BY LAYLI WHYTE
Staff Writer
Peter Fischbach, chef and partner of Cask 591, cooks up a pan-seared bass before presenting it over truffled potato puree, stir-fried vegetables and brandy cherry sauce, and topping it off with a micro sprout salad. Fischbach and his partner, Dennis Tafuri, stand in the dining room of their new restaurant, which opened just last month on Broadway in Long Branch. LONG BRANCH – The secret behind the delicious food served at the new Cask 591 restaurant lies not in the wine, but in what holds the wine.
The new restaurant/lounge at 591 Broadway uses the wood from casks – the large barrels in which wine and other spirits are fermented – in cooking its food.
Food is roasted over the wood planks and is enriched by the flavors of the wine and other spirits once contained in the casks.
According to co-owner Peter Fischbach, Toms River, after the wood is too charred to cook on, it is then used to smoke fish and chicken.
“When we run out,” he said, “we run out and buy wood and soak it in wine.”
PHOTOS BY MIGUEL JUAREZ staff Fischbach is also very proud of the hanger steak offered at the restaurant, which is marinated in bourbon for a minimum of 72 hours.
“It’s still delicious when you get it well done,” he said. “In fact, the more it’s cooked, the more the flavors come out, and the cedar we cook it on imparts a lot of wood flavor. We serve that with candied sweet potatoes and whiskey-braised greens.”
For those who don’t partake of red meat, Cask also offers seafood selections, including a seared scallop appetizer in a wild mushroom tea and white truffle oil.
Fischbach said that Cask receives fresh fish from anywhere in the world within 24 hours of being caught.
“We just got in West Coast sea scallops,” he said. “There are under six scallops to a pound. It’s like eating candy, they’re so fresh.”
Fischbach said that in addition to Cask’s regular menu, the restaurant kitchen offers a variety of weekly specials, where, he said, the creativity really comes out.
“With our specials,” he said, “we try to get a little fancy.”
Dinner appetizers cost between $7 and $13, with a variety of soups and salads, including French onion soup and an Asian Caesar salad.
Hamburgers are available on both the dinner and lunch menus for around $10.
Prices for entrees range from $36 for the dijon and herb-crusted rack of lamb to oven-roasted tilapia available for $17.
Cask also offers tasting menus in three-, four- or five-course meals, created to match a customer’s own bottle of wine, but the restaurant must be notified several days in advance.
Fischbach’s partner, Dennis Tafuri, a Long Branch resident, said wine is used not only for cooking, and that the restaurant boasts a selection of 250 different bottles of wine, including 30 wines sold by the glass.
Aside from wine, Cask offers a variety of specialty drinks, and a special beverage menu called “Everything Old Is New Again,” featuring drinks from bartending books dating to the mid 1930s, has been resurrected.
Specialty drinks range from $7 to $12.
The goal at Cask is be a neighborhood spot that caters to a range of patrons, from those who want a burger and a beer to those seeking a five-course, two-hour dining experience.
“It’s not only key to have less expensive items,” said Fischbach, “but to offer fine dining as well.”
“Long Branch has a lot of potential,” said Tafuri, adding that dining should be a fun experience.
“My philosophy on the restaurant business, especially in the suburbs,” said Tafuri, “is that people come out to eat looking for fun.”
The restaurant seats about 70 people, as does the upstairs Blues Lounge.
“It’s not just about the food or drinks,” added Fischbach, “but it’s about the experience. If someone slaps a burger in front of you and you don’t see them again until they bring you the check, that’s not a good dining experience.”
Tafuri said that although he and Fischbach want to keep the downstairs dining room quiet and intimate, the upstairs room, currently open on Friday and Saturday nights, is where things get a little loud and lively.
Tom Moog, manager of the Broadway Blues Lounge at Cask, is working on bringing out some of Long Branch’s potential as an entertainment scene by booking bands to play at the lounge upstairs.
“It’s great to get music going on Broadway again,” he said. “Broadway needs that.”
Billy Hector, blues guitarist, played at the lounge on March 4, and on March 10 the lounge will play host to the New Orleans Soul Project as they try to raise money for the Tipitina Fund for Displaced New Orleans Musicians.
“New Orleans is the one city in the U.S. that has the most musicians in it,” said Moog, “and this money will go toward buying new instruments for them and get them back on their feet.”
The connection between Cask and New Orleans is evident from the first step in the door, when low mood lighting and jazz music greet patrons.
The faux-finish walls and copper-topped bar add a more metropolitan take to the old-world feel of a New Orleans club.
The upstairs lounge is available for private parties and, although it has only been open for a few weeks, is proving to be a popular place for celebrations, with 20 private parties already having taken place upstairs, according to Tafuri.
Cask 591, which occupies the former location of Joe & Maggie’s, is open for lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and for dinner from 5 to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 5-11 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 4-9 p.m. Sunday.
The Broadway Blues Lounge at Cask is open Friday and Saturday nights from 6 p.m. to 1:30 a.m., and plans are to expand to Thursday and Sunday later this month.