I think they’re going to take long enough to decide about what to do that restaurants will be allowed indoor dining again. With another set of hard to define and harder to implement restrictions.
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Looks like they showed up last night to enforce the indoor dining ban.
Me thinks it’s pretty interesting that all the press regarding the opening is about the occupancy, not too many stories about how great the food or service is.
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In fairness, I don’t think anyone writing these stories had dined there yet! Seems like his regulars booked up all of the reservations as soon as they were available.
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Who are you calling “regular?” 
Certainly not YOU… 
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Even if the two walls were basically all windows, they would still not constitute 50% of the wall space to a mathematician, because there have to be frames for the windows, and when you open the windows, all that glass has to go somewhere. (Pivoting it outside ends up needing more to frames.)
(Sorry, Mark and I are mathematicians and 50% is 50%, not 45% or whatever.)
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I think we’re making the same point…
I couldn’t find anything that said he was cited but will trust your info. It won’t matter in a couple of days as indoor dining will be permitted as of Friday with various and sundry rules and regulations.
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Barrel and Roost. Definitely a new take on the old spot and food. Some good, some not as good.
We started with the crispy chicken with Alabama white sauce:
Chicken nuggets wrapped in spicy crunchy fried coating were a tad heavy on the coating and the white sauce was mostly mayo.
They did not have the bread, so we had our asparagus with mushroom ragout with nothing to dip in it:
What we should have done is ask for the gnocci and asparagus to come out at the same time and poured the shrooms over the gnocci which was a little dry.
The margherita pizza was not bad, but I was expecting something along the lines of Una Pizza in AH and got more of a decent local pizzaria.
The Nicholas Burger was a lot more successful. Not large and only served with homemade potato chips, it still shone as the best new dish and best bargain at only $15!
Another pleasant addition was the Banana Split. A massive bowl of vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry ice cream topped with a ton of whipped cream, caramel, hot fudge, strawberry sauce and sliced bananas. Nicholas was amamzed we finished it all. Another bargain at only $15.
All in all very enjoyable.
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Well…well…well…given this is a first review I’ve read on this place and I know you were a big fan of the brand going into this, I’m pretty sure I"m good waiting a while before giving it a try. I mentoned elsewhere in this thread that with all the “hoopla” that went into the rebranding of this, I’m surprised most, if not all, of the news has been on the indoor dining etc. Haven’t heard ANY raving reviews, this just confirms that.
Thank you sir, glad you enjoyed aspects of the trip.
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Exactly what I thought–that’s not a rave by any means.
We have reservations for the 14th. I hope they have their act up and running properly by them. I’d be really irritated if we end up disappointed.
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OK, my wife and I have been to the Barrel and Roost 3 times. I so wanted to love them. So very badly. Parts of the experience and some dishes have been marvelous. And other aspects have been, frankly, underwhelming.
The most exasperating part of the experience for me has been their rather stubborn refusal to put salt and pepper on the tables - an obvious carryover from the stuffy Nicholas,
Are my expectations too high?
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Of course there should be salt and pepper on the table, right next to the chile flakes and the sriracha and the ketchup and the sesame oil and … You get the point.
Not to mention that in this time of COVID, the idea of putting more things on the table that need to be sanitized after each diner is not a good idea.
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Mixed reviews from me. The Parisienne gnocchi was dry and I didn’t like the cavatelli. A salad, short rib, and fish dish were very good. Cocktails good. If you ask for salt and pepper they will bring it. Bread is now a ‘bar snack’.
Your points taken.
However, when I asked for salt I was brought a small (1" x 2") white ceramic tray with the cutest little piles of salt and pepper imaginable. Maybe ONE large pinch of each.
In my opinion they need to get over themselves a bit.
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And the bread wasn’t very good.
See my comment in this trhead regarding requested condiments.
They are getting some of the simple stuff wrong.
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The sad part about this is Nicholas could have gone up to Morristown or Montclair to give this concept a try while leaving Nicholas unchanged for us to continue to enjoy. Nope instead he had to throw the baby out with the bath water and now we have this in its place.
You know how to tell for sure how “average” this place is? It’s one of Gov Murphy’s favorite places, I mean c’mon look at that guy, does anything about him say: “enjoys good food”? Hell no, I’d choose to go where ever Christie liked to eat, anything about him say; “I don’t like good food”? (I think we all know the answer)
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As a food blogger, having never been to the original Nicholas, I was sorely disappointed when they announced the change. I will get to B & R eventually but it won’t have the same meaning.
