There aren’t many restaurants where venison, shad, rabbit, and guinea hens share a menu. But at Elwood Restaurant, chef Adam Diltz prides himself on distinctive, high-quality mid-Atlantic food reminiscent of his childhood.
Influenced by food very early on, Diltz spent his younger years on his great-grandparents’ farm outside the Bloomsburg area of Pennsylvania, a small, historic town located along the scenic Susquehanna River. He grew up eating pork and sauerkraut, venison, farm-made scrapple, and molasses cookies from the farm. He loved to hunt and fish and fondly remembers pulling turnips from the ground.
He always loved looking through wild-game cookbooks, but it wasn’t until he came across “Pennsylvania Dutch Country Cooking” by Dr. William Woys Weaver, a book with original recipes associated with Pennsylvania Dutch cooking, that he was hooked.
Diltz attended culinary school at the Pennsylvania College of Technology in Williamsport, where he learned everything from French cuisine to southern cooking. He worked under James Beard Award-winning chefs in three different states: in Boston, at a Michelin-starred restaurant in Chicago, and then in Tennessee. He arrived in Philadelphia around 2010, and was a sous-chef at the Yardley Inn before becoming executive chef of Farmicia, and then executive chef of Johnny Brenda’s.
A 2022 James Beard semi-finalist for Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic and Eater’s Philly Chef of the Year in 2019, Diltz opened Elwood in May 2019. The restaurant, converted from a former house by his wife, architect Jenny Ko, is named for his grandfather, Elwood Andreas.
Though it’s billed as Pennsylvania Dutch, it’s much more than that — it is a tribute to Pennsylvania’s history. The intimate 24-seat BYOB has a Victorian feel, with carpet on the floor, cork ceilings, and an outdoor area.
“I’ve always been interested in regional American cooking,” Diltz said, noting that he serves Kensington snapper soup, a turtle dish that is “a real dish of Philly;” in addition to catfish and waffles, and ham pot pie.
He wanted to revive and reintroduce long-forgotten dishes of the region. That’s why he creates meals using shad, the real fish of Fishtown, and sturgeon, which was also important to the region before becoming endangered. He said bison used to roam in Pennsylvania, and there are still elk herds, though they are a different species than those that became extinct. He gets his rabbits, guinea hens, and duck from local farmers so he can run an authentic farm-to-table, chef-run restaurant.
“To tell these stories is what it’s really about,” Diltz said. “Farm-to-table is good, yes, but to tell these stories of bison, sturgeon, etc., is what Elwood is really about.”
Loving his great-grandmother’s large family spread, Diltz models his portions after the Pennsylvania Dutch style of family-style meals. “No one leaves here hungry,” he said.
Elwood’s tea service offers a more whimsical expression of that heritage — an alternate history imagining his great-grandmother as a fan of Jane Austen’s novels. Whether it’s for a milestone celebration or an afternoon to relax, tea service includes housemade venison scrapple, smoked trout, pate en croute, chicken salad on a croissant, snickerdoodles, shoofly cake, and corn datch (Pennsylvania Dutch quick bread). The delicacies are paired with classic teas like Earl Grey, English Breakfast, mint, lapsang souchong, and herbal blends from Oma Herbal Teas.
In keeping with the restaurant’s old-fashioned charm, Elwood welcomes guests during select hours. Dinner service runs from 5 to 9:30 p.m. from Thursday to Sunday and weekend tea service is 11 a.m. to 2 p.m on Saturday and Sunday.
“Everything I do is a little different,” he said.
