Kool Bean expands

By Sam Harvey
Staff Reporter

	Coastal Point • RUSLANA LAMBERT Kool Bean employees kick back in the new section of the restaurant. From left, Alim Hasanov, Daniel Dimitrov, Leigha Schultz and Adela Diaz.

Major renovations surrounding the Ocean View eatery/coffee bar forced Crass to close for days at a time. There were problems with the utilities. And there was wrangling with the town of Ocean View over signage and seating.

Patrons who braved the construction zone this summer probably never knew Kool Bean was going through a transition at the back of the house. Crass started building a new kitchen staff after Chef Darron Hayes’ suffered a heart attack this past summer.

Luckily, she’s a dab hand in the kitchen herself and kept things going until Chef Ronnie Burkle came on board.

Burkle is classically trained, at the Art Institute of Philadelphia (with a food science degree), but Crass said she first met him while he was still in high school. Although he’s from Philadelphia originally, Burkle said he’d started working local restaurant jobs as a teenager — at one point, for Crass and her husband, Keith, as a barista (espresso bartender).

Back at home, he said he’d worked for some upscale Philly-area establishments, such as the Cedar Brook Country Club (Blue Bell) and Carambola (Dresher). Here, he worked for a season at the Big Easy in Bethany Beach, during Chef Cyrus Keefer’s tenure, and then as sous chef at Dish! in Rehoboth Beach.

“It was a lot like a New York restaurant,” he noted. “We used some expensive ingredients, with a lot of focus on freshness and seasonal produce.” He’s brought a measure of that style to Kool Bean, but the breakfast and lunch menus include some comfort-food standards, too.

Burkle set the café’s creamed chipped beef at the top of the menu (served over potatoes or toasted panini bread). It’s a little different than what you might find elsewhere — heavier on the beef, lighter on the white sauce.

“It took a little time, because Darron didn’t follow a recipe,” Burkle noted — but he expressed confidence that he had an accurate reproduction.

The “Smokin’ Hot Hash” runs a close second — mildly spicy Mexican chorizo sausage, with onions and home fries, served atop an omelet. “Mexican cuisine is great for breakfasts,” Burkle asserted.

And he said coming up with the names is a lot of fun. The lunch menu sports items like the Donovan-inspired “They Call Me Portabello” wrap (grilled portabello mushroom, baby spinach, roasted red peppers, onion, Boursin cheese, balsamic vinegar) or the Beatles-inspired “I am the Eggplant” panini (grilled eggplant, provolone, roasted red peppers, balsamic vinegar).

For those who aren’t familiar, panini bread is typically a little heartier than the average wheat or white — kind of a rustic sandwich roll. Burkle compared the paninis to “Cuban sandwiches,” only with grill marks. (Both kinds of sandwiches are toasted in a gadget that basically looks like a big waffle press.)

“And we do some classic things — salads you’d find in different cities around the U.S., like Cobb or Caesar, maybe Waldorf as a special,” Burkle noted. “But also some things that are a little more modern, like the spinach or Oriental salads.” (In the “Thai One On” wrap, for instance.)

It being wintertime, Burkle said they were focusing on hearty soups — “something that’s nice and hot, that stays hot in front of you,” he suggested, like Maryland Crab, or Turkey Chili, the house specialty.

Looking forward to the spring, Burkle noted plans to grow some herbs in pots, outside the kitchen door. He hinted at a green thumb, saying he typically raises tomatoes every summer, and noted sous chef Leigha Schultz’s positive influence of late.

Schultz hails from The Good Earth market in Clarksville. “She brings a lot of the organic side,” Burkle noted — not to mention artistic skills. (She crafts the chalk menus around the coffee bar, for instance.)

Kool Bean’s been putting together some classy dinner menus, too — Crass said they’d started to build some night-time business, catering on-premises and offering chef services off-premises, for special events and celebrations.

And she said they’d be offering six enticing courses on Valentine’s Day (around $50 per person, prix fixe).

Other than that, Kool Bean’s open seven days a week, 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. (Sundays, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.). For more information, call (302) 541-5377 or visit the Web site at www.koolbean.com.