Shannon Wynne finally got his way. The owner of the Meddlesome Moth wanted Dave McMillan to run his kitchen when he opened the Design District gastro pub in 2010. McMillan was seduced by the glitz and glamor of the Arts District, though, and he helmed the Screen Door for two years and then watched the ship sink. Now the chef known for his southern slanted cooking is right where Wynne wanted him in the first place, and McMillan sounds pretty happy about it.
See also: Meddlesome Moth Chef Moves To Cafe Pacific; Chef Dave McMillan Steps in at the Moth
McMillan told me in the six weeks he's been working there he's slowly been adding and deleting some dishes from the menu. The mussels, fish and chips and pot pies are all safe and sound, as are the paired beer dinners the Moth has been throwing regularly. And those zucchini chips I have always detested? They're still there, too.
It turns out McMillan isn't a big fan of them either.
"They're our number one returned item," he said of the fried squash medallions that always seem to come out unevenly brown and greasy. The chef says he wants to remove them but they're cheap to produce and profitable. Some of his customers seem to really be into them, too. "Sometimes you have to cut through layers of affection," the chef said.
The lobster and green bean poutine that was on the old menu is out, as is a rissoto dish featuring Tom Spicer's mushrooms and a Belgian endive gratin.
New dishes include the "pig and fig," a pork belly dish with grits and figs, chicken fried sweet breads and fried confit duck wing.
