VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (AP) — In any 11-course meal, there should perhaps be a little mystery. At Commune restaurant in January, this came courtesy of our server, 16-year-old Carson Poulos.

"Does anyone know why bread and butter pickles are called bread and butter pickles?" he called out to the room, apropos of nothing in particular — the dish in front of us at the time was a fried oyster plate of admirable complexity, layered with locally foraged chickweed greens you might recognize from every lawn you've ever stepped on.

Poulos waited, eyebrows cocked above his mask, with the confidence of some...