Weekends during the summer revolve around going or not going to the Renaissance Festival in Tuxedo, NY. If the weather’s hospitable, we’re out of the house by 8 am and on the road to faire. It’s hard when it’s a Sunday morning and we have to decide between Faire and brunch. Today we managed to do the near impossible. Faire and brunch. We got to Faire as early as always, finished our errands and got out of there and back on the roads. A quick call determined they couldn’t accommodate us in the kitchen, but the cube, a private room off the kitchen was free. Around an hour later we show up and in we go.
You should understand that this isn’t the first restaurant to which we’ve gone after faire in garb, period clothing, including feathered hat and leather boots. We’ve previously been to both the Pluckemin Inn as well as David Drakes. Elements was a little different in that we needed to pass in full view of the main dining room. Since no one was at the front desk when we walked in, and several patrons were craning their necks trying to get a better look at us, we decided to just head back to the kitchen, figuring someone would seat us or we could just seat ourselves. After saying hello to the staff in the kitchen, we ensconced ourselves in the cube which had kindly already been set for our arrival with menus and water chilling.
An amuse bouche of vichyssoise was just excellent and we both wanted more. Unfortunately they were out of the local corn chowder which we both wanted to get. The Husband got potato pancakes with poached eggs and bacon. I got a delicious panzanelle, an Italian bread salad with heirloom tomatoes and Griggstown chicken. I wasn’t feeling breakfast-y at that point and this was rather tasty. Most brunch menus are hard for me- I don’t eat eggs or cheese so that eliminates a lot of options. I know the staff at elements would accommodate anything I asked, but I figured not on a day when they had 50 folks in house, including a bunch in the kitchen for a 9-course tasting.
We decided not to push it with dessert, so just got a check and headed home. On the way out it seems we surprised a table of women when we came out of the cube and passed through the dining room on our way out. It is kind of cool to be able to go to some of the top restaurants in NJ after spending the morning at the Renaissance Faire,
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