Given the success of Journeyman Distillery’s restaurants – Staymaker in Three Oaks, Michigan and Union Hall in Valparaiso, Indiana – the inventive hospitality staff created a new menu in January, adding many staples from one menu to the other as well as new dishes to sample.
Corporate Chef Amanda Salas hopes combining and expanding upon the menus at both restaurants will allow customers to pick their favorite food items regardless of location and provide customers with a memorable dining experience.
“We've had some standout stars at each of our restaurants,” Salas said. “When we did our menu change, we thought we’d combine it so both locations have things like our Fried Brussel Sprouts that have been popular for years in Three Oaks at Staymaker. We’ve added the Loaded Potato Fritters – which we developed at Union Hall and have had on the menu for the last several months – to Three Oaks. We wanted to have a core menu between both locations so you can expect the same items regardless of which location you visit. You get the distillery experience; they're both different properties, but they're both out of the old factory buildings.”
As of January, the appetizers got an upgrade with new options like Boneless Chicken Bites and Spinach and Artichoke Dip. Both menus feature an expanded list sure to please meat lovers, which includes the Classic Cheeseburger, BBQ Bacon Burger, The Hangover Burger, The Journeyman Burger, Almost Chicago Dog, Old World, and Coney Dog.
A great representation of its name, Salas has seen The Journeyman Burger quickly grow in popularity. The burger contains three four-ounce beef patties, cheddar jack cheese, crispy onions, jalapeño, lettuce, gin pickles, roasted garlic aioli, and caramelized onions that are cooked with featherbone bourbon.
“When it comes to entrees, we do like to change things up a little bit. For example, we might keep a steak on the menu but change the way it’s prepared. We’re really looking forward to how this newest version of our menus will create new staples and new long-term, standing menu items,” Salas said.
Between Three Oaks and Valparaiso, Salas enjoys the variety of people who walk through Journeyman’s doors, along with the diverse tastes they bring to the table. Crafting a menu that caters to this array of tastes and showcases Journeyman’s unique flair is a fun challenge for Salas and the hospitality staff.
“We see different clientele. It’s great to see a lot of locals coming to visit us at Union Hall in a nice, centralized location like Valpo. With the other property about 35 miles away, we see different guests visiting up there. We see visitors from the Chicago area, the South Bend area, and all of Northwest Indiana,” Salas said. “We put a lot of thought, care, and little twists into what we make. We like to call it the American whiskey hospitality experience. It’s a journey and we like to play on that concept, from the spirits and cocktails to the all-American comfort foods with some unique flavors. It’s familiar, but with the spin of how we do it, incorporating our locally sourced spirits that we work into everything.”
To learn more about Journeyman Distillery and check out the menus at Staymaker and Union Hall, visit journeyman.com.
