In the wake of the recent announcement of inclusion on the James Beard semi-finalist list for Outstanding Restaurant, the Metro Times was kind enough to chat with us as we enter our tenth year. They did a nice job encapsulating the many developments in our area of Detroit since Selden Standard opened in 2014.

It’s been quite the media month for us. First, we had the unexpected pleasure to appear on the James Beard Foundation semi-finalist list for Outstanding Restaurant. Then today, we were named on a USA Today list of best restaurants in the US.

As we said in this piece, happy guests are our best reward, but it’s hard not to enjoy some national love for our restaurant. Much of our team has been together several years, and it’s a great testament to their continued professionalism and their quality as people that we garner this kind of attention as we approach a decade of service.

What an unexpected delight, in our 9th year, to be named a semifinalist for the James Beard Foundation’s Outstanding Restaurant in the United States.

While Chef Andy has been nominated under the Best Chef: Great Lakes category and he has always considered those team awards, this is the first time the Foundation has honored our restaurant in this way. We certainly try to keep our focus on each service, each day, but it’s hard not to take a moment to reflect on some serious national recognition.

We were excited to see that the James Beard Foundation chose to recognize more than a dozen chefs and restaurants in Southeast Michigan.

So congrats to our entire team on the honor — and congratulations, too, to those many other Detroit area chefs and restaurants who garnered JBF nods.

As we head into the end of 2023, we’ve recently celebrated both our nine year anniversary as well as Thanksgiving. With a spirit of gratitude filling the restaurant, it seemed like a good time to offer a little thank you recipe to our guests. If you’re looking for an easy meal that’s still appropriately celebratory, this just might be it. Indeed, we offered these during the pandemic as holiday takeout meals, and the response from guests was great.

Red Wine Braised Brisket w/ Salsa Verde

Braised Brisket

• 6 lbs (or so) of brisket, preferably from the flat
• 2 cups dry red wine
• 2 celery ribs, coarsely chopped
• 1 carrot, coarsely chopped
• 1 large onion, coarse chopped
• 4 Tbsp olive oil
• 5 sprigs, fresh thyme
• 5 sprigs, fresh rosemary
• 1 bay leaf
• 10 cloves garlic, peeled
• 3 quarts chicken stock
• Salt and pepper

Marinate the brisket in a large ziplock or Tupperware. Combine meat with wine, onion, carrot, celery. Seal and marinate in the fridge overnight, 8-12 hours,

The next day, preheat the oven to 300F. Remove the meat and place a on rack to drain. Separate the wine and veggies and reserve for later use. Pat the brisket dry and season with salt and pepper. Heat a Dutch oven or heavy duty casserole to medium-high heat. Add oil and brown the meat all over. Once browned, remove to a plate and add the reserved vegetables. Cook until beginning to brown, then add the reserved wine and reduce to half. Add the stock and simmer. Return the meat to the pot with the fresh herbs. Simmer, cover, then move to the oven.

After 4 hours, check for doneness: it should be quite tender but not falling apart. If necessary, continue to cook and check in a half hour or so.

When done, remove the brisket and cover/wrap with foil to rest. Strain the liquid into a pot to simmer, skimming the fat that floats to the top. Reduce to your liking, but we’re looking for a light sauce, not gravy. If needed, add more salt and pepper to season.

Do ahead: At this point, you can store the brisket in the sauce and gently re-heat it the next day in the oven. Slice thinly and serve with the sauce spooned over the top or in a bowl to the side. Top with a little salsa verde (below).

Salsa Verde

• 1 cups flat parsley, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup mint, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup oregano, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup rinsed capers, finely chopped
• 2-3 pickled fresno chiles (or other chile, adjusted for heat level), seeded and finely chopped
• 1 Tbsp minced garlic
• 1 Tbsp minced shallot
• Zest of 2-3 lemons
• Extra virgin olive oil

Combine all dry ingredients. Season with salt and pepper. Add oil to cover. Mix and incorporate. Taste and adjust salt and pepper if necessary. Add a small squeeze of lemon juice right before serving.

After a long couple of years of ever-changing hours, we’re delighted to be open seven nights a week. We opened again on Mondays earlier this year and have just re-opened for Tuesday dinner services again last night. We’ll look forward to seeing you in Detroit soon!

We were delighted to learn earlier today that Chef Andy was nominated as a James Beard Finalist for Best Chef: Great Lakes. He’s been a semi-finalist five times, but this will be his first time headed to Chicago as a finalist alongside fellow Detroit chefs Omar Anani from Saffron De Twah and Sarah Welch from Marrow.

It’s quite an honor for Andy, of course, but all restaurant awards, including the James Beard Foundation awards, are ultimately recognition for the team. There’s a lot that goes into any restaurant, including Selden, and the dozens of folks who are here every day helping make your night special are what makes this type of national praise possible. So congratulations to Andy and our entire team!

The award ceremony will be in June in Chicago with plenty of other great nominees, including several from Chicago with really great restaurants. So indeed, it’s an honor just to be nominated. (But we’ll keep our fingers crossed for Detroit!)

The readers of Hour Detroit have again voted us Best Restaurant, Wayne County. (As well as best so-called farm-to-table restaurant.) It’s an honor we were delighted to receive in the past, and especially in light of the challenges our industry has faced over the last two years, we’re most appreciative to have so many people’s respect and trust. We’ll do our best to continue to earn that as we march toward our eighth birthday this fall.

It so happens that Time magazine also named Detroit one of their “greatest places in the world” for 2022, and we garnered a mention in their recap of our city’s food scene.

We’re proud to work with a great team who continues to welcome our guests warmly and put forth delicious food and drink. While we try never to focus on awards or media mentions, it’s nonetheless gratifying to see their hard work recognized both locally and nationally. As always, thanks for the support!

We were honored to be named Restaurant of the Year by the Detroit Free Press in 2015, and this cauliflower dish from that early menu was mentioned in the write-up. It was among our most popular offerings.

Ingredients

• 1 head cauliflower, cut into florets
• Tahini vinaigrette (below)
• Cilantro
• Pickled chilis (or if you do not have any, use fresh chili and kalamata olives)

Tahini Vinaigrette

• 1/2 cup lemon juice
• ~ 8 oz tahini (a Middle Eastern sesame paste), depending on brand
• 1.5 Tbsp coriander seed, ground
• 2 tsp cumin, ground
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 3/4 to 1 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 2/3 cup water

Directions: Tahini Vinaigrette

Add everything but the olive oil and water to a bowl. Whisk to incorporate. Add the oil, continuing to whisk. The dressing will look “broken” and not smooth to start. Once all the oil is added, slowly add the water while continuing to whisk, and it will eventually emulsify into a nice dressing.

Directions: Cauliflower

Heat oven to 425 F. In a mixing bowl, toss florets of cauliflower with oil and salt. Spread on a sheet tray or baking dish and roast, turning once or twice, until tender with golden edges, about 20 minutes.

Toss the roasted veggies with the tahini vinaigrette and pickled chilis, tasting for seasoning.

When plating, garnish with cilantro and a bit more chili.

Friends, however difficult the pandemic has been for the restaurant industry, this year has also reminded us of many of the difficult, chronic issues that our society continues to face. Among the local organizations affecting change is Detroit Food & Entrepreneurship Academy, which works with hundreds of students each year. Our team has elected to do what we can to help further their mission, so we’re delighted to announce that we’re hosting a benefit dinner next month.

• 5 course dinner with wine pairings
• Wednesday, Nov 11, 2020 at 6:00pm
• $125 per person – all proceeds go to Detroit Food & Entrepreneurship Academy
• Guest: Tiffany Brown, Program Director

BUY TICKETS

Why Detroit Food Academy?

Having hosted DFA students at Selden Standard for internships in the past, we know and love the organization. Tiffany and her colleagues are helping to address a troubling statistic: nearly 20% of young Detroiters are neither working nor in school. This is where DFA enters, co-creating with over 300 students year-round through leadership development programming rooted in schools, our food community, and our neighborhoods.

In their food entrepreneurship program, students become creators of their own food business projects – inviting all the self-discovery, innovation, growth that process generates.  Through the after school, advanced, summer, and business-launch programs, young Detroiters gain a solid foundation in culinary arts, health and wellness, food systems, and business essentials. DFA’s project-based learning model invites students to work both as individuals and in teams to apply their learnings, engage with community, and launch a food-based business project with tangible impact. Participants gain the confidence, community connections, and hard and soft skills for professional, academic, and personal well-being.

DFA focuses primarily on youth aged 14-22, offering opportunities for hands-on educational attainment, growth of career skills, and personal and leadership development. Students who have been through DFA programs overwhelmingly report improved academic performance, confidence, and relationships with peers and adults alike. We’ve had some of these students work in our kitchen, and we’d love to see DFA’s programming continue to expand.

What About the Pandemic?

Can such an engagement-based program continue to be effective under such unusual circumstances? It can: since March 2020, Detroit Food & Entrepreneurship Academy has shifted to a virtual format, delivering programs digitally on Zoom. In the DFA team’s own words:

[Going online] has allowed us to open our doors to a wider audience. In a typical year we serve 13 school and community-based sites in Detroit. With the switch to online programming, we now have students from all over Southeast Michigan and as far away as North Carolina. We have continued with our Afterschool Leadership Programming, now open to all youth who apply and are oriented with us, and also have launched a monthly family cooking program, where families can cook alongside a certified chef to make a healthy meal. We currently have one in-person site at the Downtown Youth Boxing gym where we are supporting groups of students learning healthy cooking techniques, nutrition and fitness. In the winter months we will partner with local fitness leaders to offer free virtual movement classes to our youth and their families.

Although we are remote, we will be ensuring hands-on learning by delivering nourishing groceries, kitchen equipment, PPE, and fitness equipment right to our students’ homes.  This will allow us to continue engagement with hundreds of youth across the region while helping families meet their needs.

What if I Can’t Attend?

While you’ll miss some great food and wine, you still have a chance to support a great organization. Visit the DFA website to help support their mission.

Tickets and the Fine Print

Tickets are non-refundable and available on a first-come, first-served basis. Should COVID concerns cause a shut-down or safety issues, we may reschedule for a later date. As always, we will do our best to accommodate all allergies and dietary restrictions, but we ask that you email us after booking so we have advance notice.

BUY TICKETS

Friends, Guests, and Hopeful Denizens of the Selden Patio,

After 94 days, our doors will open again on June 18. Like many of you, many of us are eager to return to restaurants and to see familiar faces. And also like many of you, many of us want to experience the world as safely as possible.

Think of it like Truman Capote’s “Black and White Ball,” and expect everyone to be donning masks in one form or another. Just don’t be Andy Warhol and refuse to wear one altogether.

The Rules

Wearing masks is one of the rules. There are others. Fortunately, the State has advised we post them for everyone’s convenience and reading pleasure:

• Keep Distance when Waiting
  We are pacing reservations to minimize waits. Should your table not be ready, you may wait in the neighboring park, in your car, or elsewhere. There’s just not enough room to social distance properly if everyone is waiting inside. Naturally, we can text you if you’re nearby.
• Do Not Enter if Sick
  Cold? Flu? Sniffles? Please respect state rules, our other guests, and the staff by coming back another day.
• Wear a Mask
  Not while you eat, of course, as that would defy the law of physics. But the State is requiring face coverings when walking around the dining room, and we are absolutely adhering to that rule.
• Maximum Party Size
  Our private room can accommodate events up to 20 people using multiple tables and respecting social distancing rules, but we cannot accommodate tables of more than 10 guests.

The Dining Room

In addition to wearing masks, the Selden team will be using other new protocols to ensure your safety – and theirs.

• Astute observers will notice subtle differences in service – silverware rolled up in napkins, no plates pre-set on tables, how tables are cleared, et cetera
• The dining room is at 50% capacity, and we’re using our private dining room and patio to ensure we have ample seating while maintaining proper distance
• Naturally, the hand sanitizer will flow like wine (or these days, maybe the metaphor is that the wine will flow like hand sanitizer?)
• While nearly every restaurant to which you’ve ever been has always embraced hand washing protocols and thoroughly cleaned tables, we also now have the heavyweight champ of anti-viral treatments to clean tables between seatings

Other changes have less to do with safety and everything to do with ensuring you’ll have as good a time as you would have had at Capote’s Masquerade Ball: We’ve made some small touch ups to our dining room. And we’ve added some capacity for preparing food on our wood grill. Lastly, while our plates are still perfectly shareable, we’re adjusting portion sizes and the menu design so that it’s easier for diners to order a meal with courses of individual plates.

And for those guests at high risk who are unable to join us in our dining room, we’ll be launching online carryout ordering soon.

The Restaurant Industry

As has been widely reported, the COVID-19 pandemic has been difficult on the restaurant industry. That’s certainly true.

But it’s important to note that at 50% capacity, we couldn’t invite our entire staff back. Some restaurants are unable to re-open at all, and their staffs are without work. We were fortunate to be able to continue medical benefits for April, May, and June, but most hospitality workers have lost them if they ever even had them.

Some of our staff has lost family to COVID, and others must stay home to care for immunocompromised family, now unable to work in a public setting. Chances are good that some reading this are in a similar position.

We’re very much excited to see you again, but these few months have been a rather stark reminder that we’re quite privileged to be able to entertain our guests. So we hope you’ll join us – but if you have friends who work in restaurants or you frequent other restaurants, we hope you’ll offer them your support as well.

* * *

In short, while we’ve learned that the SARS-CoV-2 virus is a bit like the masquerade ball guest who is going to overstay their welcome well past sunrise, it’s not a guest that need keep us from enjoying one another’s company responsibly.

We promise to do our best to maintain a safe dining room and to serve delicious food and drink. Likewise, please respect the rules. Capote and Warhol might have wanted a raucous party, but we’ll settle for a lovely (and safe) dinner with friends.

Thanks for your help, your trust, and your support. Cheers!

Next