Staunton Grocery

11/23/2011 This is another restaurant we wanted to try, based on the positive reviews from Urbanspoon.com.  The alphageek is a little embarassed to admit this, but he first thought it was literally a grocery store, or at least had a little grocery store in the restaurant.  You will be happy to know that this is indeed a full blown restaurant, and a pretty good one at that.  Staunton Grocery uses locally sourced ingredients to bring a unique experience each time one eats at Staunton Grocery.  You could eat somewhere more traditional, but you would be missing out on a unique dining experience.

We spent some time researching this restaurant online.  When we arrived and were quickly seated, we noticed that the menu did not quite match the menu we scouted out on-line.  While the new menu was not a problem, it did cause us to stop and re-evaluate what was being offered that evening.   We enjoyed the low pressure atmosphere and being able to keep our menus to order each course as we felt our impulses change.

We started with the amuse-bouche that was sent to the table, and is pictured below.  The duck craklin with honey and chili got things rolling in a good way.  The alphageek could have used more spiciness, as usual, but the duck was still great.

amuse-bouche, duck cracklin with honey and chili (click to enlarge)

We then decided to try some olive oil poached wahooo, pictured below.  This fish was served with salsify, orange, trout roe, and boiled peanuts.  You will notice that the dish does not have any boiled peanuts.  The peanuts were somehow left off our dish, but that did not detract from the great taste.  The roe added little bursts of flavor that really set off the taste buds.  Mrs. alphageek asked about the missing peanuts and our kind server brought us some since they had been left out.  We tried them with the dish and can report the peanuts made a great dish even better.

Olive oil poached Wahooo (click to enlarge)

We then moved on to the sunchoke fennel salad, pictured below.  If you are like the alphageek, and I am sorry if you are, you may not have any experience with sunchoke. While you could do a quick google search on sunchoke, I will say sunchoke is a lot like a cross between ginger and radish, and has an almost daikon like taste.  The salad was served with a little bit of Parmesan cheese and vinaigrette. The ingredients in this salad brought out a wide variety of flavors.

Sunchoke Fennel Salad (click to enlarge)

As a main course, Mrs. alphageek had the Farro Strozzapreti, again pictured below.  The menu lists the dish as having Berkshire Pork Bollognaise and Parmigiano Reggiano served with the pasta.  The taste Mrs. alphageek gave me convinced me that this dish had a deep, dark complexity not often found in a pasta dish.

Farro Strozzapreti (click to enlarge)

My entree was the Sweet Potato Pierogi, shown in the stunning picture below.  The dish has some Granny Smith apple and Totsoi.  I think Totsoi means some sort of greens, at least that is what I think they were based on the process of elimination.  Ordinarily, I am not a big fan of greens.  These greens might be enough to make me reconsider that position because they were a great compliment to an already great pierogi.  The pierogi was crispy on the outside, and cooked perfectly to create a memorable dish.

Sweet Potato Pierogi (click to enlarge)

We had a great meal, and can say the Staunton Grocery is worthy of a restaurant that deserves some hype.  Stop by and give it a try, or leave some feedback and share your experience.

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