Death & Taxes, Raleigh NC

22 December 2022
ac-restaurants.com/death-taxes/

Jane circa 1st November: “What do you want for Christmas?”
Sarah: “To go for dinner at an Ashley Christensen restaurant.”
Jane: “Really? Dinner for two at an AC restaurant can be kind of expensive…”
Sarah: “Oh. You want to come too?”

I was joking, of course. A bit. I would have ditched her for dinner and cocktails at Death & Taxes (D&T) in a heartbeat, but I wouldn’t have felt good about it. But as it happened she didn’t take a lot of convincing. We were due to spend a week apart - she was travelling to NC a week before me - and we wanted to plan in some time together soon after I arrived, and D&T is not somewhere she was inclined to let me enjoy by myself.

Ashley Christensen is Raleigh’s resident celebrity chef, having studied at NC State University (Go Pack!) and settled in the city after graduation. She owns five restaurants around the Raleigh area, including Poole’s Diner which is reputed to serve some of the best macaroni and cheese around - watch this space… it’s on The List. Ashley herself is truly wonderful - a great chef, impressive business person, dedicated philanthropist, proactively fair employer, and out and proud gay woman. The present D&T team is entirely female led, and all crockery is sourced from a small local producer.

Just indulge me in a short moment while I breath a number of dreamy sighs and send big heart eyes in Ashley’s general direction…

Thank you. I’m going to stop crushing on her now and write the damn blog post.

D&T opened in 2015, focussing on woodfired cooking methods and using traditionally ingredients from the Southern United States to create elevated, modern dishes celebrating classical Southern flavours. If you’ve read more than, say, two entries in this blog, you’ll know that Jane has a massively sweet tooth and, having perused the menu in advance, announced that she’s be ordering dessert for every course, with cocktails. I managed to talk her out of that, just about, but no spoilers.

The restaurant is located on West Hargett Street, which is right downtown. I wanted to take a moment to comment on the building that D&T is housed in. The HJ Brown Coffin House Building is a beautiful early 20th century structure in the Classical Revival style originally used as, you guessed it, a place where coffins were made. Later it was used as a bank, hence the restaurant’s name. And with that, I love Ashley just a bit more… Urgh, stop it, Sarah. The exterior has been restored in a shabby chic style, and the dining room is modern but warm with both table and bar seating.

We were shown to our table by our wonderful waiter Anna, who took excellent care of us.

Restaurant exterior (not my photo - nicked from visitraleigh.com)

Dining room from the front door

The first order of business was cocktails, and we were somewhat spoiled for choice. I settled on the Snowbird, with its wonderful savoury cilantro infused tequila and perfectly balanced salty and spicy glass rim, and Jane chose the distinctly Southern flavours in the Doubloon, with it’s dash of tawny port giving it a more complex, raisiny tone. They were both delicious and warming, and gave us just the right buzz for the start of a wonderful dinner out.

Snowbird (cilantro infused tequila, dry curacao, grapefruit, Naranja chili-salt rim) and Doubloon (rum, sweet potato, ginger, clove, sorghum, tawny port)

To start we went for seafood all the way, sharing orders of the oysters and octopus. The oysters were better than we expected them to be. Those from the NC coast have a reputation for being overly, some would say unpleasantly, salty, but these were creamy with just an edge of saliency, and the spicy and citrussy butter they were served with was rich and decadent. The octopus was all tentacles (just the way I like it) and was smokey and ever so slightly charred following its woodfire cooking, which paired particularly well with the sweet piquillo peppers. The accompanying rice peas, which were served al dente, pine nuts and olives gave the plate the qualities of a really good pasta dish. They were a winner for both of us.

Roasted NC oysters, chili butter, preserved lemon gremolata

Grilled octopus, Sea Island rice peas, parsley, pine nuts, Castelvetrano olives, piquillo peppers

Time for something to drink to go with our upcoming main courses. Jane liked the look of one of the alcohol free cocktails, which contained all of the cinnamony-maply-fruity things she likes minus booze, which she fixed by asking Anna to chuck in a slug of gin. I think they’ve renamed it the Jane Martini or something.

I was in an uncharacteristically “When in America, Must Drink Hoppy Beer” kind of a mood, and went for a moderately hoppy pale ale from New Anthem brewery, which was right on the upper limit of hops for my tolerance level, and very enjoyable.

Fantasma (pear, cashew, rice, maple, cinammon, soda, and gin) and New Anthem - Radical Son Pale (Wilmington NC)

I was having a meat free evening, and ordered the grilled NC fish, which on this occasion was a fillet of vermillion snapper. The fish had a nice, mildly sweet flavour and the char created by the woodfire cooking created a nice bitter contrast, but I did think that the fillet was perhaps a little overcooked. However, the shrimp bisque it was served with was exceptionally good - smooth and thickly rich with a slightly sweet and tangy flavour. You can’t see it in the photo, but the fish was resting on a mushroom risotto aranchini, which was woody and earthy, and worked particularly well with the crisp, licoricey fennel slices which you can see in the photo. Overall, a really nicely flavoured and balanced dish.

Grilled NC fish (vermillion snapper), crispy mushroom risotto, shrimp bisque, charred lemon, fennel

When I saw the menu, I knew what main course Jane would be ordering and here it is. A play on the classic barbequed pork shoulder (or ‘pork butt’ if you’re local), this piece of pork was twice cooked and beautifully smoked, served with chicharonnes, bacon, buttery gigante beans, and vegetables cooked over fire embers. The jus was meaty and just a little bit sweet and, despite there being at least half a swine on the plate, Jane smashed through the lot, which is a real vote of approval.

A note on the chicharonnes, or a type of Spanish pork rinds. I am a huge pork rinds / scratchings fan and, if I’d known that Jane wasn’t a dead cert for this dish, I’d have ordered it myself for the chicharrones alone, meat free Thursday date night be damned. One of the lovely waiters brought us an extra dish of them, and they paired particularly well with my beer, just so you know. The fact that I would like them was a given. However, Jane loved them. She commented on the perfect salt level, and how they complimented the sweeter pork shoulder and just so very well. And she doesn’t usually care for pork rinds, so this is high praise indeed.

Twice-cooked pork shoulder, braised gigante beans, bacon, embered vegetables, chicharrones

You were expecting a paragraph on puddings. Well, you’ll have to wait, because I’m going to spend a minute discussing the side dish we ordered. Carrots grilled (you guessed it) over woodfire, sweet with molasses, crunchy candied pecans, and cool creamy whipped ricotta. I didn’t get a lot of mint, but Jane did and reported that it was delciously refreshing alongside the light cheese. Anna recommended them, and Anna recommended very well.

Grilled carrots, molasses, whipped ricotta, mint, candied pecans

Then we got dessert menus and, as I mentioned at the beginning, Jane’s expectations were sky high. However, despite big talk earlier on, having eaten at least two swine’s worth of pork shoulder, we opted for an abstemious one dessert each. However, before we could order, I had noticed an ice cider on the menu, and had mentioned to Anna how much I had enjoyed the one we had tried at Rogan & Co in the Lake District (see Rogan & Co, 1 Oct 2022 - ooh, I love doing that!) and she brought me a complimentary little snifter, leading to us ordering a glass each because it was so phenominally ambrosia-like. Ice cider is served in the place of dessert wine, and is made using apples that have frozen on the tree, which brings out the natural sugars in the fruit. This one was made in Vermont and named Honeycrisp, which was a well chosen name - honeyed, juicy and with none of the oily flavours charcteristic of other ice ciders (which I like, but Jane does not) this was a real early Christmas treat, and worked really well with both of our desserts. I don’t have a photo of the glasses, but you can imagine a couple of wine glasses with cider in if you like.

My dessert was chocolate chess pie. Chess pie is a Southern staple with a filling of eggs, sugar and buttermilk, and usually a dash of apple cider vinegar. This one featured chocolate produced by the local Videri chocolate factory, and was served with cherries jubilee, a spicy cinnamon marscapone and a particularly good salty, crunchy almond brittle. Cooked fruit isn’t really my thing - particularly if there’s no booze in it, like this one - but the cherries were sweet and tart in equal measure and helped to cut through the rich chocolate. I donated a good number of them to Jane, who particularly appreciated them.

Videri chocolate chess tart, cinnamon marscapone mousse, cherries jubilee, smoked almond brittle

Jane’s choice was, again, the thing I’d have put money on her ordering. Any kind of apple pie / crumble type thing is always a very safe bet for her, and she loved it. It featured crisp, caramelised pastry and a well spiced and textured apple filling. The craime fraishe ice cream was silky and rich, the caramel gently smoked and decadent, and the pipitas provided a great salty crunch. Apple pie is something I would never usually order, but this one is something even I could have eaten all of, really enjoyed and been entirely satisfied with my choice.

NC apple crostata, creme fraishe ice cream, smoked caramel, spiced pepitas

So we wandered out into the night full of festive cheer, but not before being quizzed by not one but two tables of local diners who wanted our analysis of the Harry and Meghan documentary on Netflix, and questioned Jane’s credentials as a North Carolinian (“With that accent?! Where did you go to high school? Where did you go to college?”).

Dinner at D&T cost about $300, which included tip, which is relatively costly for a restuarant in Raleigh but we felt was good value for the quality of food, drink and service we received. Thank you, Ashley <3.

And what about the toast sandwich?
Sarah: The shrimp bisque served with my grilled NC fish main. The real star of the dish.
Jane: The chicharonnes with her pork shoulder main course. Salty and crunchy, and not somthing she was expecting to be impressed by. A true toast sandwich.