Sometimes I like restaurants more when I’m off the clock than when I’m on. Maybe it’s the lack of pressure to judge everything. There’s no need to take notes and explain why something is worth your time and money. I’m also more relaxed when I’m dining for pleasure instead of pay. And being relaxed makes everything taste better.
A recent dinner at Wildweed is a good example. I was there with three good friends who had never eaten there before. And while we ordered a lot of food, I was focused on my own entree: the Kentucky rye lamb gramigna ($32).
I’ve had the gramigna before and enjoyed it. But off the clock, the lamb tasted smokier and more tender than I remembered, the olive butter more pronounced, the pasta nuttier. Chewier. Better.
A few days later, I reached out to David Jackman, the chef and owner of Wildweed, to describe what I was eating and why it was so good.
What was the inspiration for the dish?
“The inspiration for this dish, and most of our dishes, comes from our desire to support American farms and keep our dollars in the hands of farmers in our community,” he wrote via email. “The rye in the pasta for this dish is sourced from Walnut Grove Farms out of Kentucky, and the lamb we use is sourced through Freedom Run Farm, also in Kentucky.”
Very nice. How do you cook it?
“We break down whole lambs, cure them, smoke them and braise them in red wine jus. From that point, we shred the meat much like a whole barbecue lamb would be shredded. It’s a small, milder nod to the barbecue mutton of Kentucky. We pair it with strong sheep’s milk cheese to play off the gaminess of the lamb and sorghum molasses vinegar and black olive butter sourced through Keepwell Vinegar from Pennsylvania. The rye is milled fresh in house into gramigna (bucatini’s curlier, shorter cousin).”
Aside from its high-minded concept and sustainably sourced ingredients, this dish is a comfort food in the purest sense. I’m not the first person to sing the praises of it, either. Last year, Bon Appetit magazine cited the dish when it included Wildweed on its list of the best new restaurants of 2025.
Maybe I’ll do more eating off the clock from now on. But wait, did I just write an entire column about a dinner I paid for? Shouldn’t I be compensated?
Nah. This dish is so good that I’m happy to foot the bill. But just this once!
Wildweed, 1301 Walnut St., Over-the-Rhine, 513-246-4274, wildweed-restaurant.com.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: This Cincinnati dish got ‘wild’ praise. We asked the chef how it’s made
Reporting by Keith Pandolfi, Cincinnati Enquirer / Cincinnati Enquirer
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
