2 weeks Ago
“This corner was the ugly duckling on the block,” Holland said. “It bothered me my entire life. I set a goal, 15 years ago, that I would one day make it beautiful.
PostBoy is the culmination of that goal.” PostBoy, a collaboration between now-restaurateur Holland and chef James Galbraith, is named after a ship that crashed onto the shores of Michigan over 150 years ago. The restaurant, too, has crashed into the New Buffalo dining scene with a bang.
The ambitious project hopes to accomplish nothing less than a “destination-worthy restaurant,” in the words of Galbraith, and “Danish coastal retro funk,” according to Holland. It takes confidence in your project to open up a restaurant in a beach town just before the onset of winter, but Holland and Galbraith have a plan for all seasons. “The town is definitely quieter but people come together at restaurants,” Holland said.
“I’m planning on being here for the long haul. With the lighting and windows, this restaurant, when it snows, will feel like a snow globe. I’m looking forward to that experience.
” The owners have also scheduled some high-profile chefs’ dinner collaborations, starting with Zach Engel, of Michelin-starred Galit in Chicago, on November 17. Before and after that, however, you can enjoy Galbraith’s creations; and PostBoy’s menu, I think, is spectacular and threads a fairly impressive needle. You won’t find anything fear-factorful on the menu: no sweetbreads, no rocky mountain oysters.
But you’re still liable to see something you’ve never tried before. For example, savory Japanese donut holes made with togarashi. “I had this idea, like when you go to a Chinese takeout place and they have cinnamon sugar donut holes,” Galbraith said.
“I rolled mine with Japanese spices, made some ssamjang aioli with sesame. It’s definitely Asian.” The final product is slightly evocative of hush puppies, but do not be fooled: PostBoy is making authentic Japanese milk bread for the donuts, rolling the dough into hundreds of balls a day.
“I just believe in bold, punchy flavors,” Galbraith said. “My inspiration can come from anything. A book, a trip somewhere.
It’s hard to make something new these days, but I’ve been doing this for a while now.” Here’s an overview of some more unique highlights on PostBoy’s menu: Garganelli Not to be confused with the Smurfs’ antagonist, garganelli is a tubed pasta with a distinctive pointed tip. That’s because it’s made from pasta squares that have been folded and then pressed against a ridged surface.
You can tell from the dish at PostBoy that this isn’t your baked zito or mostaccioli from the other side of the lake. “I ask my purveyors to bring me ‘only’ unusual things,” Galbraith said. “If you want to bring me samples, bring them, but I only want the weird stuff, the stuff nobody else is doing, I want to stick out like a sore thumb.
” Galbraith’s pasta dishes certainly aren’t weird in an off-putting way. In fact, the garganelli, which is loaded with sausage, gremolata (green herb sauce) and arrabbiata, is much more like a fun riff of something you’ve probably tried before. Similarly, PostBoy offers a loaded potato gnocchi (full disclosure: I didn’t get a chance to try this one!) with cheddar Mornay (French-style sauce) and citrus cream.
Just slip out the Amberjack, Jack Chef Galbraith has some fishy ideas about raw seafood appetizers. Namely, that it’s better if the fish tastes a little less fishy. That’s why the crudo at PostBoy isn’t ahi tuna steak, but instead little Hamachi squares topped with blood orange.
“It’s a firm, melt-in-your-mouth fish,” Galbraith said of Hamachi, which is white, rather than red. “It’s funny to me when people say they don’t like ‘fishy’ fish and then order something like salmon. Salmon is the fishiest fish you can eat!” Fish also has a better, less fishy flavor, Galbraith said, when it’s not cooked, which is in part why crudo is so popular.
I thought it was excellent, and topped with thin-sliced jalapenos, has a great, bold color scheme. The white seeds sprinkled on top are labelled on the menu as “pepita crunch.” There are a lot of items like that, sprinkled on top of the menu: harissa, black garlic, everything-bagel dukkah.
Familiar to some, but not all. Essentially the menu will have diners googling words on their phones, but the results will be met with approval, not panic. In fact, you might find something delicious you didn’t even think you liked.
I never order olives. I hate olives. I scarfed down the nam cham olives, spiced with ginger and apricots, that they served me over the weekend.
In addition to the Hamachi, garganelli and donut holes, I also tried and recommend tandoori chicken thighs, a slightly sweeter take on Indian, due to maple in the sauce, which comes with roti bread, so you can dig into the chicken with your hands. Too crude? You can always switch back to the crudo. Deep Fried Frogs Legs.
.. .
..are not on the menu.
But the restaurant does have a frog mascot, Wes, a little “frog sailor postman person,” as Holland describes, whose likeness appears on a sign outside. He’s named after the original PostBoy schooner’s captain, Wes Whitaker, and Holland said they hope he catches on as something of a brand ambassador for the restaurant, and maybe even the region at large. “I love the energy this town has,” Holland said.
“You can have a bonfire at the beach. You can go to a cool winery. Hike at the dunes.
Check out distilleries.” Holland got married in New Buffalo, and now he has his own restaurant. Galbraith, too, hopes that the fact that Michelin chefs are visiting PostBoy is a signal of something larger.
“This tiny neck of the woods isn’t on the culinary map at the moment,” Galbraith said. “But we want to get it there. We’re doing some cool stuff here.
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