Nor, for that matter, should you
make do without trying the crab-and-
pretzel “raft cake” ($19), a crab cake
made to look like a barge (something
Burke saw lots of from his perch
at River Café). This unique dish
eschews bread crumbs and instead
uses thin pretzel sticks, topped by a
bright orange-y tomato chutney and
dotted with edible rice pearls.
For a somewhat lighter appe-
tizer, try the pastrami-spiced salmon
carpaccio ($16), served with a
lightly dressed frisée salad composed
with many of the restaurant’s own
garden’s herbs. (Burke plans to
increase the size of their organic
garden and grow lots of produce and
herbs for the restaurant.)
Not everything that appeared on
the table was successful, though.
The most disappointing dish — and
the one that Burke highly recom-
mended on the night that two
companions and I visited the res-
taurant — was Dover sole ($58),
the special
every Thursday.
AT A GLANCE
Although this
• 5 TO 10 P.M. TUESDAY
THROUGH SATURDAY
prized flat fish,
• 11 A.M. TO 3 P.M.
de-boned in
SUNDAY BRUNCH
the kitchen (no
• 4 TO 8 P.M.
SUNDAY DINNER
table-side show
• CLOSED MONDAY
here) was cooked
• FULL BAR
well — firm, but
moist — it lay in a
slick of brown butter and tasted too
greasy for me to finish. I left much of
it on my plate.
My dining companion had no trou-
ble finishing the cavatelli pasta ($24),
a wonderfully flavorful dish with nice
bits of crispy guanciale, roasted cau-
liflower florets, sweet firm peas and
salty pecorino shavings. Executive
chef Nick Parker hand-rolls the pasta.
He makes the cavatelli so big, they
resemble gnocchi.
The hipster fries ($14) came to
our table a bit too cold but, man,
were they good; piled high with bright
green shishito peppers, bold red pep-
padew peppers, smoky bits of deep
mahogany-colored bacon, shaved off-
white parmesan cheese, fresh green
chives and a sprinkling of orange-y-
CLOTHESLINE BACON
CRAB & PRETZEL ‘RAFT CAKE’
red chili oil. The dish looked like con-
fetti and tasted like a party.
I couldn’t help but smile when I
laid eyes on the “can of cake” ($14),
a flourless chocolate cake served in
a tin can. The rich chocolate soufflé-
like confection is set on a pedestal
CAVATELLI PASTA
CAN OF CAKE
and composed table-side — heaped
with vanilla ice cream, bits of toffee
candy, caramel sauce and whipped
cream. You can find it at David
Burke Tavern, too. But isn’t it nice
that now you don’t have to drive that
far or cross a bridge to enjoy it? ■
MILLBURN & SHORT HILLS MAGAZINE FALL 2019
35