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Lambertville/
Anton Dodel launched this fine establishment in the Swan Hotel and won a citation from the New York Times as one of the ten best restaurants in New Jersey in 1990, the year it opened. It has maintained high marks since its purchase in 2001 by Chris Connors, who had served successively as sous chef and chef under Anton’s tutelage. The transition was so smooth that even regulars, although they had missed Anton’s nightly presence, were unaware of the change in ownership. “Everything’s the same,” assured Chris in his new role as hands-on chef-owner. Chris’s fare is spontaneous and eclectic, like that of his predecessor, though understated and a bit more tentative. His short menu changes monthly. One we liked featured such entrées as Atlantic salmon with truffle sauce and herbed spaetzle, cumin-crusted swordfish with red beans and rice, roasted duck breast with thyme jus and polenta, and grilled rack of lamb with potato, apple and celery root puree. Starters could be a crab cake with sweet and sour red cabbage and tartar sauce, grilled shrimp with coconut rice and spicy peanut sauce, wild mushroom risotto with aged parmigiano-reggiano and a salad of duck with grilled figs and white beans. Dessert always includes something chocolate and usually a flan, but you might find a cherry brioche bread pudding, orange-ginger crème brûlée or raspberry-lemon tart. All this good eating takes place in a subdued room with paneled wainscoting, a wall of mirrors, hurricane lamps atop white-linened tables and step-down windsor chairs. Chris cooks more casual fare for the Swan's popular bar, where some regulars sup several times a week on fare ranging from a tomato pizza and mussels steamed in white wine and garlic to grilled chicken caesar salad and grilled swordfish with carrot-ginger salad. Anton’s choice wine list is nicely priced. (609) 397-1960. Entrées, $25 to $34, Dinner,
Tuesday-Saturday 6 to 10, Sunday 4:30 to 8.
Former Broadway set designer Jim Hamilton and his daughter Melissa opened this gem, hidden at the end of an alley in the Porkyard complex beside the canal and towpath. Jim, an architect who designs restaurants, installed an open grill beside the entrance and built the wood-fired adobe pizza oven himself. Chef Melissa turned over the Mediterranean grill concept to executive chef Mark Miller, and Jim says the food has never been better. Hamilton’s created the option of grazing portions to let weekday diners try "a little of everything." Nearly half the entrées are available in standard and smaller portions (at about half the price). The menu is similar but pricier on weekends, when the open grill yields things like a mixed grill of lobster, sea scallops and fish of the day, and grilled rack of lamb with spinach and pine nuts. Our meal began with a menu standby, grilled shrimp with anchovy butter, and a crab cake on wilted greens and sweet red pepper sauce. Main courses were an exceptional grilled duck on bitter greens with pancetta and honey glaze and a grilled ribeye steak with roquefort cheese. The oversize plates were filled with fanned razor-thin sliced potatoes and grilled zucchini and green and red peppers. The signature grappa torta and the grand marnier cheesecake were fine desserts. Two biscotti came with the bill. Patrons dine at a lineup of faux-marble tables in the mirrored grill room, beneath angels and clouds surrounding a huge gilt mirror on the ceiling of the Bishop's Room, around a changing decorative focal point in the dining gallery and, in season, outdoors around the fountain in the courtyard. Hamilton's is BYOB with a twist. It serves its regular menu weekends at the Wine Bar annex, a small house across the courtyard for folks who want liquor service. In the main grill, the white wine we toted was stashed in a pail full of ice, and red wines and even water are poured in large hand-blown globes made locally. (609) 397-4343. Entrées, $23.50 to $32. Dinner,
Monday-Saturday 6 to 10, Sunday 5 to 9. BYOB. The
Landing The only restaurant right in New Hope with a river view is set back from the main street in a small house with windows onto the water and a large brick patio around back. Christopher Bollenbacher, owner since 1976, and his wife Ellen are known for offering some of the best and most consistent food in town. Inside on either side of a quite luxurious small bar are two small dining areas. The front room, welcoming in barnwood, contains booths and two tables for two with wing chairs at each. The rear room has picture windows overlooking the river. The expansive riverside patio is definitely the place to be in season, the length of which has been extended lately with the addition of patio heaters. It’s brightened with colorful planters and umbrellas, dignified by tablecloths at night and made practical by an enclosed bar at one side. A gardener has obviously been at work around the exterior, and there’s equal talent in the kitchen. The changing menu (which arrived in a picture frame when we first ate dinner here) is creative. We would gladly have ordered everything from the lunch menu, so delectable were the choices and so salubrious the ambiance at a patio table beside the river on recent autumn afternoon. One of us settled for a refreshing soup of golden gazpacho with cilantro pesto and chilled shrimp, paired with a salad of shrimp, crab and artichoke dumplings, greens, bell peppers, roasted corn and horseradish-chive vinaigrette. The other enjoyed the pan-roasted jumbo lump crab cake with julienned summer vegetables, roasted peppers and, rather strangely, mashed potatoes. At night, entrées range from pesto-brushed Atlantic halibut with a sweet and spicy tomato coulis and Moroccan-crusted soft-shell crabs with curry turmeric sauce to grilled tenderloin of ostrich and roasted rack of lamb. An intriguing dish is called veal three ways: with emmenthal and fingerling potato stew, pulped grapes and wilted spinach. Typical starters are steamed cockles and mussels provençal, prosciutto and brie in puff pastry with cranberry-ginger coulis, and lump crab, spinach and three-cheese quesadillas with spicy mango relish and lemon crème fraîche. Desserts are luscious: perhaps fried blueberry ravioli with lemon chiffon ice cream and raspberry coulis, chocolate-cointreau-truffle torte with blood orange syrup, and rose petal crème brûlée with strawberries and white chocolate. The Landing claims to have the largest wine list in Bucks County. (215) 862-5711. Entrées, $22.95 to $32.95.
Lunch daily, 11 to 4. Dinner nightly, from 5. Closed Monday and Tuesday
in winter.
Dining here is reminiscent of the south of France, which comes as no surprise when you learn that young chef-owner Jean-Michel Dumas grew up in Provence. He and his American wife Susan gave a provençal name to the storefront charmer they have run since 1990. An air of whimsy reigns, from the colorful exterior of burnt orange and blue-green with gingerbread trim to the ceiling painted like Van Gogh's starry night. With a relocated and expanded kitchen, there's more room for Jean-Michel to work his culinary wizardry. There's also an extra table for patrons in the intimate, 36-seat dining room in front, as well as a garden terrace with a few tables in back. Jean-Michel, who was a chef at the Inn at Phillips Mill in New Hope, relies on fresh ingredients cooked simply and served in robust portions. The menu often starts with his trademark anchovy relish and an assortment of raw vegetables, the house pâté, escargots in pernod and salads of mesclun with warm goat cheese or watercress with pear, belgian endive, walnuts and roquefort. Soup of the day could be garlicky mussel or pistou. Among entrées are red bouillabaisse, roasted monkfish with pernod and tomato fondue, fillet of salmon on a bed of spinach with a lobster-mushroom sauce, calves liver with a honey-shallot confit and bercy sauce, filet of beef with a duck liver mousse and madeira sauce, and rack of lamb with herbs of Provence. Desserts include a classic crème caramel, tarte tatin, chocolate mousse, marjolaine and nougat ice cream with raspberry sauce. The best deal is a three-course, prix-fixe dinner available on Wednesday and Thursday. The $22 tab is all the more welcome because you can bring your own wine. Similar fare is offered at wallet-pleasing prices for Sunday brunch. (609) 397-2596. Entrées, $18.50 to $25. Dinner,
Wednesday-Sunday 5:30 to 9 or 10. Sunday brunch, 11 to 2:30. No credit
cards. BYOB.
The tiny restaurant space at No. 9 Klines Court has long been a focal point of Lambertville’s culinary constellation, among a lineup of come-and-go restaurants across from a small municipal park and parking lot. Since the hit-player Stars fell by the wayside, a succession of wannabes has tried and failed. Along came Hunterdon County native Matthew Kane, fresh from head-chef duties at small restaurants in New York’s Greenwich Village and TriBeCa. In 2001, he and his wife-to-be Cheryl took over a space that had seemed destined to fail and turned it into a hit. Tiny it is, this intimate place now known by its address alone. The square space lacks the glitter and dazzle of previous incarnations. Walls and table coverings are white, and color is added by splashy artworks on loan from local artists. The harvest of onions, tomatoes and pears stashed at the entry is more than decoration – the chef uses it as a pantry and gathers from it liberally throughout the evening because of a shortage of space in the kitchen. Matthew’s menu is short and to the point, its matter-of-factness concealing the assertive tastes that follow. Our meal began with a medley of flavors: an appetizer of potato and goat cheese tart with roasted peppers and grilled onions, and a roasted beet salad with blue cheese and green beans. An appetizer of jumbo lump crab meat on a wild mushroom and brie cheese crostini was ample enough for a main course. The pan-seared salmon was accompanied by a mélange of Asian vegetables, fortunately cooled by a refreshing cucumber and ginger salad. Other entrée possibilities included pan-roasted trout with wild mushrooms, grilled porterhouse pork chop with summer vegetable salsa and grilled hanger steak with red wine sauce. Among desserts were lime cheesecake, pear crisp, apple mascarpone tart and chocolate pot de crème. (609) 397-6380. Entrées,
$17 to $24. Dinner, Wednesday-Saturday 5 to 9 or 10, Sunday 4 to 8.
BYOB.
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