Venue is an upscale new addition to the Washington Street scene in Hoboken – the kind of place where you expect to find uncompromising people of impeccable taste. It is trendily decorated with an upscale urban feel. Hypnotic electronic music tends to pulse gently in the background, creating a relaxed atmosphere that begs a higher alertness from your senses.
A Hollywood-type visage that comes to mind is the Korova Milk Bar from Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange. Is it appropriate to compare a dining establishment to a completely different entity like a movie? Perhaps, because the experience at Venue engages all the senses and one’s mind.
Each dish is a new creation of owner/chef James George Sarkar, who also designed the interior in a style he describes as “Ultra contemporary.” The New American food combinations offer new concoctions of familiar tastes in original presentations.
The fare is unique right down to the specialty butter that they change once a week. When I visited, it was the Five Spice Chinese Butter, served with a popover instead of traditional bread, making for a cake-like taste. The first appetizer was the Kaboucha Squash Caramel (Japanese pumpkin) and Salmon tartare with lobster aspic, a tiny taste of each designed to whet the appetite.
For the first course, Venue offers a choice of raw and hot dishes. The lobster pithivier micro green salad, and 15 year aged balsamic ($15) is like a flaky croissant with lobster in it. The grass-fed beef tenderloin ravioli, black trumpet mushrooms, soy caramel, toasted sesame, and kabocha squash mousseline ($16) brings raviolis up to the level of delicacy. The raviolis are served half-shell style and again send the palate scrambling to figure out what is inside this delicious treat.
The wait staff is knowledgeable and attentive, and the presentation is just as important as the meal. In fact, before the main course, a member of the wait staff offers instructions on how to eat it.
The braised lamb shank tortelloni, confit tomatoes, saffron emulsion and thyme infused crème (complimented with lamb “cappuccino”) ($28), is not a meal for someone offended by a strong lamb taste. But for someone who enjoys that taste, it is not to be missed. The tortelloni dumplings are served with a shot glass filled with lamb cappuccino, juices of concentrated lamb flavoring, giving the bite an extra kick of lamb. Diners are instructed to take a bite of the lamb and then take a sip of the juice to let the flavors mix.
The pan seared sea scallops with six sauces, potato/shallot cakes, morel mushrooms, caramelized pearl onions, and frizzled leaks is part of a seven course, $70 pre-fixed tasting menu – not always available. The scallops and shallot cakes are served lined up at one end of the plate, and the diner is instructed that each sauce is lined up next to one of the scallops for enjoyment.
Sarkar said the presentation is an integral part of the meal, and that he is constantly brainstorming new meals. “They come from a lot of sleepless nights,” said Sarkar. “Things just pop into my head.”
An upcoming creation involves a two soup meal. One soup is in an upside down glass in the bowl where the other soup is. You lift the glass, and the soups mix together. Why not just serve the two soups together? Presentation.
Sarkar trained at the New York Restaurant School and has worked at March in Manhattan and the Grand Victorian Hotel and Restaurant in Spring Lake.
The final touch of the evening, and perhaps the one that illustrates the attention to detail Venue provides, was the selection of coffee and tea. Holding a tray, the waiter presented a choice of Estate Decaf, Gramercy Blend, Ethiopian Blend, and Sumatra coffees, along with Green Fiji, Marsala Chai, Black, and Chamomile tea. The coffee is all French press, the oldest and most primitive form of brewing, and the Gramercy Blend was one of the most flavorful I’ve ever had.
Venue is BYOB, but may soon start featuring wines from New Jersey Wineries.
Venue is located at 518 Washington St., in Hoboken. (201) 653-6111.