It’s a bit heartbreaking to eat at 22 North, as once you’ve fallen in love with a dish — which will happen — there’s the chance it never will be served again.
But that’s what’s existential and delectable about the carpe-diem style and innovation found at the restaurant named for the latitude of our local-fruit, -fish and -meat-producing island.
As elusive as the idea is of using only the food that’s local and in season and then moving on, it’s with this simple-but-ingenious thought in mind that food veteran Todd Oldham and partners stumbled upon a business model that is both environmentally responsible and delicious.
Take, for example, a dish from this past week’s menu: The grilled A‘akukui Ranch beef with rosemary-roasted potatoes, pickled beets and onions and salsa verde. It only lasts on the menu as long as the cuts are in house. Once the cuts of meat are pau, the menu changes.
“What (Chef de Cuisine Aaron Leikam) does is looks at what we’ve got on property and what’s ready to be harvested, and looks at what we’ve got from other local farmers on Kaua‘i,” Oldham said. “So we’ve only got two tenderloins per cow, two ribeyes per cow. Then we’ll get a tertiary cut, and can do something like shank.”
It’s the use of what is in season and in-house that takes some understanding on the part of the guest, especially as many are ingrained with an instant-gratification mentality and have become accustomed to a “feel-like-it-and-order-it” frame of mind.
“We are seasonal to the moment,” Oldham said. “We’re not getting cases of filet on hand. We don’t make a phone call and get pork racks. So there are times that a guest might have been here and got a great tenderloin and want it and we may not have it.”
The upshot to all this? The food is incredible, no matter what is in season. All it takes is some trust in the menu, servers and culinary staff.
As far as Oldham is concerned, the restaurant is doing something above and beyond creating amazing “locovore” cuisine.
“For us it’s as much about serving great food and having great service as it is keeping the money on-island and supporting local agriculture.”
And smack dab in the middle of agriculture it is.
Housed in the former Gaylord’s restaurant at Kilohana, 22 North has found a well-suited place to call home. It sits on some 70 acres of agricultural land that runs rampant with orchards bearing at least 20 different species of tree fruit, 25 acres of pasture and smaller plots of papaya and pineapple farms, as well as fields of vegetables.
“We always wanted to capitalize on the fact that we’ve got a farm on property, and it hit us like, ‘hey, we’ve got this secret weapon that’s not a secret,’” Oldham said of brainstorming with Russ Talvi, the company’s president. The two hammered out their agreement in Koke‘e over a recent weekend, and literally shook hands on the trail hiking, Oldham said.
As for the name?
“It lets people know where they are, like (the area code) 808 does,” Oldham said. “People are proud of Kaua‘i and Hawai‘i. And this fit in with that idea.”
No stranger to high-end cuisine, Oldham has quite the resume, as do members of his staff.
After getting his start when he was about 16 at a country club in Pennsylvania, he got his first executive chef job when he was about 27 on the East Coast and from there went on to open an upscale, Mediterranean restaurant before moving to Kaua‘i in early 1999.
Of course locals likely recognize him from his work as executive chef at Waimea Brewing Company and his work as a sous chef, then executive chef, at the Princeville Hotel (now the St. Regis Princeville Resort).
Following that, Oldham worked as the food and beverage director at the Sheraton Kaua‘i Resort at Po‘ipu, and in 2008 opened the Westin in Princeville. Chef de Cuisine Leikam was no stranger to the world of local, sustainable and high-end food, having worked as chef at Hukilau Lanai and Gaylord’s before the change to 22 North.
The decision to be part of changing Gaylord’s was a tough one, but one that made sense, Oldham said.
“Gaylord’s had a really great run,” Oldham said. “If you look at the life cycle of a restaurant, it goes through a period of excitement and newness. Then there’s this plateau where things hum along, and then as tastes change and new concepts are introduced elsewhere it starts to fall off the radar. You reach this tipping point where you cease to gain new fans.”
And that was the issue for Gaylord’s, Oldham said, noting the devoted clientele was wonderful, but as people became more food educated, they were looking for something new.
“More ‘foodie-type’ cuisine,” he said. “Gaylord’s had the standbys: prime rib, the ‘90s-style Pacific Rim stuff. But people wanted something that had a little more of an edge to it.”
An edge was found, indeed.
The menu is rife with anything-but-standard options. Mouth-watering highlights last week included the cedar-planked sailfish paired with cucumber, radish, Kilohana citrus and honey-harissa glaze, alongside a “soft” polenta that was creamy and buttery enough to savor each bite slowly (not to avoid mentioning: The smokiness of the cedar gave the fish a spiced, buttery richness that begged not to be shared with anyone else.
Other highlights were the olive poppers, a could-be humdrum pupu that didn’t boast an olive-y taste but instead a salty and mild warmth from the Kaua‘i Kunana Farms goat cheese stuffed inside and the house-smoked, bacon-tomato vinaigrette (yes, they literally make and smoke the bacon in-house), and the olive-oil-poached ‘ahi with avocado, Kilohana citrus, local purple beans, ulu and arugula.
For those hoping to try something that’s guaranteed to be on the menu, there are few items that are likely to be found, however, one such item is the house-made arugula pasta with braised Wailua lamb shoulder, local greens, caramelized sweet onions and crisp, fried okra.
And take this advice: Leave room for dessert. The fruit pie (served ala mode) is scrumptious. Brought to the scene by Pastry Chef Kristin Leikam, it’s more like a strudel or delectable, mildly sweet popover than it is any kind of generic “pie.”
It’s obvious the entire staff has gotten behind the 22 North project, taking pride in their work and touting the ideology behind it — many helped paint, tile and overhaul the Gaylord’s digs and turn it into what is now a renovated 22 North.
“They’ve got this physical and emotional investment in it,” Oldham said. “They’re really a great bunch. I am really grateful to Russ (Talvi) and the entire staff for believing in us.”
