Pigging out at Wilshire Point

74 brings flavor to new development's profile

In about a week, the 405 diningscape will welcome a new restaurant called 74 to the neighborhood. Chef Beau Stephenson of Bin 73 is behind the stove with a talented kitchen crew in support while local front-of-house veteran Ross Crain is the general manager.

Crain brings his talents to 74 after 28 years working for Hal Smith Restaurants. He developed and operated Hollie’s and Toby Keith I Love This Bar & Grill during that time, which bodes well for the operation of 74.

The new place will help pioneer the 27-acre Wilshire Point Development, which is on a stretch of Classen Boulevard between NW 63^rd Street and Wilshere long bereft of civilization. That is ready to change. Residential development has begun along with other retail. As for 74, it’s only a matter of time before the young and restless of Nichols Hills recognize they’ve got a new watering hole with bar pies, home cooking and a shaded back patio.

I made it over to 74 on Friday for a Pork and Pinot event put on by Premium Brand Spirits. Chef Beau and his crew went to work on some suckling pig and the results were porktastic. Chef Beau said the new place sets up well to do special events like Pork and Pinot thanks to that shaded patio, which extends into a lush lawn on the west side of the property. The chairs hanging about promise jazz brunches or something like it in the future.

Friday’s pig-centric menu didn’t reflect the final menu, but Beau said the spirit of the event and the notable culinary talent on display did.

“We’ve got some great guys in the kitchen,” he said. “You know me, I just wanna have some fun, and I think this place really sets up well to do that.”

The menu will offer lunch and dinner options from soups and salads to burgers, steak and pork chops.

“We’ve got a braised chuck roast that’ll curl your toes, man,” Beau told me and I believe him because right after that he pointed me in the direction of carnitas pulled straight from the source and some head cheese I won’t soon forget.

Look for 74, 7412 N Classen Blvd., to open May 1, but if you happen by this week don’t be surprised to find the door unlocked and service quietly under way.

The Week (and Weak) in Dining

The burger trail has been my main focus lately, so maybe that’s why chef Beau’s pork-estral maneuvers resonated with me, but the head cheese he and the guys came up with was phenomenal.

So, too, were the carnitas tacos, and fresh roasted slices with crispy skin, but the headcheese was so wicked it to brought full attention the time and technique it took to stack those flavors and make them work together as one. Bravo!

The Big Bev Burger is still fine, but Beverly’s creamy house salad dressing is gone.

The downside to last week’s dining came hot off the burger trail I’m blazing for next month. The trail came to Beverly’s Pancake House, home of the Big Bev Burger. Hadn’t had a Big Bev Burger in many years. Back in the 1990s, lunch at the old counter on NW Expressway and Pennsylvania was a weekly occurrence. The meal was always a Big Bev with a salad on the side, smothered in Beverly’s house dressing. I would eat the salad practically fork-free thanks to the basket of house-made croutons made from toast slices kept behind the counter. The health department eventually put the kibosh on sharing, but the dressing carried on bailing out the usually limp fries at Beverly’s.

I learned on my latest trip, the creamy garlic house dressing at Beverly’s is no more.

When I asked for the house dressing, I was asked if I wanted Italian because “we don’t have the creamy house dressing anymore.”

Salad was canceled on the spot, and the fries that come with the Big Bev were going to have to settle for ketchup to rescue them. It didn’t, but fries have never been the strong suit at Beverly’s. The burger itself appears to have changed. I recall a broader, flatter burger than I had the other day. Definitely had chopped onions before with tons of mustard. Onions are now sliced. The burger is still a solid expression of the classic diner burger, but the lack of house dressing left a hollow spot on my palate.

I’m not nearly done with Beverly’s because the original story is far too incredible, and there is the matter of Chicken in the Rough when it comes time to compare fried chicken. For now, if you go to Beverly’s, know the beloved dressing is gone.

It’s all down to Cattlemen’s now for distinctive house dressings, I suppose. Or am I missing some? Let me know if there are any house-made salad dressings out there that keep you coming back for more in the comments. Or any you miss as much as I miss the creamy garlic at Beverly’s!