County Fare su 16
by Diana Cercone
Normally I can’t wait for Memorial Day to herald in summer. But this year I have my sight set on July. That’s when Chef AJ Buehrer throws his crab fest in his restaurant, the Karlton Cafe in Quakertown. It’s a month-long celebration that features everything from Alaskan King crab legs to jumbo lump crab cakes, and from she-crab soup to crab linguine. And you don’t even have to wait until dinner to enjoy his crab-a-licious offerings. He starts bright and early with breakfast.
For example, alongside his regular breakfast menu items, there’s crab Benedict, a luscious jumbo lump crab cake on top of an English muffin and dressed in a house made hollandaise sauce—his take on the classic Eggs Benedict. You’ll also find a crab omelet and a crab quiche as well to round out his already ample breakfast menu.
As the morning slides into lunch and dinner, the crab offerings progressively become more abundant and creative, beginning with appetizers such as jumbo lump crabmeat cocktail, jumbo lump crabmeat stuffed cremini mushrooms with fresh-picked greens from his organic garden and quinoa topped with a béarnaise sauce and crabmeat salad nestled in tomato cups. Daily lunch specials may include an Alaskan King crab leg grilled cheese sandwich with asiago cheese on a brioche bread with pesto aioli and a jumbo lump crabmeat quiche, made with kale and Gruyére cheese served with seasonal fruit and berries.
No respectable crab fest can be without an abundance of Alaskan king crab Legs. And AJ doesn’t disappoint come dinnertime. Alaskan king crab legs figure into many of his entrées, including his version of Surf-n-Turf and crab linguine. Headlining along side the crab legs are many jumbo lump crabmeat dishes, including AJ’s famous crab cakes.
A friend of mine, CeCe, loves crab cakes. Wherever she dines, if they’re on the menu you can bet that’s what she’ll order. But before ordering, she puts the waitstaff through a sergeant’s drill of questions to ensure that the crabmeat is truly jumbo lump and the crab cakes not watered down with filler. If not happy with the answers, she’s ready with her second choice.
No need to ask at Karlton Cafe, CeCe. AJ’s crab cakes are an ambrosial mix of jumbo lump crabmeat, fresh herbs and a light white wine Dijonnaise sauce finished with a dusting of panko breadcrumbs. It’s pure crab. Doesn’t get any better than that.
As we sit at a table in his restaurant this day, well within easy view of the open-kitchen, I ask AJ how he can offer such a fine dining menu to his patrons at such reasonable prices.
His answer comes swiftly and simply. “Everyone deserves to eat well.”
It is this same simple conceit that drives his creative spirit and approach to cooking. The result can be seen in his menus that tantalize with the right mix of down home goodness and culinary genius.
But, then, you might say AJ’s destiny as a chef and restauranteur was foreordained the night he was born. His mother, Luann, gave birth to him in the popular Indian Rock Inn in Upper Black Eddy which she owned and ran with her husband, Albert. If not born with a silver spoon in his mouth, then AJ was at least born with a wire whisk in his hand, inherited down from his parents and his dad’s parents, who owned the Valley Farms Restaurant on Route 611, between Plumsteadville and Doylestown.
“I grew up around food,” AJ says. “Plus I love to eat. You could say I’m a third-generation chef.” AJ’s grandparents emigrated from Germany, where he says, it’s not unlikely that their parents were also in the restaurant business. His mother, he says, grew up on a chicken farm in Gardenville. After selling the Indian Rock Inn, his parents bought a 300-acre farm in Quakertown, dedicating 90-acres to organic vegetables and opening Indian Rock Produce Company. Their produce was soon in demand, selling to top restaurants such as The Plaza Hotel in New York City, Spago Beverly Hills, the French Laundry—even the White House in D.C.
Not only did AJ learn about farming from his mother but also everything there was about running a restaurant, from butchering cuts of meat to creating classic sauces and learning to put his own personal spin on them.
From the time he was 18 AJ was cooking in professional kitchens, both here and in upstate New York before coming back to Bucks County where he worked under a French chef at the Century House on Route 309 in Line Lexington (Souderton). About three years ago, with his mom thinking about retirement, he bought Karlton Cafe from her.
Under AJ a new generation of Buehrers continues the family tradition. You’ll often find AJ’s wife, Amanda—a talented chef in her own right—cooking in the kitchen. And his mom still clocks in about 15 hours a week, including making all the desserts.
As we chat, AJ greets some of the regular patrons by name, including the woman enjoying lunch seated at the table next to us. “Can’t go wrong with whatever you order here,” Nicole Proctor, a regular lunchtime customer, says. “I usually order the Portobello lobster. But I heard that Mom [AJ’s mom, but everyone it seems calls her “Mom”—that’s how friendly the restaurant is] made the crust for the lobster quiche, so I had to order it.” Pointing to her clean plate, she says, “Perfection.”
Only the freshest ingredients make it into AJ’s creations. At the home he shares with his wife and 20-month-old daughter, Lili, he grows most of the vegetables and produce he needs for the restaurant on his three-acre organic garden. “We were using broccoli, Brussels sprouts, spinach and cauliflower from the garden from mid-July until Christmas last year” he says. “And had canned 400 1/2-gallon jars of tomatoes which we used to make our tomato soup this winter.”
AJ figures he grows about 40 different vegetables in his garden, including heirloom tomatoes, three different kinds of kale, baby lettuces, mixed greens, cucumbers, hot peppers, Swiss chard and squashes. Some of the hot peppers he turns into the hot sauces and dry chili rubs he uses in the restaurant. For other products, such as fruit, seafood and meats, he heads to the Philadelphia markets on Wednesday mornings, where he knows the purveyors on a first-name basis and they know he’ll only accept top quality.
It was noon on the Wednesday we met and AJ had already returned from the Philly markets as well as having foraged for wild ramps with his daughter and a couple of his kitchen staff. As if on cue, one of the young cooks appears with a basket of vibrant green, slender, long ramps. The wild leeks will complement some of his daily specials such as the lobster and wild ramp omelet and lobster quiche.
Come fall, he’ll forage for wild mushrooms, beginning with chanterelles and hen-of-the-wood. To be sure, these will also find their way onto his menu.
Then there are his soups. Five fresh, made from scratch daily. It’s a good bet that among them in July will be several featuring crab, such as AJ’s she-crab soup and creamy crab bisque.
Last winter his passion for sharing his cooking with others prompted him to begin offering monthly cooking classes. Like his monthly menu specials, the classes are built around a theme. “You don’t need a lot of fancy cookware to cook well,” he says. “Just a few good pans, knives and good ingredients are all you need.” AJ then teaches you how to use them and the techniques of cooking, such as “the secrets of good grilling.” And in the process, he says, “We have a whole lot of fun.”
On the Karlton Cafe sign in front of the restaurant are the words “Finer Dining.” I suggest an additional line: “Because everyone deserves to eat well.”
The Karlton Cafe is located at 310 W. Broad Street in Quakertown; 215-538-8353; karltoncafe.com. (While there, check out international artist, Quakertown resident and a good friend of AJ’s Steve Tobin’s sculptures gracing the restaurant’s upstairs walls as well as the main dining room downstairs, where Steve also curates a changing exhibition featuring other artists’ works.)
Diana Cercone is an area freelance writer who specializes in food, art and travel.