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Soda
Supporter
Username: Soda
Post Number: 3433
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Sunday, June 26, 2005 - 9:38 am: |     |
"June 26, 2005
Wishful Cooking
By DAVID CORCORAN
WEST ORANGE
"WISH you were here," says the woman on the reservation line. It's more than a nice play on the name of this new restaurant. The fact is, she means it.
The voice belongs to Melissa Winter. She is the hostess at Wish; her husband, Brett, is the chef. She also came up with the name, which (as you might have guessed) is short for "my wish." The two of them share a palpable determination to make it come true.
The restaurant lives in a commercial strip on a busy avenue out here in country-club country, in the space once inhabited by Primavera (which moved half a mile down the road). The Winters gutted it and created an L-shaped 90-seat dining room that manages to feel considerably smaller than it is, and thus both comfortable and intimate. That feeling is enhanced by the browns and creams and golds of the décor, with its electric-candle sconces and slightly kitschy metal wall art, and especially by the proprietors themselves.
Mrs. Winter's vivid and cheering presence gives the whole enterprise a lift; she makes the place feel like her living room. And Mr. Winter, a tall, rumpled, professorial-looking veteran of the Manhattan restaurant scene - he was the executive chef at Jerry's in SoHo - often steps out of the kitchen to chat and see how things are going.
The restaurant's full name is Wish: An American Bistro, and it won't surprise you to hear that the menu is studded with the staples and techniques of the New American repertory: pecan and potato crusts, ginger risotto, Anson Mills polenta - even California heirloom tomatoes, eminently presentable despite the season. Like many a chef who came of age in the 1980's and 90's, the 31-year-old Mr. Winter is drawn to fresh ingredients, big flavors and surprising presentations - three reasons for the remarkable staying power of what once seemed a fad cuisine.
The tomatoes, from a New York supplier called the Tomato Kid, made a welcome guest appearance in my favorite dish: red snapper in a potato crust enlivened with garlic and herbs, most prominently rosemary. With commendable honesty, Mr. Winter told me that customers either love this dish or hate it; the brown, savory crust can outshout the mild fish. If so, that didn't happen the night I tried it.
On a different visit, another sea species didn't fare so well. Monkfish osso buco is a nifty idea - a fist-size hunk of meaty fish, wrapped around a stem of saffron-scented salsify in a convincing imitation of a veal knuckle. But that night the fish was seriously over the hill. When we complained, the server readily apologized and subtracted it from the bill, but the off taste and fish-market aroma cast a pall over our table.
That miscue aside, we enjoyed nearly everything about our meals, starting with the basket of first-rate breads from Balthazar in Englewood. Mr. Winter turns out one of the state's best crab cakes, a generous disk of lump crab meat whose sweetness is ingeniously offset by a crisp, salty crust made from - you'll never guess - pretzels. Lobster cappuccino is no longer a new idea, but it's a good one, especially when the kitchen spikes the creamy broth with so much lobster meat.
A few appetizers were merely adequate. Risotto with wild mushrooms was pleasant enough, but it left little impression; the same went for a $13.50 special, black truffle ravioli. Mussels in a spicy lobster broth were fairly standard issue, as were fried calamari.
But while the shrimps in rock shrimp salad were bland and subdued, the supporting cast - avocado, mizuna greens and gazpacho sauce - carried the show. And slices of beef carpaccio, fanned out on the plate like the petals of a great pink poppy, were perfectly mated with a seared diver scallop and truffle vinaigrette.
Except for the misbegotten monkfish, seafood entrees were expertly handled. We loved a special of soft-shell crab with mandarin-orange sauce over pillowy potatoes puréed with mango, their sweetness held in check by gingered soy vinaigrette and more of those tomatoes. Two Asian-style dishes - seared yellowfin tuna with a little pot of sticky rice tossed with pine nuts, and miso-glazed Chilean sea bass with a terrific gingered risotto - worked admirably.
The meat dishes worked, too. A special of skirt steak was rubbed with a drawerful of spices, then simply and beautifully grilled; the accompanying fried-potato logs were crisp and tender. Short ribs would have fallen off the bone if they hadn't been boned already. A thick grilled pork chop was a little dry in spots, but it had more than enough character, and the polenta on the side had even more. Rack of lamb would have had plenty of flavor even without its Dijon mustard crust, and humble chicken was lifted by its garlic-and-herb crust and a helping of dark brown toasted quinoa with dazzling bright green fava beans.
Desserts are a work in progress. Some are outsourced and immoderately sweet; only a chocolate cake, made in house, rises above the ordinary. When you cut it with your fork, it releases a dark waterfall of melted chocolate. Mr. Winter says he is interviewing pastry chefs, so we may see some rapid improvement in that department. And in others, too. Wish is about to open on Sundays; it is building a Web site and inquiring about a liquor license. At just seven months, it's clearly becoming a local institution, and a welcome one.
Wish
500 Pleasant Valley Way
West Orange
(973) 669-9911
GOOD
ATMOSPHERE Cozy, even romantic, with dim, flattering lighting and a pleasant lived-in feeling. Dress: smart casual.
SERVICE Cheerful and welcoming.
SMOKING Not allowed.
WINE LIST Bring your own. (A liquor license may be in the offing.)
RECOMMENDED DISHES Lobster cappuccino, crab cake, beef carpaccio; pork chop, garlic-and-herb-crusted chicken, rack of lamb, Chilean sea bass, boneless short ribs, seared yellowfin tuna, strip steak, potato-crusted red snapper, soft-shell crabs; chocolate cake.
PRICE RANGE Appetizers: $8 to $13.50; entrees: $17 to $29.50; desserts: $7.50.
HOURS Dinner: Mondays through Thursdays, 5 to 9 p.m.; Fridays and Saturdays, 5 to 10:30 p.m.; Sundays starting in late July, 4:30 to 8:30 p.m.
CREDIT CARDS MasterCard, Visa.
RESERVATIONS Recommended; can be made online at www.opentable.com.
WHEELCHAIR ACCESS Fully accessible.
IF YOU GO The restaurant is on a main north-south thoroughfare in western Essex County, about three-quarters of a mile north of Interstate 280 (via Exit 7) and just south of Eagle Rock Avenue."
Flame away, or make reservations...
-s.
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Stevef
Citizen
Username: Stevef
Post Number: 48
Registered: 5-2005
| | Posted on Sunday, June 26, 2005 - 10:01 am: | |
But that night the fish was seriously over the hill. When we complained, the server readily apologized and subtracted it from the bill, but the off taste and fish-market aroma cast a pall over our table.
...the shrimps in rock shrimp salad were bland and subdued,
Desserts are a work in progress.
No way this place should get a "good" rating for such mishaps. Typo, maybe? Or is NYTimes review losing its marbles? |
Soda
Supporter
Username: Soda
Post Number: 3435
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Sunday, June 26, 2005 - 10:06 am: | |
Oops, I forgot the URL. Sorry.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/26/travel/26njdine.html
-s. |
Soulful Mr T
Citizen
Username: Howardt
Post Number: 594
Registered: 11-2004
| | Posted on Sunday, June 26, 2005 - 7:29 pm: | |
Sounds "good" to me. Not great, not exceptional, not bad, but certainly "good." |
Jason & John
Citizen
Username: Johnh91011
Post Number: 188
Registered: 3-2002
| | Posted on Sunday, June 26, 2005 - 8:13 pm: | |
STEVEF.... WHY THE LARGE FONT????? |
sullymw
Citizen
Username: Sullymw
Post Number: 674
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Monday, June 27, 2005 - 9:08 am: | |
J&J: why so blue?  |
Jason & John
Citizen
Username: Johnh91011
Post Number: 189
Registered: 3-2002
| | Posted on Monday, June 27, 2005 - 10:32 am: | |
We hate being shouted at  |
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