Grand opening of Morgan’s set for March 23rd, 2018

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                              

Grand opening of Morgan’s set for March 23rd

ABINGDON, VA. / Morgan’s announced today that the upscale restaurant will open its doors on March 23^rd, 2018 at 190 East Main Street, Abingdon, VA.

Morgan’s will offer lunch, dinner, and Sunday Brunch featuring fresh seafood, handmade pastas, local ingredients, and global inspirations. One of the featured menu items, a Wattle Seed Spiced Tasmanian Salmon, melds traditional Appalachian white bean and corn succotash with an Aboriginal Australian spice, wattle seed, and Tasmanian Salmon. Tasmanian Atlantic Salmon comes from one of the purest and most pristine environments in the world. Australia’s southernmost state is renowned for its cool, clean waters which make it an ideal location for salmon farming. Chef Stephen Gilbert will also feature lunch items such as a Bahn Mi, a traditional Vietnamese pork sandwich with pickled vegetables and a jalapeno and garlic marmalade. Brunch items will be a mixture of lunch and breakfast items including Steak and Eggs and Shrimp and Grits.

The restaurant’s concept will explore the idea of “Old world, new world, whole world,” which utilizes traditional techniques of cooking, new technologies and styles, and global influences. Through a love of travel and international culture, Chef Gilbert has been taking influences from all over the world and creatively presenting them using some of the freshest ingredients from the southwest Virginia area. Menus are changed seasonally to allow for the utilization of seasonal ingredients and to highlight chef creativity.  “Experimentation and presentation are the driving points of our cuisine as we create seasonal menus and daily specials that highlight the best flavors and ingredients of that season, as well as allowing for creative explorations of these ingredients, says Chef Stephen Gilbert.”

A native of Abingdon, Gilbert graduated from Southeast Culinary Institute in Bristol, VA and began a career focused on fine dining in southwest Virginia. Since then, Stephen has developed a clientele that has followed him and continues to follow him wherever he goes. Stephen most notably has served as Executive Chef at The Tavern, Sous Chef at Bristol Motor Speedway and Heartwood, and has worked at House on Main.

The new restaurant is named for Chef Steve's intrepid world-traveling wife Morgan, a local artist and art educator whose love of exploring other cultures and talent for documenting them in art photography will be on bold display throughout the dining rooms. She is an art teacher at Lebanon High School and an art history instructor at Virginia Highlands Community College in Abingdon. Her students are helping make artisan style plates and bowls for the restaurant and will help her create the prints of her travel photography.

Bar Manager and Sommelier Heather Davis is thrilled to be bringing her years of experience developing cocktail and wine programs in the San Francisco Bay Area home to Abingdon. Morgan's theme of "Old World, New World, Whole World" is a perfect fit with Ms. Davis's passion for pairing traditional international spirits, beer, and wine with contemporary American cooking. Diners who belly up to the bar at Morgan's are in for an adventurous world tour of time honored classics and unique, rarely imported new finds.

"We want the bar menu at Morgan's to read like a travel guide. Expect a metropolitan-style craft cocktail menu that explores culinary combinations from all over the world, a wine list offering familiar varieties from classic regions alongside some rare exotic gems, and beer and spirits lists that celebrate old world tradition and local innovation side by side."

Morgan’s is now taking reservations for lunch, dinner and Sunday brunch by calling (276) 258-5632. Reservations are recommended.