Cask 591 in Long Branch
“A place that’s on the cusp of four-star status”
A few weeks ago, on a special occasion, we decided to try
Cask 591 in Long Branch. For those of you who may not be in the
know, this is the “old” and much-loved Joe and Maggie’s location
- but with a totally new look…and totally new cuisine.
The chef, Peter Fischbach - who was profiled in Currents a while
back, and co-owner Dennis Tafuri, a certified sommelier and the
resident wine expert - bought Joe and Maggie’s Bistro in
November, 2004. Now they’ve totally overhauled the menu, to make
it totally Fischbach’s own…laid-in a wonderful and wonderfully
large selection of fine wines…and the décor has been totally
overhauled too.
The first thing you notice when you walk in the door is the long
and beautifully appointed bar – set against the exposed brick
walls – and flanked by a huge blackboard, listing 20 or so wines
by the glass, “always changing”, the wine list says, and with
very appealing prices to boot. The rest of the place is equally
inviting, but that bar and blackboard is kind of like going to
heaven, to wine lovers like ourselves.
The printed wine list is even more exciting: The main list has
over 60 white wines and 90 or so reds - organized by origin, and
pretty much covering the fine-winemaking world. A separate
section lists the wine by style – from “Light crisp whites” to
semi-sweet, medium bodied dry, to full bodied whites – followed
by the reds, which get something of the same treatment – with
lists of light bodied, dry and spicy, medium bodied and, our
favorites, the “Big Bold Full Bodied” ones. Another wonderful
plus, there’s a separate list of whites and reds available in
half bottles.
Jimminies, we realized, we’d better get to the food quickly!
Since it was a special occasion – and since we went there
intending to review the place, five of the six in our party
decided to tackle the 4 Course Tasting Menu. It offers a choice
of soup or salad, appetizer, entrée and dessert (all from the
regular menu, but with a small supplement for a few of the
priciest specials) and coffee or tea for $42. Go for it, we
advise!
Every one of the appetizers we ordered, and passed around a bit
to get a group concensus, were superb – from the chef’s special
“take” on clams casino, to the meaty and well-spiced crab-cake
to the Escargot à la Forestière (the plumpest, tenderest and
all-around best escargots I’ve ever had!) to the warm goat
cheese tart on the flakiest of pastries. The three salads we
sampled were superb too – and delightfully different, one from
another. Wow, thought we, this food is really special!
Our biggest fear was that the entrees would disappoint, if only
because we had eaten every morsel so far, and were afraid we’d
be full up. Not to worry: Every single one was built around the
very best of ingredients and conceived with a special flair -
from the “simply grilled king salmon” to the herb-crusted rack
of lamb, to the incredibly big and rich grilled veal
porterhouse, “topped with Frome d’Ambert fondue drizzled with
port wine syrup” to the humble-sounding but amazingly delicious
pork osso bucco. And, oh yes, one diner sampled one of the
signature “Casked” dishes, wherein the meat or fish is laid-out
on a wine or whiskey or brandy soaked plank or wine-cask stave,
we were told, and placed in the super-hot oven to roast. (We
will sample more of these dishes on another occasion, we
resolved).
Yes, we made room for desserts too, and while space won’t permit
a full critique this time, suffice it to say that (a) the
strudel pastry was almost unbelievably flaky and (b) despite all
the food and wine that had been consumed, everyone dove into the
decadently rich Cask Sundae as if they hadn’t eaten since
Saturday!
All in all, our best restaurant “discovery” so far this year…and
a place that really is on the cusp of achieving four-star
status, with just the tiniest bit of tweaking, and a tiny bit of
simplification needed in some dishes to put it totally over the
top…And regular readers know we don’t often get this excited.
(And P.S., the back section of the menu lists 10 Ports and 15
dessert wines… along with topnotch scotches and brandies for the
truly fearless, or maybe for “snackers”. And, P.P.S., guess
what: Lest you fear that Cask 591 is for big eaters/spenders
only, you can get a burger with all the fixin’s, a small salad
and fries for $9.95…to go with those wines by the glass.)
Cask 591 is at 591 Broadway in Long Branch. Tel: (732) 571-8848
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