Spiffed-up Winfield Grill Continues to Draw Crowds

By Anne Palumbo on May 23rd, 2007

When Winfield Grill owners Jeff Kaplan and Chris DiMascio closed shop last New Year's Eve, they had a challenging six weeks of remodeling ahead of them. What made it so daunting?

"We badly needed a facelift," said DiMasico, who came on board last August, "but we didn't want to do anything that would alienate our regulars or diminish our neighborhood feel."

An understandable concern. After all, the grill's been around since the late 1920s. And although it's gone through many owners and incarnations since then, it keeps pulling 'em in, year after year, week after week. My guess? The grill's friendly atmosphere notwithstanding, their all-American menu is priced to entice frequent dining.

Something for everybody

Winfield's menu, executed by Rafael Vigo – a seasoned chef who has kept the grill going for over 25 years – covers a lot of ground. We're talking burgers, pitas and sandwiches. Appetizers and finger foods. Soups and salads. Meat and fish entrees. A Friday night fish fry. Okay? Over 100 menu items to choose from with most available from 11 a.m. on. I like that in a restaurant. I like that if all I want is a grilled Reuben with melted cheese at 9 p.m., I can have that. Of course, as tempting as a Reuben may sound, I opted for something different when my dining companion and I stopped in for lunch last week. After much deliberation – and after witnessing the delivery of several scrumptious-looking salads and sandwiches – we finally went with a Cajun chicken salad and a turkey and portabella sandwich. The Cajun chicken sandwich is primed to satisfy. Not only is it big in size, but it’s big in flavor, too, thanks in no small part to an herb-infused bread bowl that houses the salad and a freshly made Ranch dressing. What we loved most, however, were the warm strips of tender white chicken: charbroiled, juicy to boot, crusted with Cajun spices. Having had my fair share of salads that come with cold chucks of boiled-the-night-before chicken, I can’t tell you what a treat it was to feast on chicken that truly enlivened the mixed greens below it.

The roasted turkey and marinated portabella sandwich, an uncommon pairing, was also tasty. We particularly enjoyed all the textures we encountered - the pillow-soft roll, firm turkey, toothsome mushroom and oozing cheese Good all on its own, the hearty sandwich was even better when slathered with some sweet Russian dressing (a great suggestion from our waitress).

All pitas and sandwiches come with a choice of side – fries, coleslaw, pasta salad, chips or cottage cheese – and we chose coleslaw. The coleslaw, lightly dressed and garden-fresh, was so delicious it swayed my dining companion, a reluctant coleslaw consumer, to give it a thumbs-up.Dinner time diners have an even bigger selection. Not only do you have dibs on all the appetizers, finger foods and lunch entrees available around noon, but you also have not-so-slim pickings of dozens of entrees and several evening specials.

Here are just a few that caught my eye: charbroiled mahi mahi with lemon pepper, prime rib with horseradish sauce, chicken Dijon over spinach, and pasta primavera. Looking for something sweet? The desert list is full of house-baked goodies destined to tempt: bread pudding with Jack Daniels sauce, peanut butter pie, chocolate mousse, chocolate cake and several fruit pies. And if brunch-with-bubbles is your thing, you’ll want to check out the Winfield’s Sunday Champagne breakfast, which features an a la carte menu and free champagne from noon to 2 p.m.