Small Batch Nostalgia

Photos by Donna Campbell

Many readers have a fond connection to the pilgrimage we made last month to King’s Red and White Grocery in Durham, North Carolina. As we were leaving the sturdy old grocery that day with fresh-shelled lady peas, the last available Ridgeway cantaloupes of the season, and a bag of hard candy, Donna noticed a small sign posted low in the front window for “Hartman’s Famous Salad Dressing: A Taste of Old Durham, NC.”  Donna has heard my stories about the old steakhouse that opened in 1940, long before Interstate 85 came through the area. Hartman’s sat alongside the Oxford Highway also known as Route 15 North. The restaurant has been closed for a quarter century, but its reputation survives. “Could it be?” I asked. Donna jumped out of the car and dashed back into the store to buy a jar of the dressing.

Hartman’s was one of very few upscale dining spots in the Bull City when I arrived here in 1973. It was the place where Durham’s longstanding families went for birthdays and anniversaries and, in my experience, where Duke’s English department faculty (among them, Reynolds Price and James Applewhite) took celebrity guests such as Robert Penn Warren out to dinner with students.

Hartman’s Steakhouse — A post shared from postcardsfromdurham

The restaurant was not what you’d call elegant—rotating lamps advertising beer—Schlitz and Budweiser as I recall—hung over various sections of the dining room which overlooked a pond out back with busy ducks and at least one swan.  There was also a cozy fireplace. The service was down home and friendly. Customers knew each other and the staff—many from the nearby Oak Grove community. The menu, created by Charles “Pop” and Gertrude “Ma” Hartman, had three standout dishes—perfectly cooked steaks, flash-fried banana peppers, and a wedge salad with blue cheese dressing. They also served fried frog legs and a memorable cheesecake, as reported by faithful customers who still mourn the closing.

In a long scroll of posted testimonials for Hartman’s on the Open Durham website, a woman named Sharyn, whose first waitressing job was at Hartman’s, tells readers how much she adored the fried banana peppers. “I loved them so much as a child that I would receive two large orders of my very own, instead of a birthday cake each year.”

Now Hartman’s Famous Blue Cheese Dressing is being made once more in small batches by contemporary members of the family and is sold only at a handful of locations in the region. In one bite, this dressing brings it all back. Hartman’s Famous is a concoction not to be poured but spooned into crunchy lettuce, or as happened this weekend, it works as a topping on fresh tomatoes and crushed bread crumbs when you forget to buy the lettuce.

The last garden tomato of the season.

This hefty dressing also works just fine on crunchy romaine leaves left whole and served as little canoes for bacon bits, carrots, chopped peppers, whatever. Top it sparingly with the dominant blue cheese which is immobilized in a combination of mayo and buttermilk. A 12 ounce jar of Hartman’s Famous goes for $12.99, which seems fair, given the extravagant presence of so much blue cheese. Each jar has a purchase-by date, so there apparently are no preservatives, just true homestyle ingredients. (The family also makes a replica of their original Ranch, likely best used for dipping the fried banana peppers, though I haven’t tried this yet. And yes, there is a simple recipe on line for the peppers: 1. Drain the jarred banana peppers 2. Soak in buttermilk 3. Toss in flour 4. Fry in HOT oil 5. Drain on paper towels. )

As I recently learned from my friend, Emily Nunn, who writes the popular Substack blog, The Department of Salad, a true wedge can be dressed in many creative ways. One of Emily’s bonus postings shows an entire head of iceberg, sliced horizontally into inch-thick rounds then dressed generously between rounds and restacked like a pineapple for serving at table. (Scroll down at this link to find the photo.) You can then create individual portions by slicing the layered head of lettuce vertically into quarters.

According to produce expert Dan Holt, writing for Hitchcock Farms, the first printed recipe for wedge salad debuted in Marion Harris Neil's cookbook, "Salads, Sandwiches and Chafing Dish Recipes," published in 1916. As Holt explains, “By the 1920s, Crisphead lettuce could be packed under mounds of ice and moved [by train car] long distances without losing freshness. Renaming it ‘iceberg’ lettuce was a natural transition.” The wedge salad became a side dish that waxed and waned in popularity in the 20th century, with a notable resurgence in the 1970s when chain steakhouses began to spread across the country.

Based on DNA testing, food historians tell that lettuce (Lactuca sativa) originated in the Caucasus, 4,000 years ago. “Lettuce started out as a rough plant with thorns, and a stiff spine with a milky fluid that had medicinal qualities like ibuprofen,” according to The Kitchen Project. Growers first pressed the seeds to make oil. The crop steadily made its way to Egypt, then to Greece and Italy, with refinements through selective breeding. With seeds cultivated in Holland, iceberg in this country came to be grown prolifically in California. Then eastern growers took up the Crisphead crop with seed developed by Pennsylvania’s W. Atlee & Burpee Company, who gave it the name it “Iceberg.”

Iceberg lettuce lost some reputation over the years when compared with the nutritional value of darker leafy greens, but it is the crunch (and the possibility of mixing in higher value foods in the salad) that makes it still worthwhile on a menu.

Individual chefs across the country have added their own signature ingredients—a splash of honey vinaigrette, a smattering of avocado or chopped boiled eggs, a drizzle of dark balsamic vinegar to create a painterly chiaroscuro in contrast to the white dressing. But what matters most is the taste, and Hartman’s Famous, for me, is one happy memory on a plate.

According to the facebook page, Hartman’s Dressing is available at:

King's Red & White Grocery (In Durham since 1957)

Byrd's BBQ Restaurant & Catering (In Durham since 1959)

Butcher's Daughter Market & Deli (3rd generation market in Roxboro, NC)

Steve's Garden Market and Butchery (In Hillsborough, NC, since 1988)