He may be just 23, but Derik Moran is already an old hand in the kitchen.
The Nick and Eddie chef got his first cooking job at age 11, flipping burgers in a beer joint. By 18 he was head chef for a high-end resort in northern Wisconsin. After stints at Porter & Frye and Trattoria Tosca, he's been running the show at Nick and Eddie since August, working 18/7 with just a two-man crew. Camping out in the kitchen is more than paying off.
It's all in a salad Moran calls Mississippi Greens, a glorious $7 testament to his appeal-to-all-senses cooking style. It's a striking blend of delicate microgreens and garden-fresh herbs dressed in a ranch-inspired buttermilk dressing and finished with bits of Moran's fantastic house-made bacon.
Much of what he's doing on his muy-affordable menu (entrees average $15) could be described as contemporary comfort food. Pot roast, mac-and-cheese, fish and chips, steak and potatoes, they're all here, but in lighter, brighter versions. The item he can probably never retire from his constantly shifting roster is a variation on chicken and dumpling soup. In Moran's capable hands, the chicken is cured in its own fat and then rendered until the meat falls off the bone and the skin is tantalizingly crisp, then served in an herb-flecked broth brimming with crunchy carrots and onions and pillowy pan-seared gnocchi. It's definitely a dish I'm adding to my Potential Last Meals list.
Moran is a self-taught charcutier, and the results are first-rate, including the terrines and pâtés on what he calls his "Smorgasbord Plate" (priced to move at just $12), a darned good hot dog swiped with gutsy mustard and a zesty ground sausage that ramp up the delicious Scotch eggs. Even Moran's inexpensive bar nibbles, including a chewy-crusted Margherita-style pizza, tasty onion-filled pirogi and divine smoked pork tacos with a slow-burn aioli, are reason enough to fight for a meter in the parking-challenged Loring Park neighborhood.
Here's one blessing Moran should be counting: He's fortunate to be sharing his kitchen with co-owner Jessica Anderson. Her enthralling desserts -- an insanely good eclair, a chocolate sponge cake filled with whipped cream and topped with a thick fudge sauce, velvety butterscotch pudding splashed with heavy cream -- reiterate why straight-up simple, when it's done right, can be so satisfying.
The restaurant remains its quirky, slightly rakish self. If it were a person, it might be an ex-punk rocker sliding toward AARP membership and amused by the previously unthinkable prospect. The kitchen's pace can be leisurely and the drafty room could use a space heater or two (or five), but there are two definite mood enhancers: a small collection of cheeky paintings by local artist/bon vivant Scott Seekins, and an iPod playlist that could pull top dollar on the black market. After an unfortunate (and now cleared up) run-in with the liquor sales-tax folks last year, which left the bar running on near-empty and served as a customer deterrent, a funky new private events space is drawing much-needed traffic through the door.
As is the food. Having Moran at the helm has quickly proven to be a win-win for everyone: Diners can enjoy his engaging cooking, and he has the opportunity to focus his considerable energies on what he loves most. "I'm like a 5-year-old kid on a jungle gym at the playground," he said. "This is exactly what I want to be doing all the time."
