Definitively Marrow
LIKE THE WORD itself, Marrow, in Detroit’s West Village, is rich with meanings. The popular three-time James Beard–nominated West Village eatery and butcher shop is also an admired partner and meat supplier for some of Detroit’s choosiest chefs and a supporter—financially and otherwise— of mindful local farms.
And if the executive chef looks a little familiar, you’ve likely spotted owning partner Sarah Welch, who was a contestant on the 19th season of “Top Chef,” finishing an impressive second earlier this year.
The day we dropped in, Welch, Chef de Cuisine Eddie Moreau and their team were preparing a braised lamb shank for a wine dinner Marrow would host that night.
Braising, by definition, is cooking something mostly or fully submerged in liquid for a long period of time. The necessary planning can make the dish intimidating to prepare, says Welch, adding that a local butcher should always have shanks—lamb, beef, pork— available. Part of what makes the cuts special, says Welch, is that they’re so flavorful, a product of being one of the body’s hardest-working muscles.
“The harder the muscle works the better the flavor is, so neck, shank, rump, these meats have more flavor because blood is going there,” says Welch. “Blood brings flavor. Connective tissue brings texture. It’s what adds body to a sauce. Marrow leaks out into the braise. It has much more flavor than a lazy muscle.”
Moreau finds the waiting to be the greatest challenge of making a braised dish.
“Everyone wants to eat it as soon as it gets out,” he says, but “it’s best to let it sit in its liquid overnight. It’s retaining its stickiness, its own moisture, its own collagen. You’re constantly reconstituting it in its own liquid. It can’t be rushed. It needs time. It needs love.”
That love is what Marrow is all about, dedicating itself time and time again to best practices, especially its efforts to use locally grown products from like-minded, conscientious farmers.
“We have a foot-on-farm policy. We’ve been to every farm to verify they have the same ethic that matters to us,” says Welch.
“They have that same integrity when they’re raising animals as we do,” says Moreau. “When a product is raised with a lot of respect and integrity, it makes our job a lot easier.”
That includes the carbon footprint it takes to grow and distribute food. Some local farms that meet Marrow’s standards include Coriander, Cold Frame and Fisheye.
“It matters because the less our food travels, the better it tastes,” says Welch. “If you’re going to do it, do it as ethically as possible. Another way to do it is to eat better meat less often.”
Local farms mean local jobs too, says Moreau, who came to Marrow from the East Coast, where he worked on Nantucket Island and in Maine.
“Investing in that farm is investing in that community.”
“We only use farmers that use regenerative farming practices,” says Welch, adding that the word sustainable has lost its meaning. “We ask more of them and we pay more for meat because of that. The food industry is very, very scary.”
Welch relays a story from her Marrow business partner Ping Ho. Raised as a Singaporian, Ping joined her grandmother at a Singapore market and was confused as they passed farmer after farmer that had what they needed. She questioned her grandmother. “We’re going to the farmer we know because they raise their chickens a certain way,” she was told. You shop from the person you know.
Such mindfulness, along with holistic food, tells a lot about the quality, says Welch.
And don’t let the restaurant’s name scare away vegetarians. Moreau points to the “All appetites welcome,” printed on the front window, a reminder that the restaurant’s name doesn’t simply refer to bone marrow. It also means the choicest of food, and is synonymous with thoroughly and completely. “We have as much thought and soul in our vegan options as we do our meat options. It makes it a little more challenging, but we like the challenge.”
Learn more at marrowdetroit.com.
8044 Kercheval Ave, Detroit
313-513-0361 | 313-652-0200
Cara Catallo is editor of edibleWOW.
