WASHINGTON — There’s a new reason to drive to Annapolis for dinner – and it’s not for a pile of hard-shell crabs. It’s for pickles, or, rather, a pickle-centric meal, at the city’s newest restaurant, Preserve.
The restaurant is from husband-and-wife duo Jeremy and Michelle Hoffman. Formerly the chef de cuisine at Restaurant Eve, Jeremy left the Alexandria-based restaurant about a year and a half ago to try something new.
“We traveled to Vermont and we traveled down to Ashville, North Carolina, looking for a place to plant our roots, with the idea that we’d probably end up doing a product line of some sort,” Jeremy says. He envisioned that product line would include pickles, hot sauces, sauerkraut and kimchi: “Because that’s our real passion and drive,” he says.
But a friend – and now their business partner – approached Jeremy and Michelle with a proposition: He just purchased an old building on Annapolis’ historic Main Street and had no concrete plans for the space. But the Hoffmans had a plan, and so they got to work on opening their first restaurant.
The menu at Preserve focuses on healthy and seasonal food, and of course, anything and everything pickled and fermented. Jeremy’s homemade preserves sing in dishes such as the pickled beet eggs with salmon roe, and the cast iron mushrooms cooked with preserved lemon and herbs.
The pork, sauerkraut and mashed potato dish is a nod to Jeremy’s childhood. Growing up in Schnecksville, Pennsylvania, the chef says he ate the dish multiple times a year, and always on New Year’s Day. The plate is even served with a side of catsup, which is just how he preferred it as a kid.
Jeremy’s jarred fruits and vegetables also make their way into the cocktail program. The bar menu includes a take on a dirty martini, which is served with a pickled giardiniera mix, and the bar’s gin cocktail relies on vinegar to deliver both an acidic punch and sweet finish to the drink.
Eventually, Jeremy says, he would like to see his preserves touch every plate offered, but for now, there are a few more fermenting factors to be worked out with the Health Department.
“I got my permission to do my kimchi and my sauerkraut; I’m not pushing it too hard right now, but eventually that’s going to be a drive, to incorporate it into everything that we do … We want to take it to that extreme,” he says.
Jeremy may run the kitchen at Preserve, but Michelle runs the dining room, putting her background in — and passion for — hospitality to good use. “We’re a great team in life, and I think in the restaurant too,” she says.
The couple designed the casual, but contemporary, interior of the 42-seat dining room themselves. Michelle says the wall of food pun art – which includes prints that say “lettuce turnip the beet” and “this sh*t is radicchio” reflects her and Jeremy’s sense of humor and the restaurant’s focus on fresh, healthy foods.
“I just want it to feel like you’re coming into someone’s home,” she says.
Jeremy says the menu at Preserve will change frequently based on what’s available from local farmers – he plans to work with the FRESHFARM Market nearby — but he wants to get through a few dinner services first.
“I’m not going to go crazy at first because I want to make sure everyone gets up to speed and too much change will compromise the quality of the food. But we’re going to change, and we’re going to change because the availability from our farmers changes,” he says.
“We’re not pulling in asparagus from California; when [Maryland’s] ready for it, it will be on our menu.”
