There are two distinct factors that play into the reasons why Oglebay Executive Chef Tom Raymond changes the menus for The Glassworks, the Ihlenfeld Dining room inside the park’s Wilson Lodge, and at the other eatery options.
Reason #1?
“What we do is work on a seasonal basis, so that means the menu changes a few times each year,” Raymond explained. “What we like to do when it comes to spring and summer is what we refer to as a ‘fusion.’ There’s a lot of Spanish, California, and Tex-Mex influence, and we also infuse some items from our smoker.
“We also like to go into our gardens to bring some of those ingredients into play because our thought process involves bringing to a dish as many flavors as possible,” the chef said. “Now, in the fall, we will concentrate on several different Italian dishes from the many different regions in Italy. That’s always a lot of fun for us and for those who are coming to back the Glassworks and the Ihlenfeld Dining Room.”
The second reason?
“We give our chefs the creative freedom to come up with dishes,” Raymond revealed. “So, Halibut was one of the dishes we had during the Lenten season, and on the Saturday after Good Friday, Chef Justin (Droginske) came to me and asked if he could use the rest of the Halibut we had for an idea he had.
“We ran his idea, and it sold out,” he said. “At that point, I thought it would be a good idea to try it and place his idea on this menu as a new item, and I am confident it will become very popular when we introduce the new items.”
The New Tastes
Along with the stuffed Halibut entrée, a Carne Asada (marinaded strip loin with chili roasted potatoes) special, a house-ground Chicken Burger with gruyere cheese and a cipollini onion preserve, and a smoked corn with lump crab dish and a Spanish Tomato Bread appetizer will be offered within two weeks.
The ideas, by the way, were not created by reading online recipes or watching the ultra-popular TV cooking shows, but instead by travel and personal experience.
“Before we had a Baha Weekend up here, I challenged Chef Justin to come up with some features for it, and one of the things he developed was a Carne Asada Strip Steak, and it sold really well. That’s why that dish is on the new menu,” Raymond said. “The smoked corn and lump crab is an ode to where I come from in Ocean City, but we added a few Spanish aspects to it.
“I really enjoy the people I get to work with, and that makes it a blast to be here every day,” he admitted. “I have worked in a lot of different areas during my career, and I can’t say that about every stop I’ve made, but when you can create an atmosphere like the one we have here, it makes all of the work and the long hours worth it on a daily basis.”
Raymond did confirm that one or two menu additions could be made between now and then.
“We listen to our guests, and when they request something, we try our best to work it into the next menu because that’s how we find out what our customers want,” Raymond reported. “The local folks really like our crab cakes, and that’s why I don’t think we’ll ever be able to take those off our menu. The Oglebay Burger we feature in The Glassworks is another item that has stayed on the menu for several years.
“We also do an ‘Ode to Fort Henry’ on another burger at The Glassworksl and it’s very popular because it is one of our best selling burgers now,” he continued. “But our customers also like changes a lot as long as those changes do not involve their favorites,” he said with a smile. “One item that remains on our menu all year but still changes based on the seasons is the Oglebay salad. We do change the flavors in that salad with each new menu to match the time of year, and people very much enjoy that, too.”
Lessons Learned
Raymond was hired as Oglebay’s executive chef in 2017, and since then he has guided the park’s extensive expansion in food service. Not only has he reinvented the cuisine at The Glassworks and the Ihlenfeld Dining Room, but Oglebay now offers dining options at The Garden Bistro near the Mansion, the Route 88 BBQ & Brews at the Par 3/Driving Range between the Crispin Center and the Speidel Golf complex, and at the Crispin Café just outside the Pine Room.
At first, figuring what might work with the park’s visitors as well as with the residents of the Upper Ohio Valley was a challenge because of the plethora of possible options involved. These days, though, now that Raymond has been place for more than three years, the chef has become aware of the park’s potential palates. He has long been a smoked-meat connoisseur, so the roadside eatery has been a fun venture; Raymond has kept the Bistro’s menu as simplistic as possible; and the Crispin Café is more about feeding families three meals on the go.
“Our guests here at Wilson Lodge really enjoy the diversity we feature on our menus all year long,” Raymond said. “The golfers, we know, love their steaks, so we change what we do with different cuts of beef all year long. We’ve done strip steaks, true Delmonicos, chop house filets, and we also bring in prime beef for strip loins and our sirloin steaks. When it comes to our other clientele and our visitors from the Wheeling area, it is very difficult to find good seafood in this area, so we like to backload our menu with a lot of fish and seafood dishes because those are favorites.
“Now, when it comes to Route 88, the Bistro, and the Café, we do our best to offer something for everyone because most of those restaurants have more walk-up customers than we do here at Wilson Lodge,” the executive chef added. “And our price points have to be appropriate, too, and we feel we’ve accomplished that at all of the locations.”
