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Eno Terra

After earning his stripes with restaurant royalty, chef Chris Albrecht triumphs at home.

Reviewed by Jill P. Capuzzo   
Posted February 9, 2010

Nino Galastro making pasta at the salumi bar in the main dining room.

Photo by David Micael Howarth.

Chef Chris Albrecht.

Photo by David Micael Howarth.

Quail with braised red cabbage and fried sunchokes.

Photo by David Micael Howarth.

Three-cheese cheesecake with candied blueberries and blueberry gelato.

Photo by David Micael Howarth.

If your goal is to become a must-visit restaurant, it doesn’t hurt if your head chef built his reputation at the right hand of chef/entrepreneur Tom Colicchio (Craft, Craftsteak) and absorbed the philosophy of “enlightened hospitality” championed by über-restaurateur Danny Meyer (Union Square Cafe, Gramercy Tavern, Tabla). Throw in a kitchen that consistently turns out superb, harmoniously conceived dishes, and you’ve got a winning formula.

This is the hat trick that Carlo and Raoul Momo of the Terra Momo group have pulled off in hiring Chris Albrecht as executive chef of Eno Terra in South Brunswick’s historic village of Kingston. After an uneven start eighteen months ago, the Italian-influenced restaurant, which focuses on local ingredients, has achieved a rare level of excellence. Take, for instance, the sausage sampler. It sounds pretty simple—three sausages served with creamy polenta and grilled green onions—but it takes days to make.

The kitchen ages its own natural casings, air-drying them for one to three days, depending on the type of sausage. The fillings are ground from meats raised at a nearby organic farm and blended with spices selected by the chef for each variety. After the casings are stuffed (and perhaps aged a bit more in the case of chorizo), the sausages are grilled to charry perfection over a wood-fired grill, as are the accompanying scallions. Meanwhile, the cheese polenta, made from cornmeal from another local farm, takes two hours to cook. And don’t forget the pickled mustard-seed relish, made from seeds grown in the restaurant’s own herb garden. The result is a superb blend of tastes and textures.

Albrecht grew up in East Brunswick. Before joining the Momos—who own such well-regarded Princeton restaurants as Mediterra and Teresa Caffe—he spent more than a decade working with Colicchio. While still at the CIA in 1995, Albrecht began at New York’s Gramercy Tavern, which Colicchio and Meyer cofounded. In 2000 he moved to Colicchio’s Craft, then to Las Vegas in 2001 as head chef at Craftsteak, then to New York’s Craftsteak in 2005. Along the way, he internalized Meyer’s hospitality concept, which places top priority on creating a caring environment that begins with the staff and branches out.

“Hospitality comes from within,” explains Albrecht, 38. “Within yourself and the group you work with. If you aren’t happy or the group you work with isn’t happy, you can’t impart happiness to your guests.”

While this may sound like New Age mumbo jumbo, it works at Eno Terra, where the sense of caring and personal involvement by the entire staff is palpable. This engaged spirit, Albrecht says, is nurtured by educating staff (for example, through tastings) and including them in decisions and Eno Terra’s commitment to sustainability. (Eno Terra is one of only six restaurants in New Jersey certified by the Green Restaurant Association for eco-friendly practices.)

Contributing to the inviting atmosphere of the 135-seat restaurant that began as Fisk Grocery in the 1800s are two glassed-in fireplaces, cloth-covered ceiling fixtures that cast a diffused light, and a mural incorporating driftwood and live plants on the wall behind the pasta, bread, cheese and salumi bar.

With its slogan of “Eat local, drink global,” Eno Terra’s changing menu emphasizes seasonal ingredients acquired within a 45-mile radius. (The 7,000-bottle wine list is international.) Using locally grown heirloom tomatoes or corn is relatively easy (and will be even easier this summer when the restaurant begins growing its own produce on a two-acre plot granted by the state on the site of the former Princeton Nurseries.)

Among appetizers, the locavore benefits were evident in the rich and appropriately gamy grilled quail from Griggstown Farm, marinated in rosemary, thyme, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar, and served over braised red cabbage and fried sunchokes. Another standout was poussin al mattone, an earthy whole chicken, split, flattened, and pressed to the grill under a hot brick to ensure even cooking and moistness.

The 57-inch grill plays a key role in many dishes. Littleneck clams pop open on the grill, giving them a subtle smokey flavor before they are added to a broth involving roasted tomatoes, arugula, and pancetta. In another outstanding appetizer, marinated broccoli rabe is grilled, covered with slightly melted chunks of mozzarella, which the restaurant makes by hand twice daily, and given a garlic, basil, and olive oil dressing.

Equally worthy is the salumi and formaggi appetizer, a stunning selection of imported and local dried meats and local artisanal cheeses from Cherry Grove and Valley Shepherd. Also notable is the bruschetta five ways: traditional chopped tomatoes; marinated mushrooms; semisweet pumpkin purée; piquillo pepper and goat cheese; and chunky garbanzo bean purée, all atop chewy toasted bread from the Momos’ Witherspoon Bread Co. However, a baby-spinach and poached pear salad lacked enough dressing to offset the sweetness of the port-and-red-wine poached pears.

The grill continues to shine in entrées, especially meats, many of which come from Simply Grazin’, a 220-acre organic farm in Skillman. Also faring well was spiedini di scampi, a smoky skewer of six jumbo shrimp wrapped in pancetta, grilled, and served on a bed of nutty quinoa in a fish fumé with Tuscan kale and tomatoes. Another excellent dish is perfectly pan-roasted salmon, served with sautéed spinach and a mélange of five types of cauliflower coated in a raisin-and pine-nut vinaigrette.

In a nod to the owners’ Italian roots, the menu includes a selection of homemade pastas, which you can watch being hand-rolled and cut at the salumi bar. A highlight was strozzapreti Bolognese, S-shaped tubes in a traditional beef-and-tomato sauce enlivened with cinnamon and nutmeg and finished with a large dollop of ricotta with basil. Risottos are offered as specials most nights. We tried expertly cooked vegetable risotto prepared with mushrooms, onions, and peas and topped with prosciutto and poached egg.

The dessert menu, while limited, reflects the three years Albrecht spent working with award-winning pastry chef Claudia Fleming at Gramercy Tavern. A particularly good mini-cheesecake combining mascarpone, cream cheese, and goat cheese is served with blueberry gelato and pistachios. Apple tortina wraps caramelized winesap apples from nearby Terhune Orchards in flakey puff pastry with vanilla gelato from Princeton’s Bent Spoon. Flavors fought each other in the lemon crespelles, crêpes filled with lemon curd, topped with a fresh- and cooked-berry sauce. Light but creamy buttermilk panna cotta comes layered with a rotating selection of gelées. Peach gelée offered a perfect flavor contrast; on another night, concord grape gelée overpowered the delicate custard.

Wines are available by the glass or bottle, as well as in 500 or 250 milliliter pitchers. The Enoteca (wine bar), with its exposed nineteenth-century brick and wood beams, provides a casual setting and a menu of smaller dishes that remain available after the main dining room closes.