Tarpy's Roadhouse eases into summer with a few menu changes.

Summer is here and the sun’s (finally) shining. Over at Tarpy’s Roadhouse, Executive Chef Gabriel “Gabby” Arguilles is taking advantage with new menu additions suited to the season.

Changing the menu at such an iconic restaurant with longtime regulars can be a daunting task. “If I take off one of the older dishes, people complain,” he explains. His strategy instead is subtle shifts to ease diners into a new menu. He’s retired the crispy tater tots for fried sweet onion rings, replaced a braised bison dish with slow-cooked pork shank. “We’re keeping a braised meat dish, but choosing a different protein to mix it up,” he explains.

The sweet corn and polenta ($10) starts with crispy polenta cakes, studded with green chilies, topped with sweet summer corn tossed in a creamy garlic-lime aioli and topped with Cotija cheese. The dish was inspired by classic Mexican elote, with housemade spiced tortilla strips on top as a nod to tostiesquites, the trendy street food combines with elote corn with chips. Arguilles is from Oaxaca and explains, “Oaxacan food is the best, but I don’t cook much Oaxacan food here, I cook that at home. This is a nod to my home.”

Crispy onion rings ($10) make a good snack to nibble on with drinks. Arguilles shaves sweet Maui onions thin, then quickly batters and fries them. The result is a monstrous mound of crispy sweet onion rings, with a housemade chipotle chile-infused ketchup.

The “Drunken Shellfish” features clams and mussels steamed in local Mad Otter Ale and served with spicy Italian sausage, blistered tomatoes, and fennel in a cast-iron skillet ($18). Arguilles recommends saving the garlic bread to dip in the leftover beer.

The menu also includes an unexpected seafood pasta: lemon-pepper fettuccine with citrus-cured salmon ($21 lunch, $26 dinner). It’s a vibrant plate: yellow pasta, pops of petite red tomatoes, short spears of green asparagus. Arguilles tosses the pasta with white wine-lemon-dill butter, with a hint of mustard that accents the peppery pasta. The cured salmon served on top lightens the traditional seafood pasta with more delicate texture and bright acidity. (If desired, grilled chicken can be substituted for salmon, or vegetarians can enjoy a meatless preparation with vegetables.)

Dinner also includes a new braised 20-ounce pork shank ($34). The meat is braised and slow-cooked for two hours in a balsamic barbecue reduction. The tender pork arrives on top of housemade spinach gnocchi, favas, and cherry tomatoes. The sweet Maui onion rings make an encore appearance for crispy texture on top. This addition leverages Tarpy’s rooftop chef’s gardens, which have produced favas, jalapeños, spring onions, and, soon, cherry tomatoes.

Arguilles has been with the longtime locals’ favorite restaurant for 24 years, rising up the ranks of the kitchen and taking over as executive chef when Todd Fisher departed in 2017. He’s carrying on the restaurant’s focus on American country comfort foods, bringing new seasonal flavors and influences reflective of America’s ever-diversifying cuisine.

Tarpy’s Roadhouse 2999 Monterey Salinas Highway, Monterey. 647-1444, tarpys.com.