Reviews for Terre a Terre

12/28/2013 - G. P
“I want to save the little guy,” Chef Todd Villani said softly, seated at the burlap and craft paper covered farmstyle table of his new farm-to-table Carlstadt gem of a restaurant, “Terre à Terre” (or, “Down to Earth”).

Villani’s restaurant name, one he picked out years ago while conjuring his life’s dream (which cleverly creates the word “EAT” in the center with the “a” as an apple, boldfaced on his simply embossed storefront window), is a threefold descriptor. It captures his food, the ambience of his eatery, and most importantly, him.

In his humbly passionate statement, Villani answered the question that rings loudly in any industry mind familiar with the massive cost and effort implicit with any restaurant venture, much less one that features exclusively local-farmed and screamingly fresh produce: why make farm-to-table your raison d’être?

Mass produced food cost these days is teeth-grindingly high as it is, not also to mention rent and labor in an economy that has certainly been kinder to the food industry than it has over the past decade. It’s all enough to send any well-established restaurant under the table, much less a 50-seat eight-weeker run solely by a brave chef-owner that serves only local meat, fish, dairy, and produce, right down to its counterintuitively awesome cups of New Hope joe.

And the buck doesn’t stop there for Villani.

Every single item in his shop-come-restaurant-come-culinary institution is bought Jersey local (or as close as possible), sustainable, and downright farm chic, from the quaint mini picnic baskets that hold every table’s share of fresh, steaming hot pretzel bread to the burlap curtains hung on rods made of branches.

Even the utensils rest on little branches reminiscent of Asian chopstick holders, and the seasonally shifting menu is propped up by a thin slab of bark. This sort of integrity and attention to detail –
needless to say, really – extends to his food.

The menu reads like a repertoire of superior small local farms, with the farm name preceding the food. For instance, the Marolda Farms Beet and Backyard Green Salad available for an incredible $12. (For the record, the prices at Terre à Terre are as wonderfully surprising as its concept, location, and flavors.)

The beets, both golden and red, are cubed and sliced thinly, creating this ethereal beet-chip effect over the “backyard” salad which is just as fresh as if picked from a spring yard; and if you really think about it, given the local sourcing, it’s not too far off. And the diner can tell, in a great way. All of this rests on top of a fluffy cloud of what Villani calls goat cheese mousse, which takes the oftentimes overwhelming flavor to a whole new level of smooth, creamy, dreamy incredible. Not also to mention, there’s smoked paprika which – fear not, vegetarians – tastes just like bacon, but isn’t. Oh yeah, and then there’s the truffle reduction.

For the less veggie-inclined, there’s the house-smoked pork belly app which consists of, again, fluffy clouds (see a theme developing here?) of pork which is rarely an association made with pork. Pork. And the Brussels sprouts are perfectly crispy and hold their own in this mix.

And then you have the dish dear to Villani’s heart: the Rosenkrans Farm Short Ribs, served pinot noir melty tender over a potato leek puree that might just make you weep gently once you’ve licked the last bit off the plate.

If you still have room after all of this, there is an equally impressive collection of handcrafted desserts whose freshness will make you forget you’re consuming dessert, but will remind you how much you can’t do without it. I recommend you take your confectionary indulgence accompanied by a magic blossoming tea leaf or some of that addictive local coffee.

Bottom line, folks, is this: eat here. First, for the mindblowing food, and foremost for the fact that the act of eating here is not only good for your soul, but for the good of the collective soul, good for what’s right and true, good for the earth, and good for Jersey. It’s just good.