I sometimes return to old shoreline haunts, having lived a year in Branford in the late 1960s and late 1970s and a year in Madison in the late 1980s. Sights I enjoy include the Shore Line Trolley Museum in East Haven,
the curved stretch of sand before the Yale Corinthian Yacht Club in Short Beach, Branford,
the seagulls at Branford Point Park,
the swans of Young’s Pond in Branford,
the trails of West Woods in Guilford,
and the intersection of land, sea, river and salt marsh at little-known Chaffinch Island Park in Guilford.
I even got up the nerve to check out the house my parents built on the salt marsh along the Neck River in Madison, which my first wife and I rented for a year during one of my Yale biologist father’s sabbaticals. Sadly, new owners had stained the Vincent C. Amore-designed house almost black.
I understood the meaning of the phrase: you can’t go home again.
But you can go out for a great dinner after a day at the shoreline. And while the Connecticut shoreline has an embarrassment of riches (and boy do I mean that both ways), Café Routier in Westbrook is a superb dining choice.
I used to be a frequent customer of Café Routier when it was located in Old Saybrook, before it moved to Westbrook, before its old location became Rosemary & Sage owned by Mickey Josephs, before a young lady drove a car through Rosemary & Sage late one night and Josephs picked up stakes and opened popular Mickey’s in Hamden.
When you’re a restaurant critic covering all of Connecticut, lots of time can elapse between visits to old favorites. On this homecoming of sorts, my dining companion and I were warmly received by this lovely young lady,
and well taken care of by this gracious young man.
I took a couple of photographs of the interior to set the stage.
The unoccupied seat in the lower right corner is mine.
From Café Routier’s well-rounded wine selection,
we ordered a nice white Côtes du Rhône.
Good crusty bread
combined with intense Monini extra virgin olive oil
was a happy marriage.
My companion enjoyed a beautifully balanced endive and arugula salad with Gorgonzola, green apple and toasted walnut in a sherry vinaigrette,
while I returned to the wonderful fried oysters with chipotle rémoulade that I had missed the past few years. These are worth the trip alone.
My health-conscious companion ordered the steak frîtes with mustard butter and watercress salad and then replaced the housemade fries with haricots verts,
while I ordered the camp-style grilled trout with wholegrain mustard beurre blanc and lyonnaise potatoes that I had been craving the past few years and which I have termed the best trout I ever had that I didn’t catch myself.
We finished up with sinfully good turtle cake
and blueberry cake
accompanied by cappuccino
and decaffeinated coffee,
the desserts courtesy of pastry chefs Nancy Anderson and Mary Luster. We finished by talking with talented chef Jeremy Scott.
Café Routier, 1353 Boston Post Road, Westbrook; 860-399-8700; www.caferoutier.com