Everybody has a dream.
For Chef Jacob M. Stull, his involves preparing food.
That’s one reason why his new pop-up restaurant is called Rêve, which translates from French as dream. And it offers an immersive tasting menu experience with Stull’s interpretation of classic French and French peasant food.
“We try to use Southern ingredients, as this is an area rich in produce, heirloom grains,” he said. “But we also use a lot of modernism, ingredients from New England and France.”
Rêve is a pop-up restaurant, currently hosted in several restaurants in downtown Birmingham. Stull hopes to have a brick-and-mortar location with in a year’s time.
A native of the Washington, D.C. area, Stull worked on the East Coast before finding his way to Brennan’s on Royal Street in New Orleans, working with Chef Slade Rushing.
“After the traffic, the high taxes, the high cost of living, being on the road four hours a day, I needed a break, and New Orleans was a good experience for me as a chef,” he said.
Stull moved on to Alabama in 2018, cooking at Kasvu in Birmingham, then Forte Cuts and Cocktails, and Roll Call in Tuscaloosa’s Alamite Hotel. Following the pandemic, Stull decided it was time to pursue his dream.
Stull said chefs, after a hard day and night of cooking, can sometimes reach for a microwave meal and a beer when they get home. But he has a passion for French peasant food with family, or cooking outside in summer.
“A lot of French cooking is about simplicity,” he said.
On the 10-course meal, you can sample foie gras with strawberry and nasturtium; Pennsylvania Duck with herbs de provence, sassafras molasses, confit tart and blueberry, and salmon mi cuit with fennel, cucumber and dill.
Diners can make reservations online 30 days out for Rêve, which happens on Thursdays and Sundays. You can order the five-course tasting menu, at $100, and a 10-course menu at $150. The experience lasts between two to three hours.
Reservations can be made here.
Hosting prepaid experiences eliminates the need for handling payments on-site, and help reduces no-shows, ensuring that every seat is filled.