Junto-Chadds Ford, PA

And so our culinary blogging adventure officially begins. Last night we went to the first restaurant since starting our blog. Not sure if I mentioned this, but we plan on going to two restaurants every month (not always for the first time). One will be in the city, the other in the suburbs. We started off with the suburbs with Junto in Chadds Ford.

Recently reviewed by Craig LeBan, Junto is a farm to table restaurant that opened 7 months ago.  Also worth mentioning, its a BYOB; and who doesn't love a BYOB? The menu has something for everyone as well as a very reasonably-priced chef's tasting menu that brings smaller portions of the dishes. Technically it is 4 courses broken up as follows: 1. Cheese/meats, salads, and soups (3 each), 2. Three selections of small plates, 3. Two selections of main courses. 4. Dessert. If you have to ask if we tried this, you should be ashamed of yourself. All for $55, it took the decision making out of the picture for us and allowed us the opportunity to have the chef give us what he thinks is best.

So let us talk about the atmosphere. Skeptical at first due to its quaint shopping mall location, you walk in and forget that small detail. Simply decorated and well lit with cream colored walls, the only decorations are traditional yet modern paintings of farm life. Its smaller than we originally thought and surprisingly quiet. This made eavesdropping on other conversations almost too easy. There are negatives to restaurants being to quiet, which I will get to later. We were the youngest people there-a common occurrence.

We started our dinner with a server who was helpful without being overwhelming. We brought one white wine and one red wine. He recommended we open both once we decided to do the chef's tasting menu. And who are we to argue two bottles of wine for two people (Rob drove and I imbibed more wine)? My recommendations on wine selection are simple. A solid full bodied red to compliment the meats, and go with a white that will go well with both fish and vegetarian dishes.

First course included small plates ranging from Pennsylvania cheese and charcuterie to a cold salad of rudabega, beets, radish and pickled kohirabi which blended sour with a mild kick of spice at the back of the tongue.   The earthy produce was also paired with a goat kefir ranch which eliminated some of the bitterness of the vegetables without displacing the earthiness.

Wild mushrooms, goat cheese toasts

The chef's book opened up with the second course which started off with corn & crab fritters paired with pepper jelly that complimented the fritter flavors perfectly-just the right amount a sweet and spicy. The fritter itself was simple yet superbly fried-more reminiscent of southern comfort food.  You do not even need teeth to enjoy the slow cooked beef cheek.  This was masterfully prepared, the meat was beefy goodness and the buttery fat even melted in your mouth. The meat from the head of the animal is widely considered some of the tastiest.  The lamb cannelloni rounded out the second course. Wrapped in black garlic pasta and made with ricotta, the flavors lent themselves to the lamb without even remotely overpowering it. Add in some sweet roasted tomatoes and you have a lamb lover's delight.

The third course actually consisted of two menu items served on a larger plate to each patron.  Amongst the more unique items on the menu was the alder wood smoked grilled sturgeon.  The meat of the sturgeon was firm but the smoked flavor with the romanesco sauce was overwhelming any flavors of the fish.  The final item was the free range chicken with sunchoke, mashed sweet potato and Birch infused chicken jus.  Now I must admit I usually avoid chicken dishes on the menu when I eat out because I (like most patrons according to our server)  avoid items that are a staple for weeknight cooking. Let this chicken dispel all previous notions on chicken in fine dining dishes.  Impeccably prepared and with a seared salty skin, it encompassed everything we love about the taste of chicken.  Whether you can thank an excellent chef or the excellent quality of the free range bird, I don't know. But this dish gets nods from both of us as the best chicken we have ever dined on at a restaurant.  The sunchoke and sweet potato was precisely sugary to balance out the saltiness of the chicken.

Left: Smoked sturgeon. Right: Free range chicken, sunchoke, mashed sweet potatoes, birch infused jus

Dessert consisted of a lighter goat cheese panne cotta with honey foam and quince.  Not too tart, not too sugary, wonderfully sweet and creamy and cool, a great way to round out this tasting menu.

Goat cheese panna cotta, goat cheese, quince

With all of that said, the meal was not without its flaws. The dishes came out way too quickly. At one point we had all three starter plates on our table (one of which was a hot dish). Thinking this might be a fluke we brushed it off... until it happened again with the small plates. No one likes to be rushed with their food, and it most certainly felt way too many times that this was occurring.  On a small side note, I found the music they were playing didn't fit the atmosphere. More than once I caught myself asking, "why are they playing this song? It seems out of place." There was an issue with the place being too quiet eluded to previously, and now I will mention why. As said before, we could hear other conversations. Now, those who are familiar with dining in crowded places (La Viola comes first to mind, where you practically sit on your neighbors), know this is usually not a big deal. It becomes a big deal when you hear people making fun of others in the restaurant. Although this has nothing to do with the restaurant itself, the couple sitting near us commenting on the fact that we take pictures of our food or making fun of the older couple sitting on the other side of us was tasteless, rude, and frankly quite pointless. It certainly put a damper on my meal and made me suddenly wish the place was louder. Rude people are everywhere and are unavoidable, but that doesn't mean I should have to sit in a public place and listen to them make fun of others around them. With that said, I will be sure to post all the pictures of our food that we took on this blog since that is why we do it in the first place.

Now that I got all that nonsense out of my system, I can finish with a confirmation that this restaurant is a solid suburban dining experience well worth the trip out. The cheese selection alone is an experience. It was enjoyable seeing a place that was so small and quaint across the street from a large strip mall (I'm not hating on the strip mall, it has the best Whole Foods I have ever seen). Junto confirms that you don't have to go into the city to have a nice dining experience. You just have to be willing to keep an open mind and look a little harder.