The boys’ house: MG Road hosts a Sausage Party

WHERE THE BOYS ARE: Chef Dan Silo will flaunt his sausage-making skills at MG Road's newest pop-up venture, Sausage Party. Photo courtesy of MG Road

MG Road currently does not have its own restaurant or menu. Instead, it has The Thunderbird, chef Elliott Moss’ Southerncentric pop-up restaurant featuring the staff from his highly anticipated Buxton Hall Barbecue. It’s kind of a “get your yayas out before you have to cook whole hogs for the next decade” kind of endeavor.

With a Mad Lib-esque, stream-of-consciousness menu, the team of chefs — most of whom worked with Moss at The Admiral at some point — offer up whatever it is that he’s been learning, working on or just curious about. Bear in mind, The Thunderbird will close when Buxton Hall is ready to open. For now, it is just providing gainful employment for the skilled staff members who left their jobs to join Moss’ team.

If this short-term restaurant inside another bar wasn’t confusing enough, then let’s sprinkle a few more MG Road pop-ups into the mix. Last month, the talented Sarah Cousler got Girls on Deck rolling again —  a femmecentric night of DJs, guest bartenders and a constantly changing menu.

And if the girls get their night, surely the boys will want theirs. So cue Dan Silo. “Sausage Party was born out of a really slow February,” he says. “One night I was sitting at home trying to get reinspired and figure out something fun to do and realized all of my ideas were in the context of making sausage. … And we’ve already got Girls on Deck, so Sausage Party makes a pretty great counterpoint to that.”

Beyond having worked at the oft-praised Admiral, before moving here in 2012, Silo also served stints at Animal and Son of A Gun in Los Angeles; McCrady’s in Charleston,S.C.; Empire State South in Atlanta; and Mado in Chicago. It was at Mado where he was first tasked with breaking down an entire hog, something that changed the way he approached his cooking. “I just got used to having meat scraps around and, little by little, I just started making sausage on my own.”

Who doesn’t love sausage? Tube-shaped meat stuffed to the point of bulging, with spices and seasonings — what’s not to love? And Silo’s menu looks promising. The Virginian sounds like a handful: “It’s a pork sausage made with oysters and country ham,” he says. “That one’s going to be pretty labor-intensive.”

Or perhaps The Green Fairy sounds more arousing: “It’s basically just a boudin blanc but green, so a boudin vert, I guess. It will have some Chartreuse and tarragon, lots of anise flavors in it.”

Silo lived in Chicago for three years before moving to Asheville, and like any Chicagoan worth his salt — well — you see where this is going. “We’ll have a good, old-fashioned Chicago hot dog too,” he says. “Dill pickle spears, red hots, tomatoes, celery salt, a poppy seed bun, the whole works.”

Guests are encouraged to pair some cold brews with their handmade pork spears, as the event is done in cooperation with Catawba Brewing Co., the future neighbors of Buxton Hall Barbecue.

Sausage Party will be held 5:30–10:30 p.m. Thursdays, April 16, May 21, June 18 and July 2 at MG Road, 19 Wall St. 

Dan's Sausage Party

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About Jonathan Ammons
Native Asheville writer, eater, drinker, bartender and musician. Proprietor of www.dirty-spoon.com Follow me @jonathanammons

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