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The instant you see the 1872 storybook structure that houses The Schoolhouse, you know this is no ordinary restaurant. This culinary marvel, set in a wooded tract, flanked by a rushing stream, and bordered by a newly planted vegetable patch, offers a dining experience that is unparalleled from start to finish. Whether food is your most ardent passion or you're simply an adventurer curious to discover a new art form, you'll be hard pressed to find anything comparable to this gastronomic jewel, a gingerbread cottage not far off the beaten path in a forest patch in Wilton. While The Schoolhouse is not for the feint of financial heart, the inspirational dining experience offered here is well worth saving for.
At once stripped down and elevated, chef Tim LaBant's style of cooking starts with fresh, organic, seasonal and, whenever possible, local ingredients: vegetables and herbs, meat, game, poultry and fish. The limited menu changes often, evolving with the seasons. A card on your table proudly notes that the produce is grown less than three miles from your table and often picked the morning it's used. And yet, with what appear to be the simplest of elements, LaBant creates a tour de force of food.
Because of the ever-evolving nature of LeBant's fresh-from-the-farm ingredients, I'm hesitant to tease you with dishes I've tried that might not be on the menu when you visit. Still, a sampling of the kind of items you'll find includes a luxurious, nutty Jerusalem artichoke soup garnished with frizzled spring onions, a few bacon lardoons and a smattering of tiny, fresh fava beans. The soup's richness belies the fact that it's made without the standard roux base, or even butter, its flavor and texture created entirely by the starchy sunchokes, a blend of herbs, bay leaves, and a tiny touch of cream for finishing.
A sublime, sweet, and buttery fried wild cod, a creative and playful take on fish and chips, is served with homemade tartar sauce, super-soft mashed potato puree and broccoli rabe. I hope the New England Clambake bowl, with its sizable chunks of lobster and littleneck clams, creamer potatoes, fresh dill and fennel is available when you go to Schoolhouse. The dish is a veritable symphony in seafood, its sherry-tinged broth begging for dips of the chewy and crusty Wave Hill bread served here. An aged New York strip steak, served sliced with fat, emerald-hued asparagus, trumpet royal mushrooms and red onion marmalade is straightforward and superb. Sliced, moist duck breast perched atop a sunchoke-foie gras puree and served with kale is nothing short of miraculous, the whisper-soft meat a succulent medium rare and the accompaniments an exceptional supporting cast.
Don't even think about skipping dessert here. The on-premise pastry chef is nothing short of a genius in her own right. Kahlua Caramel Tart, with salted milk chocolate, coffee Anglaise, and creamy peanut butter sorbet anyone?
For economy, a fixed price dinner is offered on Thursdays for $40 per person, or you can try The Schoolhouse at lunch or the extraordinary Sunday brunch for more palatable prices as well. The Schoolhouse is located at 34 Cannondale Road in Wilton; telephone 834-9816.
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