An Invitation to Dinner by R.C. Bruckner-Bock

An Invitation to Dinner

by
R.C. Bruckner-Bock

The Log Cabin Restaurant
232 Boston Post Road,
Clinton,
860-669-6253

Cuisine *
Service *
Ambiance *
Price Range $$
Wine Menu: Non-vintage, modest labels $16-$25; choices of beer on draft
Hours: Lunch and dinner, 7 Days

The façade in broad-axe hewn log style is missing the authentic dove-tail corners, the roof is modern asphalt simulation and the smoothly paved expansive parking lot contradicts our image of a log cabin setting. Evergreens below the porch-entrance sheared into table-tops look odd in their bed of gravel and might feel more at home in a manicured Renaissance garden. The ash can spilling over with cigarette butts and discarded wrappers defeats the entrance door’s helpless struggle to welcome diners.

Sturdy, weatherproof, and furnished with the basics is the ambiance inside this symbol of American frontier life. Simulated candles mounted onto wagon wheels illuminate stainless flatware wrapped in paper napkins on bare tables ringed by comfortable captain’s chairs.

The no nonsense attitude continues in an American-Italian kitchen where each robust dish is plated quantitatively to feed not one but several very hungry lumberjacks.

Appetizers $7.95-16.95
Hot antipasto includes stuffed pepper, mushroom, stuffed clams and clams casino, eggplant, fried mozzarella and artichoke. Clams Casino with scallops and baked stuffed mushrooms re-appear as separate dishes. If you think the shrimp cocktail may be a bit pricey at $16.95? Look again! There are twenty-five (25) shrimp in this cocktail and it is served with pasta and salad, same as the fried mozzarella and the mozzarella garlic bread at $ 7.95 each!

Here, every dish is preceded or accompanied by Penne Marinara. Marinara meaning seafaring (marinaio =sailor) indicates the inclusion of seafood in other countries. In American-Italian cookery the term ‘marinara’ is used for simple tomato sauce seasoned with herbs. At the Log Cabin, the only items on the menu NOT served with pasta are the pasta and the portions could easily satisfy the crew of a small sailboat.

Pasta 13.95-20.95
Cheese ravioli are served with a deft meatball and sausage, so are Penne and Spaghetti. Lobster ravioli Tuscano are suffocating happily in pink sauce under mounds of shrimp and scallops tossed with mushrooms.

Entrees $18.95-22.95
Prime rib ($23.95) is available Friday and Saturday nights only, NY Sirloin with seasoned mushrooms or topped with Blue Cheese and melted mozzarella are present daily.

All chicken dishes are made with boneless chicken or breast pieces turned into the usual cast of characters seen elsewhere: Florentine, Marsala, Gorgonzola, Parmigiana or Sorrento. Chicken Picante in white wine lemon butter dotted with capers was emerging as the most delicate of the lot. I am always looking for a succulent and juicy gypsy chicken on the bone, or a chicken fricassee that no-one offers anymore. Its ok, I happily cook my own. Some veal dishes mirror chicken dishes under a different name: Veal Francese is prepared like chicken Florentine without the spinach and Parmigiana receives identical treatment as the chicken Veal ‘Romano’, layered with prosciutto and Swiss cheese escorted by mushrooms in Marsala sauce, and ‘Saltimbocca’, prepared the same but served without mushrooms are a pleasant experience. But nothing, not even the mountain of fifty (50) fried shrimp with French fries, can awe me more than the three center-cut extra thick pork chops. Broiled, they come with apple sauce and the obligatory penne marinara. When named ‘Doral’ they are grilled and dressed in a brown sauce made savory by a mélange of sautéed onions, hot and sweet peppers and potatoes. This dish evokes images of backwoodsmen getting restored by robust food and a mug of Newcastle ale.

Should anyone wonder if I missed mentioning dessert? I didn’t, just forget about it!

I always suspected that the potholes in the parking lot, now history, were created by customers carrying stacks of weighty doggy-bags to their cars. The tonnage transported

day in and day out will surely wear down the smoothness of the surface soon again.

**** Extraordinary; *** Excellent; **Very Good; *Good; - Poor
$$$$ over $75; $$$ over $50; $$ over $25; $ under $25; $* exceptional value;