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RESTAURANTS;
Local Hero
February 24, 2002
By DAVID CORCORAN
"WHERE has this
place been all my life?" asked
a friend, a battlehardened veteran
of hundreds of New Jersey restaurants,
as we left Ristorante da Benito after
a long evening of superb food and
wine.
The answer is simple,
if surprising. Benito has been here
for ages -since 1985, to be exact,
when it opened under the unassuming
name Benito's. But in 1998, it was
apparently struck by a bolt from space,
an event that transforined it from
a solid neighborhood restaurant, the
sort of place that turns up on every
other comer in every other town, into
a destination.
That was the year the
owner, Benito Hissen, brought in a
visiting chef from Verona, in northern
Italy, to ground the menu in the cooking
of Mr. Hissen's own native region.
(He grew up in Manzano, near the Austrian
border.) He brought in a designer
to remake the restaurant from the
inside out. And he hired a full-time
chef, Richard Biondo, a young American
with French training, to run the kitchen
and plan the daily specials.
This sort of full-body
makeover can easily backfire, adding
nothing but an extra digit to the
cost of a meal for two. But in this
case the gamble paid off, for it's
clear that Mr. Hissen knew exactly
what he was doing.
He is a splendid host,
for one thing, the sort who hovers
in the background seemingly attending
to a thousand things at once, but
instantly there when you have a question
about a dish or a bottle of wine.
(His wine list is one of the state's
most impressive -- long, painstakingly
chosen and fairly priced.) He seems
genuinely happy to see you, and regularly
sends out little presents to diners
who show an interest in the food and
wine -- plates of bruschetta or gnocchi,
and even, for a newcomer who asked
essay questions about the wine list,
a halfbottle of dessert wine to go
with a giveaway tray of biscotti.
The redesigned restaurant
is large -- 46 tables -- but divided
into three manageable, and very different,
spaces. We felt lucky to be seated
in the wine room, by far the most
romantic of the three, a candlelit
grotto with French windows and wooden
racks for hundreds of bottles of wine;
they give off a faint glow, like stars.
The brightly lighted barroom and a
third room, called the Sala d'Oro
for its golden wallpaper, seemed noisy
and impersonal on quick inspection.
But the surroundings
quickly fade when the food starts
arriving. The chef, Mr. Biondo, may
have learned from Frenchmen, but he's
plainly at home in the high Italian
idiom of Benito's menu. An appetizer
of sauteed jumbo shrimps over fava
beans seizes your attention like a
thunderclap, with balsamic-and-herb-dressed
beans playing off against crisp garlic
crostini and firm, perfectly cooked
shrimp. It's a great, elemental dish.
A soup of toasted barley
and shiitake mushrooms, ladled tableside
from the pan into your bowl, is bolstered
by a stock with the powerful, transporting
aroma of roasted turkey. Caesar salad
for two, another tableside production,
is rich and potently garlicked.
In an apotheosis of
the dish that virtually every checked-tablecloth
Italian restaurant in North America
used to serve as clams Casino, six
littleneck clams are baked gratin
style with shiitakes, red peppers
and brandy. Unlike bread crumbs and
dried oregano, these are ingredients
that make for contented clams. Our
only disappointment among the appetizers
was portobello alla Genovese, a good
grilled mushroom topped with veal
patty minced to the consistency of
baby food.
Pastas are easily substantial
enough to be main courses. A special
of orecchiette with scallops and wild
mushrooms was suave and well balanced.
But we were dazzled by the swirling
contrasts of flavors, textures and
colors in a pasta from the regular
menu: earthy whole-wheat penne with
beets, walnuts and Gorgonzola, an
"Iron Chef" miscellany of
ingredients that turned out to be
made for one another.
Mr. Biondo has a sure
hand with seafood. Beautifully cooked
striped bass draws just enough extra
flavor from lemon emulsion and parsley
pesto; shoestring potatoes and sauteed
escarole add their own textural contrasts.
Baked cod is smartly offset by a chickpea
puree, with shiitakes and braised
celery root.
Four small lamb chops
of very high quality come with ideal
accompaniments: wild mushrooms and
an eggplant tart. Even humble chicken
breast is tender and flavorful here,
glazed with lemon, rolled around fennel
and served with a fine, unexpected
combination of wild rice and Savoy
cabbage.
Oddly, the only main
course that fell short was the simplest
and most expensive, the $38 veal chop.
Nothing wrong with it, exactly; the
meat was certainly first-rate. But
unadorned on the plate except for
a garnish of good broccoli rape, it
became a monolith, a mountain to climb.
I lost interest halfway up. Veal osso
buco, another piece of meat the size
of Hulk Hogan's fist, had far more
going on: it was ropy and moist, atop
a fine risotto Milanese.
Benito's pastry chef,
Pascal Durand, is not only French-trained;
he is French. Somehow, he learned
how to make terrific ricotta cheesecake,
a moist and creamy affair with a delicate
undercurrent of orange zest and Grand
Marnier. His chocolate flan, Valrhona
chocolate cake, apple tortino and
tiramisu are equally good. And his
sorbets are even better, especially
the mango -- deeply flavored and almost
miraculously smooth.
Is Ristorante da Benito
the best Italian restaurant in the
state? To know for sure, you would
have to do graduate study at a dozen
or so top contenders. What is certain
is that in a few years' time Benito
Hissen has turned his plain old standby
on Galloping Hill Road into a thoroughbred.
It's a stunning accomplishment."
Ristorante da Benito
222 Galloping Hill Road, Union
(908) 964-5850
EXCELLENT
ATMOSPHERE Haute Italian,
in a large, recently remodeled three-room
space.
SERVICE Cordial and knowledgeable.
SMOKING Allowed in the bar.
WINE LIST Broad, balanced and fairly
priced, with good bottles in the $30's.
RECOMMENDED DISHES Caesar salad for
two, barley-shiitake soup, shrimps
with fava beans, vongole (clams) gratinato;
orecchiette with scallops, whole-wheat
penne with roasted beets; roasted
lamb, veal osso buco, cod, lamb chops,
striped bass, lemon-glazed chicken
breast; chocolate flan, chocolate
cake, almond torta, apple tortino,
tiramisu, ricotta cheesecake.
PRICE RANGE Dinner appetizers: $6
to $12; entrees: $20 to $38; desserts:
$8. Lunch a few dollars less.
HOURS Weekdays, noon to 10 p.m.; Saturdays,
5 to 10:30 p.m.; Sundays, 2 to 8.
CREDIT CARDS Major cards.
RESERVATIONS Recommended.
WHEELCHAIR ACCESS Accessible, with
everything on one level.
RATINGS Poor, Fair, Satisfactory,
Good, Very Good, Excellent,, Extraordinary.
Ratings reflect the
reviewer's reaction to food, ambience
and service, with price taken into
consideration. Menu listings and prices
are subject to change.
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