Roadfood_ Revised Edition - Jane Stern [28]
The Village Restaurant
55 Main St.
978–768–6400
Essex, MA
LD | $$
Dark, wood-paneled, comfortable, and staunchly middle-class, the Village has been a town fixture for nearly half a century. One veteran staff member recalled to us that when it opened as a five-booth café, the owner used to leave the door open so that before the staff arrived in the morning, regulars could let themselves in and cook their own breakfasts on the grill!
Menus from those early days are posted in the vestibule, and they are a joy to read, not only for the prices (a dollar for a full dinner), but because they list so many of the very basic items that are still on the Village menu and that still make this such a true regional eating experience. “We serve Essex clams” boasts a menu from 1956. The Village still serves Essex clams, fried to golden perfection. For dessert, you can have a dish of baked Indian pudding, Grape-Nuts custard, or strawberry shortcake on an old-fashioned biscuit.
Nowadays, the menu has something for everyone, and we must confess that there have been occasions, after long days of eating fried clams up and down Cape Ann, we have come to the Village because we needed a sirloin steak or even, on one occasion, vegetarian pasta! But still, it’s local seafood that stars on these tables, simply fried or broiled, or in more deluxe configurations such as haddock Rockefeller. Lobsters are available boiled, fried, or as a luscious lobster pie that is baked in a casserole dish with seasoned bread crumbs.
Among desserts, we recommend the Indian pudding, a true Yankee dessert. It is grainy with a powerful molasses kick, and it is served piping-hot with a scoop of vanilla ice cream melting on top. A bit fancier, but true to local character, is blueberry bread pudding, made of cornmeal and molasses bread and set afloat in a pool of sweet rum sauce.
Wenham Tea House
4 Monument St.
978–468–1398
Wenham, MA
L&T (closed Sun) | $
A real ladies’ lunchroom going back nearly a century, Wenham Tea House is part of a philanthropic enterprise that sells books, antiques, china, and handwork to benefit the community. Also on sale in the front room are bakery cases full of dainty cakes, pies, muffins, casseroles, and hors d’oeuvres one can buy to take home. Beyond the prepared foods is the tea room, open only midday (and for afternoon tea), where a lovely lunch is served six days a week.
Much as we like two-fisted diner grub, these gentle meals are irresistible. Of course, there are several main-course salads, including a terrific Caesar salad and a chicken Waldorf cut into tiny bite-size pieces. Crab cakes, available as an appetizer or main course, are demure little disks with a nice sweet flavor and the soft texture of good white bread. There are club sandwiches, a cheddar crab melt on eight-grain bread, and even a modern vegetable wrap. Count on a quiche of the day as well as a soup; we love the creamy, smooth lobster bisque. Meals are accompanied by warm, fresh-baked muffins.
Delicate foods are what you expect in such a setting (lace-curtained windows, decorative plates on the wall), but do not underestimate the satisfaction of such full meals as Yankee pot roast or turkey with trimmings that include moist sage dressing, mashed potatoes, whipped butternut squash, and cranberry-orange sauce, followed by hot milk sponge cake for dessert.
Custom decrees that all able ladies (and the occasional gentleman visitor) help themselves to coffee and tea at the sideboard, where a sign advises, “No cell phones, please.” Service is swift and efficient, provided by a staff of waitresses in crisp uniforms with white aprons that remind us of the golden days of New York’s fabled Schrafft’s.
The White Hut
280 Memorial Ave.
413–736–9390
West Springfield, MA
BLD | $
The White Hut is quintessential Roadfood. Not a lot of different choices are available from this brash, open kitchen, but the two for which it is known are unbeatable: