One of the places that I’ve always enjoyed in New Hampshire for a nice dinner outing is Greenleaf in Milford, NH, run by well-respected local chef Chris Viaud. We’ve been to Greenleaf a handful of times in the last few years, including our 2021 review. But every once in a while, I like to revisit a few old favorites for a new review, and see how they are doing. When we saw that Greenleaf was doing a Black History Month dinner in collaboration with area chef Antonio Wormley, we decided it was worth checking out, and headed out to Milford. (The down side of doing reviews of special dinners like this is that it points out how much of a review backlog I’ve built up…)
Walking up to Greenleaf, I could immediately tell that things have been going well for them. The Black History dinner was definitely sold out, and a rather healthy crowd was waiting outside for them to open up the doors. After a short wait, they opened, and everyone filed in. From our previous visits, the interior at Greenleaf is pretty much unchanged: they really leveraged the vaulted ceilings and large wall of windows from when this was a bank, and we scored a nice table next to the windows.
The Black History dinner was a fixed menu, so we didn’t have to worry about what we were ordering, but as they were still settling all the various tables, we were enjoying a set of nice cocktails. I’ve always liked Greenleaf’s bar menu; they generally do a nice job of coming up with innovative drinks, and this visit was no exception; I went for the Gang’s all Here (tequila, Luxardo, Del Santo, Pineapple, Lime, and Honey), which was a very nice cocktail resembling a margarita, while Carol went for the Rose Quartz (Cardamom vodka, Ancho Reyes Verde, Rose, Grapefruit, and Lime), which was a very herbal and spicy cocktail. Pleasant all around.
The very first course served as we were enjoying our cocktails was an amuse bouche, a hoecake with Benton bacon jam, pimento cheese, and hot honey. I’m not generally a great fan of the combination of cheese and pancakes, but here it actually worked: an above-average, slightly more peppery pimento cheese worked well with the savory jam and crispy edges of the hoecakes. A nice, simple dish, and a great start to the meal.
First full course was a smoked salmon croquette with charred scallion remoulade, black garlic pearls, and chow-chow. The croquette itself was perfectly executed, with a delightfully crispy exterior, a nice, rick salmon interior, and a nice piquante remoulade. A nice touch here was the chow-chow, since I don’t encounter this much in New England. A pickled mix of chopped green tomatoes, onions, cabbage, and peppers, it’s sort of a sweet condiment between “relish” and “sauerkraut”, and I’d encounter it a lot when I lived in the South. It definitely adds a nice flavor to the croquette. The black garlic pearls worked well, too, giving nice little pockets of woody garlic with each bite.
The second full course was gulf shrimp, served up head-on with pickled green tomato relish, tasso ham, and popped sorghum over heirloom grits. To me, shrimp and grits is one of the great classic Southern dishes, and this was a thoroughly enjoyable rendition. The gulf shrimp was perfectly cooked, with just a little bit of a pepper note. The heirloom grits (good grits being another rarity in New England) had a nice, toothy texture, and a bit of a flint corn flavor that really made them shine. A bit of tasso ham for some salt, and some green tomato relish for some tang, and this was a nice dish. The popped sorghum, basically like popcorn but a bit firmer, added a nice textural note. I’d definitely get shrimp and grits again if Greenleaf had them on their normal menu.
The third course was a crusted and smothered pork loin, with buttermilk cornbread (somewhat hiding in back), collard greens, black eyed peas, and pickled okra. This was another great combination of classic Southern flavors; on a previous visit I had enjoyed a similar pork loin, basically lightly cured and smoked to put this about halfway between “pork” and “ham”, nicely tender, and with a good crust on it. The collard greens and blackeyed peas were nicely done renditions of the classic Southern preparation, with a slight bit of vinegar. And the pickled okra gave a nice tangy and brine-y finish to the dish. Again, I wouldn’t hesitate to get something like this on a normal visit.
The final course was “Not Grandma’s Banana pudding”, with a banana custard, brûléed banana, bourbon caramel, vanilla bean meringue, and smoked Nilla wafer crumble. No stranger to banana pudding, which made regular appearances on our family dinner table growing up, this did a rather nice job of being true to the original, which also showing some proper upgraded culinary upgrades with the bourbon caramel and vanilla bean meringue. Definitely enjoyable, but I’ll also be honest and found myself missing some of Greenleaf’s regular desserts.
Overall, a very enjoyable dinner, and it was great seeing chefs Chris Viaud and Antonio Wormley not just putting out a good meal, but really enjoying themselves as they delivered each dish and explained its history. I’m happy to see that Greenleaf appears to be doing well, and is still quite popular with the locals. I’ll definitely try to make it back soon.
Coincidentally, this review is a bit of a milestone here at Offbeat Eats. This is our 1000th review since we started way back in the fall of 2005, almost 20 years ago. If you do the math, on average that’s approximately one review every week for 20 years. And if you look at the map, so far it’s been quite the voyage. 1000 reviews (including 177 places that have since closed, such is the life cycle of restaurants). 776 reviews in 35 US States, and foreign reviews in 15 countries, from destinations as far away as Île de la Réunion.
I hope you have enjoyed, and continue to enjoy, the reviews.
