Metro Detroit: Sylvan Table
This week we are in Sylvan Lake, a tiny community in Oakland County, featuring a monster of a restaurant that opened it’s doors in 2021, Sylvan Table. This is a totally farm to table restaurant that is serving some unique and delicious food that is locally sourced or grown on their 3 acre farm which is right there on their 5 acre property.
Their menu changes frequently, based on what is available, and they only serve things that are native to Michigan . . . so you will likely never see items like chocolate being used in their desserts.
Sylvan Table features New American Cuisine. So what is New American Cuisine? Glad you asked. It is a “culinary movement that started in the late 20th century, characterized by the fusion of diverse cultural influences and innovative cooking techniques.” In other words:
“it creates traditional American dishes with global influenced flavors, using fresh seasonal ingredients.”
The farm has over a 100 different crop varieties that they can choose to use, based on time of year. When visiting, you will see hoop houses, bee hives, fruit trees (including a Michigan Kiwi fruit tree) and chickens to provide them fresh eggs. It is all grown with conscious sustainable methods. Irrigation comes from an underground spring fed well, and they practice regenerative agriculture and have on site composting.
Then there’s the barn, which is the actual restaurant. It is a 300 year old barn from Thorndike Maine. It was disassembled, transported and rebuilt on site in it’s original design. They added in the interior design, windows, wooden bar and lots of wood decorations, to give it that feel of being open, cozy, rustic and modern.
The barn has 2 dining levels, with the main seating area adjacent to the open kitchen where you can see the staff hard at work. Being in a 300 year old wooden structure, you would not expect their primary cooking source to be wood, but it is. There is an 8 foot Grillworks wood fired grill, a wood fired pizza oven, 2 natural wood fireplaces (one of them is used to cook in) and a glass roof solarium to let in natural light.
They also have outdoor dining in the garden area.
The brains behind this operation are owners Tim & Nicole Ryan and executive chef Chris Gadulka. Tim and Nicole are from Wisconsin and Massachusetts, but met in Chicago while working together. No, not in the restaurant industry . . . they were in construction management. After moving to Michigan in 1993, they opened their own construction business that focused on building restaurants throughout the Midwest, including their own Sylvan Table. Chris Gadulka is a Michigan native and grew up in Dearborn Heights. He attended Schoolcraft College’s Culinary Arts program and worked closely with Master Chefs Jeff Gabriel, Dan Huglier, Kevin Garonski and Joe Decker to hone his skills. Nicole, works closely with Chris to make sure their vision of serving food and beverage represents the sustainability, creativity and wholesomeness that Sylvan Table stands for. In addition to still helping run their construction business, Nicole went on to further her education by getting her culinary degree from Schoolcraft College.
Lets talk about the food. .
The menu is quite diverse with plenty of options for everyone with lots of Gluten Free, Vegetarian and Vegan options which are clearly marked on their menu. It is not a large menu, featuring 6-7 starters, 10-12 mains, 7-8 sides to share and a 3 desserts. They also offer flat breads that are made fresh in their wood fired pizza oven. The prices are also pretty reasonable with most Mains ranging from $24-$38. Of course the menu is different now, from when we went there a few months back, so what we had to eat is what we will talk about.
We started with drinks.
They had a relay nice, smoked old fashioned called the Burning Desire that we had to try. It was super good and really smoky. Other drinks were the Strawberry Fields, a vodka based drink available in the summer months, the Buzz Thyme martini, made with Michigan bourbon, lemon, Michigan honey syrup and fresh thyme.
They started us with a complementary Amuse Bouche or whipped cheese, honey drizzle and fresh berries. It was a nice way to wake up the tongue.
For starters we ordered the Smoked Chicken Flatbread with smoked chicken, garlic, red onion, cherry tomato, provolone cheese, feta, pickled peppers and oregano. There was a lot of flavor packed into every bite.
Next was the Sesame Marinated Chilled Cucumbers, sliced cucumbers, quinoa, garlic, pasilla pepper, ginger, mirin rice wine, feta and fresh greens.
For mains we ordered the Grilled Berkshire Pork Chop (Berkshire pork is a heritage breed of pig known for its flavorful, tender and juicy, highly marbled meat) which was served with warm potato salad, creamy kohlrabi slaw and a rhubarb anise glaze.
Next up was the Lamb Merguez Sausage, a sausage spicy and earthy flavor using seasonings like cumin, fennel, coriander, paprika and cayenne pepper as the main flavor components. It was served with whipped feta, anise passila vinaigrette, tossed green and crispy fingerling potatoes. I must say while the sausage was fantastic, the crispy potatoes were my favorite component of the dish.
On to Dessert. Of course an espresso martini was in order which was seriously delicious. But we also had a slice of their Maple Cake with Brie Ice Cream, topped with walnuts and a maple butter sauce and a Peach Clafoutis (a clafoutis is a French dessert that is sort of like a crustless tart or cobbler) served in a mini cast iron skillet. The Brie Ice Cream was the star of the show, very much thinking outside the box.
Our experience here was very enjoyable. Great food served in a great atmosphere by people who are clearly loving what they do. The best part about places like this is that you will always see something different since they change their menu with the seasons. We definitely recommend a trip if you have never been there OR go again if you have. We guarantee it will be different.
Sylvan Table is open M-W from 5PM to 9 PM, Th-Sat 5PM to 10PM and Sunday 4PM to 9PM
Until next time . . . live well, eat well and enjoy life!
-Keith & Teresa Becker
Becker Home Advisors