The husband-wife team of Sidney and Jim Trond are known for their fabulous upscale food to-go at Gourmet by the Bay in St. Michaels, as well as the parties they cater for area gentry. Now the talented duo has taken yet another enormous bite of the local culinary pie as owners of Shore Restaurant in the St. Michaels Harbour Inn Marina & Spa on the Miles River.
We arrived (by car) in the late afternoon and got the benefit of both daylight and evening water views, when the lights around the harbor sparkle on the still waters. Our expectations were high, since we had just come from a buying spree at their gourmet shop just up the road, where the selection of aged vinegars, exotic condiments, boutique wines, and unique cooking accessories would tempt even the non-foodie.
As we headed upstairs to the formal dining room, our first impressions were positive. After gutting the place, the Tronds created a contemporary, earth-toned oasis, dramatized with a hammered tin ceiling and a wall of windows that focus attention on the harbor views below. Both the dining room
and the more casual lounge downstairs (serving light fare from the same kitchen) overlook the inn’s swimming pool and the busy marina, filled with luxury crafts obviously unaffected by the high price of gas.
The twosome met at Toppers, the legendary restaurant at the four-star Wauwinet Inn on Nantucket, where Jim (a Culinary Institute of America graduate) spent six years as executive chef and where Sidney, a graduate of The French Culinary Institute in New York City, was a cook. The two moved to St. Michaels in 2000, bought an old house on Talbot Street, and opened Gourmet by the Bay on the ground floor. Now Jim, thirty-six, is the executive chef of Shore, while Sidney directs the couple’s catering business by day and acts as Shore manager by night.
Nantucket memories show up on Shore’s menu, specifically the lobster champagne risotto sparked with citrus essence that Jim first created at Toppers. “It follows him everywhere,” says Sidney, noting that it’s a bestseller.
A pair of women attending a conference at the Harbour Inn shared with us some of their Shore favorites, raving about that risotto, as well as the Parmesan ricotta gnocchi with wild mushroom cream sauce and the homemade desserts. “We’ve been here for dinner three nights in a row—and we’ll be back for more,” they confided.
Indeed, most of the menu items were tempting, and we lingered over our choices for appetizer and salad: seared Hudson Valley foie gras with peach compote in puff pastry; tuna tartare with sesame, ginger, and pickled cucumber relish; jumbo grilled shrimp with a tropical fruit salsa; warm mushroom salad with Vermont chévre and toasted almonds.
We chose the superb veal sweetbreads—tender and yielding under a mantle of caramelized onions and smoked bacon moistened with just enough Marsala demi-glaze to tie all the flavors together—and a Caesar salad, bountiful enough to share. It had its own unique twist—roasted garlic pudding nestled on the side of the bowl and a lacy Parmesan cheese crisp. It was all a Caesar should be, and more.
Making a decision about wine was not as simple, given the quality and scope of Shore’s wine list. In addition to reasonably priced bottles of reds, whites, and champagnes, there are half-bottles as well as ten by-the-glass wines from California, South Africa, Spain, Australia, and Oregon, which reflect
a knowledge and appreciation of wine and food pairing. Our server suggested a refreshing 2003 Chateau St. Jean Chardonnay with the veal sweetbreads and a Blackstone Merlot, boasting hints of black cherry and pomegranate, with the Caesar. Our fellow diners—conference-goers and locals alike—were getting the same personal attention: It’s nice to share space with smiling faces.
The pace of service was perfect, giving us time to enjoy the wine and the view, as well as a basket of made-on-the-premises bread, served warm with a ramekin of whipped unsalted butter.
A soft, honeyed baguette was excellent, but top honors went to a whole-grain flatbread layered with blue cheese and topped with crushed walnuts.
It was a ta-da moment when the entrees arrived—butter-poached lobster and seared scallops and, for my dining companion, veal osso buco—garnished with baby orchids and looking like a Gourmet magazine cover photo. Osso bucco lends itself to a dramatic presentation, and the chef had taken advantage of its possibilities by standing the massive veal bone on end and surrounding it with barley and miniature carrots, corn, and onions. Tender meat, bathed in a velvety red wine sauce, fell easily from the bone and blended with the accompanying vegetables. This is a manly meal—perfect comfort food in the colder months.
My butter-poached lobster, a dish associated with Tom Keller of the famous French Laundry restaurant in California, is its opposite. At Shore, it was a delicate and altogether heavenly combination of Maine lobster pieces paired with sweet-seared New England scallops bathed in tarragon and lemon-flavored butter, accompanied by a mound of basil whipped potatoes. At $36, it is a splurge—and I thought the lobster ratio (about a half of a one-pounder) was shamefully skimpy. No quibble with the dish itself—just wish there was more of it.
As a lobster lover, I would have liked to have had some more for dessert. But Shore’s list of sweets, all made in-house by veteran pastry chef Pam Zak, was even more tempting. Zak likes to give old favorites a new twist, such as using a martini glass as the vessel for a shortbread cookie topped with lemon curd and puffs of meringue—her version of lemon meringue pie. Or making a brownie with white chocolate, slightly undercooking it to a chewy consistency, then serving it in a bowl with homemade vanilla bean ice cream and a rich chocolate sauce. Another beautiful dish landed on a nearby table, featuring small scoops of homemade ice creams and sorbets arranged like paints on an artist’s palate.
Sidney usually bids farewell to her guests personally, taking note of satisfaction levels. She’d be pleased to know that ours, despite a quibble about the lobster, was exceptionally high.
P.S. Foodie Alert: Check out Gourmet by the Bay at 415 S. Talbot St. in St. Michaels. Open Sun.-Tues. 9 a.m.-6 p.m. and ’til 7 p.m. the rest of the week. 410-745-6260 or http://www.gourmetbythebay.net.
Mary Lou Baker has been a food and travel writer for more than twenty years.
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