The Standard Pour’s executive chef, Cody Sharp, plans to release his dinner menu on Monday, March 23rd coinciding with the new bar menu created by bar manager, Brian McCullough.
Sharp, who took over The Standard Pour kitchen in the summer of 2014, has created a menu he says is finally his own. As for Sharp’s influences, “I am obsessed with the south and especially the low country region. I had not had the chance to travel to New Orleans until about a year ago. After that, I went four times in one year. And then also visiting Charleston, I fell in love with their old school cooking – extremely humble food with a lot of history. For me to take those influences and try to refine it at The Standard Pour is my small way of preserving history. Those visits completely redirected my train of thought, and I started to read cookbooks from the 1800’s. I didn’t know what I really wanted to do with the new menu until I traveled and started to learn about this type of southern cuisine.”
Sharp explains, “ When I first started at The Standard Pour, it took me awhile to hire my own kitchen staff and get to a point where I could focus on creating a complete menu that reflected my personality while also embodying The Standard Pour culture. At the beginning, I didn’t know what I wanted to do, and my first menu I wrote was very pedestrian. After researching and traveling I wrote a menu that I feel is now where it needs to be and also taking more of a risk than prior renditions.”
“I have had a lot of fun with what has been finalized and look forward to sharing it with our current and future guests. We are a food-forward restaurant with a seasonal and fresh approach and a very talented bar manager, Brian McCullough. Brian and I have worked closely together to ensure the new bar menu complements the new food menu.” Sharp has reshaped the menu with his interpretation of elegant Southern classics and low country staples, which, when paired with the one of the most expansive craft cocktail programs in the city, creates a truly unique dining experience. Sharp continues, “I was introduced to a lot of amazing chefs early in my chef career. They have helped me shape who I am as a chef and how this new menu came together.”
Chef Sharp is an Odessa native cultivated his passion for food in the kitchen of his grandparents at a very early age. Cody Sharp grew up cooking with his grandfather and always had a passion for food.
After moving to Dallas 2004 and graduating from Le Cordon Bleu, he began his career at Restaurant Ava under the guidance of the late Chef Randall Copeland. In Copeland, Sharp found a mentor and friend. Together they brought the city of Rockwall refined modern American cuisine rooted in farm to table ideals.
When the opportunity to work with renowned Chef Stephan Pyles arose, Sharp jumped at the opportunity. He started as a line cook at Pyles’ namesake in downtown Dallas and quickly worked his way up to being in charge of Fuego – a tasting menu focused on the use of local ingredients prepared using modern molecular techniques. After several years with Pyles, Sharp accepted an opportunity as a sous chef at the Nick and Sam’s Steakhouse in Uptown. This challenging position helped mold him into a chef that can handle a busy kitchen serving almost 500 people in one night at that location.
Following Nick and Sam’s, Sharp accepted a position as executive sous chef to Omar Flores (Driftwood) at Casa Rubia in Trinity Groves. At Casa Rubia, Sharp and Flores created thoughtful Spanish tapas that garnered them four stars from the Dallas Morning News and 2nd Best New Restaurant in Texas from Texas Monthly.
