Chef Christian DeLutis greeted us at the door with a special request. Since opening Koda about a year ago, the chef-owner has preferred the Harrisburg restaurant’s dishes to be photographed with staff, to showcase the culinary team alongside their dishes rather than focusing on solo foodie shots.
“It’s a team effort—the dishes don’t represent me alone,” says DeLutis. “There’s no ego. We strive to be good people with integrity, empathy, honesty, and we bring that into our food, cooking with love.”
Koda, in Harrisburg’s Union Deposit area, is surrounded by Yingst Homes’ Union Station community.
“This environment–with grass, trees, deer and geese–fits our style. It’s authentic, kind, and warm,” DeLutis says.
It’s also located under the same roof as Newfangled Brew Works, providing “two experiences under one roof,” DeLutis says. He’s part-owner of both, which makes sense, given DeLutis’ career path. He was head chef at Hershey’s Tröegs Brewery for six years and calls it “the greatest job ever.” But at the age of 41, he’s even more excited about being a chef-owner at this stage in his 20-year career.
DeLutis designed the restaurant around textured, leaded blue glasses which seem to glow, matching the electric blue neon “Koda” sign above the bar and kitchen area. He describes the design as “nostalgic Americana,” with booths and chairs reminiscent of the 1960s paired with farmhouse-style tables. The fresh, rustic white tabletops convey “the quality of a white tablecloth restaurant,” he says.
The comfortable, unpretentious approach carries over to the menu.
“We don’t drop a lot of $3 words on the menu—it’s written in plain English so that people can read and understand it,” says DeLutis. “It’s a reflection of the space—open and transparent.”
Bread service is the first thing guests receive—hand-rolled sourdough pretzel rolls arrive with accompanying butter flavored with jam inside. On the day of our visit, there was honey inside the butter, and it was sprinkled with a zesty mixture of salt and thyme.
Menu items are “from scratch, seasonally appropriate, and as local as possible,” says DeLutis.
We tried the crispy duck leg as an appetizer, creatively paired with berry “sticky” on a bed of perfectly prepared brown butter grits. The dish is accented with lavender almonds and fresh herbs.
The salmon was deliciously caramelized, thanks to Koda’s Argentinian plancha—a thick, cast-iron slab used over a wood-fired oven. Also popular: the house-made vegan chickpea pasta and the hand-rolled gnocchi served with scallops, lobster, creamed corn, and jalapeno relish.
Bartender Billy Houck paired our dishes with two of his creative cocktails, including the Koda Sangria, combining red wine, lemon vodka, thyme, and fresh berries served over ice.
“He has a passion for mixology and a great palate for it,” says DeLutis.
Houck traded his corporate career behind a desk for a position behind a bar several years ago. After honing his skills at The Millworks and Graystone Public House, he landed at Koda. Every season, he designs a themed cocktail menu enhanced by his house-smoked gins and bourbons and house-made bitters—the results of a two-week process of steeping roots, barks, herbs and fruits in high proof alcohol such as vodka or rum.
“There’s something about bartending that has showmanship, and I’ve always been a creative person,” Houck says.
Koda’s libations menu features Pennsylvania spirits and wines. “We work with Waltz Vineyards because personally we feel they’re the most quality wine found in Pennsylvania—it’s more of a California style, which suits our menu,” DeLutis says.
Koda and Newfangled are integrated in several ways—Koda’s fall menu features Newfangled beer pairings, and Koda’s culinary team creates tacos for Newfangled’s in-house taco truck menu.
Houck and DeLutis, along with numerous team members, are Harrisburg or Central PA natives.
“I was pretty hell-bent on getting out of here when I was younger,” DeLutis says. He headed to Pittsburgh at 19 for his culinary training, then to the Baltimore and Washington, D.C., restaurant scenes for years of classic French cooking.
“Life brought me home [to my family and roots],” DeLutis says. His mother actually inspired the restaurant’s name, Koda.
“My mom always called me ‘little bear’ when I was growing up. Koda is the most common name in Native American languages, and it also means ‘friend’ or ‘ally,’” DeLutis explains. The restaurant’s barn doors feature a rustic painted bear.
When he told his mother he was naming the restaurant Koda, “she teared up,” he says.
Relationships are important, says DeLutis, and he tries to visit guests at every table, every night.
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“I’m in a grateful place—I start each day with gratitude, and I try to be a positive force for people,” he says. This outlook stems from his status as a recovering alcoholic of two and a half years. It’s an interesting twist, given his part ownership in Newfangled, but he says he isn’t tempted by the proximity, and he completely trusts brewer Adam Cole.
But speaking of temptations of another kind, the dessert menu include classics such as apple pie, peanut butter and jelly cake and deconstructed Key lime pie—which we sampled. With a creamy lime curd as the base, the comfort food-inspired dessert is topped with lime meringue, shortbread crumble, lime zest, basil and whipped cream.
Koda features live music on Fridays and Saturdays, bluegrass brunches, monthly chef’s table experiences, and—coming soon—monthly beer dinners.
When Koda’s guests come and go, Ashlei Gingrich, events coordinator, is often the first and last to greet them.
“People often say Koda is exactly what Harrisburg needed,” she says.
Koda
8001 Union Station Blvd.,Harrisburg, PA
