Scott Dolich Reveals the Bent Brick's New Tavern-y Menu

Bring on the sausages. As previously reported, the recent departure of chef Will Preisch sees a conceptual shift for NW's the Bent Brick, with chef/owner Scott Dolich stepping back in the kitchen. "It's great. I haven't really been in the kitchen at the Bent Brick since the beginning, and that was a tough adjustment for me," Dolich says. "It really feels awesome to be back in the kitchen with those guys."

The Bent Brick's revamped menu (a working version above) highlights a more casual, neighborhood-tavern approach, which Dolich says reflects customers' desires over the past year-and-a-half of the Brick's run. "The customers who have been coming in, they're after a more communal experience," Dolich says. In place of mussels on the half shell and deconstructed crab louie come starters like "fish chips," fried pickle plates, and seven different salads: among them, grilled squid with Mendocino seaweed and potatoes; and a chanterelle salad with celery and wild rice.

The newfound sausage focus — which sees everything from seafood sausages served choucroute-style to a "hamburger dog" on a hoagie bun — will see the menu rotate seasonally and utilize Dolich's familiar brand of whole-animal butchery. "It's always been something I wanted to focus more on," Dolich says. "When I started to reformulate the Bent Brick's menu, what I really want the Bent Brick to evolve into is to be for meat what Park Kitchen is for vegetables. We're focusing really heavily on our protein sourcing, and what that means is we have to be able to deal with the scrap that we get. So that'll be our creative outlet. We just wanted to do some really delicious and interesting sausages."

The Bent Brick's bar program, now spearheaded by bartender Michael Lacey (an alum of Clyde Common and NYC's Prune) will remain the same, focusing on domestic spirits.

Bent Brick's relaunch is set for tomorrow, Wednesday, February 13, with a fundraising party for local schools from 4-8p.m. The $10 donation gets guests all-you-can-eat samples of new menu items.
· The Bent Brick [Official site]
· All Previous Bent Brick Coverage [Eater PDX]