Nov. 10 saw the grand opening of the restaurant Town House at 559 Main St. in New Rochelle. The business is a recipient of a New York State Main Street Program grant that helped fund the restoration of the historic building where the restaurant is now located.
“There”™s a lot of history on this block. We want to honor that,” said Tom Middleton, owner of Town House. “The grant helped us do the façade, it helped us redo the elevator. Some of that history needed some buffing up.”
First erected in 1927, the building encompasses three floors. The ground floor will be devoted solely to the dining experience while the third floor is dedicated only to displaying artwork. The second floor accommodates both the dining and art experience; there is a bar on the first and second floors. The art pieces currently on display at Town House are by New York artists Julio Santos Rosas and Mona Balgobin.
“It”™s going to be fantastic food and drink,” Middleton said. “It”™s also a place to convene and exhibit and perform, and hopefully learn and educate and grow. It”™s an exciting road ahead.”
Dinner guests may select from a menu that includes market salad, beef tartare or chicken liver mousse. Other options include duck breast served with huckleberries, foraged mushrooms and quince, and steak au poivre, a pastured-raised beef with mushroom condiment. Patrons also have a choice of cocktails such as mushroom Mai Thai, sherry cobbler or apiary, a bee”™s wax gin made of honey and lemon.
Mayor Noam Bramson attended the grand opening and spoke of Middleton”™s qualities as an entrepreneur and visionary as well as Town House”™s place in New Rochelle.
“He told me about his background ”” someone who had enjoyed great success in the music industry, in entertainment, in business and saw in New Rochelle the potential to be something more than it was,” Bramson recalled. “I was so impressed with Tom, with his creative spirit, with his vision for our community, with his demonstrated capacity to actually get things done.”
“In so many ways, it exemplifies where we”™re going here in downtown New Rochelle,” Bramson added. “It is elevated, but it is not exclusive.”
