Thanks, Canada: Blind Butcher Unleashes Dessert Poutine

Since opening back in January, Lower Greenville's Blind Butcher has garnered a loyal following thanks to its winning combination of housemade sausages and excellent booze. They've become most popular, though, for their creative interpretations of Canada's favorite drunk food, poutine.

For the unindoctrinated, poutine typically involves a pile of french fries drizzled in rich brown gravy and sprinkled with cheese curds. With the help of sous chef (and Canadian) Brendan "Canada" McCaughey, chef Oliver Sitrin has created the city's best poutine, topping his iterations with luscious duck confit, sauteed mushrooms, and/or foie gras.

Now, though, the masterminds behind the Blind Butcher's meat-driven menu have given the traditionally savory poutine a sweet twist. Blind Butcher's dessert poutine may look a bit like its savory counterpart, but the components are one of a kind.

Instead of the traditional potato fries, Sitrin and pastry chef Tina Miller is making "churro fries." Basically a miniature version of everyone's favorite sweet Mexican street food treat, each tiny churro is perfectly fried, creating a crispy exterior and pillowy middle. The churros are then tossed in the traditional mixture of cinnamon and sugar before things really start to get interesting.

Standing in for the gravy is a rich brown butter caramel sauce with a touch of citrus. Housemade marshmallows infused with Herman Marshall Rye, beer, and bacon are cut into small cubes to resemble the white cheese curds that top savory poutine. When the marshmallows begin to melt, the dish looks startlingly like poutine — until you realize that instead of potatoes, there are sugary churros underneath.

"From the time that we started doing poutine, I was thinking of how we could do a dessert version," says McCaughey. "I brought it back up several months later, and then we all started figuring out how it could work. But I always thought the marshmallows could be the ‘cheese curds.'"

You'll have to request the dessert poutine, being served now as a rotating special dessert on the weekends. According to Sitrin, the response from the guests that have tried the dish thus far can basically be summed up as "I'm a dessert connoisseur, and this is the shit." Sitrin wouldn't spill whether or not this would become a permanent fixture on the Blind Butcher menu, but Canada did point out that diners should look out for different iterations of the current version in the coming months.

· The Blind Butcher [Official]