Granite Restaurant & Bar reopens with new menus, executive chef
After an 18-month hiatus, Concord’s Granite Restaurant & Bar at The Centennial Hotel is back. The eatery reopened to the public on Oct. 27 for the first time since the pandemic shutdown, featuring all new locally sourced dinner, dessert and brunch menu items.
Operations at both The Centennial Hotel and the Granite Restaurant & Bar were first suspended back in late March 2020, and while the hotel did begin welcoming back guests by mid-August of that year, its in-house dining experience remained closed. With its long-awaited reopening, general manager and sales and marketing director Laura Leslie said the restaurant’s newly appointed kitchen staff hope to take it in a new direction going forward.
“Our main goal was to change from what people might have seen as a place to go for a special occasion like a birthday or an anniversary … to somewhere that you’d want to go to eat two or three times a week, because the menu is just that approachable,” Leslie said.
Charlie Lavery has been recruited to take over the helm of the kitchen as the executive chef. Lavery attended the New England Culinary Institute in Vermont and has amassed decades of experience working in restaurants across New England since then, including the Mediterranean-inspired Ebb and Flow in Portland, Maine, and The Snowvillage Inn in the Mt. Washington Valley. He also served as chef de cuisine of LaBelle Winery in Amherst for a time.
“The menu for Granite is all about plays on international comfort foods and street foods,” Lavery said. “I’m very much inspired by world cuisine, and I think it’s important to bring that to the table because there are so many great techniques out there. … We try to use local ingredients as much as possible, and fewer of them, as opposed to lots of lower-level ingredients.”
The Mexican street corn dish, for instance, features grilled local corn with a smoky ancho chili crema, while the bluefin tuna crudo, a current menu favorite of Lavery’s, is made with Thai basil and a Meyer lemon and caper vinaigrette, served with crispy house lavash bread. Another seafood starter is the moules frites, or mussels and fries — that dish features a large bowl of Bangs Island mussels, served in stone ground mustard with bacon and house cut fries.
“I’m big into seafood. All of the seafood we serve is New England sourced, for sure,” he said.
Entrees run the gamut from a certified Angus beef burger and a jerk marinated Statler chicken breast to a grilled Berkshire heritage pork and a 12-ounce New York strip steak.
Other menu items are uniquely fall inspired, like the pumpkin bisque and the Parisian gnocchi with foraged mushrooms, Parmesan reggiano cheese and a local squash puree. As the seasons change, Lavery hopes to continue utilizing more products that become available.
Desserts cover every palate too, from simple options like house ice creams and sorbets to a bit more elevated delicacies, like a Meyer lemon tart with lavender honey, a spiced carrot cake trifle served in a Mason jar with cream cheese frosting, and a tart cherry bread pudding.
“The chef’s tart cherry bread pudding is just to die for,” Leslie said. “Most bread puddings are really dense and heavy, but this one is really light. The flavors are also just super well-balanced, with the tartness of the cherries and the sweetness of the whipped cream.”
While it’s always been known for its selection of wines and cocktails, Leslie said, the restaurant’s new drink menu will have more emphasis on non-alcoholic mocktails.
Breakfast and lunch are no longer being served during the week, but a brunch menu will still be available on Sundays, with items like breakfast burritos, hash and eggs with house cured corned beef hash, buttermilk biscuits and gravy, Belgian waffles and more.
The eatery’s private dining room, accommodating parties of up to 10, is also back open, while four additional private function spaces are available to rent throughout the hotel.
Granite Restaurant & Bar
Where: The Centennial Hotel, 96 Pleasant St., Concord
Hours: Wednesday through Saturday, 5 to 9 p.m. (bar stays open until 10 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays), and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
More info: Visit graniterestaurant.com, find them on Facebook and Instagram @centennialandgranite or call 227-9005
Reservations are strongly encouraged.
Featured photo: Parisian gnocchi. All photos by Brian Samuels Photography.
