WHO’S IN CHARGE Aaron Duvall, the executive chef at Savory Square Bistro, describes his Hampton, N.H., restaurant as “upscale but relaxed, not intimidating.’’ Most of the menu is as French as “La Marseillaise,’’ but in the bar you can order burgers and watch hockey on a big screen. “We’ve made our own beer-flavored ice cream and lobster-flavored ice cream,’’ Duvall said. It’s a bistro, in other words — one with its own coastal New Hampshire vibe — not a formal, white-tablecloth experience.
Duvall, 31, has been chef at Savory Square since it opened in 2012. Owner Ron Boucher, himself an award-winning chef, also runs Chez Boucher — a culinary arts school — in the space.
For those not aspiring to be chefs, the school offers one-day workshops. Especially popular are Couples’ Night Out, where up to 12 couples prepare meals in the kitchen. The bistro’s staff then plates and serves the food to the group in the dining room, with wine.
THE LOCALE Savory Square Bistro is tucked into the rear of a shopping center on Route 1 in downtown Hampton. The nondescript brick and clapboard building’s most distinguishing feature is a trompe l’oeil mural outside. The painting turns the building’s northern end into an imaginary French landscape complete with stone arch, pink flowers climbing the wall, and views of distant vineyards.
The large bar adjoining the restaurant entices guests on weeknights with specials like half-priced appetizers on Monday and buck-a-shuck oysters on Wednesday. On the Friday evening we visited, the lure was a small acoustic band playing lively pop and country tunes. The bar patrons clearly enjoyed the music, but the sound carried through an open door into the dining room, where it didn’t strike us as an ideal pairing for a fine French meal. We were able to relocate to a free table at the far end of the room. Problem solved.
ON THE MENU To start, our party of three split an $18 appetizer, the bistro charcuterie board. This was a wooden plank loaded with delicacies: smoked salmon, asparagus wrapped in prosciutto, pickled vegetables, marinated mushrooms caps, house-made Boursin cheese, crostini, and a generous amount of pate. That, a salad, and the complimentary plate of warm French bread and whipped butter could have been a satisfying meal for two, if not three.
A dish of pan-roasted cod loin ($24) arrived perfectly cooked, a little bit crisp on the outside, moist on the inside. It came with piping-hot potato and celeriac au gratin, shaved celery and asparagus, and an intensely green dollop of something we’d never seen before, pureed parsley. It was all highly delicious.
So were the two house specialties we ordered. The grilled duck a l’orange ($26) was tender slices of marinated boneless duck breast in a slightly sweet brandy orange glaze, served with vegetable rice pilaf and roasted carrots, rutabaga, and parsnips. Steak au poivre may be an old standby in French restaurants everywhere, but Savory Square’s version ($24) was anything but routine. The tenderloin, encrusted with peppercorns and served in a rich and spicy sauce poivrade, was tender and flavorful. An added treat was a small heap of crispy, peppery frites and a burst of lightly cooked, garden-fresh asparagus.
Serving sizes here are scaled for gourmets, not gourmands, so we had room for two desserts. One was a treat there definitely should be more of: persimmon ice cream ($7), served on a slice of grilled brown bread with an apricot glaze and a smear of chamomile cream. The other was something called lemon lust ($9), a tangy lemon curd confection with whipped cream and a drizzled spiral of pureed raspberry. The name made sense after we tried it. We couldn’t get enough.
Savory Square Bistro, 32 Depot Square, Hampton N.H. 603-926-2202, www.savorysquarebistro.com.
Coco McCabe and Doug Stewart can be reached at dcstewart@verizon.net.
