It’s Week Two of Restaurant Week (should it be Fortnight?) in Montclair, which has offered me, and likely many others, a great opportunity to get familiar with hitherto-unvisited local restaurants. If you’ve yet to check it out, details are here for events in neighboring towns too, and Montclair’s restaurant fiesta ends on Feb. 7.
Last Thursday, we visited Fascino, which, by 8:00 pm was seated to capacity. In the recently renovated new dining room, we picked the prix fixe menu, in which the starters were a wild mushroom soup topped with crostini and truffled ricotta – very flavorful and surprisingly peppery. Our companions had romaine with a 2-year-aged prosciutto, with a roast garlic dressing and ricotta salata – also delicious. The pan-roasted branzino over sauteed broccoli rabe, served with a livornaise sauce, was hands-down the favorite entree choice at our table. The fish was perfectly seasoned and melt-in-mouth tender, and the rabe, perfectly seasoned and al dente. One of us had the duo of Giannone chicken (from an all-natural farm in Canada), in which the breast was slow-baked in buttermilk, while the leg was braised for two hours – served with potato puree and brocollini, with a black truffle pesto. Needless to say, our plates were practically licked clean by the time we’d finished. The prix fixe menu’s sundae with chocolate wafers arrived, and vanished as quickly. Some of us ordered dessert off the a la carte menu; we recommend the banana crisp, the apple crisp and chocolate mouse with peanut butter and marshmallow (followed by three hours at the gym!). It was my first visit and certainly not the last.
Ryan DePersio, executive chef and owner of the family-run Fascino, and creator of the beautiful dishes described above, told Baristanet that even after seven years in Montclair, “we’re happy to have Restaurant Week, because it brings new customers.”
He is busy these days tending to the dePersio family’s newly opened Bar Cara restaurant in Bloomfield, and gives due credit to Executive Sous Chef Ernesto Aguilar, for executing with panache all the recipes at Fascino.
On Saturday night, we headed to Table 8. In the restaurant’s club-like cosy interior, we ordered off the prix fixe menu. Leek and potato soup, with a dollop of sour cream, was smooth, silky and comforting on that frigid night. My dining companions had baby arugula salad, with feta and spiced chickpeas, as well as a roasted beet salad appetizer, with caramelized onion, candied nuts and salad leaves, which apparently tasted as pretty as it looked. My entree was pan-seared trout, beautifully done, served with delicious grilled leek and a lentil and mushroom salad which was unfortunately inadequately seasoned. My companions had grilled pork, which was declared perfect, and massive platters of orecchiette with smoked salmon, cream and snipped chives – also a touch underseasoned but tasty nevertheless. We couldn’t ignore the only non-ice cream option on the prix fixe menu, which was panna cotta with vanilla bean, served with a pineapple salsa, whipped cream and a berry coulis. Delicious. And definitely going back there too.
A table already awaits us at Passione later this week. Can’t wait.
Have you visited some new restaurants, or revisited old favorites, over Restaurant Week in Montclair or elsewhere? Tell us about your experience and recommendations in comments.
(Photo/Fascino)
What’s pictured? Playdoh in a butter sauce?
Yellowfin tuna, shaved fennel and cucumber salad, with a sesame viniagrette. But that’s just my guess!
Sorry we missed you, Bernadette; we had reservations Thursday at Fascino ourselves, but we cancelled them earlier in the day (amidst the snow and ice) not knowing how the weather would turn out. We moved the reservation to tonight, so I will report tomorrow.
Also, it looks like you might have dined from the A La Carte menu, rather than the $31 per person three-course restaurant week menu. I hope I am wrong, but I don’t recall seeing some of the dishes you had on the Restaurant Week Menu.
Thanks Conan, the pic’s Fascino’s and is indeed the tuna/shaved fennel starter with sesame dressing – on the a la carte menu and which I look forward to having some time. The lighting wasn’t conducive to photography that evening unfortunately (and my camera travels light)!
“the pic’s Fascino’s and is indeed the tuna/shaved fennel starter with sesame dressing”
since it’s not mentioned in the article perhaps a caption would be helpful to those of us who don’t know the menu by heart.
I think it’s Spotted Dick.
Walleroo: Thanks for making me almost spit my tea out! LOL!
Update: we had the $31 Montclair Restaurant Week menu last night at Fascino, and it was quite pleasant. The menu, as described by Bernadette in the review post, was very good and enjoyed by all. And, the lighting seemed a little brighter than usual, which is fine by me — I managed to leave (most of) the tablecloth unsoiled by errant wine sloshes, and because their presentation is very creating and attractive, I saw more of the food than I did at our last dinner there… :>} This weekend, Good Lord willin’ and the crick don’t rise, we are going to try Bar Cara in Bloomfield.
You, Wallerooski, are a dangerous person. Funny as hell, but dangerous! We did not spot Dick there last night, nor were Jane and Spot in the room, to the best of our knowledge.
Dined at Passionne on Jan 27. Was disappointed that so many of the more preferable items on the prix fixe menu were for “supplemental cost.” Our $31 x 2 evening turned into a just under $100 evening with tax and tip. I think the restaurant week organizers must insist that restaurants design a prix fixe menu with items that do not deviate in price, otherwise it spoils the spirit of affordable sampling of the town’s culinary offerings.