No Reservations - Circa Restaurant
57 Center St. in Northampton has been home to restaurants for many years. I ate there several times when it housed Ladybird, and also took a cooking class in the Ladybird kitchen. Later, I had a number of fine meals in its incarnation as Circa. So, I’ve viewed the space with a totally unwarranted proprietary air. When Circa changed hands last April, I was eager to see what Chef Jeremy Whitcomb would bring to the place.
Whitcomb closed Circa for a couple of weeks while he repainted and did some minor renovations, like adding brighter lighting and cushions on the benches. He has put his own stamp on the menu as well. The style is similar to the former owners’ – a high-end French approach to seasonal and local ingredients – but the recipes are Whitcomb’s own and the execution is quite appealing.
A split pea soup is garnished with duck confit, which replaces the ham nicely. Cabbage pierogi share the menu with a bouillabaisse of monkfish and mussels. A pumpkin veloute graces Parisienne gnocchi, made with a pate a choux dough for a lighter version of the potato pasta. An appetizer of venison medallions is accompanied by winter squash flavored with a pumpkin pie spicing and hazelnuts.
Virtually everything is made at the restaurant, including the desserts. Ingredients from Outlook Farm, Hungry Ghost Bakery, Berkshire Brewing Company and, in summer, local farms contribute to the menu. One of the nicest dishes we had there was an Outlook Farm bacon-wrapped roast chicken accompanied by spinach cooked in bacon fat.
Jeremy Whitcomb grew up in Needham, and his start in the culinary field was fairly typical – jobs in sandwich shops and the like as a teen. A stint at Le Cordon Bleu cooking school in Portland, Ore., where he made the dean’s list, was followed by some high-end French cooking in Southern California and Northern Michigan. Returning to the East Coast four or five years ago, he ended up in Northampton. He spent three years at Green Street Cafe, where he rose to the position of chef. Whitcomb had just helped open Dirty Truth in Northampton when Dane Boryta and Liz Ferro put Circa on the market. At the tender age of 29, he made his move, and bought the restaurant.
Eating the food, you wouldn’t think the chef was so young. He has a good feel for how ingredients will work together, like the aforementioned venison, squash and hazelnut combo. The plating is clean and appetizing. The sauce on a lamb shank was dark and rich and the lamb was cooked to tenderness without falling off the bone.
Desserts are all made in-house by Whitcomb’s pastry chef, Lucy. The standout for me was a rice pudding tart with a brulee topping that was accompanied by a quince and cranberry compote. The rice pudding was light, with each grain distinct. In fact, the dish was amazingly light for what is essentially a starch on a starch. We also liked the panna cotta and, of course, there is chocolate – a dark chocolate torte.
The wine list is eclectic, covering California, South America, France and South Africa. Wines by the glass are available for $7 to $8, and bottles range from $28 to $42. There are a variety of beers, many of them locally brewed, priced from $5 to $8, and one wheat-free beer.
During the week, Circa offers a prix fixe menu: $30 for a soup or salad appetizer, any entree and any dessert. Since the appetizers range from $6 to $12 and the entrees hover between $18 and $26, this is a great way to explore the menu. The prix fixe menu is available until 7 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday.
The service is relaxed and comfortable. At dinner, our server went back and forth to the kitchen to get answers to our questions about one dish or another. I wouldn’t suggest tying up a server like that during a busy night, but she was extremely accommodating and it clearly mattered to her that we had a good experience. Whitcomb’s attitude – “We work too hard not to be proud of the food” – seems to permeate the entire experience.
Sometimes, the company at your table can unduly influence your perception of a meal. An argument with my wife ruined one dinner at another place, so much so that I had to completely discount my impressions of the food. Conversely, at one meal with old friends at Circa we enjoyed each dish so much that I wondered how much of our enjoyment was due to the company, rather than the actual food. As we talked, it became clear there really wasn’t any “least favorite” dish. The only criticism we could come up with was a steak that arrived medium rare rather than rare. The Risotto Two Ways, a creamy risotto accompanied by a crisp risotto cake, could have used some protein to make it feel more like an entree. But, we agreed, we’d order any of the dishes again. A separate visit, where I ate alone and undistracted by dinner companions, yielded the same results: a thoroughly enjoyable meal.
En route to the rest rooms, you pass the serving window to Circa’s kitchen. Depending on how busy they are, you might get a chance to chat with the cooks or to simply watch. I am sure there are crazy nights, but each time I’ve peeked in, the pace has been calm and focused and the crew seems to like what they are doing – preparing food they are proud to serve.
Originally published in the Daily Hampshire Gazette, December 07, 2007