Archives

   I approach hotel restaurants with a different mindset from stand-alone restaurants. Because they must satisfy a wide range of guests, hotel menus often forego daring and creativity. So I wasn’t expecting much as I walked through the parking garage next to the sparkling new Marriott in downtown Trenton on my way into its Archives restaurant, passing cars with tags from Ohio, Nebraska, Nevada and California. Nevertheless, the folks at Marriott and Archives have done an admirable job by bringing uniquely Trenton and Garden State references to both the sprawling space the restaurant occupies and to its menu.

   Take the menu, which even at dinner (justifiably) offers sandwiches, burgers, and substantial salads like Caesar with grilled chicken or jumbo shrimp ($9.25 and $11.95, respectively). More ambitious offerings include cornmeal-crusted crab cakes with roasted red pepper coulis ($9.25), pan-seared sea bass with lemon buerre blanc sauce ($18), and steak au poivre with Dijon-brandy cream reduction ($21). But what interested me were the offerings that reflect either the current surroundings — like a sampling of Trenton’s own Michele Lorie cheesecakes — or what the menu calls "historically influenced American cuisine with New Age flair."

   The latter includes the Old Mill lobster pot ($20), which is served in a cast-iron pot, and an appetizer of barbecued pork tidbits with apple slaw ($6.50), which is based on a recipe from Trenton’s Old Barracks Museum. We found the thin-sliced boneless pork "tidbits" on the dry side, but the crunchy apple-onion slaw won us over with its light, bracing apple-cider vinaigrette.

Staff photo by Mark Czajkowski

Archives décor offers a sense of style: black, bent-wood café chairs conjure up the Wiener Werkstatte.

   We tested out a Jersey Fresh connection with Cape May chowder ($5.50) and Jersey tomato mozzarella salad ($5.25). The chowder, equal parts corn and potatoes accented by tasty shrimp, is a full-flavored standout and creamy without being too thick. But the tomato salad suffers from wan tomatoes and indifferent mozzarella. Perhaps it will improve as we enter the high season for Jersey tomatoes. A vegetable quesadilla ($6) may have nothing to do with Trenton or New Jersey history, but it is delicious and, like other dishes at Archives, comes attractively plated in satisfying portions.

   On the Friday night of our visit, the restaurant was half-filled, although I’m told it bustles on Trenton’s First Fridays and at weekday lunch. Tables are spaced so comfortably apart in this space, which seats 140, that it makes for relaxed dining anytime. The décor gives off hotel-chain vibes with brightly colored floral carpeting and a big yellow curved banquette in the center of the room. But it offers a sense of style: black, bent-wood café chairs conjure up the Wiener Werkstatte, and modern chandeliers with elliptical glass shades in brilliant sapphire blue have a shape familiar to those who grew up with the pole lamps of the 1960s. Artwork by area artists graces the walls, and the entrance to the restaurant boasts built-in shelves and display cases containing books and artifacts that represent Trenton’s importance as our state capital.

   I tested Archive’s kitchen, which is overseen by chef Joe LoRusso of Cherry Hill, by opting for the grilled swordfish — $19 for a 10-ounce steak. This fish, as most home grillers know, can easily become dry and tasteless, but LoRusso produced a succulent, perfectly rendered hunk topped by a dollop of creamy caper and white-wine sauce. I found the accompanying smashed garlic potatoes average, and the mixed vegetables to be a fresh-but-unexciting mix of red pepper, yellow and green summer squash, and other usual suspects. Surprisingly, a dish of herb-and-horseradish-crusted salmon ($16) — a much simpler dish to produce — was both overdone and unpleasantly fishy.

   We bypassed the chicken potpie ($15) even though it has a homey, historic ring to it, because it seems out of place in warm weather. We opted for the roasted chicken with artichoke-mushroom ragout ($16) and found it tasty but a bit heavy, perhaps because of its Madeira sauce. Vegetarian penne pasta ($12.50) will appeal to anyone who likes ratatouille, being at least 50 percent vegetables, including shiitake mushrooms, grilled asparagus, red onion, yellow peppers and spinach, cooked in a thick, sharp tomato sauce.

Staff photo by Mark Czajkowski

   The larger-than-expected wine list at Archives mainly comprises moderately priced, best-selling wines — Kendall Jackson, Robert Mondavi, Beringer, et al. — but there are surprises like the very likeable M. Chapoutier Belleruche Cotes du Rhone ($38), which managed to span the range of our diverse seafood-chicken-vegetable choices.

   Service at Archives reflects the confluence of Marriott-the-hotel-chain and Archives-the-Trenton-restaurant. Staff has obviously been through the corporate training program but still seems to be learning the restaurant trade. Our young server did an admirable job of checking with the kitchen or the bar to answer all of our questions.

   Desserts are fun here. Why would anyone pass up the sampler of three cheesecakes from Michele Lorie ($7.25)? One reason might be Archives’s signature dessert, the Battle Monument, which physically resembles Trenton’s Revolutionary War memorial. For $9, the diner is presented with a layered cylinder of bread pudding, chocolate cake, vanilla cake with raspberry preserves, and banana-rum sauce, which somehow coalesce into a surprisingly harmonious dessert. Best of all, the monument is topped with a miniature chocolate soldier who clearly resembles George Washington. I enjoy and applaud such creativity in what could have been a ho-hum venue.



Pat Tanner’s reviews can be heard on Dining Today, Sat. 9-10 a.m. on MoneyTalk 1350 AM.

For directions to Archives, click here.