August 10, 2020

Fin & Fino serving staff-inspired pop-up menus

Each week will highlight a member of the kitchen

Duck mole was on Fin & Fino’s first Inspiration menu. Photo courtesy of Plaid Penguin

Uptown restaurant Fin & Fino is serving special menu items each week in August to spotlight a different member of the kitchen staff in what the restaurant is calling its Inspiration Dinners. Tim Buchanan, the restaurant’s general manager, says the idea came from a brainstorming session centered on how to keep staff and customers engaged during the stress of operating during a pandemic.

“The impetus behind it was we’re not going to just tread water,” Buchanan says. “Let’s try to keep an eye forward, keep the staff engaged — from a selfish standpoint, give ourselves something to engage with kind of mentally and have something to do, realizing Uptown is still going to take a long time to come back online.”

The first menu featured dishes by line cook Adrian Capellan, who moved to Charlotte from Mexico at 9 years old. The duck mole was inspired by the warm rice and mole his mother, who held two jobs, would leave at home for him as an afternoon snack while she was at work. Other dishes included ceviche and red snapper. A new menu by a new chef will run each week during August.

This week, starting Aug. 11, the restaurant will serve a menu by chef Thomas “TJ” Johnson. His entrée is pork chops with local green beans, mashed potatoes and and sweet and spicy gastrique. His dessert is pound cake with drunken strawberries, whipped cream, and a balsamic reduction. Both will be served through Saturday.

After ordering the dishes, guests can send a tip to the person who created it, buy them a beer, or send a note to the kitchen. Servers share the diners’ kind words directly to the ticket printer in the kitchen. The dishes are available on their own, or incorporated into The Treatment, Fin & Fino’s tasting menu. A portion of proceeds from The Treatment are donated to charity; this month, the donations will go to Heal Charlotte.

“The goal is really just to sell a lot of those particular dishes, make the person that came up with them feel good, and make the staff hear a little bit more about that one line cook,” Buchanan says.

Fin & Fino is currently open for dinner service only Tuesday through Saturday. —Kristen Wile