AFTER a three-month renovation, an engaging little restaurant called Cafe of Love opened its doors in Mount Kisco last March. The name is better understood, if not forgiven, once you know that the restaurant is the offspring of Ladle of Love, a carry-out soup shop just around the corner.
Know, too, that while the word “cafe” suggests a casual neighborhood spot — and the mismatched furnishings, long friendly bar and open kitchen would support that notion — a look at the menu and its prices makes one take the name with a grain of salt. Light dining this is not.
That being said, few restaurants in the area deliver such an appealing blend of rusticity and sophistication, contemporary without being modern.
Customers can help themselves to snacks set out on a trestle table: shards of cheese spilling from a big wheel of Parmesan, olives, a white bean dip and baskets filled with tortilla chips and fresh breads.
That generous gesture presents a problem. Many dishes on the menu are so hearty that a diner can feel satisfied after a few mouthfuls. Especially rich is the delicious Harvest Celebration Soup, thick and heavy with butternut squash, sweet potatoes and apple. Anyone serious about a low-carb diet will have to order carefully. Tasty items like pomme frites, macaroni and cheese, creamed spinach, truffled smashed potatoes, cheeses and cakey desserts are in all too goodly supply.
At lunch, one of the lighter selections was a thin, crisp vegetarian panino with fillings like Manchego, caramelized onions and sweet peppers. Served in a hollowed globe of crusty bread, the chili was sturdier, with its jumble of kidney beans, chunks of carrot, potato, cauliflower and hot peppers. Mac and cheese and an omelet with Gruyère were standard, but a big stew of shrimp and calamari was overwhelmed by acidic tomatoes.
A composed salad and another called “lettuce “tower” — not a tower at all but just some lettuce, tomato and other vegetables spread out on a plate — are on both the lunch and dinner menus, but why bother with those when arugula and beet salad is around. Laced with a nutty vinaigrette, this terrific combination included the excellent Rainbeau Ridge goat cheese and was a far better starter than a cylinder of tuna tartare with smooth guacamole, a construction which at one dinner disintegrated in a puddle of cucumber water.
Dinner entrees included salmon, a thickish juicy piece perched on a raft of long beans; and four succulent medium-rare lamb chops leaning on a timbale of couscous, with slices of baby zucchini near by. The slight bitterness from Swiss chard counterbalanced slow-roasted Berkshire pork with sweet fig and port sauce, a lovely dish flavored by lardons of salt pork, which should have been trimmed of the leathery rind. New York sirloin came with four fun dipping sauces and a clay flower pot overflowing with pomme frites, a charming touch.
Although the zucchini spaghetti garnish would enhance any plate, nothing could resurrect pieces of aging skate that smelled of ammonia.
Desserts like the overly sweet brownie stuffed with chocolate ganache and the lumpy bread pudding were also disappointing.
Still feeling its way, right now this young restaurant has a long, overly ambitious menu that could be trimmed. Oil cooking fumes from the fryer need more frequent venting, and servers should be better trained. Hard surfaces amplify the noise of lively conversations. But the dining room is pretty, people clearly enjoy being there, and it’s convenient to shopping and to the railway station.
If you decide to stop by, sit far from the hostess’s station and its telephone. One of the closely spaced tables abuts the reception desk, a closeness that allowed the hostess to lean over and comment on a dish and note the size of the tip as we wrote it in. And yet, despite this enforced chumminess, our request for a menu to take home was summarily refused.
When dining in a twosome, we preferred sitting at the bar, where the service was always professional and we didn’t have to shout over the din.
Cafe of Love
38 East Main Street
Mount Kisco
(914) 242-1002
GOOD
THE SPACE Picture windows flank the recessed entrance to a small noisy dining room done in pleasing earth tones. Eclectic décor mixes rustic (mismatched chairs and small, wobbly tables) and elegant (fresh flowers, handsome stemware and an ornate chandelier). Handicapped accessible from Main Street entrance.
THE CROWD Lively and mostly adult. Waiting staff needs training.
THE BAR Efficient service at the long stone bar, with a good selection of imported beers. Wines by the quartino, $8 to $13.
THE BILL Lunch, main dishes, $11 to $18. Dinner, entrees, $15 (for an omelet) to $42, for a 14-ounce veal chop.
WHAT WE LIKE Arugula and beet salad; lamb chops, sirloin, salmon, roasted pork loin. The menu changes seasonally.
IF YOU GO Dinner: Tuesday to Thursday, 4 to 10 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 4 to 11 p.m.; Sunday, 4 to 9 p.m. Lunch: Tuesday to Sunday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Reservations only for groups of five or more. Parking on the street or in the lot in back of the restaurant.
Reviewed Aug. 10, 2008
