Adarra spearheaded the sake pairings for Harthausen. They would invite him into the restaurant to taste the different sakes, which permit him to tailor dishes to each season profile and cull which bottles would be best. Harthausen hopes to tap into the D.C. sake marketplace and go people to travel to Richmond.
Harthausen doesn't exactly accept a preference for front end or back of the house. Rather, working in both positions has given him a holistic agreement of the industry.
"It'due south one of those things where it tests different parts of your brain," he said.
He relishes the service office of nutrient preparation.
"You can have the best dish prepared merely if information technology'due south unable to exist presented to someone swell or in a pleasing way or manage that expectation of them coming in to spend money, no one will ever experience it," he said.
Harthausen still has a passion for cooking and feeding people and bringing people together through nutrient and drink.
"My philosophy when I go into restaurants is that lilliputian things matter; I'one thousand trading money I've earned and my time for this thing," Harthausen said. "The to the lowest degree I can do is make information technology taste good."
Harthausen said that food isn't a necessity when dining out, but rather an experience. Because of this, he feels that they deserve to be treated well.
Treating diners to an experience with his high standards takes time, and a network of friends and family to offer feedback. His prep for a pop-up event starts at to the lowest degree 2 weeks out with different fermentations.
And then there are 6 a.thou. to 9 p.yard. prep days closer to the popular-up. Just before the doors are opened for service, every dish will have been made multiple times.
Harthausen said that prior to the last pop-upwardly, he made a dish eight times before he was okay with it, but he had to "86 it," or remove it from the card, because they ran out of portions.
"It's a puzzle, you can't just go in there and call up it'll be good because you idea of it," he said.
His talented team will tell him when he'due south wrong, Harthausen said.
"Without them a lot of the dishes wouldn't get what they are," he said.
The showtime few Young Mother pop-ups were successful, Harthausen said, fifty-fifty if they didn't generate cash. He made only $90 subsequently 5 of them. On the bright side, he said he'southward breaking even.
"I brand sacrifices by spending more than money but it'southward intentional," he said. "If I want people to come up out to this, I desire them to accept the best experience they can."
When he'south not cooking, Harthausen enjoys acting, doing stand up comedy at open up mic nights or foraging in the forest with his girlfriend, Megan Cooper.
The outdoorsy couple said foraging was the next progression of their beloved for hiking. They started off with their eyes set on morels, just after a bad morel season they stopped looking. Afterward Harthausen did a walk with Mutual Firm social society, he was able to learn more skills and go back out into the forest.
"I started going out on my ain and I was able to get lucky a few times," he said, giddy from finding a behemothic patch of oyster mushrooms earlier in the day. "Information technology's that initial rush you get when yous find a option mushroom."
He joked that his Instagram has go nothing more than a foraging account.
Cooper and Harthausen met at a bar in 2019. Cooper herself is no stranger to the service manufacture, having worked in a scattering of restaurants for virtually 11 years. She said that she was amazed past how much Harthausen had done in the manufacture for how young he was.
"He wanted to practice so much and always had and so many goals and ideas for where and what he wanted," she said. "He had this humbling confidence that made me want to get up and do more."
Cooper has witnessed the Young Mother beginning and enjoyed beingness the recipient of leftovers and gustatory modality tests.
" He would play around with a few dishes at home, but I think a lot of these dishes he grew upwards with," she said. "He already knew what he wanted to do with them, with a few tweaks here and there."
The National Restaurant Association cited that pop-ups were the sixth most popular eating house concept tendency in 2018, and the second nearly pop 2019 trend in their annual "What's Hot Culinary Forecast." Popular-ups can offer flavors and dishes that are unrepresented in an area and cater to an "hush-hush" dining community, the clan says.
Richmond, a city celebrated for its culinary scene, is no stranger to the roving eatery concept.
Ashley Patino recently moved her popular-upwards Pizza Bones into its first brick-and-mortar location in Church Hill.
While her takeout pizza pop-upwardly was a vastly dissimilar concept than Young Mother, Patino said that there are all the same challenges that every pop-upwards will face.
"Each calendar week I stressed out nearly trying to go on people'south attention," Patino said."That was the hardest office. I kind of felt like I was an entertainer more than a food person."
Patino offered natural vino pairings and later-dinner amari digestifs, but it was not as centered around table service as Young Mother.
Patino said that it'south a luxury to be able to contain wine and beverages along with the nutrient, calculation that information technology's i more thing to think about. She said the difference between Pizza Bones and Young Mother is stark. The expectation of a to-go pizza is far dissimilar than that of a fine-tuned dinner with pairings. Merely it is a curated experience Richmond diners want.
"Especially after quarantine, people want those experiences and to share things together in a prophylactic and positive way," she said. "Annihilation tin work, you only have to do information technology well."
Patino faced a hard start earlier she gained the attention and following she needed to permit operations to run smoothly.
"Compared to the amount of free energy that goes into information technology, you don't make a decent income," she said.
Operators use a space that isn't theirs, which Patino said was "like sharing a bedroom." Stuff gets lugged back and forth in improver to all the other details that get into the operation.
"Yous're witting that it's someone else's space and you don't want to take upwards too much of it, simply you also have a mission…there's so much to remember well-nigh," Patino said.
Harthausen hopes to run across more success with Young Mother. He is excited to continue serving the Richmond community which he said is "incredibly responsive and supportive."
He remains on the fence most a future home for Young Mother considering he knows how much piece of work goes into it.
"The only reason I would practice a brick-and-mortar is to say I did it," he said. "Information technology would be a cool thing to say: 'I had a restaurant.'"
Harthausen sees some shortcomings in the food scene of Richmond, saying that many pop-ups focus on bar food because that'southward what the people want.
Harthausen explained that Richmond food culture was essentially founded by two families and their restaurants. The focus was large servings of good food for relatively cheap. He said that this carried on into the wave of NewAmericana and Southern-Revivalist cuisine.
He also thinks that'south why he has seen a lot of chefs leave.
"Those restaurants do well in this city, but there was never room for the eatery that does a little more than of a refined setting, puts a fiddling more emphasis on service and putting out nutrient that's interesting," he said. "That's not to say that Richmond restaurants don't do that, but that'due south not necessarily what Richmond showed that it wanted."
Young Mother is working its fashion into the space between a casual dining gathering infinite and a fine dining experience, and with each pop-up information technology gains more than traction. Harthausen says he was never a big fan of the super refined chef's tasting style of dining, only yet wanted something more elevated than bar service, where the service and environment are good.
"Equally long every bit it makes sense on the menu, when yous order it, when you swallow information technology and when yous pay for information technology, then I feel similar I've done a practiced job," he said.
Images courtesy of @nickcapturesva via Immature Female parent and Daniel Harthausen.
Source: https://inkmagazinevcu.com/young-mother-chef-looks-back-on-heritage-and-home-to-pair-with-detailed-service/
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