John Andrews Restaurant 10-10-09

John Andrews Restuarant
Route 23
Egremont, MA
www.jarestaurant.com
Entrees: Mid-$20s

I hadn't been to John Andrews for several years but I had fond memories of enjoying a pleasant meal in their woodsy sculpture garden. When my parents and I drove down route 23 through Egremont Saturday night as the sun set, I kept thinking I must have passed the place - it seemed much closer towards the Taconic than I remembered. But we had not passed it. It was 6pm and already the place was doing a brisk business with several couples eating in the bar and the restuarant steadily filling. It is still charming although too cold to eat outside in October! It did become more difficult to see your food as the sun went down and the one tiny candle worked hard to illuminate our table.

The feeling at JA is slightly more upscale than at a place like Chez Nous, although I was perfectly comfortable wearing jeans. The crowd is a tiny bit chic-er; we sat near a couple who looked likely to spend their spare time investing in art and building a new section in their NY loft for their future Baby Upscale.

The service was excellent, always a pleasant event for the laid-back Berskhires, with a well-executed system with a waitress, food runners/bussers, and a "bread guy" (really a "bread teen") who came around with fresh bread.

I have to confess I think I ordered badly. The meal started off well with hot fresh onion/rosemary focaccia, and then I ordered the root vegetable salad. In retrospect, a root vegetable salad is probaly not a flavor-filled party in your mouth. The vegetable had a good crunch but they all tasted the same, as root vegetables tend to do. A few mouthfulls were plenty and then I wished I had ordered the pumpkin soup on special that night. My parents enjoyed their romaine salads.

I did very much enjoy a beautifully done pork chop with a sweet potato bacon hash. Unfortunately, it also included cabbage with cider vinegar for a sauerkraut-like side placed on top of the hash. It was just too tangy and I tried to extricae the hash from it, but without a great deal of success. My mom enjoyed a simple mushroom pasta dish and my dad had the organic chicken which he reported was excellent. For dessert, my mother had a pear in custard and I had the chocolate cheescake. The cheesecake was not as heavy as sometimes it can be, but was not quite as light and fluffy as I would have preferred - but satisfactory, if not trancendant.

This restaurant is a 30 minutes drive on very dark roads so while it is likely not a place I would go frequently, when there are equally good options closer to Lee, it has a very specific and romantic charm - a nice special occassion place for those of us in the middle of the county. And they have a great and interesting wine list.