The Beginning: Epilogue Kitchen & Cocktails

Downtown eatery welcomes all with a menu inspired and influenced by immigrant-driven food

Jonathan Jones has a mantra: “Food is art, don’t make it boring.”

He and his wife Maura Ryan arrived in Salem about five and a half years ago. They are the couple behind Epilogue Kitchen & Cocktails but their story doesn’t begin there.

In the beginning…

After college, in Vermont for him and Massachusetts for her, the duo headed to Madison, Wisconsin for Maura to finish her undergrad degree.

“That city is one of the most established food cities in the country,” said Jonathan.

The rich, unique and ample food culture of Madison is also how they decided they wanted to be in the hospitality industry, but with the entry-level being almost unattainable without deep pockets and known backers, the couple headed south.

They landed in Wilmington, North Carolina, welcomed by a warmer climate and budding food scene. There, they helped launch a food festival and wrote a book about champagne cocktails, and while it was a successful year and a half, the couple was still searching for the perfect place… that’s when they decided to explore the Pacific Northwest.

“McMinnville, Corvallis, Salem, this little corridor was really appealing to us…in between two established food cities and college towns,” Jonathan said. “We were looking for a place where we could be at the beginning of it. We didn’t necessarily anticipate staying here but we fell in love with it, with the potential and the people already here. That was one of the big things for us, the existing food scene. The young food business owners driving forward in the direction we wanted to see a town go. That is how we stuck here.”

Oregon or bust

Jonathan and Maura wasted no time. She got a job working at Word of Mouth Bistro, and Jonathan reached out to the foodie community. He wrote the first menu for Taproot Lounge and Cafe and assisted at Santiam Wine. He got his name out there.

Then, armed with their domestic baking license, Jonathan and Maura launched Prologue Kitchen and worked out of their house, baking and catering. Soon, they opened a food truck and took Prologue on the road. You may remember seeing them parked at Salem Ale Works for the greater part of a year.

The name, Prologue, came from their mutual love of writing and reading.

“I am a photographer and writer by education. Maura is an art history major with a very large literature component,” said Jonathan. “We knew that the first phase of our business wasn’t going to be the final phase. We wanted to figure out a way to make it cohesive as we made the transition and tie into the other things that we like and so Prologue and Epilogue just make sense.”

After a few years of operating the food truck — the first phase — Jonathan and Maura started thinking more seriously about a brick and mortar location and when their current spot opened up, they knew it was the opportunity for which they had been waiting.

“This is where we’ve always wanted to be, in our own little 50 seat restaurant that lets us do whatever we want,” Jonathan said. “It’s pretty fun. This size allows us to stay playful, creative and ambitious.”

An inspired menu

Jonathan, originally from southeast Pennsylvania, the foothills region of the Appalachians, grew up with what he fondly calls mountain peasant food, a combination of southern black culture and Polish, German, Dutch and Italian.

“I’m a direct product of that mixing of cultures,” he said. “What I grew up with and what I’m pulling from are a lot of different greens, legumes and root vegetables, but then also perogies, Polish sausages and cheesesteak.”

This, combined with the Scandinavian immigrant influence from their time in Wisconsin (Hello, fried cheese curd appetizer!), are the pieces that pull together to create their unique, culturally diverse menu.

While only open since March, Jonathan is already thinking about rolling out some new menu items for summer, but doesn’t want to overwhelm his staff, of whom he is outrageously proud.

“They have taken a very ambitious menu and are handling it so well,” he said.

One menu item to look forward to is a new take on a classic state fair finding: the corndog. Jonathan has crafted a carrot-based vegan and gluten-free corn dog.

“It’s really fantastic,” he said. “I love carrots. Carrots are going to make an appearance on almost every menu that we do. It’s something I grew up with and important to the African diaspora. Every major African-based culture uses carrots in a major way. On the spring menu, they are in the tartar.”

Overall, Jonathan aims to expand horizons and provide an experience. He wants to get people excited about trying new things.

“We want to present beautiful, crafted food, thought out, done well, and upscale, but it’s so important for us that everyone always feels welcome both cultural and economically,” said Jonathan. “We want to make sure there is stuff for everybody.”

It’s the same attitude he has about the wine they offer.

“The wine world is just as diverse and interesting as the food world. We will always have a showing of Oregon wine but are interested in presenting things people are not as familiar with. We will price them in a way to get people to try them,” he said.

Keep an eye out for regular events, including the “Inspirations and Influences” wine pairing dinner program that will be launching late summer, and Cheap Date Night, which happens on the first Thursday of every month.

“Cheap date night is a plant-based, three-course dinner paired with a bottle of wine featuring all we can find at the markets,” said Jonathan.

The restaurant will also begin opening for lunch at 11 a.m. Wednesday through Friday starting at the end of June (2019).

Driven to create

Jonathan’s passion to create a service is ultimately driven by the “free-flowing connection between literature, art and food,” he said.

“We’ll read something or experience something and we will try and figure out how to convey what that experience was through food. The easiest way for us to communicate with the general public on a large scale is food….And it’s a lot easier to do with food and still make a living.”