REVIEW

Chef Leo LeDoux’s menu utilizes an assortment of locally produced products, wild seafood, and antibiotic-free meats, prepared in whatever manner strikes his fancy. You’ll find plenty of Asian and Mediterranean influences as well as traditional comfort foods such as French onion soup and pasta and meatballs. Fresh vegetables abound. It’s a clean, pure, and vibrant cuisine that impresses more with freshness and quality ingredients than in-your-face excess.

Homemade fettucine with red sauce and very light meatballs – pure comfort

We adore the tangy, open-textured Rupert Rising (about ten miles down the road)  bread in the basket, served with oil rather than butter but requiring neither. Chickens are free-roaming and antibiotic-free, from FreeBird in Pennsylvania. Lamb is from Jamison Farm. The steak is Temple Grandin-certified. The meatloaf one evening was made from grass-fad and locally raised animals, served with mashed potatoes and mixed greens, both organic.

A gorgeous beet salad featured sugar-sweet golden beets, fritters made from local chevre, walnuts candied in-house, dried cranberries, organic (of course) greens, and a maple Dijon vinaigrette.

We found the service staff to be kind but so hesitant and inept as to be endearing, as if this was the first time they had been in a nice restaurant. They meant well, so what did it matter that our cocktail was topped off with water from a woman bearing a pitcher? (They, of course, replaced it.) Or that our waiter had not a clue about the menu beyond what we could ascertain by reading it? We don’t care about such things; we’re there to have a good time, and we did.

The salmon could not have tasted any fresher.

In nice weather there is outdoor dining.

The shrimp are wild, seared with garlic, white wine and organic tomatoes. The salsa is made fresh. Dressed with a maple Dijon vinaigrette.

A corn and crab chowder special captured the sweetness of both the vegetable and the crustacean. Outstanding!

LAF TRAK: 

FOOD: 

BEST THING TO EAT: Corn and crab chowder

Free Bird Chicken Marsala is made with FreeBird chicken breasts, and plenty of mushrooms, served over organic mashed potatoes and vegetables.

They even offer organic, local ale!

Tart-sweet blood orange sorbet