Gluttony is no compliment, but sometimes a menu confronts a diner’s self-discipline with elegant ingredient pairings, sophisticated plates, and artfully carnal selections which can seduce them into favoring indulgence over reservation.
Evans Street Station— a forty minute drive from Toledo, in Tecumseh, Michigan — prompts a lesson in the necessity of extravagance, and the exuberance that follows.
Transparent and transformative
Since opening in 2001, the family owned restaurant has maintained a simple culinary philosophy— through an ingredient-driven menu, curated from local farms and food providers, a small-town restaurant can thrive by embracing metropolitan standards. Also working as a catering company, the Evans Street family is well versed in culinary comforts.
To maintain fresh and vibrant flavors, Evans Street knows that transparency is key and creates every item by scratch in an exhibition style kitchen with an open view of the team of chefs and cooks transforming ingredients into meals.
Similarly, the art of transformation is visible in the renovated dining room. Echoing the building’s history as the town’s fire station, rich mahogany wood and a statuesque fireplace now blend in a simplified, contemporary style.
The elegant interior complements the imaginative menu. A rarity for restaurants on a similar culinary level— which typically offer a limited number of a few choices—Evans Street boasts a rotating and expansive menu with a generous variety of options.
Each dish is vibrant and calculated— with ever ingredient deliberately selected. Met by the menu, a diner’s self-control may buckle under the weight of the opportunity.
Have your fullÂ
To begin, my group of four chose appetizers. We noshed on: bronzed gnocchi and poached egg, a tender dish served with grilled asparagus, morel mushrooms and applewood smoked bacon; lobster and grilled ramps pierogies, a decadent but mild dish plated with english peas, house made pancetta, caramelized fennel, golden potato, tomato, crème.
Our salads were also radiantly composed of favored ingredients. The bibb salad included blood orange, pistachio, goat cheese, pickled beets, organic quinoa and champagne-verjus dressing. The salad of white asparagus and arugula married roasted cauliflower with delicate, seasonal vegetables in a lemon vinaigrette.
Dining at a leisurely pace, we approached our entrées with excitement. First, plump, jumbo sea scallops were presented with a caramel hue, evidence of perfect searing. Next, roasted duck breast was plated elegantly, decorated with a fried quail egg.
For vegetarian options, we chose the house made fettuccini accented by lemon thyme and served with tuscan kale and deeply flavored forest mushrooms.
We also opted for an off-the-menu chef’s vegetarian speciality— created on-the-spot with fiddlehead ferns and quinoa— plated beautifully adorned with candy striped beets, tomato and lemon.
Sweet dreams
My group savored the entreés, finishing them self-satisfied yet still curious. We mutually dismissed self-restraint— inspired by a taste for dessert.
Over craft cocktails— sophisticatedly accented with champagne, fresh ginger and organic honey— we poured over the decadent dessert menu, choosing to embrace our excess by ordering four house-made desserts: rum carrot cake, flourless dark chocolate torte, meyer lemon crème brûlée, and strawberry rhubarb shortcake.
Driving home, the car fell silent and sleepy, with the meal’s flavorful notes settling as warm objects of nostalgia. The car, once filled with buzzing, excitable conversation on the way to Tecumseh, found its way back to Toledo amidst a satisfied calm as we passed through the lush Southwest Michigan countryside.
11:30am-9pm Tuesday-Thursday |
11:30am-10pm Friday & Saturday.
110 S. Evans St. |Â Tecumseh, MI
517-424-5555 |Â evansstreetstation.com
