We recently had reason to celebrate a major milestone on a Friday evening, and other obligations of mine already had me visiting Woodstock, Vermont the same day. Normally, this would have been a great opportunity to visit Oakes & Eveyln, which is my go-to for this sort of thing, but others obviously had the same idea: they were booked solid. So I decided to try another nearby spot that I’ve driven by hundreds of times in the decade since they opened, 506 Bistro, located inside On the River Inn. The name of both the restaurant and inn have subtly changed a few times over the years (for example, a few years ago the Inn was “506 On The River”, with the Bistro being “The Bistro at 506”), and I’m not really sure what the 506 stands for (it’s definitely not the address), but the place has been around long enough I decided that it was worth checking out.
Walking into the inn, the restaurant itself is located at the back corner of the inn. The spot is actually quite nice, focusing on a a nice dining room, with the sort of relaxing ambiance you expect in a high-end Vermont boutique hotel. There’s also the bar, which appears to be fabricated from an old apothecary shop, and a small but nice outdoor patio looking over the Ottaquechee River. One small detail I noticed as well was that despite the place being fairly full (this was a Friday evening, so a few weekenders staying at the Inn and a few other celebrants were about), I only ever saw one person working that evening: the same person was working as host, bartender, and server.
Starting off the meal, we shared an appetizer of Point Judith calamari, tossed w/ Sweety peppers and served with house-made marinara. This was a particularly good start to the meal: the calamari itself was cooked to the exact perfect texture, the breading was nicely crisped, the overall salt level exactly right, and the little teardrop-shaped Sweety peppers added a nice piquant note, too. Calamari is always a bit of a difficult dish, and they got both the level of doneness and the constituency of the breading exactly right. I don’t order seafood much due to my allergies, but if I was sharing another appetizer here, this would definitely be my pick.
For her main course, Carol got the grilled Caribbean salmon, topped with avocado, tomato, cilantro and red onion, served on yellow rice with asparagus. With a “Caribbean” name, I’m expecting either a slightly tropical flavor, a bolder Jamaican jerk flavor, or something similar, but the final dish was actually a bit on the subtle side. But the salmon was grilled perfectly, the flavors well composed, and the presentation nice, so we were happy with the overall dish.
For my main course, I opted for the “Bistro Steak”. Here was the weak point in the meal; quoting from the menu, “10oz Grilled Bistro Steak, House Made Chimichurri Sauce, Served w/ Roasted Potatoes & Seasonal Vegetables,” this sounded reasonably good, like a Chimichurri variant of a classic steak frites, so I decided to go for it, and ordered it medium rare. What arrived was not a 10 oz single steak, but approximately 10 oz of steak tips, cooked well into medium-well territory. This launched our table into a bit of a discussion of culinary semantics, but we settled on the idea that if something is sold as a “steak”, an equivalent weight of steak tips, even good ones, really isn’t quite the same thing.
Were these bad steak tips? No, although I think they would be been a bit better if they were actually served up closer to medium-rare or medium than the medium-well they were served, but these otherwise had a good overall texture and sear. With credit to the chef, the house-made chimichurri was quite good. I generally prefer a chimichurri made with the more concentrated flavors of dried oregano, and find ₩hen made with fresh herbs, it can often taste grassy, but this was bright and fresh, and actually quite agreeable. But aside from that, the rest of the dish was really lagging; add in some particularly sub-par roasted potatoes (literally, I’d call these just under typical parcooked fries in texture), and this entree wasn’t into “send it back” territory, but offered as “steak tips” these would have been much more reasonable, although with that name the $48 price may not have been. It was definitely a disappointment in an otherwise good meal.
To the rescue, however, was a very nice shared dessert between the two of us, an above-average tiramisu: nice, rich coffee flavors, and just the right texture hovering between “soaked” and “soggy”. I’d get this again.
So, I found 506 Bistro to be a bit of a mixed bag. The ambiance is pleasant enough. The staffing is very light, but aside from little opportunity for follow-up the one server actually seemed to be keeping up with tables and doing a good job. The food was generally quite good, but not quite the level I was hoping for for this price point. Would I come back to 506 Bistro? I can definitely see that happening, especially with a relative paucity of fine dining options in the area (and 506 Bistro is one of the rare places in the Upper Valley open on Monday for dinner). Will I be a lot more careful and selective in ordering? Definitely.
