Cooked over one fire,
written the same day.

From the oven

baked in the falling heat of last night's fire

• Red fife hearth loaf9

  dark crust, crumb still warm, smoked butter· Redpoll Flour Co. red fife, milled this week

• Smoked-butter morning bun6

  laminated, ember sugar, lake salt· the butter sits over the coals while the oven falls

• Pear and rye galette8

  bench pears, rye frangipane, burnt honey· Sorrel Bench pears, picked before the waxwings arrive

• Eggs in the pan14

  two eggs set in the hearth, charred greens, toast· the pan goes where the flatbreads went last night

Coffee and morning cups

• Filter coffee4

  bottomless while you sit· roasted two valleys over, ground when you order

• Espresso, long or short4
• Fireweed honey steamer6

  steamed milk, Nightjar honey, ash cinnamon· the honey comes from the fireweed slopes above the burn

From the fire

birch coals, fir smoke

• Coal-roasted lake char38

  whole or half, charred lemon, brown butter· out of Sorrel Lake this morning, Halfway Creek Char Camp

• Ironbell hanger steak42

  three weeks in the cold room, ember shallots, drippings toast· raised slow on high pasture at the south end of the lake

• Spit bird for two64

  brined overnight, basted with smoked butter, bread under the drippings· the bread sits under the spit the whole roast

• Hearth flatbread19

  ember squash, ash-rind cheese, fried sage· blistered against the hearth wall in ninety seconds

From the bench

what Ostler Creek pulled this week

• Charred carrots and burnt honey16

  coals, then Nightjar honey and lake salt· the honey burns for thirty seconds, no more

• Shelling beans in drippings15

  beans, fire drippings, grilled bread· Ostler Creek beans, shelled at the bar in the afternoon

• The preserves board14

  what June put up in August, eaten in the dark months· pickled bench cherries are the ones people fight over

From the lake

• Cured trout, cold off the ice18

  spruce-tip cure, rye crisps, pickled shallot· cured seventy-two hours in the walk-in

• The pickle plate9

  whatever the crocks say

After the fire

• Burnt-honey ice cream11

  ash-salt shortbread· Nightjar honey, taken right to the edge

• Wood-oven fruit12

  whatever the bench sent, cream from the valley· in October this is the waxwings' apples, rescued

• Ash-rind cheese and comb14

  one cheese, honeycomb, hearth crackers

From the cellar

short list, mostly BC, poured honestly

• Bench pours, red or white13

  rotating BC bottles by the glass

• Dry cider, Sorrel Bench apples9

  pressed on the bench, aged over winter· the orchard's seconds, none the worse for it

• The Smokefall16

  rye, smoked honey, bitters, one big coal-cold cube· the honey is smoked in a pan over the dying fire

Over the embers

• Skewers off the coals12

  two per order, changes nightly· whatever the evening board left behind, on a stick

• Midnight flatbread14

  drippings, ash-rind cheese, pickled chilies

• Burnt-honey nightcap15

  amaro, smoked honey, lemon