Wednesday, June 4 is D Day for Purslane, the Mediterranean restaurant that replaces Ardent at 1751 N. Farwell Ave. Owner Mary Kastman was previously the executive chef at the Driftless Café in Viroqua, where she started Purslane as a pop-up.
Kastman – an Evanston native who settled in Madison for culinary school and cooking positions at spots like Restaurant Moromoto, where she worked with Ardent owner/chef Justin Carlisle – named the restaurant after an edible plant whose leaves can be used fresh in salads and cooked in sautes. It was in after moving to Boston and working in the kitchens of eastern Mediterranean-leaning restaurants Oleana and Sarma that Kastman says she developed a love of that cuisine.
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Purslane’s opening day hours are 5-9 p.m. Moving forward the hours are Tues-Thurs 5-9 p.m.; Fri-Sat 5-10 p.m.
In her cooking, Kastman uses ingredients like kaymak (similar to clotted cream) and kataifi (a type of phyllo dough) and incorporates, among other things, the herbed relish chermoula, a Middle Eastern hot sauce called shatta, and taramarsalata, which is made from salted, cured cod roe.
Her focused menu includes snacks (Persian spiced snack mix, olives, deviled egg with trout taramarsalata, $3-$13), five small plates (harissa chicken wings, walleye falafel, Fattoush salad, a meza trio $17-$25), larger plates (oyster mushroom shish, sea scallops, a Turkish dish called Ali Nazek beef kabobs $33-$43), and two desserts (olive oil cake, kaymak semifreddo $9-$11).
Photo courtesy of Purslane
The restaurant name had been bouncing around Kastman’s brain for years. “I had thought about [it] back in 2014 when I was in Boston working for Oleana and Sarma,” she says. “I had never heard of purslane before, but we had used it in salad and I just loved it and the symbolism of it.”
Reservations for the intimate space are accepted for up to parties of 8. Walk-in seating (first-come, first-served) is available at the seven-seat bar.
Kastman will also offer snacks and beverages in the adjacent Meyhane Lounge, which occupies the old Red Light Ramen space. The lounge will open June 10.