If you didn’t know South Lane Bistro was “down the alley from the Guilford Green,” you would probably miss it, just as you might all the other delightful shops and restaurants skirting the meandering parking lot best accessed from Water Street. After all, the codes that apply to the historic district of a town like Guilford aren’t going to permit huge signs or blinking neon. Fortunately, that’s where word of mouth comes in.
Open slightly more than a year, South Lane is a little charmer that reminds us of some of our favorite Midcoast Maine eateries. The end of the building has a red barn profile, but from its base juts a lovely enclosed patio that holds about half the restaurant seating, whose window spaces can be shaded with beige canvas, sunned through clear plastic or left open to the elements, all of which we experienced during our second visit. A fire pit contributes both atmosphere and warmth. The restaurant’s rustic interior is finished with wood reclaimed from a Vlasic pickle factory. Patrons snag the remaining seats at the small bar, at a handful of free-standing tables or in one of two nooks.
Owner Ariel Miller, a Stamford transplant, manages the front of the house and contributes a dessert, while partners Walter Miller, Rob Celentano and Ben Murto can be found in the kitchen. The wait staff are unfailingly cheerful, and one of them, Marjory Rockwell, a pastry chef graduate of Le Cordon Bleu Ottawa, also contributes a couple of desserts.
South Lane may have just a beer and wine license, but its emphasis on boutique wines and craft beers works extremely well with the menu. About a score of wines are offered, most by both bottle ($30-$46) and glass ($7-$12). There are also 14 beers, shandies and ciders ($4.50-$16), four of which hail from Connecticut.
The quirky fare is billed as “casual fine food from the sea and farm.” Ingredients are sourced locally whenever possible. In many cases, one can taste the difference, even in good baguette slices from Fabled Foods in Deep River ($3) served with a thick triangle of unsalted butter.
The appetizers are terrific, and they’re not your usual suspects. Delightfully crunchy yet moist and flavorful crab-and-jalapeño hush puppies ($10) served with chipotle aioli sell out on our first visit before we can get to them. Coins of fried zucchini ($8) are lightly breaded, seasoned with rosemary and sea salt, and escorted by a lemon aioli. Roasted Brussels sprouts ($6) — not charred, as seems to be in vogue — are finished in a vegetable, garlic and herb broth with dried cranberries and candied pecans.
Garnished with crostini, South Lane’s steamed mussels ($12) come in a terrific tomato-and-roasted-garlic broth. We love the imagination of a flatbread special ($10) featuring pulled pork, peach, Jack cheese and caramelized onion. But our favorite starter is the rib tips ($9), which are carefully stacked and served on the bone in a hoisin sauce that perfectly balances richness, sweetness, acidity and a hint of spice.
South Lane offers four dinner salads, but also provides small salads with sandwiches and entrées. On our first night, our mixed greens are a tad tired; on the next night, they’re sparkling. The small salads come with a choice of housemade dressings — buttermilk, balsamic, tangerine and cilantro-lime — all delicious.
South Lane’s soups excel. We find parallels between the well textured and not overly sweet butternut squash bisque ($6) garnished with cinnamon croutons and cilantro sprigs, and the corn chowder ($6) with great flavor, nice contrasts in texture between creamy broth and snappy corn kernels (there are other vegetables as well), restrained sweetness and a cilantro garnish.
A codfish sandwich ($12) with lemon aioli doesn’t blow us away, somehow lacking the joyful robustness that the best ones have. A pair of fish tacos ($15) work better — the yellowfin tuna (the type of fish varies) finished with cabbage pico de gallo, salsa and chipotle mayonnaise. Pan-seared pork medallions ($19) are delightful in an apple butter sauce with baby bok choy, sweet potato purée and “onion grass.” But the best main, to our surprise, is grilled Atlantic salmon ($22) sporting a great char and lovely, flaky, moist pink interior, which comes with a pistachio-sun-dried-tomato butter sauce and lemon spinach orzo.
Make sure you don’t skip dessert at South Lane. Like the old Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup commercials, as good as Ariel’s bittersweet brownie ($8) and Marjory’s banana bread pudding are, they turn out to be even better together. And Marjory’s salted caramel pot de creme ($8) will rock your world.
Who wants to dine at a place where you can predict just about everything on the menu? South Lane Bistro is quirky all right — and that’s a good thing.
63 Whitfield St., Guilford; 203-533-5845; southlanebistro.com
