NJ SPICE

I keep forgetting to post these photos from a late October dinner I enjoyed at Hamilton’s Grill Room in Lambertville. I’m sorry they are so murky but it goes well with the fact that it was indeed a “dark and stormy” night!

I hadn’t been there in so long, although my late father’s friend John Lasley, a good friend of Jim Hamilton’s for many, many years, had invited me to go with him more than once.  So, finally, off we went, arriving canal-side while it was still a little light out, giving me a glimpse of water before the night closed in and the heavens opened with pouring rain.

The cozy setting seems to have barely changed over the years. Chef Mark Miller quietly does his thing at the wood grill in his open kitchen area, working his magic on one dish after another. I zeroed right in on a favorite of mine, grilled jumbo shrimp with anchovy butter. Perfection! That dish was one of my featured recipes when I first wrote about the Canal House Cooking series, co-authored by Jim’s daughter Melissa Hamilton and Christopher Hirsheimer. Their studio is right next to the restaurant, one of the most picturesque settings one could dream of.

John ordered deep-fried oysters atop devilled eggs, and what a brilliant idea that is! His wife Dottie also had shrimp with anchovy butter, and for her entrée she had a second appetizer, an order of those oysters atop devilled eggs.  John had salmon with cider braised red cabbage & apple, and I had a NY strip steak with blue cheese butter and frizzled onion, and a side of fried green tomatoes on top of herby aioli. I love the Julia Child quote on their menu: “The only time to eat diet food is while you’re waiting for the steak to cook.”

Everything was just delicious, and we had no room for dessert. Out into the rainy night, for the long, slow drive home. I’ll make a point of doing this again come summer, can’t wait! (Grilled lobster, mmmm!)