As some of you may know, one of Hoboken’s best features is the availability of diverse restaurants offering a plethora of brunch options. One of those establishments is Hoboken Gourmet Company, located on Washington Street not too far from campus. With an assortment of coffees, pastries, and dishes, they’re a relatively popular brunch destination for Stevens students. I’ve done brunch at Hoboken Gourmet Company on several occasions, all of which were relatively positive. But for this week’s Cuisine Corner, I sought something a bit different, if not slightly upscale: dinner at Hoboken Gourmet Company.
For those unfamiliar, Hoboken Gourmet Company is a garden level restaurant in Hoboken, meaning you have to go down a few steps from street level to actually get inside. They do have some outdoor seating, which I have frequented, but with the weather not quite there yet at the time, Jeremy, my guest for the night, and I went inside, where we were presented with a more intimate environment. The first thought that came to mind was how perfect this would be for a date!
The menu has a pretty good range of options, everything from burgers to pasta dishes to seafood and salads. They also offer an array of appetizers, which they refer to as tapas. Our first selection, made at the recommendation of our waitress, was a sampler of burger sliders. While the primary components of the burgers (namely, the buns and burger patty) weren’t necessarily something to write home about, they were made truly memorable by the way our chef crafted them.
The first, a smaller sample of their WOW Burger, was piled with avocado, bacon, chipotle mayo, fried egg, and a smattering of other ingredients all meshing well. Next, the Cowboy Burger, featuring cheddar, bacon, what may have been a homemade barbecue sauce, and caramelized onions, had a very strong presence of barbecue sauce, but that was very okay. Finally, the third slider, the one with which we could have anything.
Feeling indecisive, we simply asked the waitress to have the chef make something of his choice, but creative. What he sent back was a risotto burger, piled with a sampling of a simple broccoli risotto. All I can say was, absolutely delicious. While the risotto and bun were both starch ingredients, it worked wonderfully, and the risotto was perfect. As we dug in to this slider, the chef came over seeking our opinion on his creation. With our approval, he commented how “the risotto is good with everything, so why not a burger?”
Next, we sampled one of the soup of the day, the mushroom bisque. I’d never tried a bisque and didn’t quite know what it was (it’s soup, but aside from that my uncultured self had nothing else to contribute). From what we ascertained, it’s similar to the texture of a cream of mushroom (when the bisque is mushroom), but while a cream of mushroom tastes like cream, the taste is all mushroom in this case. Accompanying the soup were a couple of pieces of garlic bread, not quite crispy but not mushy; with the soup, divine.
For the entrees, both of which were much larger portions than we had been expecting, we each went in a slightly different direction. I got the Spanish Pepper Steak, which was prepared using filet mignon, a red-brown pepper and tomato-based sauce, whipped potatoes, and Spanish rice. I was tremendously pleased with the quality of the meat, and while I was able to sneak a few bites of pure filet (a treat in its own right), the sauce was a nice complement, especially with the potatoes supporting the steak. The Spanish rice could have been a bit more moist, but it too melded excellently with the sauce.
Jeremy, torn between the homemade ravioli and the Mom’s Meatloaf, went with the meatloaf and encountered a very interesting dish. The typical concept of meatloaf is something rather bland, a large hunk sliced and served with peas & carrots. The meatloaf at Hoboken Gourmet Company is what I can only describe at the moment as a “bomb” of meat, served in a shape similar to a stuffed pepper without the pepper. Drizzed on the meatloaf was a light drizzle of ketchup (it’s still meatloaf, after all), and an assortment of steamed vegetables.
The meatloaf was of a similar moisture to the Spanish rice (a bit dry, but great with a sauce), but plenty delicious. The variety of steamed vegetables was impressive, and while I liked the texture and flavor, Jeremy thought it could have used a bit of salt. What didn’t need anything, however, was the whipped potatoes. Mine were mixing with the sauce, so I didn’t get to try them on their own, but Jeremy’s were, without question, absolutely perfect.
In the end, our meal cost approximately $25 per person before drinks and gratuity; certainly not cheap, but the portions were good and the dishes imaginative. If you do want to spend more money, going for their seafood and chips will definitely help, but it’s rather easy to pull off a nice dinner at Hoboken Gourmet Company without breaking the bank. In the future, I might be tempted to take them up on their offer of a Wednesday night Chef’s Table, one among their many available specials. Hoboken’s brunch scene can certainly be upscale, but I’ve made the mistake of assuming their best offerings are during the middle of the day. It turns out that at places like Hoboken Gourmet Company, it definitely gets more interesting when the lights go down.
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