Kessler Park Eating House

Jonathon’s Oak Cliff is known for chicken and waffles; I sought Jonathon Erdeljac’s latest restaurant for the borscht. Where else can you find the ruby Russian beauty on a menu? Few places, and not in Oak Cliff. The borscht turns out to be seasonal, but at Kessler Park Eating House I found a no-frills neighborhood joint. No pretension in the decor, unassuming and a bit kooky, nor in a menu laced with family recipes. Start with pierogi, potato-filled dumplings a-swim in brown butter. They’re good and not easy to find, either. Like the borscht, they bespeak Erdeljac’s Slavic roots. The food is far more comforting than refined, but most things are house-made. Like wide, floppy, eggy buttered noodles, simple as the bowlfuls I ate as a kid. Portions are hearty. But there’s also a house salad whose earthy beets and chopped egg join fresh cucumber and greens, with brash hits of olive and feta. Creamed kale was cozy. Broccoli rabe lent a garlicky note to a roasted pork au jus sandwich. In these registers they do best. Not in specials like a burrata salad with mushy, out-of-season heirloom tomatoes that felt like it was trying too hard, tarted up with slivered almonds and pesto drizzles and extraneous Parmesan shavings. Better to keep it simple.