It’s hard to say what I look for in a new restaurant. There’s no one-size-fits-all formula. Our state is small, but vastly diverse. Some towns are filled with restaurants rife with wine and cocktails, while others rely on BYOBs as the fuel to their dining scenes. Some towns value high-end dining, while others emphasize casual hospitality. Some towns do it all. However, when a new restaurant has it, you know. And the newly opened Sam’s Table in Montclair has it.
377 Bloomfield Avenue has seen its fair share of turnover spanning the last decade. For whatever reason, it’s been hard to get a restaurant to stick there. Sam’s Table took the dive anyway—transforming the space in what felt like overnight into an intimate BYOB, dishing out seasonally relevant and thoughtful plates of food.
Walk in on any night and you’ll find a tiny dining room filled with hungry people. A small kitchen sits right behind the counter in plain sight—line cooks and chefs packed in like sardines.
Emerald green and wood accents decorate the space and painted white brick ties it all together. Sam’s Table feels fresh, but familiar—reminiscent of a tiny West Village restaurant you might see in a film.
Chef and Owner Sam Stymest was born and raised in Montclair, and he clearly knows what it takes to survive there. Along with his mother, Deborah—who is the General Manager—and father, Brian, the Stymests have brought a true family-run establishment to the heart of Bloomfield Ave.
Chef Sam brings with him more than a decade of experience in some of New York and New Jersey’s best restaurants, including the legendary—and now-closed—Montclair restaurant, Fascino. However, it wasn’t until his time as Sous Chef at CERALDI out in Cape Cod that he began to develop a particularly keen eye for farm-to-table cooking. That commitment to local, seasonal produce has become the soul of Sam’s Table.
“Sam’s table is meant to feel like dinner at a friend’s house, relaxed yet refined. As for the food, we’re cooking with what’s around us, what excites us and what makes sense right now in New Jersey,” says Chef Sam of the Montclair restaurant’s concept.
Also in the kitchen is Chef Josh Pierson, a culinary veteran who has cooked in the likes of Grant Achatz’s Aviary and New Jersey’s very own Heirloom Kitchen.
The duo’s combined experience and dedication are seen in blatant fashion on a menu that leans more simple than it does convoluted—an outlook that I will always applaud.
This means the complexities lie in the method and execution rather than the makeup. It also means the menu changes frequently, with dishes being defined by what’s available rather than the other way around. Sam’s Table calls themself a “vegetable-forward” restaurant, and I can’t say I disagree.
So, what does that look like?
It might look like freshly-made dinner rolls, served with whipped honey butter. The honey comes from New Jersey’s own Beneduce Vineyards—their wines are available to purchase by the bottle at Sam’s Table as an exception to the BYOB rule. You can also order bottles to be delivered from Amanti Vino up the street.
A star dish of the night touches down on the table: the charred leeks. Leeks are scorched and sliced, mixed with smoked trout roe and fried shallots, covered with a subtle horseradish and potato foam. Think potato leek soup, but better.
Horseradish is a potentially overpowering ingredient here, as it can overshadow the delicate leek flavor. However, Chef Sam keeps the heat to a minimum, accenting the allium flavor rather than knocking it out. The smoked trout roe studs the interior like bursting gems, and a green powder is dusted atop the dish made from dehydrated leek tops. Not an ounce of leek wasted—a perfect dedication to the Sam’s Table concept.
Beets are presented in monochromatic fashion—salt roasted, and perched atop a bed of creamy smoked labneh and dotted with piles of a house-made poppy seed and pepita brittle. A deeply red beet caramel cascades over top, and a red dust made from dried and blitzed beets decorates the plate’s perimeter. It’s earthy, with a nice tanginess from the labneh—competing textures make it as fun to eat as it is to look at.
If you opt for the baby gem salad, you’ll be pleased to discover that it is both incredibly cold and incredibly crisp. Boats of gem lettuces, sliced radish and candied pistachio sit on a base of green goddess dressing. The lettuces themselves are spritzed with a sharp lemon vinaigrette. It is acidic—and that’s a good thing. It makes for an excellent cleanser in between appetizers and entrees.
As I mentioned before, Sam’s Table doubles as a tasting room for Beneduce Vineyards, which is New Jersey speak for “they can’t offer a full liquor and wine list, but they can sell bottles from a single vineyard.” Beneduce is doing some seriously great wines these days—they are part of a cohort of viticulture pioneers moving the New Jersey wine scene forward. I enjoyed a crisp Gewürztraminer with my meal.
Donning a distinctly autumnal outfit is a wonderfully bright halibut, seared and served with a carrot escabeche. Underneath the buttery fish is a pool of aji blanco—a white gazpacho made from bread, almonds and olive oil. An herb salad crowns the dish. Coins of pickled carrot bring a pop of flavor and texture, which contrasts the richness of the buttery halibut and aji blanco.
On the other side of the table is a perfectly cooked piece of steak—teres major, to be exact. The underrated cut of beef comes from the cow’s shoulder and eats much like a filet, albeit with a more pronounced flavor. It’s a tender and versatile steak—one of my favorites. It came served rather simply with miso-glazed broccolini and a sweet potato pave, which included shingles of tender, sliced sweet potato. A pop of funky black garlic flavor is also present.
The final bites before my meal ended included a chocolate cremieux and a silky panna cotta. The former was intensely rich, served with blueberry compote and a crispy piece of candied filo dough, while the latter sported a pronounced milky flavor and came topped with fennel seeds, preserved strawberry and crumbled shortbread.
Sam’s Table feels like the kind of restaurant Montclair has been yearning for—it’s ambitious yet grounded, elegant but never pretentious. Its opening coincides with a fresh batch of Montclair restaurants that are helping to bring the city’s dining scene back in a big way. Sam’s Table is here for you with its intimate stature and defined menu—right in the heart of Montclair. And with Chef Sam Stymest at the helm, 377 Bloomfield Avenue is in good hands.
In addition to a la carte dining, Sam’s Table offers a curated Chef’s Tasting Menu on Fridays and Saturdays
Peter Candia is the Food + Drink Editor at New Jersey Digest. A graduate of The Culinary Institute of America, Peter found a passion for writing midway through school and never looked back. He is a former line cook, server and bartender at top-rated restaurants in the tri-state area. In addition to food, Peter enjoys politics, music, sports and anything New Jersey.
