EE Grimshaw
Google
This was an interesting experience. My OG chums and I stopped by here impulsively last night for an early dinner. All of us grew up in this area (I was making a humble cameo return) and were thus enormously pleased that the meh weather prevented a lot of the tourists from jamming up the sidewalks on a Saturday afternoon. That extended to the restaurant; it looked like the bar area to the right of the entrance was hopping a bit, but the dining sections to the left were empty or close to it. After jokingly mentioning that we were natives of the Kingdom of Hunterdon, the hostess good-naturedly seated us at the "locals booth," in the corner of the backroom. Only the best for this crew.
Given how bougie this daily menu is, I was pretty impressed at the competitive price points; if I'm uncertain what 40% of the ingredients in my dish are, I'm expecting to pay probably twice what I actually did. In true hipster fashion, the menu had a stamp at the top (akin to a ye olde library card) with the day's date, if you needed explicit confirmation that this menu changes every day. It's a limited menu for sure, but that made it easier to narrow down the choices. Very The Bear, if you've recently watched that (disclaimer - it takes a bit of a step back in Season 3).
I ordered a Red Hook ($14), which was basically a Manhattan. Pretty tasty - definitely a boozier cocktail but I thought the vermouth they used, coupled with the cherry, gave it kind of a subtle cola vibe. I personally have to be in a very specific mood for this kind of drink but I'd theoretically get it again. We split the fried squash with mint raita, which was the high point for me. I thought it was delicious, and the flavor profile was pretty much perfect. The mint gave it a nice subtle nip without being overwhelming, and the squash was lightly fried and not remotely heavy. A delight.
We ended up almost strategically ordering different entrees and thus ended up testing out 75% of that section of the menu. My heart was with the meatballs but I figured you could get meatballs pretty much anywhere, and went with a very edgy pasta dish, Torchio Pasta alla Palina. It was good but in hindsight I should have gone with my heart - it was just not my jam, palate-wise. I'm primarily a texture-based eater so the crunchier aspects were not the selling points I'm sure they are for others. And I'm sure this is a very specific, intentional decision based on the type of pasta dish, but it seemed a touch dry, like it needed some kind of sauce to moisten the pasta overall. It WAS a little better in that regard when I stirred in the wetter bottom more. A unique taste for sure, and I do want to make it clear this was a decent dish but just a better fit for someone else.
The service was interesting. We ended up getting assigned the general manager as our primary waiter (one or two others made quick cameo appearances as well). When the GM initially came to our table, he seemed almost startled, like he'd recognized one of us but didn't want to bring that up, or wasn't sure where he knew the person. All of us picked up on it. And that skittery demeanor pervaded the meal; it was almost like having a cat for a waiter, who looked like they might bolt out the room at the first sign of a bird in the window. I really don't know how else to describe it, but he was PERFECTLY nice to us and turnaround times and communication were very solid. Maybe something else was going on behind the scenes or we should have picked up on something, but it certainly made the meal more memorable.
Overall, this was very pleasant. Most places in Frenchtown and the surrounding river towns are either very obviously catering to the out-of-towners or are going hardcore local but this is a rare one that I think does navigate the two worlds pretty deftly.
