Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich’s latest venture brings them to my neck of the woods, renovating the historic Tarry Lodge into another crown jewel in Port Chester’s renaissance. If you’re not familiar with Westchester, you might incorrectly assume that it is all hoity-toity as if everyone here hobnobs with the Clintons or something. Ok, many of the towns here are in fact like that, but one drive through Port Chester and you would see the other face of Westchester. It is a neighborhood with rundown buildings and roads in disrepair, oddly juxtaposed with signs of new mega urban development like Costco and Bed Bath and Beyond. But Port Chester is a town with flavor. It would take you weeks just to eat your way through the great ethnic restaurants up and down Main St. And now, with the reinvented Tarry Lodge, it has top notch Italian as well.

The dining rooms are really upscale cozy with warm dark olive tones offset by white in the tablecloths, crown moldings, and touches of marble. Even the choice of lighting fixtures, having a black iron look, really added to that carriage house feel I think they were trying to preserve. Very elegant while not feeling uncomfortable or stuffy. Definitely an A+ on the renovations. Now onto the food…

Their antipasti were served in awesome little mini crocks on a custom Tarry Lodge serving tray. Have a look:

Clockwise from top left we have Shrimp with Pickled Watermelon, Cauliflower Gratinate, Marinated Mussels, and Octopus with Baby Potatoes. The shrimp was sort of like a ceviche, well seasoned and quite refreshing with chunks of melon. The cauliflower was rich and creamy, not adjectives you would normally associate with cauliflower. The charred top was particularly awesome. The mussels were served with beans which added a textural interest but not much flavor. I would say the adornments were in fact a rather bland, but the mussels themselves were not just good, but actually quite spectacular. Not sure what breed of mussels they were or where they got them, but they were extraordinarily flavorful, sweet and plump. Simply fantastic. But my favorite of the apps was the octopus. The texture of the octopus itself was quite a bit firmer than any I’ve ever tried before, very meaty. It almost seemed as if the octopus had been dried slightly before cooking. The result was a terrific hearty chew and a more intense octopus flavor. The baby potatoes seemed to me an odd pairing, but the potatoes were tender and delicious in and of themselves so I can easily forgive the mismatch. if you go and have this dish, just don’t bother taking a bite of octopus with potato in the same mouthful; enjoy each bit on its own.

In addition, not pictured, I sampled the Speck (smoked prosciutto) and the salumi from Mario’s dad, Armandino Batali. The Speck was like a drier more intensely flavored prosciutto. I loved it and would probably have ordered another plate of it if there wasn’t so much more food coming already. The salumi was delicious as well, not overly salty, a beautiful red color and a very balanced texture, not too dry and not too soft.

Following the antipasti came the pizza course which turned out to be the highlight of the entire meal. It was a pizza with guanciale, black truffle and just to absurdly gild the lily, a sunny side egg. Ridiculously good. Just look:

I busted the egg open so that every slice could get some runny yolk on it, almost like dipping sauce for pizza. Every ingredient on that pizza was incredible. You’d get a whiff of the truffle first, then taste the milkyness of the cheese, the saltiness of the guanciale, the richness of the egg yolk, and then finish off with the magnificent chew of the thin crust. There was just enough charring and bubbling on the crust, and the edges of the guanciale had gone crisp in the oven which really just put everything over the top. If you wanted to nitpick to find fault, you could say that the thin crust got overly soggy in the center, but seriously, the flavor of this pizza is so out of this world you will not care. I’d say Tarry Lodge is worth the trip just for this pizza alone. I must warn you though, it is so rich and sinful that it will probably knock you out before your entrees arrive.

The first of the entrees I tried was Fluke Francese. Basically a couple of fluke fillets in a light egg batter and a caper sauce, with a bit of artichoke on the side.

It was a simple dish, well prepared, but I wouldn’t call it impressive. It was interesting how lightly battered it was, but tasting it, you can clearly make out the flavor of fried egg. Good but not outstanding.

The next entree was this rather generous portion lamb chops:

The chops themselves were nicely grilled with just the right amount of char. However the accompanying shitake mushrooms were not so fortunate. They were in fact burnt. The unusual garnish you see at the top was some sort of candied scallion. I’m not really sure what the thought was behind that, and it just seemed so off the wall that I’m not really sure if it worked or not. So basically, thumbs up for the lamb, thumbs down on the mushrooms, and a big question mark on the candied green thing.

And last but not least was the Thursday special- a veal breast, grilled and served over a kale-like green called cavolo nero:

As you can sort of see in the picture, it was actually two slices of a roulade of veal breast, stuffed with some sort of pork in the center (could have been bacon or guanciale). The veal was sublimely tender, and a thin layer of fat had been left on so that every bite would also be incredibly rich. After that dizzying pizza, I would say the veal fat made this dish almost too heavy of an encore. I of course managed to finish it anyway because it was so good. But that completely knocked me out.

The dessert offerings were rather limited so nothing jumped out at me. Just as well since I was so full I didn’t really want to be tempted into overdoing it. Overall I was impressed. Service was superb considering it was only the restaurant’s second night open to the public. There was no delay in getting our food and the waitstaff was friendly and knowledgeable. I was told they would start serving lunch in a few weeks too so I am really looking forward to that. You can bet I will be craving that guanciale black truffle sunny side egg pizza on a regular basis.