After spending decades in the kitchens of eminent Triangle restaurants—including a 10-year run at the legendary Magnolia Grill—Amanda Orser is pivoting to sandwiches.
Orser will open LRB Provisions on Guess Road in Durham later this summer, transforming the longtime Dog House hot dog stand into a counter-service spot where, she tells the INDY, she’ll apply “the same flavors, techniques and ingredients” she’s showcased at fine dining spots “between two slices of bread.” Think The Bear, minus the verbal abuse and with the addition of a double-decker electric smoker.
“All I want to do is get the doors open and start cooking,” Orser says.
The menu will be anchored by house-made pastrami and smoked trout, both available in sandwiches. Also on offer: an al pastor sandwich that Orser will prepare by butterflying a pork loin, rolling it with pineapple and herbs, roasting it, and slicing it thin.
Vegetarians will also get their due with house-made celery root pastrami and a PMLT (griddled paneer, mushroom bacon, lettuce, and tomato).
LRB Provisions sandwiches will come on house-made rye or semolina rolls, with gluten-free bread sourced from elsewhere available for those who need it.
As a nod to the space’s history, LRB will also feature a rotating weekly “Throwback Thursday” hot dog option—Chicago style, Coney Island, and so on. (When the INDY suggests devoting one Throwback Thursday to the bright-red hot dogs that the Dog House served, Orser says, “Yeah, that’s what everybody keeps telling me.”)
For dessert, there’s a “brookie”—not a brownie-cookie hybrid, you philistine, but a cookie with brown butter, dark chocolate, smoked oats, and pepitas. House-made potato chips will rotate flavors weekly. On weekends, LRB will sell “brunch boxes” with bialys, smoked and cured fish, schmears, and pickles. Seasonal sides, soups, and salads complete the menu.
The 550-square-foot space has undergone a serious aesthetic transformation since the Dog House location, which emulated Snoopy’s canine abode, closed in January. The green roof is now black; the cartoony yellow accents now a burnt shade of Orser’s favorite color, orange.
For Orser—who worked as the chef de cuisine at Durham’s Magnolia Grill under James Beard Award-winning chefs Ben and Karen Barker before it closed in 2012, followed by stints at Chapel Hill’s Lantern and Durham’s just-closed Littler—the shift to daytime service is significant. She’s never worked a breakfast, brunch, or lunch shift in her 27-year cooking career.
But she has long wanted to run her own restaurant. About a year ago, while looking at potential locations for a dinner place, she realized that she’s actually “kind of into opening up a lunch spot.”
The name LRB references Ellerbee Creek.
“I’ve always wanted to have a neighborhood restaurant,” Orser says. “Ellerbee Creek runs through all these different neighborhoods in Durham and kind of connects them.”
LRB Provisions will see Orser reunite with Helen Pfann, who was the pastry chef at Magnolia Grill before it closed, and Josh Nichols, who worked alongside Orser through the pandemic at Littler.
LRB will offer counter service Thursday through Monday, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The restaurant has a parking lot big enough to accommodate both outdoor tables and plenty of cars. It’s also walkable for surrounding neighborhoods that have lost lunch spots like C&H Cafeteria and Earth to Us in recent years.
The space may be small, but it “lives bigger” than its square footage suggests, Orser says. The interior renovation has included installing a 100-gallon grease trap in the floor and converting the walk-in freezer into more fridge space for three-day pastrami brines and 24-hour fish cures.
She didn’t need to keep the freezer, she says, “because I don’t freeze stuff.”
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