Knoxify

Bruce Bog­a­rtz believes in the mys­ti­cal power of food to bring peo­ple together. That sim­ple premise was the impe­tus for an eclec­tic gath­er­ing of friends, acquain­tances and friends-once-removed on a Sun­day evening at RouXbarb – Bogartz’s inti­mate restau­rant in the Dis­trict in Bear­den. The invi­ta­tions for the inau­gural “Forty Folks” event were strictly word-of-mouth. Every­one who was there was sup­posed to be there. Serendip­ity deter­mined the guest list. Chef Bog­a­rtz cooked up some of his sig­na­ture soul food and shared the love!

Bog­a­rtz wel­comed the crowd, say­ing this was a dream of his, to host peri­odic gath­er­ings of peo­ple from dif­fer­ent walks of life, dif­fer­ent parts of town and dif­fer­ent eth­nic­i­ties to share a meal. “I’ve seen peo­ple come together over food,” he said, “and that’s my hope, that we come together today and invite oth­ers to join us.” There were no strings attached. No dona­tions solicited. No agenda. Just a beam­ing chef sur­rounded by ador­ing cus­tomers, friends, busi­ness asso­ciates and fel­low foodies.

Every­one exchanged “Bruce stories” – some peo­ple have fol­lowed him like groupies since his days as cor­po­rate chef of Harry’s, the for­mer Grady’s and Regas-family restau­rant. I have fond mem­o­ries of his sig­na­ture dessert there – an upscale Moon­Pie with bananas fos­ter ice cream and home­made marsh­mal­low sauce. “We had to take it off the menu,” recalled Bog­a­rtz with a smile, “due to trade­mark infringe­ment issues” with the iconic Chat­tanooga company.

Other peo­ple remem­ber lazy Sun­day brunches at Bog­a­rtz, Chef Bruce’s pre­vi­ous culi­nary incar­na­tion in Homberg, open­ing on Mother’s Day in 2000 and clos­ing exactly five years later. After blow­ing town for awhile, Bog­a­rtz returned to be near his daugh­ter, Sara­beth, now nine. He did a brief stint at Harold’s Deli and made a sub­se­quent stopover at The Shrimp Dock, fix­ing po’ boy sand­wiches for a hun­gry lunch crowd. But Bog­a­rtz is no longer an itin­er­ant chef. He’s once more king of his cas­tle, mas­ter of his domain, hap­pily ensconced in the orig­i­nal Bistro By The Tracks digs.

Among the forty folks at this grass­roots get-together were Mer­rill and Hank Ammons, Tyrone and Lana Bean, Nick and Melissa Chase, Philip Clift, Jen­nifer Beyt Cof­fin and Jared Cof­fin, Mick and Angie Con­nors, Steve Dupree, Linda Guis­set, Rhi­an­non and Rob Kirk­patrick and Barry Stein­berg. All of us were drawn to RouXbarb on this rainy Sun­day to expe­ri­ence the “culi­nary pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.”

Food is Bogartz’s art; feed­ing peo­ple is his pas­sion, and feed us he did!

On the tables were rel­ish trays of locally grown veg­eta­bles, fea­tur­ing heir­loom toma­toes from David Mead­ows at Moun­tain Mead­ows Farm in Ander­son County. Their suc­cu­lent toma­toes have won­der­ful names like “Chero­kee Pur­ple” and “Green Zebra.” To com­ple­ment the raw veg­eta­bles, there were milk­shake glasses of home­made blue cheese dress­ing, recipe cour­tesy of Jerry Cross, who served it at a mem­o­rable meal in his home years ago – “one of the all-time best meals of my life,” said Bogartz.

There was also a mustard-based potato salad fea­tur­ing home­grown fin­ger­ling pota­toes, fresh herbs and hard-boiled eggs, whipped up by Bogartz’s mom, who was in town from Atlanta for the gath­er­ing. Next came steam­ing plates of mouth­wa­ter­ing fried chicken, brine-cured in an overnight salt bath and then bat­tered with a buttermilk/Coca-Cola mix­ture. “The Coke gives it a zing and bal­ances the fla­vor,” explained Bog­a­rtz with a mis­chie­vous grin. You get the impres­sion he’s mak­ing it up as he goes along, but he’s not. He’s part con­nois­seur, part party host and part mad scientist.

The fried chicken was accom­pa­nied by RouXbarb’s sig­na­ture dish – dry-rubbed spare ribs, pre­pared on-site and smoked right out back. The “Forty Folks” gang dined on the suc­cu­lent ribs with black­berry bar­beque sauce from just-picked berries. Bog­a­rtz plans to bot­tle and sell his sea­sonal bar­beque sauces, which also include pump­kin, pear and fig vari­eties. There were also “evo­lu­tion­ary sweet pota­toes,” as Bog­a­rtz chris­tened them, because they “evolved” after being peeled and can­died with the rem­nants of the deca­dent finale: rhubarb, peach and rasp­berry cob­bler with fresh whipped cream. It was a warm, buttery-crusted tri­umph, brim­ming with sweet fruit. How’s that for Sun­day supper?

The event was B.Y.O.B., or guests could wash it all down with pitch­ers of deli­cious water­melon lemon­ade, nec­tar of the gods. My din­ner com­pan­ion brought a stash of boot­leg moji­tos. It was all good.

“Forty Folks” was a bit like the first Thanks­giv­ing – long tables of natives and pil­grims grate­fully shar­ing a boun­teous spread. Every­one helped serve and clear between courses. There was a great sense of cama­raderie in the restau­rant, packed to the rafters with laugh­ing, gre­gar­i­ous peo­ple. Glasses clinked. Dishes clat­tered. We became instant fam­ily and fast friends. After two hours, there wasn’t a stranger in the place!

“It com­pletely exceeded my expec­ta­tions,” said Bog­a­rtz of the first-time gathering.

Bogartz’s lady love and busi­ness part­ner, Amy Hack­ett, was also his co-hostess for the evening. A for­mer exec­u­tive with Ruby Tues­day, she now bakes fab­u­lous desserts for RouXbarb, like her peach melba cake with but­ter cream frost­ing. But she also pre­pares rhubarb on occa­sion. Hack­ett said that the first time she fixed a pie with the trade­mark South­ern veg­gie for Bog­a­rtz, he was deeply touched by the trib­ute. “No one’s every fixed me rhubarb before,” he told her, with sim­ple aston­ish­ment and grat­i­tude. You see, Bruce Bog­a­rtz has a big heart, and he wears it on his sleeve.

If you call him and get his recorded voice mes­sage, you’ll under­stand what moti­vates Bog­a­rtz. “You’ve reached Bruce,” it says, “I’m spread­ing love and cheer through good food and drink.”

For Bog­a­rtz, food is always the under­ly­ing theme. “I’m at the pin­na­cle of my career,” he said, sound­ing shocked by his own suc­cess, “and I’m still doing what I’ve been doing all along.” What Bog­a­rtz has been doing all along is bring­ing peo­ple together by mak­ing regional food excep­tional and accessible!

RouXbarb is located at 130 S. Northshore Drive and is open Tuesday-Saturday. For more infor­ma­tion, call 865.212.0024.

All Pho­tos © 2009 Karen Krogh, All Rights Reserved.