Ferndale, MI - Local Kitchen and Bar; The trend among new and local restaurants is fresh, local food, sustainable, environmental conscience, and more artistic and creative dishes. Local is attempting to accomplish just this and executes it well on most of those objectives. Most.

The Fried Green Tomatoes are served with pepper jam, goat cheese, and a tomato purée having an impact on your taste buds in a sweet and savior fashion. The breading on the tomatoes is nice and even with a sweet thick slice of a green tomato underneath. It was nicely golden brown with three sauces to match is flavor profile. My favorite was the pepper jam, but it was milder than other places that make it. Some places give it a kick of heat in the beginning or the end. This jam didn't have that delivery, but it has that sweet undertone that works well with the tomato. Both the tomato purée and the goat cheese are both well suited to work with these delicious fried wonders. They are both mild and help to balance the fried flavor. My only criticism is that with these two sauces, it neutralizes it too much, making it more bland than complex.

The Pork Belly appetizer, arrived along with the tomatoes, which are pan seared, served along with house made conserves, herb salad, and rye toast. The pork was nicely seared on the edges and still fatty on the inside. It had that nice rich balance of fatty, salty, and crunchy. The conserves, well, they are not spectacular. One is cinnamon apples and the other is sauteed onions. Both are served cold, real cold, refrigerator cold. It would have been better if both were warm or even room temperature. The herb salad includes a nice small set of greens and lightly dressed. I'm not sure why the toast is there. Didn't use it, didn't need it.

Here was the bad part of either the service or execution of the food delivery. The appetizer arrived and not 45 seconds later, the entrees arrived. So our entrees were getting cold while we were eating the appetizers. Not to mention, the table really isn't big enough to have all this food on it. We make it work, but it was difficult to maneuver.

The carnita nachos has home made chips, shredded pork or vegetarian black beans, salsa, pickled jalapenos, crema, queso, and avocado. I like that it can be made vegetarian as well. The chips are wonderfully crispy and not sure if its in the chips or somewhere else, I swear I taste some kind of cinnamon hidden in their somewhere. This gave it a nice element of surprise and allure. What's also nice with this dish and particularly the jalapeños is that they remove the seeds. For me, spicy is my thing, for for many others, it's not. So in this case, you can still enjoy the flavor of the pepper, but without the heat. It's a nice little touch.

The Seared Scallops with Wild Rice Jambalaya was one of their specials. The scallops were seared nicely, but I don't thing they were cleaned properly. The scallop had this wonderful smooth texture and while enjoying the sear, you get a harsh crunch hear and there. The crunch of grittiness, improperly cleaned scallops, a turn off. The jambalaya was certainly an interpretation of one. It was not one I've had in New Orleans for sure. I think anyone from there would send it back if they had it. That's not to say it wasn't good, it just wasn't a traditional jambalaya. There wasn't any sauce on, in, or around the rice. The rice did have some chicken and shrimp pieces that were cooked and seasoned well for a non-jambalaya dish.

Finished off with a nice dessert of Rick's Brownie having vanilla ice cream, salted caramel drizzle on top. I was so happy to see the brownie warmed up. It was very nice and warm that just barely started to melt the ice cream, not too quickly. It had hidden chocolate chips in the brownie that was a nice surprise. The ice cream was ice cream. Nothing special. The salted caramel sauce was on the skimpy side and a little more would have made it just a little better. It needed that little extra salt to contrast the sweetness to give it a pow.