What's New in Princeton?

US Route 1 covers Mistral opening

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Opinionated About Dining | Top 100 US Restaurants

elements ranked #23

elements ranked number 23 in Opinionated About Dining's Top 100 US Restaurants list.

Scott Anderson named to 2013 James Beard Foundation Award semi-finalists

for Best Chef in mid-atlantic region category

Scott Anderson is the Archetype for Jersey's Young and Hungry Chefs

Inside New Jersey

From foie gras to funnel cakes, the multicourse, hours-long chefs-table tasting menu at elements in Princeton solidifies this restaurant’s status — as if you had reason to doubt — as the most significant restaurant in the state.

Read rest of the article here

A Damn Good Reason to Go to Princeton: Dining at elements

Blackbook magazine

Normally I wouldn’t advocate jaunting across the Hudson River on a train or dealing with Holland Tunnel traffic just to have dinner, but on a recent Friday night I found myself doing just that—and it was totally worth it...

elements open for Dinner service Tuesday, November 6th

elements open again after short hurricane Sandy closure

elements featured in NJ Monthly's Top 25 Restaurants

"This is a restaurant that's always evolving, investigating, learning and looking to do better things," says executive chef Scott Anderson. Read more here.

elements featured in NJ Monthly magazine's Readers' Choice Poll

Best Lunch in Central New Jersey

Read more here.

elements awarded Wine Spectator award

second year in a row to receive this honor

Congratulations to Justin Kuruvilla, elements wine list is awarded the Best of Award of Excellence for the 2nd year in a row. Only 20 other restaurants in NJ have earned this distinction. Read more here

elements Scott Anderson provides delicious tip in Every Day with Rachael Ray magazine

a delicious use for citrus peels

Get Stocked for Summer

If you thought charcoal was the secret to the tastiest summer cooking...

elements Select in Opinionated About Dining's Top 100 Restaurants List

elements ranked number 35

elements restaurant is named #35 on Opinionated About Dining's Top 100 US restaurants list. See the full list here.

elements' Scott Anderson on his Best Meal of 2011

as published in Opinionated About Dining (OAD)

I always find the Meal of the Year post to be highly informative. Not only does it include a number of restaurants that I never heard of before, it allows me to keep track of important trends in the world of fine dining. Among the things that I learned from this year’s responses are the following:

Read the rest including Scott's responses here.

Scott Anderson one of Esquire Magazine's Best New Chefs of 2011

"If Anderson had merely given Princeton its one great eatery, he'd be a hero, but he is in fact in the vanguard of modern global-American cuisine."

Scott Anderson has been selected as one of Esquire Magazine's Best New Chefs of 2011. See the article here.

Chef Scott Anderson talks about Foodie Fridays

Chef Scott Anderson talks about Foodie Fridays

see the video here

A Tale Between Two Cities

elements now rated one of New Jersey's top 25 restaurants, among the finest in the region.

Read more here

Another Glass Please

Elements Restaurant receives the Two Glasses "Best Of" Award of Excellence from Wine Spectator!

Read more here

news 12 segment with elements

Princeton restaurant cooks with Jersey fresh produce

News 12 segment with elements See the complete video clip here.

elements chef/owner wins Jersey Seafood Challenge

by Peter Genovese

Sixteen chefs from all corners of the state competed in the Jersey Seafood Challenge at the governor's mansion today....

Dining Out

Cross the Delaware for fresh Bucks Count food, Culinary adventure awaits in "farm to fork" series

If you love your local farms, you may want to follow their produce and eggs across the river for a different kind of culinary adventure. In a novel approach to taking advantage of the bes of the current growing season...

Chef on Chef

Dora Dunn talks anything but turkey with Scott Anderson of elements

Don't tell Eddie I said this; the truth is that despite some shocking bad meals and some edgy conversations, reviewing restaurants and interviewing chefs is not exactly worthy of hardship pay...

gourmet destinations

elements in princeton

You never know what you're going to find inside elements.

It might be strawberries grown a few miles away...

elements wine director - Justin Kuruvilla

by Patrick Walsh | Packet Publications

The poet W. B. Yeats once wrote, "in dreams begin responsibilities." And that’s how it seems to have worked out for Justin Kuruvilla, wine director at Elements restaurant in Princeton. "You could say that I essentially have my dream job: I get to taste exceptional food and wine for a living," Mr. Kuruvilla says.

Read the entire article.

Burgundy

Oft-forgotten Passion

I occasionally get stuck talking to wine collectors who can't seem to say enough about all the great vintages in their cellars. They'll rattle off a dozen classified-growth Bordeaux --Chateau This and Chateau That--and drop names like Sassicaia...

A Perfect Match

Spaghetti Carbonara with Beaujolais

The classic carbonara is a spaghetti and pancetta, with a quick sauce of egg and Parmigiano whipped in at the last moment and an aggressive grinding of black pepper lashed over the top.

a little history of elements

Dining Diary with Bob Lape

CBS's Bob Lape talks about elements restaurant's history.

about elements in Princeton

Dining Diary with Bob Lape

CBS's Bob Lape on elements restaurant from his Dining Diary.

5@5 Mixologist Mattias Hagglund

5 Ingredients You Might Not Think of Including in Cocktails

Our managing editor already waxed poetic about the refreshing revelation that is tomatoes and booze. Now, it's Mattias Hägglund's turn to get in the mix and raise up those unsung heroes of the cocktail world. Perhaps we should mention he's the mixologist at elements in Princeton, New Jersey - so let's just say being behind the bar is kind of his thing.

Five Ingredients That You Might Not Think of Including in Cocktails, But Really Should: Mattias Hägglund

read the entire post here.

where to find kindai tuna

an blue fin alternative

With it being Earth Day and all, our thoughts turned slowly to bluefin tuna, and more specifically, how to cope with guilt of dreaming about eating it. Fortunately, many restaurants are attempting to add more sustainable alternatives to their seafood-heavy menus. The public’s attention has turned to kindai tuna, a farm-raised bluefin hatched in a Japanese laboratory. While recent discussions question whether this extremely rare and expensive fish is in fact “sustainable,” most agree it’s a step in the right direction (count Chicago chef Laurent Gras a big fan).

Read the entire article here.

ChuckEats on elements

Chuck's unique take on elements

Elements is very much a restaurant in the Michel Bras vein, arguably more exciting than anything in New York City (well, I do love that Keste pizza.) While it may not have all of the three-star refined touches of Jean Georges or Per Se, it does have an identity and focus that neither of those restaurants, or others, can lay claim to. There are rough edges here and there that serve more as character than flaws. If the restaurant continues to develop under Chef Scott Anderson, and this report one year later suggests it has, it will grow into a solid two-star quality restaurant shortly...

Read the entire post here.

elements selected to 25 best restaurants in New Jersey

The NJ Monthly 2010 best list is out

elements is proud to be selected among the 25 best restaurants in New Jersey by NJ Monthly.

Down on the Farms (and in the city)

elements' Scott Anderson at the James Beard House

At the other end of the casual-spiffy spectrum, local foodies unable to attend the James Beard House dinner by elements restaurant Chef Scott Anderson in New York City on July 13, don’t fret! The same tasting menu Chef Anderson will prepare for that event will be available at elements in Princeton from Monday, July 12 through Sunday, July 18, giving everyone the opportunity to sample this special menu in Princeton. (Please note, however that the restaurant is closed on July 13, since the staff will be in New York that night.)

Scott Anderson radio interview on Martha Stewart Living: Today Chef

elements executive chef and owner talks local organic cooking

elements' own Scott Anderson interviewed on Sirius radio Martha Stewart Living: Today Chef, talking about locally grown and organic cooking.

restaurant review - New York Times

Locally Rooted Flavors that Belie Their Setting

WHEN you make a last-minute dinner reservation for a Saturday night, you take what you can get. At Elements in Princeton, we were offered two seats at the four-seat bar for an hour before another party was scheduled to claim them. We took them, gambling that there would be a no-show. We lost.

elements Chosen One of Thirty Most Important US Restaurants

Survey conducted by Opinionated About Dining

elements was selected from thousands of US Restaurants as one of the thirty most important restaurants through a survey of 1900 participants. Read the entire survey here.

US Route 1 newspaper profiles elements restaurant

Serving Up Love: 9 Ways to Get Closer

The Foodie

This one's a no-brainer. Book the chef's table at elements. Make sure Joe Sparatta, the sous chef is going to be there and his lovely wife, Emilia, who is the sommelier. Tucked away from the rest of the restaurant, the chef's table (there are actually two) is situated in its own nook with a full view of the open kitchen, which our writer, Pat Tanner, says runs like a well-oiled machine. read the complete article online here.

elements: an ivy league education in gastronomy

by Liz Harcharek | Princeton Magazine

Foodies: go no further than elements -- the award-winning restaurant at 163 Bayard Lane -- to graduate summa cum laude from Princeton. Celebrating its one year anniversary this October. elements offers a major in the three 'E's: education, experience and enjoyment.

Restaurant Review - elements

by taetopia.com

For many years, my husband and I would celebrate our wedding anniversary with the gourmand tasting menu at Ryland Inn in Whitehouse, NJ. Among Ryland Inn’s many honors and accolades, Chef-Owner Craig Shelton had won four James Beard Awards, and the establishment earned two “Extraordinary” ratings from the New York Times. The Inn’s estate had its own beautiful, well-tended garden to provide ingredients to the restaurant. The tasting menu was a journey of familiar and new flavors, presented as little works of art. The wine parings were impeccable.

Restaurant Review: Dining in the Future at elements

by Teresa Politano | The Newark Star Ledger

...It would be premature to christen Elements chef Scott Anderson as the Matisse of the culinary world. But Anderson is no doubt among the handful of young and progressive American chefs who are pushing American cuisine forward, who are preparing and pairing ingredients in a thoroughly new, modern and dynamic way.

elements receives Wine Spectator Award of Excellence 2009

from Wine Spectator

elements is proud to receive this prestigious honor.

elements selected in New Jersey Monthly 25 Best Restaurants of 2009

from New Jersey Monthly

Squeezed by rising food costs and customers cutting back, restaurants are trying harder than ever to please. The best of the best provide exceptional food, service, andambience at every price level—affordable luxury for lean times.

elements Defies the Usual Boundaries of Fine Dining

by Opinionated About Dining

Sometimes rather than finding a restaurant, the restaurant finds me. At least thatʼs my history with Elements in Princeton, New Jersey, when one day I noticed that people were linking to the OA blog from the restaurantʼs website. Curious about who was sending referrals my way, I contacted the restaurant to find out who they were. A few days later I received a response telling me they had recently opened, and in the correspondence that followed I found out that they were trying to model themselves after Blue Hill at Stone Barns.

elements review

by Dan Fatton | Bucks County Magazine

The stone, steel and glass facade of elements in Princeton sets the tone for the simple, fresh meals prepared inside on of Central Jersey's newest fine dining restaurants. Despite the extensive menu and complex ingredients, the food at owner-chef Scott Anderson's establishment is presented in a manner that evokes the same elegant simplicity as its atmosphere.

elements review

by Stan Parish | New Jersey Monthly Magazine

Halfway through a nine-course tasting menu at Elements, my friend looked up from a trio of thrillingly complex beef, tuna, and langoustine tartares with a sudden realization.

“We’re next door to a gas station,” he said.

It is hard to believe that a space this striking was until recently an auto-repair garage attached to that filling station. The chef’s tasting table faces a gargantuan open kitchen, once an auto-repair bay, and now gleaming with a double-sided flattop stove as big as a Hummer, slow-cooking CVap oven, and other state-of-the-art equipment that looks almost automotive in its complexity, plus a cooking and service staff big enough to conduct heart surgery. Elements, which opened in October of last year, is easily the best restaurant in America to replace a body shop and one of the best in New Jersey by any measure.

Scott Anderson's locally sourced menu might wander all over the globe

by Faith Bahadurian | The Packet

i just might start this review without using any capital letters, in homage to princeton’s new restaurant, elements, spelled with a small e, if you please.

Such artifice is rather precious, but i will put up with it, thanks to
chef/co-owner scott anderson’s delicious cuisine.

elements - awesome!

by Faith Bahadurian

I just can't resist somewhat scooping my own upcoming (12/26) Packet review of the new restaurant in town, elements. Let's just say I was very impressed with my recent dinner there, which included the Foie Gras Torchon appetizer at left. Scott Anderson is in his - ouch! - element here, with a highly imaginative global menu that ranges far and wide in interesting flavors and combinations.

elements crafts interpretive American cuisine

by Susan Sprague Yeske | NJ.com

It's easy to spot executive chef Scott Anderson in the open kitchen at elements, Princeton's new upscale restaurant. He's the one who rarely stops moving.

During his seven-days-a-week schedule, he's either working at one of the kitchen stations assembling a meal or checking a plate full of food before it makes its way out to the dining room.

New Dining Spot elements Gets Nod From Princeton VIPs

by Lauren Otis | The Packet Online

All the elements were present. Or, put another way, all were present at elements.

Princeton’s latest high-end dining venue, elements (spelled with a lowercase e) held it’s inaugural reception on Tuesday evening, drawing a lively crowd of area luminaries to sample food, drinks and experience the newly constructed dining space located at 163 Bayard Lane in the township in anticipation of the restaurant’s opening on Saturday.

Greening Our Eating Habits

by Pat Tanner | US Route 1 Newspaper

For a restaurant, what does the term “green practices” mean? After all, by its very nature, providing restaurant clientele with a comfortable, even luxurious, experience entails a huge carbon footprint and creates tremendous waste in everything from food and packaging to water and sewer use to indulgent heating and air conditioning. My favorite example of this last came when I dined over the summer at a restaurant on the Jersey shore that had a fire going in the fireplace while the walls flanking it were open, floor to ceiling, to the sea. Charming, yes. Responsible, no.

Myriad Wines Pair Well with Valley Shepherd Cheeses

by Lois Heyman | mycentraljersey.com

Whether you purchase New Jersey artisanal cheeses such as Valley Shepherd, Cherry Grove or Bobolink direct from the dairies, at their farmers' market outlets or sample them in a restaurant, finding the right wine to drink along with the cheese is easier than you might think.

What's New in Princeton and Central New Jersey?

by E.E. Whiting | US Route 1 Newspaper

New York dining, in all its glory, has come to Princeton. Your first clue that this will be no ordinary dinner date is the dramatically different, ultra-modern structure on Bayard Lane. Enter its sleek interior and you are surrounded by stone and steel, glass and wood, all in subdued tones. The architecture and the presentation of the food is a much a part of the decor as the modern art on the walls.

Princeton's elements filled with substance and style

by Cody Kendall | Newark Star-Ledger

The excitement generated by elements, Princeton’s newest restaurant, revs up in the parking lot. The walk to the entrance of the stone and steel building takes you by the glass-enclosed gleaming kitchen, a view guaranteed to create both anticipation and envy as you pass guests busy with treats at the two chef’s tasting tables.

elements press release

elements, Princeton's newest fine dining venue, hosted a unique wine appreciation dinner on Thursday, October 30, 2008, featuring arguably the most important ambassador of Italian wine culture.

elements video profile by shopprinceton.com

stone, steel and spectacular fare

Nov 2008, Princeton NJ - Stephen Distler, owner of the newly opened Elements Restaurant in Princeton introduced the Chef, Scott Anderson and his talented staff at a recent Open House. This video also includes some observations by Bob Steele, Architect of Elements, on the naming of Princeton's newest restaurant.

view the video