Stage House Restaurant & Wine Bar

[birder53]

The Stage House has opened their "Candlelight Dinng Room." It is on the second floor of the building. It was available on Saturday nights in March with a five course tasting menu, with wines and an open bar for $95 per person. The table is yours for the night!

We went last evening and had a wonderful time. The room is small and intimate. There were five tables last evening, four couples and one party of four. The room was filled with candles and is very romantic. The wine and food were excellent, as was the service. My only complaint was I left hungry. We've have dined here before and enjoyed the tasting menus and never left hungry. This time some of the portions seemed so small that they looked more like amuses. The exceptions were the seared foie gras with spinach, endive and balsamic marinated strawberries as well as the grilled filet mignon with mushroom risotto, aparagus and red wine sauce. There seemed to be more wine than food, which makes it hard for me to keep up with everything. I guess I should have had more bread, but I didn't want to fill up and not enjoy the real food. One couple had cocktails before dinner and two more after dinner - how did they manage that! They served a glass of cava when we arrived and then asked if we would like a cocktail. I jokingly asked if they were serving chips with the cocktails, as nothing to eat appeared for quite a while after our arrival. I know they have nibbles at the bar downstairs and it would have been a nice accompianment with our pre-dinner drinks. We arrived at 7:00 and left after 11:00. It's a very nice dining experience. I just received an email from them stating that on Saturdays in April dinner will be six courses with wines for $120 per person. There is no mention of an open bar, which is probably unnecessary given the wines served with dinner. Again, the table is yours for the night.

[jcpub]

I had a wonderful dining experience at The Stage House last night!

The main course.... yellowfin tuna, seared, roasted spiced pineapple, and baby bok choy was out of this world!! ... and for dessert... I would recommend the mango mousse martini.

ps - Chef Michael Clampffer told me that Stage House will be participating at Taste of the Nation this Monday, April 18th at The Madison Hotel in Morristown.

I'm looking forward to seeing them again and attending this event!

[Randi]

Had lunch at the Stage House last Monday. My bosses took me out to celebrate 15 years with the company and I chose the Stage House for our lunch.

I was very pleased with my meal. My only disappointment was that they didn't have the PEI Mussels with chorizo, saffron, toasted cumin and spinach appetizer but I chalked that up to it being a Monday.

Instead I chose the salad of warm goat cheese, crushed almonds, mixed greens with a balsamic vinaigrette. It was really, really delicious (except that the goat cheese was not warm, and the almonds not crushed).

For my main course I got the roasted chicken breast, spatzle with carrots and broccoli, seasoned with truffle butter and game jus. It was delicious, but I have confirmed I am not a huge truffle fan. I love that the chicken was boneless but it still had a very nice layer of crispy skin (my favorite part!) on top.

Both my bosses are female and eat like birds (constant diets) so we didn't get dessert

And I was the only one eating the (very yummy) bread and butter, as you might imagine.

I want to go back soon!

[Allura]

Ok, finally found the most recent thread (there's a good half dozen or more, and the google search doesn't order them by date, afaik)!

We went to the Stage House for the first time for our anniversary dinner, after receiving lots of great suggestions for restaurants. I will confess to partially choosing it since it's so nearby. Well, now that we've tried it we'll keep going back! Heck, my husband, the meat & potatoes guy, leaned over to me at one point and said "we should come back". Sure!!!

We had 6:30 reservations on Tuesday night, and there were only a few other tables there. I think two turned while we were there, and two more were sat, but the room was never more then 2/3 full. The dress is "business casual" on the website, but most people were somewhat dressed up, with at least half the men in sports coats and almost all the women in dresses. I liked the room; I have a fondness for historical places.

I'll warn you right now: i know they have a great wine selection, but we're not drinkers, so no wonderful pairings. I had a single glass of a California Chardonnay (and left some of it because I could feel it interacting with my medication) and my husband had an amaretto sour. Other wise we drank water until dessert.

But the food! They bring a roll basket around; we both had sour dough. Nice and warm, and a good crust. They had another type of roll but it sounded sweet, so I passed. We were served an amuse of salmon tartare with an orange sauce; I expected the sauce to be sweet, but it wasn't at all; very nice.

My appetizer was a warm ricotta tart with wild mushrooms on top, and a small asparagus & some-green-I-can't-remember-the-name-of salad on the side. There was also a white sauce on the plate that I think may have had some horseradish in it. We both enjoyed it. DH ordered the salad with duck confit and cracklings. I sorta steered him to it, and didn't realize at the time that he didn't like duck! Trust me, this is a dish for duck lovers. Lots of duck in a mixed green salad, lightly dressed. I had a few bites, but I think it could have been a meal by itself. Our waiter noticed that my husband hadn't really eaten the salad, and asked if he could replace it. We told him he was fine, and had helped me with mine...Then another man came over, who seemed a manager of some variety (regular dress shirt & tie, not the white & black the staff was wearing), and again asked us. Poor Jon (DH) was a bit intimidated, I think. He knew the salad was very good, it just wasn't to his personal taste. Over our protests, they took it of the bill!

For his main, my husband ordered a pork chop, which was a splendid example of it's kind. Thick, juicy, bone-in. Had more of the mushrooms that topped my tart on the side, as well as cabbage. I think there was something under the chop, but I'm not sure what, and I only tried a small bite. He was too busy enjoying it. I think the staff was much happier when they cleared this plate of his. I ordered sea scallops, three large, wonderfully sweet scallops set on top of pancetta risotto and arugula. I was in heaven. A perfect match. DH stole more then a few bites of the risotto, too.

For dessert, I had a molten chocolate cake; hey, I love chocolate! Actually, it was surprisingly not-sweet, in a good way. The center was not regular chocolate, as I expected. I'm not actually sure what it was; white & creamy & sweet. Served with a scoop each of vanilla & passion fruit ice cream. The passion fruit was incredible; tasted like pure fruit. Jon had a vanilla creme brulee. In addition, I had coffee - complete with brown sugar cubes, which I hadn't seen before, only white (which, frankly, not enough places serve; I love sugar cubes). Jon had a tea called "buccaneer" which had a wonderful aroma - vanilla, coconut, and some other things. Actually, the tea was the one service slip of the night - our waiter started to pour coffee for him by mistake. Oh, and I had indulged myself in noting it was our 5th anniversary when we made our reservations (open table), so we were also served a small dish with a scoop each of vanilla & chocolate ice cream and happy anniversary written on the sides.

Service was great. They use a fairly formal style, with domes for hot food, and not serving if someone's not at the table (noticed the food come out for the table next to us and the staff stopping short and detouring to a service station to wait till the lady got back to the table). But, it wasn't stiff; everyone was having a good time, especially the table next to us who had brought their own wine and were on bottle 3 or 4 by the time we left...plus I think they had been in the bar first. I was eavesdropping shamelessly, and got the impression that the man who brought the wine was in the business in some way. Anyway, it was really sweet that on the way out the hostess wished us Happy Anniversary. I mean, yeah, sure she had it on her computer, but she hadn't seen us since she sat us.

They were advertising the return of their $29 prix fix "market" menu staring on June 29, I think. $29 for two courses, dessert for $6 additional, I think. Plus, of course, Tuesday is their BYOB night.

As I mentioned in the anniversary thread, this was one of our first, say, "gourmet" meals. Can I do it again?

[Lreda]

I'm glad you were happy with the choice you made. Isn't it nice to find a great place to celebrate a special occasion close-by? like gettin' more for your money. I have to get down here soon but I'm still trying to finagle a invite to Drake's new place in Rayway before the offical opening.

I hear he's not happy with the 1st few dry runs. He's a top chef. Knowing his talent, the place will be 1st rate.

Restaurant week in NYC is next week and I've got a couple of reservations there. Maybe the old-timers from Sonoma Grill can get together? ( Don't want to ISO, just bring it up. ) Can someone make Stage House a place for a visit for their Prix-Fix?

Happy summer, Lou

[Allura]

FYI, I just got the email reminding about the $29 Market Menu. It's Tuesdays-Thursdays, two courses. Looks like 3 choices for each, as well as 3 dessert choices for $6 extra. The menu varies weekly and is posted here.

[Allura]

The Stage House has had a big banner up lately saying "The Tavern in the Barn: Coming Soon." I finally got an email explaining. They're calling it an "every day alternative to the commonly frequented chain restaurants and taverns in the area." The menu can be found here. Grand opening Sunday Aug 29, soft opening by reservation (50% off prices in exchange for feedback) Mon Aug 22-Aug 29.

Menu sounds yummy...

[BryanZ]

A very attractive concept. Though I don't love this restaurant, I would definitely go to try the Tavern menu. This type of food at this price range is what the area needs.