Rating: 💋 💋 💋 💋 💋
So here we have my first outdoor restaurant dining experience since...let's see...February. Saying that I was nervous to go is a gross understatement. My parent's friend/potential cousin* has a restaurant in town that has done a very good job of creating well-spaced tables for al fresco** dinner service. We love her, we love the restaurant Jay's on Third, and we want to support our community, so we went.
Here are some important rules for outdoor dining: wear a mask! Please be respectful of the waitstaff and wear your mask during all interactions with them. My dad reminded us before we went that we cannot run our servers all over the place. Condense all your requests for when servers are at your table, so they do not have to keep going back and forth. If your drink is getting low and you know you are going to want another, ask for it when they stop by for your food order or delivery. Do not wait until your drink is empty. Ask for appetizers, main courses, and drinks in one go, if possible. We want to make this as easy as possible for servers and limit contact. Also, tip them well! They are working their butts off in the middle of a pandemic. They deserve it many times over.
Now, on with our dinner.
One of the greatest joys of dining at Jay's is chatting with Anne, our cousin. Her quick, acerbic wit always makes me laugh. We talked with her about how Stone Harbor restaurants have been wanting outdoor dining for years, but the town council has resisted change. With the advent of COVID, they had to allow it in order to keep the town afloat. The hope is that when this is all thankfully over, the outdoor dining can stay. Really, it is going to be very difficult to take it away now that it has started. They would have an easier time trying to cram toothpaste back into its tube.
Something I really appreciated about Jay's handling of coronavirus dining is their menu: it is all online. When you arrive at your table, they handle water and the uncorking and uncapping of wine and beer while instructing you to read the plaque on the table that details the dining regulations. At the bottom of the plaque is a bar code that you scan with your phone's camera to bring up the menu. Very fancy, and it eliminates the health risk of passing out menus to different diners. It is also eco-friendly. Other restaurants are doing their best, wiping down menus after every seating, but that becomes a lot of Clorox wipes that pile up in the garbage. It is great that they are cleaning the menus. It is even better that Jay's has taken menus virtual, eliminating the need for cleaning. My only qualm: the menu's font is in Comic Sans. It is not a huge issue or anything, but ugh. Not the ideal font choice.
The appetizer course was extraordinary. Clockwise from the top we have Reilly's arugula salad with burrata, prosciutto, heirloom tomato, organic strawberries, and hazelnut honey vinaigrette; my mom's Gazpacho special with crab and honeydew; my dad's order of Sticky Hoisin Spare Ribs with jasmine rice, sesame, and cucumbers; and my Corn and Crab Fritters with chili aioli and edamame beans. We could all agree that we were jealous of Reilly's salad, and she was quite smirky about her excellent choice. Look at that pillow of burrata! That being said, no one had anything to complain about. My parents were actually arguing over whose was better. Let me tell you, I was sitting next to my dad and the aroma wafting over from his ribs was gorgeously decadent. I think my heart perked up at the scent. Meanwhile, I was in love with my fritters. The soft corn melted beautifully into the sweet crab meat and the chili aioli rounded out all the flavors. It was the perfect balance of salty and sweet, and served up piping hot. Plus, it came with edamame! I love edamame so much, you guys. Eating it boosts my serotonin 500 points I swear.
While I was happy with my plate, the skies filled with wicked clouds and the wind began a marathon. Our waiter, Dean, has perfectly coiffed hair at all times. When he came to pick up our licked-clean plates and a gust of wind rushed through, my dad teased, "Dean, your hair's moving." Without missing a beat, Dean responded, "Nah, this gel don't move!" It was great.
What was not so great was that, while the gel was not moving, all the napkins were. They were flying off the table, in fact. My mom has this belief, "It's always sunny in Stone Harbor." She used it during the Hurricane Irene Evacuation (which we did leave the island for) and she was using it at this dinner, as with any and all times the weather threatens to be a bit tempestuous. Despite my mom's belief, a perfectly precise lightning bolt split the sky in two and then it started to rain, flooding our water and wine glasses and soaking our clothes.
I was not really sure what the storm policy was for outdoor dining.
It turns out, the CDC does not really have a Plan B for when restaurants face bad weather. Anne rescued us though. My dad called it, 'Irish guts,' how she whisked all the guests to separate, dry corners. While we waited, we asked Dean how the radar looked and he guessed, ‘It’s looks like...it looks like...I have no idea,’ which made us all laugh, Dean included. There is no blueprint for how to deal with this. The world has changed so much since our last devastating, widespread illness - the influenza in the 1900s - and we are all guessing at what comes next and how to handle it. I suppose at least we can unite over that. Anne never guesses though. She holds herself with confidence and stands tall above the crowd, bringing order to the room. No one had to take their main course to go. The rain eventually passed, and Anne made sure everyone had a dry table at which to enjoy their meal.
The dinner was well worth the wait! Oh my God, it was divine. My dad's Tuna Special was prepared with sushi-grade tuna accompanied by steamed rice, edamame, baby bok choy, English cucumber, pickled ginger, wasabi sauce, and cilantro. I had a bite. Dad was in love with it. I was in love with it. Reilly orders the Pad Thai every single time. I have had it before, with the shrimp, and I understand why. It is delectable. Every Pad Thai order comes with rice noodles, bean sprouts, green onion, scrambled egg, peanuts, cilantro and lime, and then you pick your protein. I prefer it with the shrimp because I love seafood, but they offer many different protein options to accompany the dish. Reilly sticks to the chicken version, and she inhales it in, oh, I'd say about five minutes, every single time. My mom's Alaskan Halibut came with corn risotto, trumpet mushroom, baby bok choy, almonds and ginger salsa verde. I got a bite of that too so I could understand what she was raving about. It was sweet and hot and the fish was prepared so beautifully. I bookmarked it for a future visit. My Hibachi Grilled Organic King Salmon with steamed rice, baby bok choy, pickled ginger, cucumber-seaweed salad and citrus ponzu was essentially a deconstructed sushi, but I love sushi. Happiness reigns.
While we ate, we were graced with the presence of the esteemed chef Jay himself. Remember how I said Parc in Philadelphia is my favorite restaurant in the world? Jay's on Third is a serious contender, the only one, actually, that could steal the crown. They are on the same level to me, and Jay is not only a co-owner of Jay's, he creates all of the beautiful plates that come out of that kitchen. He might accept only perfect in the kitchen, but he is the easiest guy in conversation. As we talked he told us, "I was starting to miss ppl I don’t like." I would like to give a more Oxford-approved response to that, but I am a product of my time, and my modern reaction is "lmaooo." I really have fun saying that aloud, just as the acronym, with all the extra 'o's. It is just how I feel. As for Jay's sentiment, I hope it is not a place I am driven towards, but I think it is something a lot of people can relate to in this weird world in which we find ourselves. He also called COVID's effect, "Darwinism at its finest." It is a heartbreaking thought, considering all the great places that have fallen. Jay talked with us about more light-hearted things before Anne ushered him back into the kitchen. Our dessert promptly arrived and over the chocolate mousse my mom reported to the table, ‘I don’t know what’s happening, but here’s the story.' We cut her off with peals of laughter and shared that line in our family group chat for everyone to enjoy. We joked that she was the TMZ in comparison to CNN. My mom got the last word though, as every bit of the exciting story she claimed she did not know about turned out be absolutely true.
We went back again and for our second visit we had a very nice waitress. She was very chatty and very sweet. Most of our orders mirrored our first visit, but we did swap in a few new dishes. My mom switched up her appetizer to the Shrimp Tempura Special with cucumber and a passion fruit dipping sauce - I was treated to a taste and it had such a light batter, so incredibly delicious! I went with the Ahi Tuna Special appetizer with avocado, cucumber, macadamia nuts, and ginger sauce. I ordered it for the macadamia and they were lovely, but I was crazy about the sauce, gushing about it to the whole table. As much as I loved it, I prefer the corn fritters from the first visit overall. For my main, I ordered the scallops, which came with the same sides as the halibut my mom ordered previously. I preferred it to the salmon I had ordered before, but just a bit. The salmon was perfectly simple and delicious; however, the corn risotto under the scallops kept that whole dish warm longer, I loved the nuts and mushrooms, and they were quite generous with the amount of scallops they served. Overall, it was such a gorgeous, colorful plate that tasted just as beautiful. I also included in the photo gallery a second photo of the pretty halibut my dad ordered, versus my mom's on the earlier night. It had better lighting and my dad wanted me to take a picture of the plate in good weather. How could I deny him?
Seagulls were perched on every surrounding roof, also thanking the Lord for the good weather and waiting to swoop in for their own feast. While I am grateful they stayed away from our table, I have to respect them for the fine palates they have developed.
We ordered the Thai Coffee-Chocolate Mousse for dessert on both occasions, complete with white & dark chocolate pearls, coffee Chantilly and jasmine rice granola. I kind of love when my dad orders dessert. You can see him being drawn in by the selection and then turning to the table, "We'll all split it, right?" The only answer to that question is yes. He will order the one dessert of choice with a number of spoons and the table will dig in. I have one word for this Thai Coffee-Chocolate Mousse: Bliss.
Jay's on Third was for the win on both visits! I admire Anne for her cleverness and class, I admire Jay's for standing strong in this difficult time for restaurants and continuing to serve five-star dining to this tiny town, and I cannot recommend the establishment enough. It never disappoints.
Now it is golden September, a favorite month of mine, and I hope you are all having a good start to it. Happy Labor Day Weekend!
XX,
MK
* Anne has the same last name as us and she was born and raised in one of the two possible towns of origin we have traced our families Irish roots to, so, basically, we are cousins
** I think the term is so funny because when English-speakers say it, we mean outdoor dining, but when Italian-speakers say it, in its country of origin, it means 'in prison.' So if you go to Italy, you probably don't want to request to dine al fresco!
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