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New chef adds global flavor to menu at Claire's at the Depot
He lives on Main Street, his daughter goes to school on Culpeper Street, and he works on Third Street, all in Old Town Warrenton.The more adventurous might find that daily circuit just a tad constraining. The rest of commuter-driven Fauquier can only marvel at how cleverly Chef David Scales has seemingly arranged his work/life balance.
The fact is, executive chefs in white-tablecloth restaurants like Claire's at the Depot, where Scales now runs the kitchen, had better have a short commute. If they're doing it right, they will likely spend 12 to 14 hours behind an apron every day.
While his daily stroll is no doubt provincial, Scales brings a global perspective to the stove: classical French training combined with southern sensibility, with a fisherman's love of the sea and all its bounty, and a taste for Caribbean spice thrown in for good measure.
Scales has been in the kitchen at 65 S. Third St., for just about four weeks now, following a stint as executive chef at the Inn at Meander Plantation in Locust Dale, Va.
Scales set his history degree aside after graduating from Elon College and started the official study that has now brought him to Warrenton at L'Academie de Cuisine's Culinary Arts Program, in Gaithersburg, Md., in 2002. He had, he said, been cooking on a pretty serious level since he was 15.
After graduating from the academie, he interned with one-time Chef of the Year Greggory Hill at his David Greggory Restau-Lounge in Georgetown. Hill has a special flair for Nuevo Latino cuisine, Scales said.
Scales next traveled to 2941 in Falls Church, "the place to work at the time," he said, and has stints at L’Oustalet, in Rockville, Md,, with "amazing chef" Marcel Bernard, and at L'Auberge Provencale, in White Post, Va., on his resume.
"I actually talked to Claire [Lamborne] last August," about taking over her kitchen, Scales said, "but the timing wasn't right. Now it is.
"Claire's is awesome," he added. "The whole staff is nice. I love the kitchen. Claire has put a lot of money in the kitchen. It is sparkling clean, all the equipment is new. It is roomy, air conditioned ? one of the most comfortable kitchens I have ever worked in.
"Claire has a passion for food and from day one has let me pursue my ideas for specials," he continued. "Slowly, together, we are going to change the menu over, just kind of refresh it and start a doing more seasonal food."
Lamborne's passion is "mainly Southern, with influences from the Caribbean," Scales said. His varied background brings some new flavors to the mix.
"My thing is mainly French., but when I teach [in L'Academie de Cuisine's Culinary Arts Program], I teach Chesapeake cuisine, Southern and Key West [Caribbean] cuisine," he said.
"I love her flavors," he says of Lamborne, "and we are trying to incorporate them and mine into kind of a new Southern-type cuisine, using French techniques, but following the flavors that characterize her restaurant, adding another dimension to them."
Claire's at the Depot is especially known for its fish, and Scales is right at home in this environment.
"I'm all about sustainable fish, so we have some stripped marlin coming in, flown in from Hawaii," he said last week. It will come with a certificate about when it was caught and how. These are all line caught" fish, he said.
"I want to bring in some new species of fish that haven't been served in this area," he added.
Diners who aren't keen on fish have no need to worry. There is plenty of meat, red and otherwise, from which to chose, including an increased amount of Southern game.
Scales intends to buy local produce, and maintains an ongoing relationship with Retreat Farm in Rapidan.
"I picked out all the seeds in February, and we will be getting some stuff in from [Rapidan] that nobody gets," Scales said ? "some Asian greens that do well in the summertime."
While Lamborne and Scales tweak the menu, classic, big-selling items on its pages will be left alone, Scales said. Considerable effort will go into discovering what dishes work here, and which dishes don't.
Sometimes, the distinction is very small.
On a recent Saturday, for example, Scales whipped up a monkfish wrapped in prosciutto and served in a fennel cream sauce. It did not fly out of the kitchen.
Subsequently, he tried monkfish again, this time on top of grilled macaroni and cheese, and topped with a South Carolina barbecue sauce. It sold out.
Claire's at the Depot is located at 65 S. Third St., in Warrenton. It is open for lunch, 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on Tuesdays through Fridays; for dinner from 5:30 to 9 p.m. on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, and from 5:30 to 10 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. A brunch is served on Sundays from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.
For more information, call (540) 351-1616.
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