Gass & Main in Haddonfield Serves Elevated Nostalgic Fare: ‘It’s Cooking From the Heart’

Weaving their way around patrons waiting to be seated, adroit servers ferry artful platters of food from a tiny open kitchen to those lucky enough to have secured a table at Gass & Main, the Haddonfield BYO that has made an art of digging into the past to invent something new, and even landed on NJM’s 2024 list of the state’s best restaurants.

“When you walk in the front door, what you see is what you get,” says chef Dane DeMarco. “Our small size dictates everything.” With no walk-in refrigerator and limited storage space, fresh ingredients, preferably local, are delivered daily and must be used up right away. “Everything has to intertwine. We’re hyper-seasonal, and whatever is available, I sprinkle throughout the menu at the time,” says DeMarco.

DeMarco, who uses they/them pronouns, has been working in restaurants since the age of 13, most notably as executive chef at Philadelphia gastropubs American Sardine Bar and South Philly Taproom, but had never before worked in a BYO—not to mention run one. Then the opportunity to take over the space previously occupied by Valente’s Cucina arose in late 2022, and DeMarco, who had been running BurgerTime in Audubon, seized it.

The dining room, a re-creation of chef Dane DeMarco’s childhood living room. Photo: Ted Nghiem

The first six months of operation involved “a lot of curve balls and adjusting,” DeMarco says, but by the end of last year, Gass & Main’s elevated nostalgic fare had caught on, not only with local diners, but also with the wider food world. In January, DeMarco was named a 2024 James Beard semifinalist as best Mid-Atlantic chef, an honor they call “a wild ride.”

“I haven’t even brushed the tip of the iceberg here,” says DeMarco. “I’m more in touch with what I want to be doing than I’ve ever been, finally putting out my food and not someone else’s concept.”

DeMarco takes inspiration from their collection of vintage cookbooks like Betty Crocker and the Time-Life series. “The most exciting thing for me is when people tell me their stories—how my dishes bring them somewhere else—that this is what their grandmother used to make. It’s cooking from the heart,” says DeMarco.

Nostalgia is also evident in Gass & Main’s 36-seat dining room, a re-creation of the chef’s childhood living room.

Many of the dishes at Gass & Main—named for the Las Vegas intersection where DeMarco’s wedding party gathered in 2020—reflect the chef’s extensive travels and ability to reinvent traditions.

The Brussels chips are a spin on fried Brussels sprouts. Deviled eggs are a dish DeMarco remembers from every family gathering. Here, smoked cheddar cheese and horseradish are blended into the yolks, then topped with a generous dollop of smoked salmon roe. The elevated mac ’n’ cheese subs truffle gnocchi in for traditional elbow macaroni, bathing it in a cheesy mornay sauce and finishing it with truffle peels.

Mac ’n’ cheese appetizer with truffle gnocchi, mornay, truffle peels and herb breadcrumbs. Photo: Ted Nghiem

Then there is the hot dog, a menu item that set locals abuzz months before the restaurant opened. “When I signed my lease, rumors began that we were bringing hot dogs and hamburgers to Valente’s space,” they recall. “I thought, Yes, I’m going to bring a hot dog, but it’s going to be the world’s best hot dog.” On that promise, DeMarco delivers. Cradled in a brioche bun, the Wagyu beef hot dog’s natural casing produces a perfect snap. Topped with pickled shallots along with celery, and house-made mustard, it’s a dish I wanted to sample again.

A Wagyu hot dog served as a snack with house sweet-heat mustard, pickled shallot and celery on a brown-butter brioche bun. Photo: Ted Nghiem

If you really want to get a good sense of DeMarco’s culinary feats, opt for the “Dinner Party,” a chef’s choice five-course tasting menu that allows you to sample nearly a dozen menu items. Stand-outs included the perfectly cooked asparagus coated in a housemade Hidden Valley-style dressing, and the crunchy rainbow carrots topped with strawberry agrodolce.

A rainbow-carrot appetizer with avocado mousse, strawberry agrodolce, quinoa, sunflower seeds and microbasil. Photo: Ted Nghiem

Chicken á la king, which DeMarco describes as “my version of a TV dinner,” was a perfectly tender roasted Amish chicken breast, bathed in a rich chicken gravy, with carrots, peas and wild black rice. Another outstanding entrée was the Filet Oscar, a seared eight-ounce pepper-crusted filet crowned by a mound of jumbo lump crabmeat with hollandaise sauce.

Desserts also play with the classics. The base of the strawberry shortcake was a funnel cake, while the topping was old-school Cool Whip. The stack of chewy chocolate cookies topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream was some of the best that I’ve ever tasted, so you can imagine my surprise when I learned that it was fully vegan.

[RELATED:  Clemmy’s, a Cozy Farm-to-Table Gem in Waretown, Is Well Worth the Wait to Get In]

HOW WE REVIEW: Restaurants are chosen for review at the sole discretion of New Jersey Monthly. For our starred reviews of fine-dining restaurants, our critics visit a restaurant at least twice with two diners, always maintaining anonymity to avoid preferential treatment, and the magazine pays for their meals. Stars are assigned by the dining section editor in consultation with the reviewer.

Four stars = extraordinary; three stars = excellent; two stars = very good; one star = good; half a star = fair.

No one knows New Jersey like we do. Sign up for one of our free newsletters here. Want a print magazine mailed to you? Purchase an issue from our online store.