Voyager
Bad and Beaujolais: A Holiday Seafood Extravaganza with Voyager
Several summers ago, I sat in my office, perusing my Instagram stories, looking for a distraction from my eighty-hour work week. I had just started following a new restaurant in the metro Detroit area by the name of Voyager. Like many up-and-coming restaurants opening in the area, Voyager’s dining operation was located in the remains of an old auto body shop. It was becoming more and more commonplace for promising restaurants to breathe new life into abandoned locations as the re-invigoration of the city began.
I sat watching my Instagram stories, thinking I was going to witness contractors installing a bar counter-top in the new shop, or chefs in the test kitchen whipping up some menu items. Not the case. Instead, the brilliant blue waters of the mighty Damariscotta River rushed over my phone screen. I sat in awe watching as figures entered into view and flipped giant mesh cages filled with oysters. Other shots featured the videographer sorting through oysters by hand, and shucking bivalves over the water.
During its first summer, the Voyager team ventured out to Maine to learn about the oysters they would be serving directly from the people who farmed them. As a hopeful patron, I was beyond impressed by the commitment the team had to their business, and the respect it showed to the aquaculture industry.
Those videos also inspired my first journey to Maine, and my eventual relocation. But that’s another story.
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This past holiday season, I was planning a trip back to Michigan to visit family. I happened upon a post from Voyager, proclaiming that it would be offering a special dinner entitled “Bad and Beaujolais” in honor of the release of the yearly batch of Beaujolais. The experience promised to be a playful fusion of New England and French cuisine, with plenty of Beaujolais to go around.
When I lived in Michigan, I kept close tabs on the special off-menu seafood dinners offered at Voyager. Switching up the status quo always demonstrated to me that chefs were versatile and had an appreciation for the cuisines and traditions of other cultures. I recall going to a Feast of the Many Fishes event in 2018 – a dining exploration of ancient Roman custom of abstinence from meat and dairy before Christmas Eve.
This time, my dining companion was my darling significant other – who just so happens to be a chef and lifelong resident of Maine. I did have a momentary panic attack as I approached the unmarked front door of Voyager when it suddenly dawned on me that I was bringing a Maine chef, who grew up in the epicenter of fresh sustainable seafood, to a raw bar in Michigan. However, since I moved to the East Coast, Voyager earned a coveted spot on Food & Wine Magazine’s “Restaurants of the Year” list for 2018. And as we sat enjoying the seafood delicacies Voyager expertly prepared, I quickly realized there was nothing to fear.
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The windowless door and unassuming building structure of Voyager makes you question whether there is even a restaurant in there at all. As you swing open the front door, you are immediately immersed in a lively coastal-inspired raw bar extravaganza teeming with patrons clamoring for coveted seats along the raw bar.
Before approaching the hostess, we perused Voyager’s oyster offerings. Maine was well-represented with a grand total of eight bivalves on the raw bar menu. The line-up included classics such as Appledore Flats from Maine oyster heavyweight, Barbara Scully, and even featured one-year old newcomers Bombazine, from Ferda Farms. It was amazing to see friends’ oysters gracing a menu almost one thousand miles away.
With our bivalve appetite ignited, we were shown to our seats near Voyager’s open-concept kitchen. At just shy of 5:00 p.m., the shop was packed with diners eager to slurp some bivalves, and sip some Beaujolais.
Beaujolais is a red wine that doesn’t act like a red wine. Hailing from France’s Beaujolais region, located South of Burgundy and North of the Rhône Valley, Beaujolais is light-bodied and low in tannin. The wine boasts a ripe fruit flavor, oftentimes with an accompanying earthy note, depending on the producer. Because of its low tannin, Beaujolais is one of the only red wines that pairs well with seafood.
Beaujolais Noveau Day is celebrated in France on the third Thursday in November. Under French law, the new batch of wine is released at 12:01 a.m., just weeks after the wine’s grapes have been harvested. Of course, in the modern world of distribution partnerships, Beaujolais is shipped to countries across the globe ahead of the release date. However, any shop that purchases Beaujolais is specifically instructed not to pour a single glass of wine until 12:01 a.m. on the third Thursday in November. Now that is a commitment to tradition.
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Voyager’s Bad and Beaujolais celebration was a commitment to all the revelry that accompanies Beaujolais Noveau Day – from endless pours of Beaujolais from eight different vineyards, to a downright decadent selection of French seafood delicacies.
We over-indulged in the huitres pochées, deliciously plump oysters in a broth of savory and sweet cauliflower and apples, as well as the choux farcis, delicately steamed cabbage leaves that enveloped a savory blend of lamb and rice.
Our main event was the plateau de fruits de mer, the essential seafood tower. The extravagant dish is native to France, and features an abundance of fresh shellfish, including several varieties of oysters, clams, langoustines, and periwinkles. Voyager’s presentation harkened back to the French classics, with a tower adorned with east coast oysters, gigantic European belons, deliciously sweet stone crab claws, petite yet meaty langoustines, and salads of lobster and cockles dressed with light Dijon and chive-based mayonnaise.
We picked at the seafood delicacies one-by-one, snapping claws with our crackers and rhythmically nodding our heads with each bite in a silent gesture of utmost approval.
In a nod to one of our favorite Boston-based foodie bloggers, we ordered a dozen oysters for dessert, comparing some of our favorite Maine-based bivalves with other regional offerings. All the while, the Beaujolais flowed, and its fruity goodness offered a welcome contrast to the brine of the oysters.
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We had the opportunity to chat with co-executive chefs Jennifer and Justin, the real-life couple that oversees Voyager while dishing up seafood wonders from the kitchen. The duo confirmed they were the videographers behind the fateful oyster farm videos that inspired so many of my future travels. Jennifer and Justin have traveled to Maine, as well as other oyster-producing hotspots, to further their knowledge of aquaculture, and build real life connections with the oyster farmers whose products they shuck and slurp.
Jennifer and Justin have continued plans to travel throughout the country, and expand their oyster “inventory” to include selections from undiscovered farms. The duo also voiced their commitment to continue with Voyager’s festive off-menu dining events, to inspire their guests to try different preparations of seafood with varying cultural and historical influences. Voyager is also doing pop-up shucks at a number of Detroit breweries, which is a fantastic way to introduce bivalves to a younger generation who may be timid to try out a raw bar.
My significant other and I left Voyager fully satiated and with flushed pink cheeks, thanks to our Beaujolais indulgence. We took a Lyft to downtown Detroit to grab a nightcap at Bad Luck with my sister and her husband. Over drinks, my significant other excitedly flipped through photos he had snapped of our Bad and Beaujolais extravaganza, and delved into a fully researched explanation of the history of Beaujolais Noveau Day. I edges of my lips curled into a smile as I sipped my cocktail listening to a Maine chef spew endless praises over a Michigan seafood joint. Well done, Voyager.
To read more about Voyager, located in Ferndale, Michigan, please visit its website: Voyager.
To read about Voyager’s feature in Food and Wine Magazine, please visit the article here.
