http://www.uprootrestaurant.com/
http://uprootrestaurant.blogspot.com
9 Mount Bethel Road Warren, NJ 07059 info@uprootrestaurant.com

A 'foodie friend of ours' (you know who you are ;) haha.), invited us to UpRoot on Tuesday. He had been before and had given a good review.  A few other friends gave it a good review too, so we had pretty high expectations.

The space, while in a 'strip mall', is fantastic. That strip mall feel goes away as soon as you walk into the door (but take a right after you walk in the door, to find the actual door. The decor in the entrance is neat, but...don't go IN drunk. The bathrooms are a little strange, they reminded me of The Violet Hour in Chicago, no mens or womens, just a few single bathrooms. Awesome decor, but it was a little weird the paper towels were on the exact opposite wall of the sink...

We sat at the corner of the bar, and looked at the cocktail menu. It's a pretty good short list of real cocktails, covering the gammot. I think, like Nicholas in Middletown, that it's going to be hard to get your customers to change from apple-sugar-tini's and cosmos to Sazeracs and Rye cocktails, but kudos for trying, and it's surely a plus for my wife and I.

We saw a Sazerac on the bar menu, which seems to be the quintessential classic cocktail now, and happens to be our favorite cocktail. We've also had the cocktail made for us about 1500 times in 1500 different ways (from Dale DeGroff even). We kinda use it to judge a bar/bartender. Our very nice, and very ambitious bartender with the hip faux-hawk (which I'm sure is a MILF magnet come Thursday night at that place), shook our Sazeracs. eek. A quick prodding and poking, and he realized his mistake and made another that was good. He made a good Manhattan as well.  

We had the chickpea and garlic confit (read: hummus) with tortilla chips for a bar snack, it was good.

So far so good...the decor of the place and the bar area is pretty neat. Big area bar, with a lounge area in front of it.

We moved to a table when our friend arrived and got to the ordering. We ordered A LOT of food, and the Sommelier/Maitre'd, we trusted to pick out some good wines.

To start we ordered (quite) a few plates:
Seared scallop with wild boar belly
Salmon Belly with citrus
Lamb stuffed Quail
Sweetbreads
Cocoa crusted seared tuna

We all (that is, the 3 of us gluttons) each tried everything.

We had an amuse of scallop that was tasty.

The chef, Anthony Bucco, definitely has a strength for cooking seafood.  Honestly, I'm not a seafood eater. I don't really enjoy shrimp, lobster, etc. I think I've ordered by choice, a seafood dish on a menu, maybe 5 times in my life, but I can say that the seafood dishes were outstanding and better than the others, in my opinion. The seared scallop dish, was the best dish of the night for all of us. The salmon belly, which I actually DISLIKE salmon, was sous-vided perfect and was second best dish for me. The wine that the Sommelier paired the first course with, 'a Chenin Blanc from the Anjou appelation of the Loire Valley', was perfect and stood up to everything.

For mains, we had:
Red Snapper (can't remember the rest of the dish)
Prosciutto wrapped Cod
Roasted and Confit duck

Again, the seafood was the winner as Laurie LOVED the wrapped cod dish. She wasn't even sure exactly all the components of he dish, but she's still talking about it. My duck was good, and prepared well, but not nearly as good as the other two dishes. Our main was paired with a Burgundy, a Pinot Noir from Gevrey Chambertain Burgundy, that went fantastic too. Our new years resolution is to learn more about wine, as we drink so damn much of it. Our friend is a wine guy, but we let the Sommelier choose the pairings and they were fantastic. With Sommeliers like that, I wish everyone was that good, then I could scrap that resolution...he was quite knowledgeable, and our wines were reasonably priced. Kudos on that end, as it's one less thing I need to think about when I order. The wine list was extensive and seemed to have some really neat/different wines on it.

Service was great, and non-intrusive in clearing the plates. Everything came out at a good time, spaced perfectly. The plating was very nice. If I had to gripe about one thing, it would be the pretty microscopic 3 dots of garnished sauce on some plates.

Dessert:
Icecream and sorbet tasting
Frozen pineapple souffle
Carrot cake twinkie.

The carrot cake twinkie won out. Very awesome. The pineapple

All in all, shit...I may be a seafood eater now. Aside from the screw up with the cocktail, and a few dots on a plate which I had to dig deep to gripe about, this place was pretty awesome. We heard some questionable 'lounge' type music going on towards the end of the night, but were assured it was simply an experiment and would never be played again. ever......ever....

I'm not sure what the check came out to actually, Ill have to check, it was comparable to any other fine dining place, but well worth it.

They certainly seem to 'know' fine dining, rather than just a few random people who want to have a fine dining restaurant. [b]Highly recommended.[/b]

I know it's kinda passe to 'compare' restaurants/chefs, etc...in reviews, but screw it, I'm not a reviewer, I'm just a dude who loves to eat.....this place's atmosphere reminded me of Elements in Princeton but with fantastic food, Sommelier, and service, that was of Nicholas caliber.

I've been having some pretty good dining experiences as of late, 2010 looks like it's going to be a good year.

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So, I believe it was Sunday, we went to Wegmans in Manalapan, NJ (a little far for us to go to the supermarket, but when you need those "special" ingredients). We keep hearing about "The Turning Point" which is right in the same shopping center. Suppose to have the best breakfast/brunch around. Well, perhaps we were spoiled from Nicholas, or just spoiled in general, but it was certainly nothing to tell mom about. I doub't I'd go back, much less wait 30 minutes for a table. It was just nothing special. I ordered Eggs Benny, and Laurie ordered a Spinach and Mushroom "skillet".

I judge Eggs benny by the Hollandaise sauce, and the way the english muffin is "cut". By cut, I mean not cut with a "machine" (yeah, you can tell, and I want my ridges, no smooth tops!). The Hollandaise sauce, was "eh" and underseasoned. Not enough cayenne if any at all. The ham, a little burnt? The tomatoes, a little "taste like subpar supermarket tomatoes". (not to mention, it's not an eggs benny with tomato, it's then called a bastardized version of "Eggs Blackstone")

On to Laurie's skillet. It wasn't a skillet. It was a bunch of potatoes cheese spinach, mushrooms and eggs, cooked separately, piled onto a (skillet shaped?) plate and put under a salamander. She said it wasn't "bad" but it was nothing great. What would have made it worth it, would have been to cook each "skillet" in an actual skillet, as 1 dish, then serving it in that same skillet it was cooked in. THAT would have been better.

The Hawaiian Espresso drink we ordered was good, but who can go wrong with whipped cream? The service was OK, it was a busy place. My guess is (and sorry for offending) that this is the perfect place for people who don't ever cook breakfast themselves, because if they did, they would realize how "un-special" it is.....

....or we are just snobs.

p.s. the plates looked not dirty, but "beat up" marks all over them...time for new ones, not even the greasy spoon diners in NJ have plates that look that bad!

p.p.s. Look at the measly cup of "fruit" sad indeed

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After our horrible experience with David Drakes on Wednesday, we called up Nicholas that evening, at around 10:30pm and inquired about the Chef's table. He said there was an opening for Friday and that the next Friday would be in October. (way to make it sound desirable! haha). They asked what the occasion was (about 4 times!) and we said "we like food?" :lol: Our names and menu preferences. I just mentioned that I'm not the biggest seafood fan, but not against it. They said that's fine they design two different 9 course menu's anyway! price was 150pp.

you can read about the restaurant on it's website.
https://www.restaurantnicholas.com/day1.html



In any case, Nicholas is our favorite restaurant. It's in NJ and I would put it up against Gramercy Tavern any day. Nicholas (Chef/Owner/Restaurant Name) at age 27 was the Sommelier at Jean-Georges in NYC.

Hit the "Read More" link for our experience.


We arrive and are greeted by Nicholas and escorted to the bar, the bartender pours us 2 glasses of great Champagne, compliments of the Chef. Already, I felt important. haha. (doesn't take much I guess) Halfway through our glass, Nicholas comes and escorts us. The kitchen is down 2 sets of stairs. As we are walking down the stairs (in the dim light), every one of the kitchen staff (roughly 15 of them) is there to greet us as we go down. NOW I'm feeling important..we are escorted to our booth table, very small and different compared to most "chef's tables" I've seen. This is a round booth that would fit 4. It was strange, since I've never seen the kitchen there, we were taken back, we thought they just put us in some basement as everything was dark, and well, looked like a basement.....then they turned the lights on!

I can't believe they stopped service, shut down all the lights, just to greet us on a Friday night at 7:30! Soon as the lights went on, it was like grand central station (as busy and as loud), in other words, awesome! It was a lot to take in. This was the main kitchen, what I guess is the prep kitchen/dish washing/walk-in, wine cellar, etc. is also downstairs but down the hall. First thing we noticed was how clean the kitchen was, and how organized, but mainly, so **** clean you could have ate off the floors. Even at the end of the night after service, it was clean....super clean, cleaner than my OCD home kitchen clean. clean.

Here are some pictures, then I will continue with the review.












So, after picking out a bottle of wine from the extensive wine list, (we decided on a pinot noir, 2006 Ayoub Pinot Noir (USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley, Dundee Hills) our first course came. It was 7 real courses, with 1 being an amuse, and another being an optional cheese.

The amuse's were amazing, it's strange to watch dishes being plated, thinking wow that looks good, then someone comes and places on our table THAT dish we just watched and oggled over! My amuse was just some what seemed like pickled fruit, Fiances was salmon tartar.

I'll save you a dish play by play and just show you the menu's (they gave them to us after the meal) and just give you some highlights. For me, it was the first time I tried Foie Gras...and. loved. it. The beet and goat cheese dish was awesome. The Suckling pork, was also amazing. by the Filet course, I could barely move/eat!! Fiance mostly got seafood. I'm honest when I say that every piece of every dish I had, was nothing short of amazing. There was nothing I did not LOVE. Fiance thought her lobster was a little too bacony, but still better than any other restaurant. Maybe because we watched every dish being prepared, with the anticipation of wondering if the dish was for us!



Mine


Her's


So, this was my first experience really seeing a kitchen in action. The chef/cooks seemed to almost forget we were there. On 2 occasions some yo-yo's wanted something super special prepared, and the reaction from the expediter/cooks was rather funny, lot's of expletives. haha. I never knew just how important timing was in a kitchen. At one point someone fired something about 30 seconds too soon, The expeditor, and sous chef really gave him shit...yelling about how it can't be sitting under a lamp, etc. etc. pay attention, lot's of expletives. etc. I'm mentioning this not because it was a sour point, but because I was impressed as they simply did not let any part of any dish sit under any lamp. Heck, 1 guy seemed like his primary duty was just dabbing and wiping plates that were ready to go out. I was also impressed by the sauces that went with many dishes, appeared to not be taken from giant pots, but made at time of the dish. You really get a feel for just what it takes to put out that kind of food.

Throughout the night, at some points it got real busy, I didn't ask how many tickets, but they said they do between 100-150 tickets on friday or saturday, closer to 150 on saturdays.

a couple of other things I noticed.

- easy to remember words for dishes, (i.e. Pig, "Softie" for soft shelled crab)
- I didn't see one person use a knife. Now, I'm sure they did, they split the filet's etc. but we were mainly seated closest to the expediter and salad/dessert person and furthest from the grills/ovens.
- Kitchen was predominantly white. 1 female, and a few hispanic.
- Don't special order ridiculous things.
- If a plate was less than 110%, it did not go out until it was.
- Servers deserve a raise for walking up and down those stairs all night.
- If the staff didn't like people at the chefs table, the were great actors, as we felt very very welcome by everyone.
- at NO point did I feel like any part of it was a "show" or fake, or that the staff behaved differently because we were there.

here is a video when it was kinda dead in the kitchen after last push...most of my pictures were taken then as I didn't want to be "That guy".



Service was great. I tried not to ask tooo many questions. haha.

P.S. here is dessert, I didn't take pictures of the other food, didn't want to be "that guy" dessert was basically 3 dishes of greatness, but at that point, we could pretty much only stomach a bite of each!



bottom line, worth every penny, we walked upstairs and asked for a booking when the menu changes for fall!

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Went to David Drakes for lunch today. Horrible experience. Was served a glass full of wine and fruit flies. About 2 dozen of them....because it seems like they tried to pawn off all the bottles sitting on the mantle from at least yesterday....

to top it off, they didn't even offer to comp me a glass.

145$ without tip, and a glass full of flies with mediocre food. I'll stick with Nicholas thankyouverrymuch.

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