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Neighborhood Favorites

Friendly and comfortable settings accompanied by delicious food is what has us coming back time and again to these "nabe faves"
-By PAT TANNER
taken from
New Jersey Life Sept. 2008 76-77

Basil T's * * *
183 Riverside Avenue, Red Bank 732.842.5990

"I love everything about Basil T's," reports my friend Wayne, who describes the brew- pub and Italian restaurant as "reminiscent of Cheers." Wayne, who has been part of the pub's I,OOO-member Mug Club for eight years, says, "The bartenders make all the difference. They make you feel right at home, and they're extremely professional."

The bartenders and the optional club - which entitles members to discounts on dinner specials and house beers by award- winning brewer Gretchen Schmidhausler - are but two reasons that this joint is always jumpin'. Others include adept traditional and updated Italian-American favorites, among them thin-crust pizzas and fresh house-made pastas; eye-popping decor that punctuates the dark-wood bar aesthetic with hanging cheeses and high-end salamis and big bowls of gleaming apples and impossibly red tomatoes; and an all-Italian wine list that left me speechless.

We pondered the wine list while sipping the excellent pale ale, wheat beer, and stout and while practically inhaling the warm dinner rolls - their white, cot tony interiors ideal for soaking up the fresh olive oil and cracked pepper that our savvy server, Susan, prepared for us tableside. After that, we shared the prodigious cheese plate - which features such intriguing components as Moliterno cheese from Sardinia and local honey - and a generous beet salad with pistachios that includes an irresistible slab of toasted Italian bread smeared with goat cheese.

When I read that the pasta with white clam sauce uses fresh house-made pasta alia chitarra (guitar-string pasta), I jumped on it and was rewarded not only with dense, toothsome pasta and a bay's worth of fresh clams in the shell, but also a sauce with real heft. Unlike the thin, water-oil concoctions commonly encountered, this one clings deliciously to the pasta. I had balked when Susan recommended a pinot grigio to go with it, since I often find such Italian white wines to be limp and watery, but her choice, the Tenuta Villanova, stood up to the dish beautifully.

I was impressed with Basil T's lasagna, which features sheets of more excellent pasta, a nicely tangy tomato sauce, and- sitting on top like a big, fat pasha - one tasty meatball.

The real surprises here, though, are the pizzas. We chose a thin-crust, crisp-bottom margherita with fresh moz~arella, toma- toes, and basil.

Even hamburgers get the Italian treat- ment here, via a focaccia roll that is also made on the premises. Charcoal grilling helps overcome the wimpy flavor of the lean beef used, although not the mushy texture. But, oh my; the accompanying fries! Pure, crunchy potato-oil-salt nirvana

Desserts are made in-house, too, and include ltalianesque treats such as chocolate- vanilla cannoli and Nutella cheesecake (a bit too sweet and creamy for me but not for my companions) as well as fresh-fruit tarts and a stellar apple-walnut cake with gelato.

Of course, such quality and popularity come at a cost: The decibel level and the prices are higher than at a typical local hangout. But both are understandable and worth the trade-off.