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photos provided by 63 Corks
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photos provided by 63 Corks
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photos provided by 63 Corks
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photos provided by 63 Corks
Experience the breadth of foods Ohio brings to the table at 63 Corks, where 75 percent of the ingredients are locally sourced. Since opening in December 2022, the Strasburg restaurant — which boasts a chef’s table and a rentable wine tasting room — has been proudly serving up the best of Amish Country and beyond.
“We have local honey from a lady 5 miles down the road,” says Nathan Kelly, who co-owns 63 Corks with his wife, Maggie. “Our beef is from 10 miles from the restaurant. … We make our own butter.”
In addition to working with several local purveyors, 63 Corks forages its own morel and chanterelle mushrooms from the nearby Harrison State Forest and surrounding areas. Ramps are another Ohio delicacy — 63 Corks has harvested 500 pounds of the plants this year. They’re turned into pesto for dishes like ramp pasta or dried to make salt.
While 63 Corks had a slow first year, it is now TikTok famous. Thanks to a rave May 2024 video — seen over 1.8 million times — from viral Canton-based food reviewer Dereck Malone (@snipingfordom), 63 Corks now flips its 60-seat restaurant nearly three times each evening. Patrons from 44 states have been flocking to the business to try its highly praised local dishes.
“We’re meeting farmers,” says Kelly. “We’re bridging relationships to highlight the most local and fresh food we can find.”
63 Corks offers modern American dishes with Appalachian roots — like honey-and-thyme-marinated Amish chicken ($29), bourbon peach tea-braised pork belly ($32) and house-made lobster agnolotti, which is sweet corn pasta filled with ricotta and lobster ($37).
Try the 9185 house pork chop ($36), featuring a 14-ounce heritage pork chop from Smith Family Farm, located in St. Clairsville. It’s paired with fermented pepper barbecue sauce (made from peppers grown at 63 Corks), Amish Country sweet potato fries, colorful wax beans from the Marietta area and house-made peach kimchi. The dish has received gushing praise.
“I was kissed on the side of the neck,” says Kelly, “by a grown man for his pork chop!”
The Appalachian short rib ($36) also leaves an impression. The short rib — a certified native feed product — is sourced from the Ashland and Wooster area. It’s braised with whiskey and molasses and paired with Ohio green beans and aged cheddar grits, which are made with heirloom tomatoes grown on-site. The dish is drenched in a red-eye demi-glace.
“We actually take our own beef bones, we roast those down and make demi-glace,” says Kelly. “Then we highlight that with country ham, bacon fat and coffee and turn that into a classic southern Appalachian-style gravy.”
But 63 Corks doesn’t stop there — it utilizes locally sourced ingredients in its cocktails. The feisty, floral Queen Bee ($14) is composed of edible flowers — grown on-site and frozen in ice — grapefruit juice, gin, Cointreau, a mix of jalapenos from the restaurant’s on-site garden and Strasburg honey.
“It’s a gin cocktail with a little bit of heat on the back of it,” Kelly says. “People that had it — they’re kind of blown away by it.”
In addition, the smoked cherry old-fashioned ($14) is made of Buffalo Trace bourbon, fresh muddled cherries, pecan bitters and house-smoked oranges. To top this concoction off, 63 Corks makes its own Luxardo-style cherries — and, impressively, serves the drink smoked.
During his visit, Malone and his dining companion watched the kitchen team make focaccia from scratch, enjoying it with whipped ricotta. After trying pork belly, scallops, a veal chop and more, the reviewer — whose TikTok account nets about 15 million monthly total views — ended his meal exclaiming that 63 Corks is his favorite restaurant in Ohio.
In his TikTok, he looks sincerely at the camera. “I’m telling you right now,” he says, “run to this place.”
9185 state Route 250 NW, Strasburg, 330-878-4050, 63corks.com
