Check Out the Menu at Mario Batali’s New Tarry Lodge in Port Chester

August

I had a lovely interview with Andy Nusser, chef-owner (along with Mario Batali, Joe Bastianich and Nancy Selzer) of the upcoming Tarry Lodge in Port Chester for our fall restaurant preview. He gave me this pizza box.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t any pizza in it. Not yet anyway. But guess what was? The menu. Check it out, after the jump.

This weekend, Nusser will begin to season the pizza oven, a wood-fired beauty from Mugnaini. To season it, they have to build a small fire and feed it and feed it until it grows big and hot enough very, very slowly. We wouldn’t want any cracks, would we?

This week, they’ll be perfecting the pizza dough recipe; next week they’ll be working on the fresh pasta. The week after they’ll do the antipasti, and then, Nusser hopes, they’ll be ready to open the third week (or so) of September. I can’t get him to confirm a date for certain, but that’s because the restaurant is still under construction.

What’s so cool about the menu is that it’s like an amaglamation of all the Batali-Bastianich restaurants under one roof.

It’s got the antipasti of Lupa; it has the pizzas of Otto, but made in a wood-fired oven (plus they’ll be a hybrid of Roman-Neapolitan style); the fresh pastas and secondi of Babbo (but without the offal); even the salads and cheese course of Del Posto. It will be casual (and suitable for families) but there will be white tablecloths and wine list will be completely Italian.

Seriously, you’ll be able to go in there and just order a pie (there are 10 choices, from a margherita for $10 to a clam pizza with salsa verde and pecorino for $16) or a 6-course meal. Which I would sometimes want to do because everything looks so damn delicious.

If I had a tableful of adventurous dining partners, here would be my first meal at Tarry Lodge:

Antipasti
Radishes with bagna cauda, Amandino’s salumi, shrimp with pickled watermelon.
Insalate
Vitello Tonnato; Crudo in Scabece
Pizza
Margherita with Tomato, Mozzarella and Basil: Guanciale with White Asparagus, Black Truffles and Duck Egg
Pasta
Spaghetti alla Carbonara; Oreccheitte with Fennel Sausage and Rapini
Secondi
Grilled pork loin with cipolline and saffron honey; guinea hen al mattone wih treviso and oranges; hanger steak with roasted hen of the woods
Contorni
Artichokes with mint; sweet corn fregula; escarole with capers

I can’t choose cheese and dessert because I don’t yet have those menus.

What would you choose? Click here to see the PDF of the menu and let me know below.

Exciting stuff!

This entry was posted on Friday, August 29th, 2008 at 9:08 am by Liz Johnson.
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5 Responses to “Check Out the Menu at Mario Batali’s New Tarry Lodge in Port Chester”

Aidan August 29th, 2008 at 7:55 pm
I’ll stick with Sunrise Pizza and Sal’s.
Marek August 29th, 2008 at 10:02 pm
Can’t wait… menu looks great. Never understood the Sal’s thing… nothing special to me.
Bill October 5th, 2008 at 1:26 pm
Well, it’s October, and they do not appear to be open yet. The website (www.tarrylodge.com) still points to a press kit (which includes their menu, as posted here). The phone # is 914-939-3111. but I just called and no one picked up.

The press kit does claim that they will take reservations, which is nice.
Bill October 13th, 2008 at 10:25 am
I was in Port Chester on Saturday and decided to figure out where Tarry Lodge is. Thanks to my GPS I was able to find it. It did not appear to be open, BUT there was apparently something going to be going on that evening. I saw a guy walk up to the door (I was stuck in traffic) and the woman who let him in (it was locked) said something about 6pm. I did see tablecloths on the tables. I could not get her attention to ask when they were opening and none of my family felt like getting out to go ask for me.

As an aside, where do you park for that place? I did not see any parking and the cross-street it’s on did not seem to have much. I guess you park and walk. Maybe that’s what you do for all PC restaurants.
Bill December 17th, 2008 at 1:03 am
Have they changed their menu much from what is posted here? They’ve taken down the menu from their website, and even Opentable, which handles their reservations. I have a reservation for next Saturday.

BTW, do they actually charge for tap water? I found this Zagat: “Something new, $4 for filtered still or sparkling tap H2O – no bottles.” Or is that the bottled stuff the person is talking about?

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