Their new Elm Street restaurant gives the couple’s loyal fans a chance to see what they can do with a full menu, rather than just the soups and sandwiches featured at the Seedling.
They won’t be disappointed.
We dropped in twice for lunch. Note for rail fans: Several of the restaurant’s tables are in the vintage caboose, with a stamped metal ceiling and frosted windows. It might be a little cramped for some diners, but the young ones love it. There is plenty of more traditional seating in the adjoining house.
Starters include seasonally inspired soups du jour: tomato and black bean, and butternut squash and walnut ($4 per cup, $6 per bowl) on the day we visited. The squash soup, which was on the thick side, was sweet and full of flavor but really a tad too rich to accompany a meal. We preferred the tomato and bean, which tasted like a fond memory of summer with that hearty boost of nuttiness from the legumes.
Rustic Leaf also has a creative selection of appetizers. The apple cider braised mussels ($7) - a heaping bowl of plump bivalves in a white wine broth sweetened by apples and finished with smoked bacon and herbs - was a great twist on the traditional steamed version. The steamed organic edamame ($6) was artfully presented at the table in a paper funnel tucked into a wrought-iron holder. The two dozen unshelled baby soybeans arrived cool and crisp with a dusting of sea salt and served with a sesame-oil dipping sauce. We also shared baked brie with baguettes ($6.25), a generous wedge of cheese that arrived with a crisp herbed crust and rounds of fresh-baked bread. We washed it down with a bottle of Wolaver’s Organic Brown Ale ($4).
The luncheon menu has a generous selection of sandwiches on a variety of homemade breads with an emphasis on all-natural turkey and organic chicken. The restaurant offers organic and locally grown and raised produce, chicken, pork, lamb, and fish, but no beef.
We went for the entrees that come with a house or Caesar salad. The seared salmon ($13) was served over a pyramid of baked potato wedges with steamed green beans and tomato tapenade. It sounds like a strange marriage of flavors but they all really worked.
