You only wish your mama made meatloaf like this.
Buttermilk Channel, the popular American bistro on Court Street, may not have been the first to jump on the elevated comfort food bandwagon, but a dish like Ryan Angulo’s duck meatloaf with creamy ginger parsnips provides the best example of the trend.
“It was supposed to be just an occasional blue-plate special,” said Angulo, the head chef. “But we quickly realized they were going to be way too popular. So they had to stay.”
It was a good call; the duck meatloaf is far and away one of the most ordered items on the menu, selling upwards of 150 plates a week.
“It started out as just a regular meatloaf — ground beef, carrots, I think I threw some ketchup in there,” remembers Angulo. “It was really tasty and simple, but then I started to think of ways to refine it. I took out the ketchup, of course. I swapped the carrots for raisins. I threw in some thyme and parsley.
“And the beef became duck. It gives the meatloaf a more delicate, but richer, flavor.
“It also allows me to present duck in a way that is more accessible to customers,” added Angulo.
Accessible, but no less impressive. Angulo’s approach harkens back to techniques he learned at Picholine, a three-star restaurant in Manhattan.
But that doesn’t mean you can’t make it yourself, you know.
Buttermilk Channel [524 Court St. at Huntington Street in Carroll Gardens, (718) 852-8490].
