When you take a look at the menu of this downtown Bethlehem restaurant, you may see items that initially seem pretty familiar. But as the restaurant's name suggests, they come with a twist. Right away, you can see that there's crostini with whipped goat cheese, served with red onion marmalade. And then grilled artichokes, accompanied not by the typical bright combo of lemon, olive oil, garlic and/or parsley, but smoked tomatoes. Keep looking. There is more. The most noteworthy quirk, however, comes from two signature appetizers. The eponymous twisted olives are green, stuffed with sausage (or maybe chorizo by the time you read this) and Parmesan, then fried to salty-crunchy satisfaction and served, naturally, in a martini glass with garlic aioli. The most inspired appetizer, however, might just be the French onion soup dumplings. Imagine bite-sized pockets of concentrated caramelized onion hand-wrapped in a thin dough, submerged in a serving dish and blanketed with a layer of melted Gruyere. No, there's no dark brown crock here with burned cheese bubbles across the top; the iteration of this familiar taste is culinary curveball. Stating the obvious, chef Steve Kershner says, “We like to do things on the twisted side.”
If you've lived in the Lehigh Valley long enough, you've invariably eaten his creative, casual fare in a various incarnations.
It should be clear by now that Twisted Olive isn't a martini bar—that ship sailed in the 2000s. It is, however, the first sole proprietorship restaurant for its chef, the “55 years young” Kershner. Does the name ring a bell? If you've lived in the Lehigh Valley long enough, you've invariably eaten his creative, casual fare in various incarnations. The Emmaus native has been cooking for his entire life, starting in his teenage years in the late 1970s as a prep cook at the Hotel Bethlehem. He's entirely self-taught, and grew up in the industry; his dad worked at the Hotel Bethlehem, too. Being a chef is one of those rare jobs with fast feedback.
“It's instant gratification. If you are doing the job right, they let you know. And if you aren't doing it right, they let you know, too,” he says, laughing.
It goes deeper than that, though; it has to. “I was always drawn to it, growing up in the industry. It was all pretty localized, though. I always felt like there was something more, something new,” he reflects. Kershner and his wife, Sherri, routinely seek out novel food. “Traveling, tasting things, whether it's to Philadelphia or to Germany—it's always a new experience,” he says. All of those flavors somehow morph and sneak their way into a menu, making the simple act of dining out a personal reflection of one cook's life story.
You might say that Kershner, a man who laughs easily and aims to please, has been preparing for this moment for most of his career, having logged long stints in kitchens across the Lehigh Valley, including the Spring Valley Inn, Cascade Lodge and Belmont Inn. Kershner's arguably most well known for his seven-year stint (2003-2010) in partnership just down the street at Apollo Grill, a restaurant known for expanding the Valley's understanding of what a menu could look like, with its endless combinations of small plates. “That's just coincidence that we ended up here,” he says of his current location, the former Starfish Brasserie, which closed in 2012. After leaving Apollo and spending a year at Valenca in Easton, he started looking for space in Bethlehem. The location downtown, with two parking decks within easy walking distance, was perfect. “We thought, ‘Why not?'”
There are always plenty of reasons to not do something, especially given the relative failure rate of restaurants. However, Kershner and his better half, whose energy is keenly felt whenever she's there, had a vision of what it would look like: fun, approachable, casual food. “No white tablecloths or serious fine dining,” he says. For someone with such extensive experience, the food part—finding vendors, creating a menu, adjusting the menu, etc.—was relatively easy in comparison to puzzling together the right personnel. Regardless, all the clichés prevail: the odds are stacked against new restaurants. It's not easy; it's an all-in proposition. “When you open a restaurant, you have to be committed—or maybe you should be committed!” he says, laughing.
...Kershner is an avid gardener... Everything he grows is organic and it all makes its way into the restaurant.
Kershner and a loyal team of family and close friends quickly set to work once they took possession of the space in Spring 2013. The interior was extensively renovated and opened up a bit. Just about everything you'll encounter in the dining room and bar area, from the flooring to the lighting to the furniture, is new. Warmer weather will mean sipping a signature cocktail outside on the deck they constructed, too. Behind the scenes, there's a new pizza oven in the kitchen.
Good chefs consistently strive to convey their originality through their food—that's their medium. Kershner is no exception, and that's where the twists come from. That pizza, for example, isn't just made with either all-purpose or Italian tipo 00 flour (often used for pizza and pasta). He explains the genesis of the recipe. “I bought this flour at Eataly [the Italian food emporium] in New York City, came home and made pizza with it, fell in love with it. It's not available wholesale because it's not mass produced, but I found a way to do it,” Kershner explains. He contacted the small, family-owned company in Italy—he won't divulge the name, of course—and managed to find someone who would import 700 pounds of it. (That only sounds like a lot.)
There's your pizza twist. Want another? The restaurant's libations are right in keeping with current mixology methods, with house-made infused cocktails. “We go a different route with using bourbons, ryes, tequilas—that sort of thing,” explains Kershner. Case in point: their peanut butter Old Fashioned, made with peanut infused bourbon. “It tasted like that candy, Bit-O-Honey,” he says. They're always keeping it fresh and unexpected back there behind the bar, so that drink is off the menu at the moment. Some mainstays include the namesake Twisted Olive, made with Hophead vodka, Lillet Blanc and orange bitters; Atta Girl, with chamomile-infused tequila, lemon, cucumber syrup and sparkling wine; and the Forty-Niner, with bourbon, lavender honey and lemon. “We encourage creativity behind the bar,” he says.
Perhaps the biggest twist, however, and one that remains somewhat invisible to the average restaurant goer, is the fact that Kershner is an avid gardener. A fair chunk of his multi-acre property at home in Williams Township is dedicated to growing vegetables and herbs, so much so that he has enlisted the services of Ebby Terp of Plentiful Gardens to help him manage it. “She's the voice of reason. I always say, ‘Let's make it bigger!'” he laughs.
Everything he grows is organic and it all makes its way into the restaurant. Kershner becomes even more animated than usual when discussing it. He doesn't just plant the typical greens for salads and sautés; he grows the gamut, from kale and mizuna (mustard) greens to Malabar spinach, an Asian variety that grows like a vine, not in the ground like your typical spinach. He says it is often used in Indian cooking and “has the most concentrated spinach flavor; it's amazing.” Or consider the Mexican gherkins he used in salads over the summer, which offer a cool, crisp surprise. “They have these little zigzag lines on them and are round, like little watermelons. People go crazy when they see them on the plate,” he says.
Kershner always gardened when he could, and says he has no idea how he became enamored of gardening, “It just happened.” It's clearly connected to his love of good food. He maintains a lemongrass plant, and grows everything you can think of: leeks, tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, radishes, squashes, pie pumpkins, herbs. In spring, his asparagus crop will be ready for harvesting: imagine perhaps the likes of smoked asparagus with your steak on a stone entrée. (Twist again! Kershner's a fan of smoking veggies and does this in house). Toward early fall, perhaps we can look forward to fresh figs on the menu. He has five fig trees, and believes one of them should be ready to yield some plump, sweet fruits. And once they are mature, look out.
In the meantime, as winter has locked in, we can dream of such verdant, sunny days. Kershner says if it doesn't come from his garden, he buys as much of it locally as possible. It's a farm-to-table experience that might surprise you, simply because you aren't expecting it. And that, perhaps, is the ultimate twist.
