There were few places in recent history that have had as much anticipation as the opening of Redcan (well, maybe the West Leb Jersey Mike’s, but that’s another matter). With the departure of Trailbreak Taps and Tacos, that moved over to the former Dana’s space in Quechee by the Gorge, there’s been a bit of a hole in the White River dining scene, with much anticipation once the building owner mentioned that he already had a replacement restaurant tenant lined up. The anticipation ratcheted up another notch when it was announced that the new spot was going to be run by Jason Merrill, one of the partners that had previously brought us Worthy Burger and Worthy Kitchen. The Worthys have, in my opinion, lost a little bit of their shine, but are still very popular, especially with the tourist crowd. And Jason has had a lot of chef experience himself, including working at The Hanover Inn prior to its conversion to Pine. Named as a tip of the hat to his mother (who liked Coca Cola), Redcan focuses on high-end American food served small plate style. While they opened in late June (you can read a nice review by fellow UV food reviewer Susan Apel on her Artful blog from her mid-July visit), between inability to get reservations and competing travel, we didn’t get there until August, but we actually managed to get a pair of celebratory visits in with friends.
While the basic overall layout was kept by Redcan, the space has been very nicely renovated, especially with two additions: a seafood bar on one side (on both visits staffed by Jason himself, who also has a background in the seafood world), and the weird dogleg spot at the back of the restaurant got converted into a speakeasy (more on that later). But it’s an inviting place, with some nice windows looking out on the neighborhood.
One of the things showcased by Redcan is one of the Upper Valley rarities, a good cocktail list. While a lot less adventuresome than my area favorite Wolf Tree just around the corner, Redcan has a good selection of modern classics (Carol enjoyed a very good whiskey sour, shown here), tap beer (including specials from River Roost across the street on cask, a nice special treat), and a reasonably good wine list.
Our meal started with the server bringing out an amuse bouche, and this was a great example of how Upper Valley dining is occasionally still catching up: the server spent quite some time explaining the basic concept of “amuse bouche”. But the amuse itself, a crab rangoon wonton with hummus, was well-executed and a decent little taster for starting out the meal.
Based upon my former experiences at Jason’s other spots (oh, fondly remembering the early days of Worthy Burger when they also regularly had top-rate, reasonably-priced oysters!), we also decided to get some oysters for the table, settling on a trio of West Island, Pemaquid, and Standish Shore oysters. These worked out particularly well, nice, high quality oysters, cleaned perfectly, and served up with a very bold mignonette. Glad to have something like this back in action in the area.
Next up, a selection of small plates. The first one I tried was a “Bacon and clam tin”, which was basically a clam and bacon salad, heaped into a small metal tin and served up with some crackers. This was actually a very nice dish, with the clams cooked perfectly and a nice fat and smoke note from the bacon. Alongside that in another tin was a nice serving of very rich and flavorful cheddar grits, with just the perfect al-dente grits texture, topped with a small corn fritter. Some calamari rings rounded out the small plates: a decently generous pile of perfectly cooked and seasoned rings served up with a spicy tomato sauce. A lot to like in these little plates, especially when you can sample a few at the table.
Next up, we started into the more substantial courses, starting with the tartare. Served with a light cream and tarragon, topped with a potato nest. This was a very nicely composed tartare: the beef nicely prepared and tender, server up with just enough spicing to liven it up without covering the beef taste, and the cream sauce added a nice soft dairy tang to the dish. The potato nest was both a flavor and texture that rounded out the dish nicely. My gold standard for the greater Upper Valley area will remain Oakes & Evelyn in Montpelier, but this was a solid performer, although I was hoping for a bit larger portion.
Moving into some of the larger plate, the “Summer Pasta” was a pleasant surprise: House-made pasta with a light cream herb sauce, served up with spinach, basil and tomatoes. The pasta itself here was the star, with the perfect al-dente texture that really requires good, fresh pasta paired with a sauce for the final cooking. Quite a good dish here, but like the tartare, the portioning seemed just a little light.
For the larger plate I picked to share, we ordered the Almanack Farms Wagyu with mushrooms, microgreens, and a red wine demi. This was a very-nicely prepared cut of Wagyu, tender, cooked to a perfect medium rare, and the mushrooms and demi were both nicely-executed. Basically, this was several perfect bites of the time-proven beef+mushroom+wine combo.
Similarly, Carol decided on the halibut, served as a nice herb-crusted slab on a bed of olives, cherry tomatoes, and caper berries. Like the oysters, from Jason’s background I expect really good seafood, and this delivered, the halibut was cooked to a perfect tender flake, the crust complementing the halibut flavors. The cherry tomatoes and caper berries added some nice, bright acid flavors, tying it all together.
For dessert, it’s become a running gag that I can’t resist a good crême brulée, so Carol and I split one for our dessert. Redcan’s version was nicely done: a good, smooth and vanilla-rich base, a good crackle, and I always appreciate a bit of fruit added. Our table-mates ordered a blueberry crumble with ice cream, and they rather enjoyed their dessert as well.
Summing up that that first visit, we really enjoyed the food, and think it’s a great addition to the Upper Valley dining scene, but felt that it needed a few tweaks. The food itself was top-notch (and that in itself is remarkable, a lot of places in the UV seem to find it challenging to consistently do high-end dining), but some of the experiential aspects were a bit off. The high-top tables resting on barrels look cool, but don’t really give you much place to put your legs. The wine list was fine, but the wine glasses, while ornate, were shockingly thick and heavy (and a nice thin lip really does help with the taste of the wine). And most importantly, they still seem to be dialing in portioning. In particular, at a place with large and small plates, I expect a “large plate” to be suitable either as a light entree for one, or sharing for a few, and the portioning for most of the large plates seemed to fall short of that. With a few appetizers, one of the large plates for each diner, and a drink each, our first visit weighed in at well over $350 for four diners, but none of us felt overly full, and at least one diner ended up sneaking off for a late-night snack. We figured we’d be back, but probably with a bit of cautionary ordering to make sure we were focusing on some of the better “quantity for price” items.
But opportunity came knocking… A few weeks later, friends of ours were celebrating a birthday, so six of us (the four of us from the first visit, plus the couple celebrating a birthday) came back to Redcan a few weeks later, and there was one important change since the previous visit: Redcan had added a Prix Fixe menu! So for our second visit to Redcan, we opted for the Prix Fixe, a five course dinner with a selection of appetizer, soup or salad, main course, side, and a dessert.
Since we enjoyed the oysters on our first visit, we decided to start our second visit with another large platter of oysters, this time with some excellent New Hampshire oysters from Great Bay. While New Hampshire has a great oyster fishery, you don’t see it represented much on menus outside the Seacoast region, especially in Vermont, so this was a nice treat. As before, these were perfectly prepped and served up with an excellent mignonette.
Like most of our table, I started my Prix Fixe with the Spicy Beef Salad. Raw beef with scallion, cilantro, peanut, and pickled red onion. The reminded me pleasantly of the very similar “Korean Carpaccio” we had at Le Chien Fumant in Montreal. While possibly a bit more spicy than most WRJ diners may enjoy, this was solidly up my alley, and thoroughly enjoyable. I’d love getting this again (and at least at the moment, this is also on their regular menu as a small plate).
Between course, the kitchen also brought out a sample of their fois gras torchon, on brioche toast with micro-greens and onion jam. Fois gras doesn’t make many appearances on Upper Valley menus, and this was a welcome change-up, a nice little bite of perfectly seared fois with some fresh greens and a nice, rich onion jam. This nicely reset my palate from the lingering spicy notes from the beef salad.
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Next up was their autumn salad, which was definitely a pleasant surprise. Expecting a basic autumn salad adorned with some bits of squash, this was actually a very elaborate affair of roasted butternut squash and pepitas with cranberries on a bed of goat cheese with mixed greens served on the side in a rolled cornice of bread. Everything was good here: nice spicing on the squash, nicely dressed greens, and a great presentation.
For my main course, I did the pork tenderloin piccata. Served up with spinach and pearl onions, I was thoroughly pleased by this: the pork was tender and not overcooked (as a nation, we still seem to generally overcook pork with a combination of misplaced trichinosis fears and poor use of kitchen thermometer, so it’s nice when I get properly-cooked pork), the saucing nice and delicate, and the overall composition good. Add in a side of very nicely done “chef’s potatoes” (basically a nice gratin), and this made for a solid main course
Several of the other diners at the table instead opted for the Surf and Turf. This rendition wasn’t lobster, but shrimp: Wagyu beef over shrimp with a brandy cream sauce and zest. I actually liked this Wagyu a bit better than the previous visit’s mushroom-and-demi version, the shrimp was perfectly seared, and the brandy sauce really tied it together.
At this point, unlike our first visit to Redcan, we found ourselves actually a little stuffed, which was a nice change of affairs. Looking over the dessert options, I decided to stick with the simplest option, a nice, simple chocolate pot de creme. Smooth, creamy, and rich, this was a nice not-overly-sweet way to wrap up the meal.
One last note: I mentioned above that Redcan has a Speakeasy, Room 39. Located at the back of the restaurant through the bookcase, Room 39 is a great option if you want to just drop in for a cocktail or cask beer, and provides a nice, inviting, and comfy lounge in which to relax. It’s definitely a great little spot.
At the end of the second visit, I’m quite happy with how things are going at Redcan. We had a delicious meal, the service was great, and it’s really nice to see that they’ve listened to the diners and tried to tweak the menu to better match diner’s expectations, while still delivering some top-notch food. I’ll definitely keep coming back for the oysters, and probably try a few more variations on the prix fixe menu. And they remain a great addition to White River Junction’s dining scene.
