At La Maison de la Gaufre in the tiny French village of Pourriture, they serve boudin noir Big Macs with pork blood Special Sauce until the sun comes up.
It was a life-changing, late-night hangover helper at this mythical oasis that inspired chefs Kevin Ealey, Joy Kirkland, and John Dahlstrom to unite under the banner of Dive Bistro to serve “food for chefs and scumbags.”
Actually it was more like a late night over too many drinks at the Skylark that made the industry vets decide they were ready to break the traditions of classic French technique and “all the, ‘Yes, chef. No, chef’ bullshit that we’ve been dealing with our entire lives,” says Ealey.
It came to them as a vision of a Waffle House in the French countryside: “French cooking technique, applied to something covered in gravy at two in the morning.”
That drunken fever dream comes to life this September 25 when Dive Bistro takes over the kitchen for Monday Night Foodball, the Reader’s weekly chef pop-up at Ludlow Liquors.
Ealey, Kirkland, and Dahlstrom have known each other for a decade, working together at spots like BLVD and the late Ronero, but this revolt was sparked by a yearlong grind at a Wyoming luxury resort, cooking for far-right politicians, movie stars, and “big money people coming out to escape,” says Ealey, now a sous chef at Maple & Ash. “It’s an all-inclusive dude ranch for rich people that want to be cowboys.”
“We all bought into this dream they were selling and you had to go out there and be company dogs,” says Ealey. “We all pretty much didn’t like that.”
The trio escaped with the spring thaw, mounting their first pop-up in July at Ørkenoy; followed by a one-night stand at Table, Donkey, and Stick in August; then a month of intense physical and mental training in September; all in preparation for this brigade de cuisine-crushing Foodball, starting with apps like a caramelized French onion croquette; a smoked oyster Caesar salad with charred endive and trail mix frico; and a chicken liver mousse, dragged through the garden Chicago dog-style, with Vargo Brother pickles, Chartreuse relish, and poppy seed milk bread.
There’s that sanguine Big Mac on the menu, but if there’s a signature Dive Bistro dish in development it has to be pork frites, in which sous vide pork shoulder roulade, seared in butter and herbs, switches roles with a waffle pressed out of pommes dauphine/potato puff batter, dressed in sauce Américaine.
For dessert it’s dulce de leche beignets, rolled in candied chicken skin crumble, while behind the bar Kirkland’s converted a French 75 into a Vesper with olive oil-washed vodka, and a tropical Piña Verde en Francais with chartreuse and crème de cacao.
Steve Berry from CHIRP Radio’s on the decks starting at 5 PM, while walk-in orders start at 6 PM, until sellout.
Meantime, digérez the full fall Foodball schedule:
