Jackie Mercandetti Photo Jackie Mercandetti Photo Top: Duck l’orange. Left: Bacon-wrapped dates. Right: Fried okra. Cafe from p 25 low his model, you would need butchery and curing skills, for Jason makes his rotat- ing cast himself, based on what meats his pigs and cows can yield. Recently, the board was a stunner, a nice match to Persepshen’s simple-but-solid cocktails. You get five meats, two pickled vegeta- bles, a mostarda, a jam, and long planks of Katherine’s snappy lavash. One of the meats was ’nduja, a spreadable salumi. Ja- son’s version, less creamy than the south- ern Italian standard, featured oil-packed Calabrian chiles rather than dried. It was really nice with the lavash. And though the ivory-webbed capicola carried a pleas- antly strong, husky smoke, and though the gray Tuscan-style sausage burst with min- erality and the tingle of whole pepper- corns, it was a kidney terrine that stole the show. Coaster-sized discs of soft meat blared loud irony notes, rounded with house- made bitters and brandy-soaked cherries. Together these flavors, as was the design, re-created the flavors of a Manhattan cock- tail but in meat form. My jaw would have been on the floor if I weren’t busy chewing. All kinds of gems litter this ever-chang- ing menu, from a spellbinding pickled curry cauliflower all the way up to 60-day dry-aged steaks. You may be surprised to see an ossobuco with Mexican flavors, a cochinita pibil, a trio of swordfish tacos soft and steaky and bursting with slaw buried in sail-like flour tortillas. Fortu- Jackie Mercandetti Photo nately, unfortunately, you never fully know what a given night’s menu will bring — and you have to choose between many attractive pathways. Whatever your choice may be, get gin- gerbread for dessert. Katherine uses fresh ginger to make a soft loaf dark with cocoa powder. Once cool out of the oven, she dredges the dark loaf in butter and rolls it in sugar crystals. Candied fruit tops your fat slice. So does a scoop of gelato made from housemade eggnog heady with cinna- mon, vanilla, and rum — a rich, wickedly creamy intensity that hits you like a sudden burst of nostalgia. Persepshen is an important restaurant, and not just because the food tastes good. The Dwights cleaver-cut through trends to the source of our food system, running the kind of restaurant that we’re going to need as sustainability concerns deepen in the coming warmer years. Here, you feel close to the past, close to your food and natural cycles of life and death, immersed in the food system in a primal way. It makes not only for a great meal, but a vital style of cooking and eating. Persepshen 4700 North Central Avenue 602-935-2932 persepshenarizona.com Hours: 5 to 10 p.m. Wednesday to Sunday Bacon-wrapped dates $9 Fried pickled okra $9 Charcuterie board $24 Duck a l’orange $38 Gingerbread $10 27 phoenixnewtimes.com | CONTENTS | FEEDBACK | OPINION | NEWS | FEATURE | NIGHT+DAY | CULTURE | FILM | CAFE | MUSIC | PHOENIX NEW TIMES DEC. 26TH, 2019–JAN. 1ST, 2020
