September 3, 2010
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Mojo, in more ways than one
Skean Block restaurant signaled Iowa’s food renaissance. When it opened fifteen years ago, Des Moines bon vivants began making regular trips to Albia to dine in its restored century building. Under Chef Dan Grove, Skean Block became a template for similar fine dining spots in historic buildings around the state. One of Grove’s first employees was a “just turned 16 year old” named Anthony Johnson.
“I learned a lot from Dan but mainly I learned to be passionate about good food,” Johnson recalled from his kitchen at Mojo’s on 86th.
Lots of young chefs pay lip service to their passion for cooking but Johnson pays dues as much as anyone in the state. Mojo’s fits him well. The restaurant is elegant and stylish with textured wall paper, huge leather booths, Deco lamps, wide plank floors and wide angle photographs of Iowa landscapes.
A private (first comer) wine room has a window to the kitchen while a backlit granite bar is punctured with dramatic pin holes. A large patio entertains live music on weekends. In other words, the place doesn’t even need great food to draw customers.
Johnson has lined up more superb Iowa farmers and artisan suppliers than anyone in the area. He’s using De Bruin Brothers rabbits, Iowa Ostrich Coop ostrich, Fox Hollow and Sheeder Farms birds, Berry Patch fruit, Butcher Crick tomatoes and vegetables, Clover Leaf dairy, and La Quercia charcuterie. He also gets regular deliveries from half a dozen other farms. To best use their produce, he builds a short, frequently changing menu with a few daily specials. Sometimes ingredients walk in the door at the beginning of dinner hours. That’s how fresh things are.
That’s why his dining room seems like a slow event. People stare at other tables dishes and ask questions of perfect strangers. They even offer to share bites with them. Half price wine on Monday may have had something to do with that but the people just seem to be excited to eat here. I was.
Starters included calamari two ways: sautéed with home made Andouille and fried crisply with red pepper coulis. He offered tamales with duck confit and escargot with mushrooms en croute as well as Bourbon duxelles with truffle oil. He served smoked ribs with whiskey grits.
Johnson made a deconstructed crab cake out of crostini, fresh crab meat, and garlic Dijon cream sherry. He topped that dish off with a soft fried quail egg. Ummmm.
A house salad included marinated fresh peaches.
A spinach salad presented greens too tender for these hot weather days with duck confit, cehvre, oyster mushrooms, prosciutto crumbles, and an herb dressing with celery leaf. That was topped with crisped shoestring potatoes, one of only two uses of potato on the entire menu that night. Another time a salad featured mesclun with candied ginger, macadamia and wheat beer and passion fruit vinaigrette. Fried squash blossoms were served on a fresh pea puree.
A Caesar employed a head of Romaine.
His entrees were paired with vision beyond fingerling.
Shank of lamb with baby apttypan, mashed potatoes and lamb stock reduction; mahi-mahi with brown rice, edmame coulis and tropical fruit salsa; duck breast with bacon-apple risotto, cherry basil compote and grilled asparagus; trout with sweet potato gratin green bean amandine and sage butter;
pork medallions with chorizo and raisin bread pudding, honey cream and roasted baby carrots,
chicken breast with wilted spinach and couscous salad, mushroom sauce, feta and asparagus. No two entrees saw the same platings, that’s rare in town.
Two specials blew me away.
A seared saddle of rabbit loin had been thin sliced, pounded and rolled with fresh thyme. It was served on bng cherry and basil coulis with a shallot and prosciutto risotto and grilled cheery tomatoes. The rabbit was served with two ears of freshly crisped sage sticking up. Seared ostrich tenderloin was cooked rare and served with pearl barley and crumpled prosciutto, grilled carrots an maple Bourbon buerre blanc.
Desserts took full advantage of his fabulous fruit suppliers. Fresh coconut ice cream (yes he renders his own coconut milk) was served with blueberries and a rolled almond cracker stuffed with chocolate ganache. Goat cheese crème brulee also starred blueberries and bing herry cheese cake was served with freshly made watermelon sorbet.
Bottom line – Mojo’s is better than ever and as fine a dining experience as Central Iowa has to offer. Johnson is rising star.
Post Script – Tim Holmes (J Benjamin’s, B & B, Royal Amsterdam Hotel) is now the owner chef of Skean Block.
Mojo’s on 86th
Mon. – Fri. 11 a.m. – 2 p.m.
Mon. – Thurs. 5 p.m. – 9 p.m.
Sat. – Sun. 5 p.m. – 10 p.m.
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