WIRT AND KAREN COOK
GRASS-FED N.Y. STRIP STEAK
KEY LIME PIE
If you haven’t yet had their slab
bacon with grainy mustard ($11),
you’re in for a treat. The thickly
cut, bright-red Boonton-based Fossil
Farms pork meat, cured for a week
and smoked in-house for four hours,
is exactly
how bacon
AT A GLANCE
should taste:
• OPEN FOR DINNERS
WEDNESDAY THROUGH
smoky,
SUNDAYS, STARTING
AT 5 P.M.
salty, buttery
• BYOB
and a smid-
gen sweet. In
other words, terrific.
Try, too, the spicy homemade
Italian sausage ragu slathered on
the fresh orecchiette ($12) — it
has a nice heat to it — though the
Cooks could have let the pasta cook
another minute or two.
As for those three mini lobster
rolls accessorized with salmon roe
and microgreens: Sorry to say, they
were a bit lackluster. Still, the price
— 12 bucks — seems more than rea-
sonable for good lobster meat swad-
dled in mayo flecked with lobster roe.
Loved the New Jersey swordfish
(“N.J.” not because the long, round-
bellied fish was caught in our waters,
but because the fisherman docked
his boat on our shores) ($29).
Wirt brined it overnight, as he does
all fish, in lemon zest, seaweed and
salt. The fish was super moist and
the sweet N.J. corn and colorful giar-
dinieria that topped it sublime. I’d
strongly suggest giving it a try, but
who knows if it’ll be on the menu
next month or even tomorrow; the
menu changes daily, depending on
what’s in the market.
Another winner: the grass-fed and
in-house (10-day) dry-aged New York
strip steak. Cooked a perfect medium
rare and brushed with homemade
steak sauce, the fork-tender meat
rested underneath a mound of
delicious crumbled Valley Shepherd
blue cheese ($30).
It apparently took Karen two years
to perfect her key lime pie — and it’s
marvelous. Pale yellow in color and
radiant citrus-y in flavor, the custard-
like filling sprinkled with lime zest is
contained in a buttery crust of vanilla
wafers, which just might be a
better vessel than the Graham
crackers. The tall hat of
luscious whipped cream
could be considered
superfluous, if
it weren’t so
delicious.
Another lesson
learned at Tillie’s:
Never skip
dessert, at least
not when it’s
made fresh,
in-house and by
a talented chef.
Your palate
deserves it. ■
SLAB BACON WITH CHARRED ONION SLAW
55