Gourmet Tucked Away in Norwalk: Nicholas Roberts

Nicole and I had the day off recently so we decided to go to the dog track and wet our beaks a little.  Before that though we wanted to find an inexpensive place for a quick lunch.  By fate perhaps we found ourselves at a frequently traversed crossroads in Norwalk...take a right down Main Street toward Joe's condo and Valencia Luncheria, go straight and take a walking tour of the News 12 facility, take a left toward Fat Cat or Nicholas Roberts.  Oh yeah, Nicholas Roberts, that place somewhere in Norwalk that supposedly has really good creative gourmet food. 

Not hard to find at all if you know where Talk of The Town Nightclub is.  No?  Driving down Main Street toward Wall Street, Nicholas Roberts is on the right and with prominent enough black on orange signage.  We walked through a heavy velvet curtain after entering the front door that gave way to a pretty open space, instantly changing the vibe from Hot & Speedy Pizza next door to something more hipster.  Inside is done up in that low cost HGTV way of faux walls, and features a large chalk on blackboard mural just above head level on the far wall (so as not to get smudged if people lean back I suppose).  Ikea furniture for the tables, probably covered with cloth for dinner as Nicole noted, but dressed down during the day.  There's a large case when you first enter on the left displaying some of the food for takeout if you're on the go. 

I forgot that the place is still cash-only, and we had about $15 between us.  It caught me off guard when we saw the sign and Nicole looked to me for our next move, but alas it would not be a problem...we could eat and then run to the ATM in the gas station at the intersection we were told.   

We began with a bowl of cauliflower and sweet onion soup, pureed but not quite smooth.  It was a sort of dull brown color from the caramelized onions, whose flavor was the most prominent of all.  Although we didn't get much cauliflower, it brought us instant warmth on a frigid day, nice earthy flavors without being too herby.  I thought I tasted some celery root in there; not as prominent as celery stalk, but an underlying and mild aroma of it. They were a little heavy-handed on the white pepper you might say, but it worked to give the soup a little bit of spice.

Nicole ordered a pulled pork sandwich served with sweet potato fries, and I went for the lamb kebab with their "famous" french fries on the side.  I was tempted by the potatoes roasted in duck fat, but being a first time customer I took the bait with the " " tag.  I also had an iced tea infused with chai and unsweetened but for the whole blackberries, blueberries and segments of strawberries floating in it.  I spent a good deal of the time between courses trying to stab the fruit and pull it up to my mouth, but then found that I could crush and suck little bits through the straw to the same effect.

We were having a late lunch but there were a handful of other people there enjoying the laid back vibe and snazzy music.  Despite the high ceilings the noise level wasn't a problem, but I could see it being a different story if it was full house and people were popping bottles.

Nicole's pulled pork was served on an ordinary store bought bun, with a cole slaw featuring apples atop the meat.  The texture of the pork was good, tender and chopped small, but I was hoping for a little more spice and vinegar, Eastern Caa-olina style.  The apple slaw was crunchy, the matchsticks of it big enough to feel in each bite, but again it lacked a little bit of tang for me.  Still, not a bad effort at pulled pork at all and hard to put down.  The sweet potato fries were cut thicker than normal fries, with the outsides not achieving that extra crunch that russets yield on the second fry.  I'm a big fan of the starchy sweetness though, and coarse grains of salt are enough garnish for me to make up one of my favorite sweet/salty endeavors.  Nicole opted for a ketchup bath, something I don't approve of with sweet potatoes.

As my plate came I had to taste a fry first to get it as fresh from the oil as possible.  Deliberately or not, the pile was made up of longer fries and lots of bits of irregular nubs that get an extra shade of brown and crunch by the time the regular sticks finish cooking.  They were quite good, ketchup or not, each one crunchy through and through. 

The lamb kebab was nicely wrapped warm in a flour tortilla and on the first bite through I got a wave of freshness from chopped parsley, mint and cilantro, all kind of playing off each other in that order.  The meat was comprised of little links of sausage, reminiscent of merguez and North Africa, flavored with cumin but giving off just a little bit of heat.  It was pretty lean, just discernible as lamb, and it oozed a little of its natural juice with each bite.  The yogurt dipping sauce was as advertised; really good herb and spicy that is.  It had a nice tang to it and was full of flavor to stand up to the abundant action of the meat and herb salad in the wrap.

It was a large lunch for us, a bit of a splurge since we're used to cereal and leftovers midday, but we were both thoroughly satisfied with the meal and the experience.  The ingredients used are of good quality, and the technique of chef Robert Troilo is obvious in the creativity and breadth of cuisines covered on the menu.  A hop skip and a jump over Route 1 and back with some cash and we got out of there for about $25.  We'd definitely come back on the rare occasion we're in the area at breakfast time knowing they're reputed for it.  And we'll keep it in mind for takeout on a weeknight when we're bereft of dinner ideas, or maybe for another lunch date on our way to Rrrrrraceway Park in the Spring.

NR does breakfast and lunch weekdays but closes around 3pm, so get the dinner takeout order in early.  They also do brunch on the weekends and have a full catering business.  Nicholas Troilo founded the business, Robert does the food, and that's where the name comes from.  Still without a liquor license, they encourage you to BYOB with a small corkage fee.  Ironically, they also have a wine business located on Route 1 in Darien.  Peter Troilo, somehow shafted when it came to naming the enterprise, runs that end of things.