VUE

It's no surprise that Summit House is also making all of their own pasta in-house daily, and keep one to two pasta-focused dishes on the menu at a time. I tried the campanelle, which I was told diners have been raving about, tossed with corn, mushrooms and a hint of spice. ey weren't wrong. e mains at the restaurant come to the table shareably sized, simple in both presentation and composition. No extraneous ingredients here. ey offer an impressive wagyu tri-tip, scal- lops with bacon and other American standards you'd expect to see at a fine dining restaurant, with their own sig- nature twist, of course. To my surprise, Baker boasted about their roast chick- en, to which I replied, "I always order the chicken." It was perfectly juicy on the inside, browned on the outside— everything that Ina Garten taught you a good chicken should be. e way they're elevating it at Summit House is by adding flavors of apricot, fennel and almond. e halibut, on the oth- er hand, is not to be missed either as it speaks to the soul of true Mexican cuisine. e crisp, flaky fish sits on top of a pozole-style sauce made with fish stock, hominy, green beans and is fin- ished off with a drizzle of chorizo oil. Summit House also make a con- scious effort to consider dietary re- strictions when creating their menu so those with food allergies or prefer- ences of any sort can feel safe eating just about anything. All of the soups and sorbets are thickened with coco- nut milk and any additional cheese or nuts can be removed from things like pasta, main courses, or dessert. "If we can avoid a major allergen until it's added to finish a dish, therefore it can always be removed, we do it," Baker said. is mentality makes it so that the entire base of a dish doesn't have to change based on one preference. I sampled the vegan chocolate pudding, their take on s'mores, served with toasted marshmallows, house-made smoked graham cracker and salted vanilla ice cream (which can be sub- stituted for coconut sorbet). e bar program follows suit, of- fering expressions that impart peak, seasonal ingredients. Although Sum- mit House is much more than just a cool, trendy place to grab a drink, if that's what you want, it's perfect for that too. e cocktail menu reads as a mix of classics and inventive originals. e Old Fashioned is made with Four Roses Yellow Label bourbon and a Manhattan is composed of High West Double Rye, whiskey cherry Montana- ro Vermouth di Torino and maraschi- no angostura bitters. If you choose to indulge in the latter, the drink comes with an impressive tableside presen- tation complete with smoke and all. More progressive cocktail iterations include the "Mule of the Moment" and the clarified piña punch—a riff on a tropical colada—made with planta- tion pineapple rum, velvet falernum coconut water, lime clarified milk and simple syrup. All these details, even down to the flow of the restaurant where guests and servers are always moving in op- posite directions, are central to creat- ing a specific feeling—one where the physical attributes and shiny accesso- ries combine to form a sense of com- fort. "All these things are everyday in New York City but rare in New Jersey," Baker said. "We're not reinventing the wheel; we're just trying to move it 25 miles west." V U E N J . C O M 100

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