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For many Americans, Mexican food is refried beans and rice, tacos, enchiladas and quesadillas. Tex-Mex, in other words. Nothing wrong with Tex-Mex, which developed along the border between Texas and Mexico, but it’s not Mexican. For that, locally, there’s LA CASITA AZTECA, which specializes in cuisine from the Oaxaca state in southern Mexico.

La Casita Azteca (58 Cottage St., Easthampton, 203-5050) opened last fall in the building vacated by the Pirate’s Den. Set back from the street, it’s fronted by a long sidewalk flanked by grassy spaces with tables, flowers and a small stage. Inside, the restaurant is painted in shades of red and orange with purple highlights. The counter houses an array of sodas, both Mexican and American, beers (many Mexican beers) and Chilean wine, and a large menu is overhead. (more…)

It’s always Christmas at Yankee Candle in South Deerfield, but at Chandler’s Restaurant, the dining spot attached to the retailer’s Disney-like complex, it’s always the 19th century. From the dark wooden beams to the candlelit rooms to the traditional regional menu, Chandler’s has the feel of an old New England tavern or post road inn. Fortunately, the food and service are 21st century.

Chandler’s (25 Greenfield Road, Routes 5 and 10, South Deerfield, 665-1277; www.chandlers.yankeecandle.com) opened about 14 years ago, the brainchild of Yankee Candle founder Michael Kittredge. You could argue that a restaurant with “olde New England food” was simply a way to draw even more visitors to the acres of candles and the dozens of rooms filled with Northern European Christmas decorations. Still, I’d had some favorable reports from friends who eat a lot of business dinners at Chandler’s: The food was good, they said.

The menu has a nice range of entrees, from the usual meats (lamb shank, beef tenderloin and steak, pork loin, poultry) and several kinds of fish (haddock, scallops and salmon). The preparations are traditional, such as pork loin with a green bean casserole, haddock with a crab stuffing and scallops in sherry cream sauce. The accompaniments include more fashionable items such as goat cheese, which appears in several dishes, or the shaved prosciutto and potato galettes that accompany the scallops. There’s even an all-vegetarian entrée (baked apple with acorn squash).

So, my wife and I had several meals at Chandler’s to check it out. We were not disappointed. One meal started with a cheese plate from Charlemont’s Goat Rising Farm featuring an aged goat cheese, a cheddar-style goat cheese with rosemary, and, our favorite, a Reblochon that was creamy inside with a hard rind. The cheeses were accompanied by giant sweet red grapes and apple slices. It was good as an appetizer and, if you dine in the French manner, it would make a delightful dessert. We also had a field greens salad with roasted red peppers, goat cheese, sliced apples and some flavorful roasted butternut squash cubes. It was an appealing, unusual take on what could have been a commonplace salad.

My wife went for the mussels and I had the lamb shank for our entrees. The mussels were tasty although the broth was a little too heavily flavored by smoked tomatoes. The lamb was meltingly tender and accompanied by creamy roast potatoes, root vegetables and creamed spinach. The shank was topped by an unnecessary tomato sauce, which didn’t seem to have been cooked with the meat.

For dessert, we had orange chocolate cheesecake. The check arrived with two votive candles to take home, a nice touch.

There is an extensive wine list that ranges from $20 bottles to a cave collection with bottles closer to $200 (Chandler’s has received Awards of Excellence from Wine Spectator magazine for the past seven years). Wine by the glass is also available and there are a variety of beers, including South Deerfield’s Berkshire Brews.

On another evening, we went with two friends. For appetizers we had a Caesar salad and cheese and ham croquettes with a roasted red pepper sauce. Our entrees included breaded scallops, haddock with a crab cake, pork loin, and pan-seared duck breast accompanied by duck confit shepherd’s pie. All were prepared well, but the standout was the scallops, which were tasty and expertly cooked.

Watching the wait staff lower a sconce to replace its votives reminded us exactly how much work life in old New England entailed. Except for emergency lighting and some red LED-style lights along the ceiling, Chandler’s is entirely illuminated by candles. The manager told us the place has lost power on some evenings and diners never even noticed.

The old-style feel extends to the kitchen as well. Executive Chef Greg Monette came up through the ranks, apprentice-style, from his first job as a short order cook at the Classe Café in Amherst to stints at Green Street Café in Northampton and the Blue Heron when it was at the Book Mill in Montague. Monette made a point of seeking out jobs with increasingly varied experience — he went to Crestview Country Club in Agawam to learn catering-style cooking, for example — and he’s worked with established chefs like Michaelangelo Wescott of Gypsy Apple in Shelburne Falls. What interests him in the kitchen, Monette says, is the tension between building on the traditional while still expanding diners’ palates. Even so, he maintains that cooking is a craft, not an art form, and he has no patience for artistes. “Someone’s grandmother has already cooked it better than you,” he says. Chandler’s is a member of CISA in South Deerfield (Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture) and uses as much local produce as possible, especially in the summer. The current economic slowdown has affected business, but not as much as the industry average, Monette says. Still, a 30 to 40 percent rise in produce costs has influenced what specialty products he can buy.

Chandler’s is owned by a corporation and located in a tourist destination. You’ll see that in the attention to detail — like the well-trained servers — and the marketing of events like “Fancy Nancy” lunches, high tea, and wine, food and jazz dinners. It’s the kind of place you can take a group of people and feel confident that everybody will find something they like.

Chandler’s is open for lunch seven days a week from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., and for dinner from Wednesday to Sunday from 5 to 8 p.m. Appetizers range from $9 to $12, salads from $6 to $7 and dinner entrees from $23 to $32.

 Originally published in the Daily Hampshire Gazette, May 1, 2009.

Downtown Holyoke has taken a large hit over the years. With the demise of Steiger’s and the move from downtown to strip malls, there seemed to be more boarded-up stores than open ones. While the growing Hispanic community has introduced some restaurants and markets — the San Juan Bakery, Cuba Supermarket and Fernandez Family Restaurant — one lunch place after another closed, most notably the Red Cat on High Street and the Artisan Cafe in Open Square. The downtown, in short, had a dearth of good local eateries.

Then I discovered Gramp’s (216 Lyman St., 534-1996, www.grampsholyoke.com). A Holyoke institution for 36 years, Gramp’s is remembered fondly by a generation that stopped by after church or Catholic school for soda, candy, ice cream and comic books. These days, the candy and comic books are gone, and in their place is a nostalgic spot for breakfast and lunch. The food is good, the service is friendly and there is always a parking space or two out front. What could be better?

The breakfast menu includes the usual omelets, eggs, waffles and pancakes, but interesting touches show up. There are sausages — chorizo, the Portuguese version, and kielbasa — as well as a bacon, cheese and tomato omelet. For lunch, you can get the familiar sandwiches, but a quick check of the specials includes homemade soups, hot dishes and Polish favorites. In fact, the menu devotes an entire page to Polish cuisine.

I started with the Polish Platter, figuring to try everything in one swoop. And a big swoop it was: three cheese pierogis, mashed potatoes sprinkled with some fresh snipped dill, bigos (a cabbage and kielbasa braise), a nice carrot and raisin salad with a couple of sliced cucumbers, a golumpki (stuffed cabbage) in a traditional light tomato sauce, and a link of grilled kielbasa. All for $9.25. I was hooked.

On another visit, the day’s special was homemade meat pierogis topped with onions and bacon. Apparently, that’s a traditional topping, but I hadn’t seen it before, and it’s a masterful touch. Plain pierogis call out for some kind of sauce or other extra. And what, except chocolate, is not enhanced by bacon? The dough is homemade and the meat filling is rich and flavorful.

Gramp’s is currently owned by Danuta and Krzysztof Wojcik. Each arrived in Boston in 1988 with just $10, all they were allowed to bring out of Poland. Both had been involved with the Solidarity movement and sought political asylum in the States. Mayor Ray Flynn helped them resettle in the Boston area, which is where they met. Kris had a degree from a culinary institute in Poland and had been cooking on passenger ships, so the move into restaurants was a natural. Kaz Zaluki, owner of the now-defunct Chopin Inn on Race Street in Holyoke, convinced them to move west to work for him, which they did. In 1994, Danuta opened a Polish delicatessen — called simply the Polish Deli — in the space next door to Gramp’s. In 2002, when owner Jim Hamel, whose family had run Gramp’s for 30-plus years, wanted to sell, Danuta sold the deli and bought Hamel’s business. She kept the name because, as she said, people know Gramp’s and why change something that works?

The green and white striped awning outside the restaurant is echoed inside by a smaller awning over what used to be the counter. With a stone arch leading to the back room, plenty of old wooden booths and flooring, and a large collection of vintage food tins, Coca-Cola paraphernalia and photos of some of the parties it’s catered, Gramp’s provides a trip back in time. The rear room was formerly a bakery, and both the oven and an old fire door remain. There is also an alleyway with tables and umbrellas for use in the warm months.

In addition to the Polish dishes on the menu, there are homemade specials, beef stroganoff or wiener schnitzel, and an array of soups. These include a bright-red Ukrainian beet borscht and a white borscht that begins with something like a rye sourdough starter and is filled with vegetables and kielbasa; it’s served with a piece of hard-boiled egg. There’s also a soup called chicken and pickles. “We make all our soups,” Danuta says, then adds, perhaps unnecessarily, “Chicken and pickles soup, you can’t buy that in a can.”

For dessert, there is ice cream plus daily specials. One day recently it was Black Forest Pie, a crust filled with a layer of dark chocolate and topped with cherry pie filling and whipped cream.

The deli is still next door and after lunch you might want to stop by for some baked goods or my personal favorite, natural fruit syrups. I mix the raspberry or cherry with sparkling water or pour them over ice cream. Danuta told me that you can add them to a fruit compote or mix them with hot water and sliced lemons and serve either hot or cold.

Breakfasts at Gramp’s range from $1.99 for an egg and toast to $6.95 for an onion, cheese and ham three-egg omelet. Lunch sandwiches are $3.75 for egg salad to $5.25 for roast beef. The Polish dishes are pricier, if three potato pancakes for $5.75 or two stuffed cabbage for $7.50 can be considered pricey. The restaurant doesn’t take credit cards.

Gramp’s is open from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday to Friday and 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, with breakfast served until 11:30. It’s closed on Mondays.

Originally published Daily Hampshire Gazette, April 17, 2009.

For many Hampshire County diners, Springfield and other Hampden County cities south of the Holyoke Range are pretty much unknowns. Certainly, when my only connection with the area was the colleges, Springfield sometimes seemed like an Amtrak station surrounded by dragons and sea monsters like some 15th-century map of the New World. After working all over the Pioneer Valley for nearly 20 years, it is no longer mysterious.

Certainly, the downtown has its share of empty storefronts that predate the current recession. Clubs, restaurants and hotels vie with adult entertainment and some urban decay. The 350 GRILL (350 Worthington St.; 439-0666; www.350grill.net) takes this mix one step further by sharing its parking lot with the Mardi Gras, a large adult entertainment club. There is valet parking for the 350 Grill and the outdoor patio has walls high enough to keep those hot summer nights private. It turns out that if you are in the Mardi Gras at lunchtime, you can order from the 350 Grill, which arrives on plates, not in tacky takeout containers. 350 Grill owner Sherri Via says that the two places coexist nicely and without trouble.

She’s right. When I told my friend Betsy that we were eating in downtown Springfield at a restaurant that shared a parking lot with an adult entertainment establishment, her first comment was, “We’re not going to get shot, are we?” I told her not to be so prejudiced, we#d be fine. We had a great time and left without incident. The next morning, an email from Betsy let me know that the night before had seen Springfield’s first murder of the year # at the Mardi Gras. Let’s hope that was a random occurrence.

The menu leans toward steak house and that’s where its strength lies. There are two rib eyes # one a bone-in 20-ouncer, the other a smaller boneless cut # plus a sirloin with Gorgonzola cheese and a tenderloin filet. The 350 Grill also serves veal, lamb, pork chops, chicken, duck, seafood and pasta.

Rib eye is my favorite cut, and, eschewing the server’s recommendation of the sirloin, I immediately went for the bone-in. Touched with some Caribbean spice and cooked medium-rare as ordered, it was a tasty steak that proved large enough to take home for lunch. My wife had the sirloin, which was chewier but still good. The sides that night were mashed potatoes and butternut squash. At our request our server substituted sautéed spinach for the squash, which was agreeably garlicky and a trifle oily. Our friend Betsy had the veal chop, a large cut with a thin jus that she liked a lot. We found a Murphy-Goode zinfandel by the glass that complemented the meat nicely.

350 Grill is a comfortable place to eat, with large banquettes along one wall like giant scallop shells. The rugs absorb the sound so that you get a background buzz of conversation that still lets you hear your table mates. The lighting, too, is nicely balanced between low enough for privacy and light enough to read a menu.

The menu lists tapas instead of the more familiar appetizers and I went back with a friend for a tapas lunch. Truth be told, they are mostly typical appetizers, like coconut shrimp or fried calamari. However, like some “Top Chef” Quick Fire challenge, where the competitors are given standard appetizers and told to make them more contemporary, these have been goosed past the boring. For example, the coconut shrimp, three large shrimp, came grease-free with a sweet sauce touched with some Chinese mustard. Three ocean scallops, dusted with hot pepper and served with a hot chutney, were also tasty. The mushroom-risotto balls, arancini and veal meatballs all came in a good tomato sauce, the last inexplicably enhanced with a scoop of ricotta cheese. The standout was two small pork shanks cooked in a sweet Thai sauce served over angel hair pasta. We followed our server’s recommendation to order the pork shanks rather than the sliders (mini hamburgers) and I’m glad we did.

The 350 Grill is something of a family affair. Owner Sherri Via, who grew up in Monson, has worked in the bar and liquor business since she was 16, most recently with a holding company that owns other area restaurants. She herself owns the building where the 350 Grill is located, and for a time she ran a bar there. But Via always wanted a restaurant. So she talked her sister Doreen into joining her as executive chef for a place she envisioned as just a lunch spot. The sisters are foodies and Via says they got a little carried away, abandoning their original plan of featuring simple fare like burgers and designing a menu that reflected all the foods they like.

They use local ingredients and vary the menu seasonally. In the summer, Via said, a local farmer might drop off a load of corn or tomatoes that go into the day’s specials. An expansion designed to open this May will add a banquet room and increase the size of the kitchen. I have to say that, small kitchen or not, the food comes out timely and hot.

Given the easy parking and comfortable yet interesting menu, the 350 Grill is a good choice for an expedition to Springfield, preceded perhaps by a visit to one of the museums in the nearby Quadrangle or a club visit after dinner.

Tapas range from $5 to $12 (for the signature lobster/shrimp ravioli). Seafood is $16 to $24, pastas $14 to $20, and other entrees $17 to $28 (for the 20-ounce rib eye). Lunches run from $6 to $10.

Originally published, Daily Hampshire Gazette, February 20, 2009.

Who among us does not love a burger? Even when we were too young for a burger and a beer, even when we switched to turkey burgers, or, god forbid, veggie burgers, something there is, to mangle Robert Frost, that loves a burger. And some fresh-cut french fries wouldn’t hurt either.

One of the newest entries to the Northampton dining scene is LOCAL BURGER AND FRIES (16 Main St., 586-5857, www.localburgerandfries.com). Located in the corner spot recently vacated by Fire Cuisine, it is the brainchild of three brothers, Jeff, Chris and Steven Igneri, who opened it in early January. The menu is pretty simple: Black Angus or Easthampton’s Chicoine Farms beef burgers, and turkey, veggie or portabello mushroom burgers; home-cut white or sweet potato fries; and onion rings. There are some burger combos and sides, but burgers are the main attraction and they are good.

Ordering is simple. At the counter, you pick your burger, specify “pink or not pink,” whether you want lettuce, tomatoes, onions or pickle, and what you’d like for sides and drinks. You pay, taking note of the number on your check, and find a seat. After a while, someone will walk through the place calling out your number. Bus your table when you’re done. Once Chris, who usually takes your order during the day, gets to know you, he’ll chat a bit. But not too long; the place is busy.

The basic burger is a Black Angus from the Midwest, all-natural and free of antibiotics, for $4.99. For a buck extra, you can get Chicoine Farms organic beef, which has a good, strong beefy taste and is well worth the extra cost. The fries are about the best I’ve had in a restaurant. Clearly homemade, and fried twice # once to cook them and once to brown them up # they have been tasty and crispy each time I’ve tried them. The housemade onion rings # large slices of Spanish onion in a thick beer batter # are Steve’s specialty. I prefer fries to onion rings, but the Local Burger and Fries onion rings draw raves from the aficionados I know. The homemade chipotle ketchup that accompanies them should be an option for the burgers, too; it’s got a good flavor and just a touch of fire.

For the non-beef inclined, there is a farmhouse turkey burger, a veggie burger and a portobello burger. Combos include the Southwestern burger with grilled chilis and a teriyaki burger. The adventurous can order a fried pickle, originally a Mississippi treat, or construct their own burgers from an array of extras.

Normally, the rule is to wait three months before writing about a restaurant, just in case it doesn’t make it. That’s always a possibility, especially in these troubled times. But there has been a lot of interest in Local Burger since the sign went up in December. When I mention it, people ask whether it’s open yet. The business has a lot going for it: The menu is inexpensive and appeals to a wide audience, and Jeff, who Chris calls the brains of the operation, has a graduate degree in hospitality from Johnson & Wales and years of restaurant work behind him.

Not to say Local Burger doesn’t have its rough spots. During the rush, burgers may come out more, or less, cooked than requested, not so good when you’ve ordered a turkey burger. Sometimes the server can wander for a bit trying to find the person who placed order #53, say. These, however, are the kinds of things that, when you like a place, you chalk up to growing pains. The staff will fix anything that’s not right, which is about all you can ask.

Jeff Igneri spent the last 15 years in the Providence area, at restaurants ranging from a tavern in North Attleboro to the Providence Westin. He came here to visit his girlfriend, a local, about six months ago and fell in love with the Pioneer Valley. He recruited his brothers from New York, where Chris was working front of the house at places like the Mesa Grill and Indigo. They scouted out locations, ultimately finding 16 Main on Craigslist. The Igneris spent three months fixing it up and opened in early January.

The three brothers are essentially living at the restaurant to put in the hours it needs. And Local Burger is a family affair. The gentleman you see helping out in the kitchen is their father.

It’s not like Northampton doesn’t have good burgers or even homemade ketchup (at the Toasted Owl directly across the street), but there’s a good feeling to Local Burgers. Some restaurant locations seem to be cursed # one place after another opens and closes in regular succession # until someone gets it right and lifts the curse. Panda East did that for its location in Amherst and Local Burger seems poised to do that in Northampton.

For now the brothers are working hard on getting things running smoothly rather than expanding the menu. They are CISA members and buy their potatoes from Szawlowski Farms in Hatfield, and they plan to use more local produce this summer in specials and side dishes. They are also looking into a beer and wine license.

Prices range from $4.99 for a basic burger to $8.99 for the Juicy Lucy (a 12-ounce patty stuffed with American cheese). Fries are $1.99 or $3.49, and onion rings are $3.79. There are wings and hot dogs as well as a kid’s meal. Fountain sodas are $1.79; bottled drinks, $1.95.

Local Burgers is open from 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Wednesday, and until 3 a.m. Thursday through Saturday. It takes Visa and Master Card and you can B.Y.O.B.

Originally published Daily Hampshire Gazette, February 6, 2009

Always on the lookout for good Italian food, I was eager to try BOTTEGA CUCINA (46 Morgan Road, West Springfield, 732-2500, www.bcucina.com), a small restaurant one block from the Showcase Cinemas in West Springfield.

We were a little early for our Friday-night reservation and the place was crowded. While we waited, I read the specials blackboard. Butternut squash ravioli with spicy cilantro butter, barramundi with a spicy pancetta stuffing, veal in pasta sauce # not your standard red-sauce menu. Looking over the sides –artichokes francais, sauteed rapini, cauliflower and butternut squash mix as well as green beans and a mushroom risotto – I started to get a very good feeling.

The feeling grew after we were seated. Our server managed to bring off the combination of friendly, helpful and unobtrusive. She was there to help us have a good time rather than become our new best friend. She ended up doing both.

The four of us ordered rather a lot of food, starting with the butternut squash ravioli and the mushroom crostini. The ravioli were clearly homemade, folded like tortelloni, and filled with a squash puree that was slightly sweet but was not seasoned like a pumpkin pie. The nutmeg-clove combo is a common failing among restaurants that don’t trust diners to enjoy the flavors of the squash itself. The sauce was a touch spicy, with hints of cilantro and a red cast that might have been some red bell pepper. The mushroom crostini were a surprise as well: button mushrooms in sauce, sitting on sautéed baguette slices. They tasted like they had been cooked in a combination of veal stock and Marsala, and finished with a bit of cream. It’s been awhile since I wanted to go home and recreate a restaurant dish, but those mushrooms are on the list. The salads were a nice mix of mesclun greens with homemade salad dressings.

Owners Phil Hillenbrand and Brian Aussant were determined to start small. The former chef and general manager, respectively, of Mulino’s in Northampton, their goal was to recreate the experience of the original Mulino’s, on Center Street. I’d say they are just fine being themselves.

Italian restaurants tend to break into two categories: southern Italian red sauce places, serving tomato sauce and pasta with the familiar Parmesans, meatballs and so on, and northern Italian white sauce places with risottos and rich brown and white sauces. Bottega has a good balance of both.

For starters, we split an order of Bilancio (Italian for balance), strips of smoked ham and chicken and spinach lightly dressed in a tomato ricotta sauce and served over shell pasta. The ham gave the dish a slightly smoky taste, the pasta was exactly al dente and the whole was more than we could finish, knowing what was coming up.

Our entrees included the barramundi with spicy pancetta stuffing, chicken picatta, the veal and pasta special, and porchetta, a double pork chop topped with a honey, apple, Gorgonzola and walnut stuffing. Each was cooked exactly right # the pasta, again, was al dente, the pork juicy, the chicken piccata featuring several nice scallopini in a lemon caper sauce.

The sides were good, too. A cauliflower mix was cooked perfectly; the artichokes francais were tender and flavorful; the rapini was sautéed just until the edges were crispy; the risotto tasted dark and mushroomy. The only part of the dinner that I thought was unnecessary were the stuffings: Neither the barramundi nor the pork needed them.

For dessert Bottega Cucina serves traditional choices # crème brulee, tiramisu # but we decided to try coconut-flecked cheesecake served on a pool of strawberry sauce. A dense New York-style cheesecake would have finished us off, and this airy version was a perfect ending.

Chef Phil Hillenbrand is a local boy. After graduating from the culinary program at Smith Voke, he went on to the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y., then returned to the area to cook at Mulino’s, the Deerfield Inn and the Silk Road Café. Brian Aussant worked in various social service agencies, including a Department of Mental Health gig where he was the kitchen manager, supervising clients who helped prepare meals for other clients and staff. At Mulino’s, he started in the kitchen, went on to book bands for Bishop’s Lounge and eventually ended up as general manager for all three of Tony Bishop’s places # Mulino’s, Bishop’s Lounge and Brasserie 40-A # when they opened on Pearl Street.

Hillenbrand and Aussant wanted their next venture to be their own. They started small intentionally, a move that looks prescient today, when the restaurant industry is feeling the economic pinch. “We’re paying the bills and paying our salaries and doing what we love to do,” Aussant told me.

Bottega Cucina is a member of CISA (Community Involved in Supporting Agriculture) and much of its produce comes from local operations like Red Fire Farm in Granby. Virtually all the food it serves is made in-house, including the stocks and sauces. “Why go to restaurant school if you’re just going to buy stuff?” says Hillenbrand.

Appetizers run from $4.50 to $9.50. Pastas are $7 (for butter and cheese) to $16 (Bolognese or shrimp scampi). Entrees are $16 to $21 and include two sides. Desserts are $5 to $6. Bottega is open Tuesday through Saturday, and serves meals until 10 on Friday and Saturday nights, making it a great choice for an early movie and late dinner or vice versa. There are occasional wine dinners on Sunday nights. Bottega is also open for lunch, serving panini sandwiches and pizza-like flat breads.

Originally Published, Daily Hampshire Gazette, January 16,2009.

On a Monday night, I sit alone in the Sierra Grille, watching the room. There’s a lot of dark wood, a comfortable glow courtesy of the yellow tones to the lighting, and a relaxing buzz of conversation filling the air. Six women celebrating a birthday, a younger couple on what looks like the second or third date, a professional in a jacket and tie, his companion also dressed like she came directly from the office, and two women and two pre-teen sons fill the tables near me.

The SIERRA GRILLE (41 Strong Avenue, Northampton, 584-1150, www.sierragrille.net) opened in June 2006 in the space previously occupied by the high-end restaurant Brasserie 40-A. At first glance, it looks like a bar, but there’s no TV, and the food is a cut more interesting than standard bar food. While there are small bites and appetizers, panini and salads, the main attraction is the entree category: Not counting specials, there are nine proteins (ranging from chicken and duck to tuna and salmon, steak, pork and tempeh), nine sides (potatoes, rice, mac and cheese, various sautéed and grilled vegetables), and eight sauces (salsas, fruit barbecue, Thai coconut, red wine and mushroom reduction and more). You select your protein, two sides and a sauce # all for the price of the protein.

With 1,296 possibilities by my calculations (9*18*8), you’re likely to hit on a combination that pleases you. One night, I followed my server’s suggestion and paired the smoked pork tenderloin with ale caramelized onions and mushrooms, cheddar and caramelized onion smashed potatoes and the roasted yellow beets on special for a total of $15. The smoke and spice came through the onions pretty clearly, the potatoes were pure comfort, and if the beets seemed more steamed than roasted, well, they were still tasty. It was a nice dinner and I topped it off with a small mocha espresso pot du crème. The size is less decadent and the price # all desserts are $3 # lets you feel that you can always order another if you want more.

Owner O’Brian Tomalin, who also serves as culinary director, wants guests to have lots of choices. He managed the Amherst Brewery when it first opened, and created the burger page on its menu. You could select the basic burger (beef, turkey, buffalo, garden) and then customize it. As someone who sometimes selects an entrée based on the sides, I appreciate being able to mix and match. Not that every pairing is inspired. On another night at Sierra Grille, I ordered duck breast with fruit barbecue sauce. What was I thinking? My companion had the scallop special with the citrus salsa, which worked more successfully. The mac and cheese and sautéed string bean sides were nothing special, but exactly what the simple names suggest. I want to come back for the Belgian fries with aioli or homemade ketchup, which I passed up in some misguided attempt at more healthy dining. Ditto for the dessert beignets.

Sierra Grille is my stepson’s favorite restaurant. “I never get the entrees,” he told me, ever the contrarian. “I get the appetizers and maybe the panini.” It’s that kind of place, with something for everyone. Wine by the glass is offered in 2-ounce samples as well as 6-ounce pours and the beer comes in 8-, 16- and 20-ounce glasses, making it easy to try something new. I don’t spend a lot of time in bars these days, but I can see bellying up to this one, trying a few beers with some appetizers. In Europe, “gastropub” denotes a bar whose food is designed to complement the food. It’s not a popular term in the States, where it sounds more like an intestinal disorder, but the Sierra Grille aims in that direction.

Tomalin’s first food job was pushing a coffee cart when he was 12. His family moved to the Maine coast when he was in high school and he began waiting on tables, graduating to the white tablecloth Porcupine Grill in Bar Harbor. His attitude toward customers began to crystallize there, he told me. A patron sent Tomalin for some A-1 sauce to put on a steak already sauced with a shiitake demi-glace. In the kitchen, Tomalin made a disparaging comment about the customer’s request. The chef took him aside and set him straight: While the dish was the chef’s creation, once it left the kitchen, “if [the customer] wants to put peanut butter on it, he can. It’s his dish.” It’s a refreshing attitude.

After working as a screenwriter, driver, personal assistant and general contractor in addition to his restaurant work, Tomalin followed his daughter and her mother to the Pioneer Valley in the mid-1990s. His stint managing Amherst Brewing and designing its menu led him to open the Sierra Grille in 2006. He doesn’t cook there, but the recipes and the menu are his.

Sierra Grille’s menu is part of a trend known as “accommodating cuisine,” which was featured in a recent American Culinary Federation Quarterly article on the new approach to bar food. In an economy where restaurants are hurting, Sierra Grille is aiming to counter that by offering something for everyone. Plus it’s got another feature I always appreciate: a large window that opens into the kitchen. When you can see the kitchen, I figure, a restaurant has nothing to hide.

Appetizers range from $4 to $6, entrees from $14 to $18, panini from $6 to $8; and all the desserts, again, are just $3. There is an extensive beer and wine list.

Orginally published Daily Hampshire Gazette, December 5, 2008

Reusing and repurposing older buildings is one of those trends that makes good sense these days. Open Square in Holyoke is turning an older mill into a multipurposed set of offices, condos, eateries and artists’ spaces. The old jail in Northampton is now residential condos. And the former Basketball Hall of Fame building along Springfield’s riverfront is home to LA Fitness and the high-end restaurant, ONYX FUSION BAR & RESTAURANT.

ONYX, located at 1150 W. Columbus Ave. (730-6699, www.onyxfusion.com), is the brainchild of businessmen Peter Pappas and Michael Spagnoli. They had a lot of space to work with and they used it well, creating a three-tiered restaurant, bar and tables on the first floor, tables on the second with the open kitchen, and a third-floor function space. Over 80 percent of the construction demolition was recycled and Pappas and Spagnoli have done a lot to limit water consumption, including building a water retention pond on the roof of the structure.

The Onyx partners come from restaurant backgrounds. Pappas’ father and uncle used to run the Red Barn, a well-known night club in Chicopee from the 1950s through the ’70s. Spagnoli’s family ran The Hollywood Café in Springfield’s South End from 1938 until 1987, when the building was taken by the city.

Pappas honed his business skills in a series of multinational businesses. Currently, he owns and runs Alliance Group, an industrial import and export company with ties to Australia and the Pacific Rim. Spagnoli, a chiropractor, owns Trillium Sports Medicine.

On a recent night at Onyx, a series of Hawaiian scenes swooped across the wall of video screens behind the bar, while on another night, a series of psychedelic patterns swirled, fortunately without sound. The restaurant, shiny and glittery in black and tones of bronze and gold, has a very urban feel to it.

Along with redevelopment, Asian fusion is another laudable trend.

Executive Chef Isaac Bancaco was born in Maui and graduated from Portland, Oregon’s Western Culinary Institute, mixing Hawaiian style with traditional French techniques. He has cooked at Blue Ginger with Ming Tsai and L.A.’s James Beard-award-winning chef Roy Yamaguchi. He brought with him sous chef Lingo John Quichocho, who is from Guam.

Their cuisine combines Japanese with Hawaiian and mainland cooking.

Like the sushi. On one night, I opted for the Poke, pronounced pokeh, ($12.95) which is a combination of diced ahi tuna mixed with sesame oil and some hot pepper. It was served on a seaweed and bean sprout salad that was both plentiful and good. On another visit, we tried the seared tuna with grapefruit, four slices of pepper-crusted tuna that was closer to medium rare, but well sauced.

There are other appetizers. The fried calamri ($10.95) was crisp and greaseless, flecked with scallion greens. It paired well with the Poke. My online research had turned up several negative comments about the crab cakes ($12.95) so I ordered them, of course. The crab was shredded and mixed with the filling, but the cakes were well cooked and sat on a drizzle of spicy hot oil partnered with a mayonnaise sauce. The hot oil brings a nice heat to the crispy cakes, and while they’re not the chunks of crabmeat seasoned with Old Bay that you expect in Maryland, they are better than the reviews suggested.

My wife looked longingly at the Onyx Wedge salad ($7.95), a wedge of iceburg lettuce, a “bacon roseate,” blue cheese and candied pecans , but opted for the Ahi Caesar Salad ($11.95), which was a good Caeser with four slices of ahi, nicely seared this time. On my second visit, I tried the wedge salad and it was good. The blue cheese was smooth and creamy and a far cry from the biting commercial grade you often see.

We were not offered bread and given the amount of fish protein we ingested on both visits, began joking about a “carb-free zone.” When I asked the waiter at the end of one dinner, he said Onyx had great bread, “We make it here. All you need to do is ask.” Given the portions, which are typically quite ample, you may not need it, but keep the thought in mind in case you miss it.

For dinner one night, my wife chose the Kiawe planked salmon ($25) which arrived on a small alder plank with white rice topped with sesame seeds and some baby bok choy seasoned nicely with ginger. The salmon, sprinkled with Hawaiian salt, tasted salty, but was well cooked and fresh. I had a veal porter house ($29), a large T-boned chop with good seasoning and a taste of the grill. It was rare rather than the medium rare I specified and sat on a dressed-greens and halved-cherry-tomato salad that was slightly and agreeably wilted from the heat of the chop. Unnecessary blue cheese accompanied the dish.

One of the seafood dishes is “Just off the Jet” Fresh Hawaiian Fish ($35). On both nights, our servers described it as being speared the night before and jetted to Hartford in the morning. The fish, kajiki, which seems to be in season, is a type of marlin that is very similar to swordfish. The carbon footprint of the dish is pretty large and it would have worked equally well with swordfish or perhaps even striped bass. The sauce was outstanding. A coconut milk and sesame oil with some hot pepper heat sat on a shrimp, sweet potato, red bell pepper and red onion “hash” that was loose enough to mix into the sauce. Some enoki mushrooms were scattered through the dish.

My companion had the short ribs osso bucco style ($27), the only fusion being the mixture of shiitaki, button and enoki mushrooms on the veal demi-glace. It was a little dry, and makes me think that the best dishes at Onyx are the fish or the Hawaiian style dishes. There is a teriyaki beef that I’d like to try, since my guess is the sauce won’t come out of a bottle.

For desserts, which hover around $7, there is bread pudding, apple crisp and a crème brulee with some almond extract in the custard. The coffee is Kona, although not especially strong.

My question about Springfield’s whole riverfront redevelopment plan is what to do after dinner. You can move to Onyx’s bar to continue drinking and talking. On Tuesday and Friday nights there is often live music and dancing. I don’t know how practical it is to eat before the symphony, a play, or a movie, unless you want to start eating at 5 or hurry through a good meal. To me it’s the kind of place that works as a good start to an evening if you are bound for a party or a get-together with friends, or simply headed home to wait for Saturday Night Live’s latest take on the election.

Originally published, Daily Hampshire Gazette, Friday, October 17, 2008

Pizza is as American as apple pie. That is to say, it is a dish that immigrated to America, became domesticated, and evolved to meet our tastes and use our ingredients. The first pizza place in the United States, Lombardi’s, on Spring Street in New York’s Little Italy, opened in 1905. Among Lombardi’s innovations was the slice: Instead of buying an entire pie, you could buy a wedge. Pizza is quintessentially a street food: a quick lunch or a quick snack often eaten standing up or on the go. Thomas Edison invented waxed paper, providing the folded sheet on which your slice is typically served in New York.

One of the foods I mourned when I left New York was a good slice of pizza. Outside the city, Greek-style pizza seemed to predominate, featuring a thicker crust, cooked in a round pan with short sides, and cut with a massive two-handled knife, sometimes into squares which created a plaid effect, but rendered the inner slices too floppy to eat and the outer slices devoid of toppings. In the mid-1980s, Dicarlo’s in Amherst was one of the first places to offer slices of good, Italian-style pizza and I had lunch there once a week until it expanded into a restaurant and folded.

After Antonio’s opened in Amherst and Pinocchio’s opened in Northampton, slice pizza went psychedelic, locally. Instead of simple cheese or pepperoni, these shops offered 20 kinds with toppings too numerous to list. Antonio’s appeal can be summed up by this online comment by Natasha B.: “Who knew a NYer like me could enjoy something as unholy as buffalo chicken pizza?”

RECENTLY I decided to survey some local pizza places to find the slice I liked best. Full disclosure: My tastes run to a thin, floppy crust, cheese served so hot that it’s molten, and enough oil on the surface to need blotting. I limited the choice to cheese-only to level the playing field. My dream of trying every pizza restaurant in the Pioneer Valley quickly fell apart, but I visited all the places I could manage to get to. Mary Nelen, who writes the Valley Locavore blog (www.valleylocavore.blogspot.com), consented to put aside her determination to eat only foods grown within 100 miles and accompanied me on the quest.

We started at PRIMO ONE in Hadley (103 Russell St.). I have always liked its pizza and Fonzi, the manager, is used to my requests for “really hot.” The crust was crispy, and the top was soft and moist where it blended with the tomato sauce. The cheese was hot and runny and had dots of oil on it. Mary agreed that the pizza was pretty good. The slice was $2.

Next, we moved to Northampton. First stop was SAM’S (235 Main St.), a new place that has sprung up in the former Bart’s and Quiznos. The slices arrived hot, but slightly burnt at the edges. The cheese had the requisite oil dots, but was blander than the others we tried. The sauce was sweeter. The crust separated into two layers, a crisp bottom with a lot of cornmeal (used to help slide the pie into and out of the oven) and a breadier top bonded to the cheese and sauce. It was $3 per slice.

PINOCCHIO’S (122 Main St.) has a full range of multi-ingredient pizzas, but the simplest choice, plain cheese at $2.10, was a keeper. Oil glistened on the cheese, which had the best flavor of any I sampled. The sauce was great, with marinara-like flavor. The crust was thin and crisp, and the cheese flowed up and over the folded slice as I munched. Thoroughly satisfying.

The next day, I tried two more Northampton pizza places. LUNA (88 Pleasant St.) offered a cheese slice at $2.49 that was what I think of as designer-style pizza # pies that feature nontraditional ingredients. The crust was thinner and crispier and there was a lot of sweet tomato sauce. Good cheese, and oil dotting the surface, but not as much of it.

MIMMO’S PIZZA (71 Pleasant St.) has the largest slice you will find anywhere (and the biggest crowds we encountered). At $2.89, my wedge was easily a sixth of a large pie. It had a thin crust, and was not overly crisp. It was also hot enough to be dangerous to eat, especially given its size and the amount of melted cheese. But the generous size also meant that the crust got breadier the closer it got to the edge. Mimmo’s left me wondering: How can they offer that much pizza at that price?

I hadn’t eaten at ANTONIO’S in Amherst (31 N. Pleasant St.) for a long time since the pizza was never served hot enough for my liking. Instead, I usually get slices to go and heat them on a pizza stone in the oven at home. So I was pleased when my pizza arrived with the cheese nicely melted. The slice had a crisp crust, and not a lot of the cornmeal I remembered from past visits; the sauce had good tomato flavor and was a trifle acidic. The cheese was blander than Pinocchio’s and the crust got thicker as it reached the edge, but overall the slice was much better than I was expecting. It was $2.

Mary recommended HILLSIDE PIZZA in South Deerfield (265 Greenfield Road) as the final stop, and raved about their butternut squash pizza. Politely, I put aside my immediate reaction (Yucch! Butternut squash on a pizza?), and met her there for lunch. The all-organic, cheese-only slice ($2.50) arrived hot, but the crust was breadier than I wanted and there was a touch too much oregano in the sauce. The butternut squash, red onion and asiago-almond pesto ($3) was the only non-cheese pizza I ate on this expedition. The boys from 149th Street are no doubt chortling about my defection, but the slice was surprisingly good.

Originally published Daily Hampshire Gazette, Friday, November 7, 2008

Southeast Asian food fits the way we eat today: more vegetables, less meat, interesting spices. Instead of a sandwich or a salad, noodle soups and rice dishes combine strong flavors with meat, tofu or seafood and vegetables. In Northampton, NOODLES (257 Main St., 587-4070) opened in May in the location most recently vacated by Andiamo. This summer, I found myself eating lunch there again and again. Even in the summer, a bowl of the Beef Stew Noodle Soup or Roasted Pork and Wonton Noodle Soup or the Tom Yum Shrimp Noodle Soup combined comforting broth, good flavors and enough vegetables to make me feel virtuous.

In restaurants in Thailand and Vietnam, noodle soups are common. In Thailand, they often come with small dishes of hot sauce, raw peppers, onions, fish sauce and the like, so the soup can be customized according to the diner’s preferences. No place in the area offers that yet, but there are a number of noodle soup outposts: Pho Saigon in Springfield is wildly popular, although a Pho in Amherst struggled for a year before succumbing to a bad location and the unfamiliarity of the dish. Crazy Noodles and FreshSide, both in Amherst, also offer noodles and soups.

Pho (pronounced “fuh” as in the French pot-au-feu, from which it derives) is a Vietnamese dish. Noodles is Thai, a distinction that may be lost to us in the States but is very real. Started by Nudchanard Kittitrakul and Navaporn Zivasatianrach, both Thai expatriates, Noodles in Northampton offers reasonably authentic noodle and rice dishes which Zivasatianrach has adapted to American ingredients and tastes. “Watercress is different in the States; it’s crunchier,” she offers, “and we use small red onions which are much hotter than American white onions.” The dishes also tend to include spinach, bean sprouts and Chinese broccoli.

Zivasatianrach, who also owns Siam Square restaurants in Northampton and Great Barrington, was not a cook in Thailand, but became one when she came to the States 20 years ago. She opened Thai restaurants in New Haven and Providence, then sold them when she moved to this area to open Siam Square in Northampton in 1997, hiring Kittitrakul to work there. The Great Barrington outpost followed in 2002. Kittitrakul now handles the day-to-day management of Noodles and fills in as waitress, cook and cashier as necessary.

The two women came up with their new venture after noticing the open storefront on Main Street last winter. Their lease prevents them from frying or using gas ranges, so the simmering of pots of broth is a perfect marriage of location to concept. Noodles is the kind of low-key place that you want to duck into for lunch, or a quick dinner before moving on to something else.

So what should you order? The first dish I tried was the Beef Stew Noodle Soup, which combines tender beef chunks and small rice noodles in a dark broth. It was tasty and oddly filling. I say oddly because you tend to think of a bowl of clear soup as a first course or light snack. But the noodles provide enough bulk for a satisfying lunch.

I’ve had a number of noodle soups here, from the Pink Lady Noodle Soup (fish balls, fish cakes, shrimp, squid and spinach) to the Roasted Duck Noodle Soup (flat noodles with chunks of flavorful roast duck and spinach) to the Roasted Pork and Wonton Noodle Soup (roast pork, Chinese broccoli, wontons and noodles). Each combines some form of noodles in a broth (there are four) with the advertised protein and some greens or bean sprouts. I’m not as fond of the fish balls and fish cakes, which are similar to the artificial crab surimi that is ubiquitous these days in seafood salads.

Like every Asian restaurateur I have spoken with, Zivasatianrach notes that Americans do not like hot foods, so she has toned down the hot pepper in these dishes. Sriracha hot sauce is available for those who want it and the restaurant can always increase the heat of a particular dish on request.

I’ve also had the summer rolls, which are shredded vegetables and shrimp wrapped in rice paper with a traditional dipping sauce. The Larb of Chiang Mai is minced chicken, cooked but served at room temperature on a salad. I plan to move on to the rice dishes, especially Karees (Thai-style curries).

Noodles has no liquor license – another term of its lease – but soft drinks include a coconut soda with tiny chunks of coconut floating in the bottle. I recommend drinking the soda directly from the bottle to get at the chunks more easily. The restaurant also has Thai iced tea, a floral-flavored brew drizzled with sweetened condensed milk to provide a swirling cloud of white as it mixes with the tea.

Noodles is open seven days a week, from 11:30 a.m. to closing, generally around 9 p.m. Prices range from $4.95 to $5.25 for appetizers and $7.50 to $9 for entrees.

If you are in Amherst and hungry for noodles, stop by CRAZY NOODLES (36 Main St., 253-3287), which aims to cover the range of noodle dishes from Italy to Thailand. I am partial to its Asian noodle dishes – Pad Thai, Sunshine noodles, Red Devil (red curry/coconut sauce) and Vietnamese noodles. The prices hover between $10.95 and $14.95, depending on the dish and whether you choose shrimp, beef or tofu.

Also in Amherst, FRESHSIDE (39 South Pleasant St., http://freshsideamherst.com) offers noodle soups, noodles and rice dishes. I particularly like the tea rolls, especially the Vietnamese and Thai, which combine shredded vegetables in a thin wheat flour wrap. Outstanding.

Originally published in Daily Hampshire Gazette, Sept 19, 2008.

When I made dinner reservations at the Worthington Inn and Café (Four Corners Farm, Worthington, 238-4441), chef/owner Deb Shaw – who didn’t know me, and didn’t know that I would be writing about her place – wanted to chat about what I knew about the inn, what I wanted to eat, etc. I had to change the reservation several times, as dinner companions dropped out or were added. Each time, Shaw was curious about the people she would be cooking for.

When we arrived on a Saturday night, with five adults and two children in tow, we were seated in the dining room at a long tavern-style table. Everyone else was out on the porch. “Usually we put people outside and let them come in around dusk if the mosquitoes are bad. We tried to fit you on the porch, but it didn’t work,” Kim, our waitress (and Deb’s sister), explained apologetically. Hannah, the mother of the children in our party, assured her this was better, since she worries about disturbing others with the enthusiasms of Violet, her 4-year-old. Violet’s 8-month-old sister, Eve, usually sleeps through dinner.

Kim brought over the menu, a 4-foot high blackboard, and leaned it against a chair. There were five offerings that evening and five of us, so we ordered one of each. For Violet, Kim said she’d ask the chef to make a grilled cheese sandwich or some other kid-friendly meal. The Worthington Inn is BYOB, and we were offered a set of wine glasses and a corkscrew, plus a beer glass for the lone beer-drinker in our group.

The inn, a converted farmhouse built in 1780, is furnished in classic New England style, and it was pleasant to be in the dining room, listening to jazz standards on a CD player. Violet sat at one end of the table, drawing assiduously while the rest of us tucked into a salad served family-style. The salad, torn romaine lettuce, chickpeas, diced bell peppers and red onions, was dressed with a homemade balsamic vinaigrette and served with warm sourdough bread.

Dining out while on the job involves a lot of sharing of plates, and when our entrees arrived (all accompanied by haricots verts) we passed them around. We each settled on a different favorite. I liked the two thick pork chops, served with a sauce that was richly flavored with apricots and rosemary. Another diner in our party favored the salmon filet cooked with ginger glaze and served with a cilantro pesto and rice. Cooked shrimp on onion-corn risotto were devoured immediately, and a filet mignon with mushrooms and a compound butter came medium rare as requested and lasted about as long as the shrimp did. But the standout, we agreed, was the duck confit. The dish is made from a leg of duck simmered in duck fat, but it arrived crisp and not at all greasy, accompanied by a dark sauce and a rice and plum tart that disappeared quickly as we sent it down the table.

Everything disappeared quickly, in fact. We left nothing on our plates except for some pork bones and shrimp tails.

Violet’s grilled cheese, by the way, was made from Gruyere. She ate three bites, leaving the rest of us to scarf down the remainder.

When a server asks me if I have room for dessert, I always do: It’s one of the duties of this job. We ordered a blueberry crème brûlée, a chocolate torte, a flan and two coffees. The coffee – and it was good coffee – arrived family-style in the largest French press I’ve ever seen. Among the desserts, the standout was the crème brûlée, which came topped with a quarter-inch of caramelized sugar.

Deb Shaw and her husband Joe, have run the Worthington Inn as a B and B for more than 20 years. It was only last summer, however, that Shaw decided to offer dinners. She works as a freelance graphic artist in New York, and she says that after going back and forth to the city, cooking has become a way to relax. She gained most of her culinary experience growing up in a large family. “There were seven children and I was near the top,” she says, “so I got nabbed to cook.” She has a good palate and is interested in food.

During our initial conversation, after learning I was from Amherst, she asked about restaurants in that area. I recommended one that serves French-style fare, and when I called after our dinner for a brief conversation, Shaw had already eaten there and was eager to talk about the food.

Worthington is something of a drive from, well, pretty much everywhere, but the Worthington Inn and Café is worth the trip. The grounds are nicely kept and dinner on the porch will still be pleasant for another few weeks at least. Dinner is served on Friday and Saturday nights only and a reservation is requested. The restaurant does not take credit cards, so make sure to bring cash or a check. Dinners range from $21 to $28, and desserts are $5.

Thanks to reader Darlene Millman, whose recommendation sparked the visit.

If you find yourself in Worthington on a weeknight, I’d recommend another treasure, LISTONS BAR AND GRILL on Old North Road (238-5353). In the 1950s it was a gas station and today it’s a roadhouse, with a bar, TVs and a dining room. Great hamburgers and, if you arrive on a Thursday, liver and onions: a thin slab of beef liver, expertly cooked with plenty of sautéed onions, brown gravy and mashed potatoes.

Originally printed, Daily Hampshire Gazette, Friday, September 5, 2008

Given the cost of gas and the current economic climate, you may find yourself staying close to home this summer. There is no shortage of things to do in the Pioneer Valley and probably no shortage of things to do around the house as well.

That’s all well and good, but sometimes you’ve just gotta say “road trip.” And, often in the same breath, “barbecue.” Bub’s is good, but when you want a trip longer than the drive to Sunderland, you’ll want to think Curtis. That is, Curtis’ Ninth Wonder of the World Barbeque in Putney, Vt., and its sister restaurant, Curtis’ All American Restaurant in Chester, Vt.

The relative merits of ribs versus pork shoulder versus beef brisket can start a fight pretty much anywhere in the United States. (Chicken is always an afterthought, and sausages, no matter how good, are more of an appetizer.) Curtis competes in the rib category so we’ll limit our discussion to ribs. Some rules apply: If you parboil your ribs before cooking, you automatically lose. If you apply the sauce too soon, your ribs burn. To tell if a rib is truly done, squeeze between two bones. The meat should be tender and juicy and pull off the bone with just a touch of resistance.

Putney is just north of Brattleboro at Exit 4 of Route 91. Curtis’ Ninth Wonder of the World Barbeque (802-387-5474; www.curtisbbqvt.com) is located on Route 5 north right next to the Mobil station. Curtis Tuff came to Putney about 50 years ago and started working at the Green Mountain Orchards. Some teachers at the Putney School asked him to help barbecue a pig for one of their events and one thing led to another. In 1978, he opened the Ninth Wonder Barbeque, housed in two blue school buses that he used to take his ‘que on the road.

The pit is off one of the buses and the ribs and chicken are passed inside to be portioned out. Once you get your meal, you take it to a picnic table. Sides include corn muffins, baked beans, collard greens, cole slaw and potato salad. There is no beer or wine, but there is a line of Curtis’ bottled sodas. This year, Every Day With Rachael Ray magazine named Curtis’ sauce the best hot and spicy sauce in the country.

Curtis’ ribs go from package to grill, with no parboiling or marinating involved, and they have a good smoke flavor. The sauce goes on at the end, producing a dark red burnish. When Curtis himself is cooking, say on a Saturday afternoon, the ribs are hot and the sauce is red and spicy. Once the ribs cool off, the smoke flavor can get a little creosote-y unless they are reheated well, which is typical of barbecued meat.

Three out of four of us thought the chicken was a little dry; the holdout was my wife, a Southern girl to the last, who likes her fowl well-done. Compared to Bub’s Hot Bar, being charged for each side seems miserly, but you’ll want to order a few just to round out the meal. Curtis’ baked beans are first-rate, just toothy enough to let you know they’re homemade. The collards are well cooked, but they could use a little vinegar or hot sauce to perk up the flavor. The corn muffin is sweet and moist.

Curtis’ is open Wednesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. until dusk, from early April through the end of October. I’d suggest driving up on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon. The food is served hotter and the sides taste better on the weekend.

If you’re feeling adventurous and it’s a nice day, you may want to try Chester. However, if hunger overtakes you on the way, or you need an appetizer, I highly recommend FAT FRANKS in Bellows Falls (92 Rockingham St., Bellows Falls, 802-463-4388). Its tag line, The Wurst Place in Bellows Falls, tells you all you need to know. Do not make the mistake, as I did, of calling the gentleman behind the counter Frank. His name is Jim and the restaurant gets its name from the size of its hot dogs. When you walk in, you are confronted by a case of Italian, lamb, Andouille and other locally made sausages as well as a menu with a half dozen variations on the frankfurter and hamburger. The sausage case always sidetracks me so I have yet to taste the frankfurters, which I bet are excellent. The lamb sausage topped with caramelized onions is worth the detour.

The Chester restaurant is off Exit 6, on Route 103 South. There are signs inside the restaurant with three or four names for the place, but Curtis’ All American Restaurant seems to be the official one. It’s located at 908 Route 103, Chester, 802-875-6999 (www.curtisbbqvt.com/NewPlace.html).

The restaurant is owned by Curtis’ daughter, Sarah Tuff, and her fiancée, Chris Parker. The day we stopped there, Sarah and Chris were off serving barbecue at an all-day music festival, but we ate there anyway. I’m glad we did. I’m going to go out on a limb here and recommend the restaurant in Chester over the stand in Putney.

Curtis’ All American Restaurant is on the way to the Okemo ski area and does most of its business in the winter, meaning that you can satisfy those mid-winter barbecue cravings.There is pulled pork and, on Fridays, beef brisket. And there is sweet tea. Nothing beats homemade sweet tea with barbecue unless it is beer, which the restaurant also sells. But, based on subjective taste tests and the presumption that many of the sides are probably made in one place and trucked to the other, I think the food is better at the restaurant. The ribs are big and meaty, and reheated properly. The chicken is juicier. And the counter help is far, far friendlier.

Besides, you can drop in at the VERMONT COUNTRY STORE (www.vermontcountrystore.com) on Route 103 on your way back. A mixture of tourist-kitsch and old-style New England sundries, it truly has something for everyone (I bought authentic soda crackers) and a stop there will give the barbecue a chance to settle.

Originally published, Daily Hampshire Gazette, Friday, July 18, 2008

Drive down the main street in Old Deerfield and you pass house after house that has endured since the 17th century. The mustard and robin’s egg blue homes are painted as they would have been before the Greek Revival of the 19th century covered New England in white, yet there are electric lights and indoor plumbing. Stop in front of the Deerfield Inn and the sight of a Prius and an SUV side-by-side highlights this combination of the old and the new.

The Deerfield Inn opened in 1884, just two years before Emily Dickinson died. It is a working inn with 23 rooms and a dining room that hearkens back to the 19th century in style and the 21st in amenities. Asheley St. Claire III, the inn’s newest chef de cuisine, has mixed the menu in much the same way. Meat and potatoes, French onion soup, and Indian pudding are still on the menu, but they have been updated: the filet mignon ($29) is wrapped in bacon and served with a port wine Gorgonzola sauce, the potatoes are Yukon golds, mashed with their skins, and the Indian pudding ($6) is a smooth rendition of the Yankee classic topped with vanilla ice cream.

Chef St. Claire brings an impressive resume to the inn. A native of Trinidad and Tobago, he studied at the L’Ecole Hotelier in Switzerland, then spent eight years in various kitchens in Europe. In addition to the basic chef skills, he developed the passion that top chefs bring to their restaurants, and St. Claire wants everything in the Deerfield Inn to reflect that, from the way guests are greeted to the ingredients he uses.

After eight years abroad, St. Claire moved first to Trinidad and cruise ships, then to the United States where he cooked at various venues in Miami, New York and Connecticut. Wanting a new direction in life, he became an ordained minister, like his father. However, when the position at the Deerfield Inn came available, he jumped back into the kitchen. The style of cooking there suits him: traditional haute cuisine with some updating of the classics.

St. Claire has only been at the inn since June, yet he has begun to make his mark. Stocks are homemade. Potatoes are mashed with the skins, which adds both texture and the reminder that these are not made from a mix. He makes the soups himself, serving a variety of hot and cold creations in the summer. The sauces are rich, well-reduced and intensely flavorful. He says he tries to buy as much as he can locally, and plans his menus to coincide with the seasons.

Each meal begins with an amuse-bouche, a little dish compliments of the chef, to whet the appetite. On our last visit, this was a shiitake mushroom and onion sauté on a crostini. It disappeared quickly and served its purpose: We were all suddenly ravenous. A server doled out slices of bread, sourdough, focaccia or cranberry, accompanied by a small plate containing olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Four piped swirls of butter also sat in the plate, allowing you to select your topping. The bread was refilled upon request, the olive oil wasn’t.

Our appetizers included the French onion soup ($7), redolent of a good beef stock and topped with Gruyere cheese that stretched forever as my companion lifted a spoonful for me to try. We also had a good New England clam chowder ($7), a portobello pizza ($7) and crab cakes ($11). The crab cakes, commendably, contained more crab than breading. The remoulade was more in the French style than its spicy Cajun cousin.

The rack of lamb ($32) is four ribs, served with snow peas, baby carrots and turnips in a smooth sauce sweetened with a touch of Kahlua and Vidalia onions. St. Claire tends to err on the side of under cooking rather than overcooking: Our order of roasted duck breast ($27), which was accompanied by a good apricot brandy sauce, was served rare. We asked that it be cooked a little longer and it came back perfect. If your tastes run to medium or well, it is best to let your server know.

The Indian pudding was one of the best versions I’ve ever had, sweet without being cloying and clove scented without being overwhelming, a scoop of vanilla ice cream adding a creamy touch. The chocolate mousse cake ($6.50) was rich and chocolaty yet light. You can get an espresso or cappuccino or an after-dinner drink as well.

There is a full wine list that ranges from $30 to $90 or more. The bar also makes a range of martinis and provides a full set of spirits.

A night out at the inn is not inexpensive. With appetizers, desserts, a decent bottle of wine and a tip, dinner for two can easily run to $150. But the beautifully set tables, the heavy flatware and the room, papered in a strawberry floral print, all speak to a certain old-style of elegance. We were not rushed through dinner and we lingered over our coffee until we felt it was time to leave.

The Deerfield Inn is next to the Deerfield Academy and it is easy to picture old money and rich foreigners dropping their progeny at the school with a send-off dinner at the inn. It is just as easy to picture diners stopping in on an October night after a leaf tour of Franklin County or on a snowy evening in January. On a warm summer night, guests sit on the porch as they have probably done for 100 years.

The inn’s blend of the old with a touch of the modern is classic New England.

Originally published Daily Hampshire Gazette,  August 15, 2008

When the lease at Northampton’s Panda Garden was not renewed last year, chef Richard Lau looked around for another venue. The building on Route 9 in Hadley that had most recently housed the All Fired Up restaurant came available, and Lau found a new home. Leaving much of the inside untouched except for new coats of soft blue, green and red paint, Lau opened BUTTERFLY RESTAURANT (48 Russell St., 585-8989; www.butterflyhadley.com) in July 2007.

Lau got his start in cooking years ago in Hong Kong, where his culinary education came from three teachers, two trained in Sichuan cuisine and one in the Hong Kong style. He honed his skills in Hong Kong and Taiwan, and then, after he immigrated to the United States in 1982, in the New York tristate area. He came to the Pioneer Valley in 1985 to open Panda Garden in partnership with financial backers. Butterfly gave him the opportunity to go out on his own.

Named after a restaurant in which Lau worked when he first came to the States, Butterfly is a big operation. A first glance at the menu leads to the question, which menu? There are four: a Sichuan menu, a Japanese and sushi menu, a gourmet menu and a vegetarian “meat” menu. This last, an expansion of the seitan dishes Lau offered at Panda Garden, uses wheat gluten and flavorings to simulate beef, pork and chicken. The gourmet menu is filled with the Cantonese-style dishes Lau learned in Hong Kong when he first became a restaurant cook.

In addition to its restaurant operation, Butterfly does a lot of catering. Lau’s culinary training in Hong Kong included the art of vegetable carving, and photos of some of his creations adorn the entrance. He has standing orders for the carvings from the Boston International Seafood Show, as well as from local enthusiasts. Who can resist whole elaborately carved melons or daikon animals?

The familiar Sichuan dishes at Butterfly are well made. The hot and sour soup is dark and flavorful, but not especially hot or vinegary. The Kung Pao Chicken, which combines dried red peppers with chicken, celery, peanuts and sometimes green pepper, is the best reading of the dish I’ve had in this area. The sauce is a little richer with some overtones of five-spice powder and the toasted taste of red peppers. “You have to put the peppers into a hot wok,” Lau explains. “If you put them in cold, you don’t get the flavor.”

I may be jaded, but Butterfly’s gourmet menu is where the action is. An appetizer of Spicy Dry Fried Salted Squid arrives on a bed of chopped scallions, red and green peppers, and lettuce. The squid is agreeably chewy, salty and crisp, with enough hot pepper taste for some heat. I have a friend who insists on comparing squid to garden hoses long past any humor the comparison might have once had. If I could stand the jokes one more time, I’d feed him these and let him see that chewy isn’t rubbery.

Dr. Chen’s Herbal Energy Soup is a clear broth stewed with chicken, Chinese yam and a variety of ingredients that come from traditional Chinese medicine. The taste is of a good chicken stock with some medicinal overtones, reminiscent of Sichuan peppercorns. Lau got the recipe from a friend who is an herbalist. Perhaps it was the acupuncture session I’d had before dinner, but I did feel more energetic for the rest of the evening.

The menu has its share of translation issues. What exactly is Crispy Fried Roast Duck? I had the Creaky Chicken, which was sliced white-meat chicken sautéed with ginger slices and a slightly sweet sauce that reminded me of the sauce you sometimes get on a whole Hunan-style fish. The chicken was cooked just right: dense and toothsome without being the least bit dry. An order of Wontons in Sesame Sauce, on the other hand, was a little too watery to have much sesame flavor.

I’ve always maintained that, based on most Chinese restaurants, you’d think China had few vegetables other than bok choy and snow peas. And when you do get some Chinese greens, it is rare to find them flavored with anything more than soy sauce. The Chinese Broccoli at Butterfly comes sautéed with chopped garlic and the natural bite of the green was enhanced, I thought, with a little powdered mustard.

Butterfly’s seafood is trucked in from Boston, except for the whole fish; Lau drives to New York City for that once a week. During the summer, the restaurant uses some local produce, but during the winter Lau has to rely on the Boston and New York markets.

Appetizers range from $1.50 for egg rolls to $6.95, with most $4 to $5. Chinese dishes start at $8.95, and the top price is $15.95, for some items on the gourmet menu. Sushi is the usual $3.50 to $5.50 per roll. There is a full liquor license, including the killer Polynesian drinks like Mai Tais, Zombies and Lover’s Bowls. The restaurant is open seven days a week for lunch and dinner.

Every time I look at one of Butterfly’s menus, I find something else I want to try. I haven’t had the sushi yet. My daughter-in-law is a vegetarian and I can’t wait to get her take on the seitan menu. And, since I am often traveling from one place to another at lunchtime, I appreciate being able to pull in, park and get an interesting lunch without a lot of hassle. No Panda clone, Butterfly is more than just a standard Sichuan restaurant.

Originally published in Daily Hampshire Gazette, Friday, June 6, 2008.