A Cheerful, Comfortable Place For Breakfast Or Lunch

By Kaaren Valenta

As its jaunty name implies, Marmalades Café and Catering is a cheerful, welcoming place, a 40-seat breakfast and lunch restaurant where diners also have the opportunity to enjoy the inventive cuisine of Chef Jason Stea.

Chef Stea, who graduated from the Culinary Institute of America, Class of 1995 and afterwards worked in several five-star restaurants, opened Marmalades more than a year ago at 650 Main Street (Route 25) in the Cedar Village Shopping Center in Monroe, just south of 707 On Main and Northbrook Condos, not far from the Newtown border.

He operates the restaurant with his wife, Elizabeth, a former hospital administrator, who spent many years working part-time in restaurants while getting her education.

“We decided we wanted a breakfast and lunch place because we wanted children and the hours would suit a family better,” Mr Stea said. “But once we decided, it took us two years to muscle up the courage to actually do it.”

As it turned out, the Steas opened Marmalades the same month that they adopted a six-month-old infant from Korea and named him Sam.

“We had just opened our doors when he arrived,” Elizabeth Stea said. “Our whole family went to JFK [Airport] to pick him up.”

Although it was hectic in the beginning, most of the hard work had already been done. The Steas had found a good location for their restaurant, almost right on Route 25 in a storefront previously occupied by Buyers Resource Real Estate, the company operated by Newtown resident Ann Krane who re-located her business to Sandy Hook.

“The place was an office, all cubicles inside, so we had to gut it and start over,” Mrs Stea said. “We designed the restaurant ourselves and did most of the work, except the carpeting and plumbing.”

With its sponge-painted marmalade-colored walls and birch tables (built by the owners when they couldn’t locate what they wanted to buy), Marmalades is inviting. There’s a comfortable sofa and chair inside one front window where a giant checkerboard awaits. This is definitely a family-friendly place.

Chef Stea likes to describe his cuisine as comfort food with an upscale twist. Pancakes, served with pure Vermont maple syrup and creamy butter, range from buttermilk pancakes “just like grandma’s” to choices like banana chocolate walnut cakes.

French toast includes thickly sliced cinnamon challah bread with seasonal fresh fruit, and there are a variety of Eggs Benedict, some incorporating asparagus and smoked salmon. All orders that include toast also come with ramekins of house-made marmalade: orange zest, toasted pecan, cranberry.

Marmalades serves apple wood smoked bacon, sausage, ham, and other meat from North Country Farm in New Hampshire. Whether at breakfast or lunch, everything is roasted in the restaurant.

“We do carving boards — we have no cold cuts,” Mr Stea said. “Everything we do is made from scratch, even our French fries. The only things we buy are bagels and donuts, and corned beef and pastrami.”

Besides traditional French fries, Marmalades serves sweet potato fries. Sandwiches also go one step further. There’s a meatloaf sandwich on tomato foccacia bread with lettuce, tomato, and bacon, and a grilled vegetable sandwich that features grilled yellow squash, zucchini, caramelized onions, portabella mushrooms and fresh mozzarella with fresh hummus on multi-grain bread.

Entrees include a lobster and chervil potpie that is served with a watercress and goat cheese salad, and Southern barbecued beef short ribs served with both a jicama and orange salad and a grilled corn flan topped with sweet potato hay. There’s a burrito made with rock shrimp, goat cheese, baby greens and tomatoes stuffed into a choice of a whole wheat or flour tortilla and finished with a black bean and grilled corn compote and a fresh cilantro dipping sauce.

Luncheon salads include Asian barbecued shrimp over baby greens tossed with fresh mangoes, goat cheese and toasted macadamia nuts in a miso pickled ginger dressing. Or try Marmalade’s cobb salad made with grilled chicken, blue cheese, apple wood smoked bacon, avocado and chopped egg over baby greens.

Desserts continually change and may include individual Belgian white chocolate cheesecakes, a peanut butter torte with dark chocolate cookie crust, apple cinnamon cake, and dark Belgian chocolate brownies with candied walnuts. Marmalades serves a bottomless 16-ounce cup of coffee from its full-service coffee bar.

But Jason Stea’s real forte is catering.

“Marmalades covers the rent and pays the bills, but catering is where he gets to do what he did in the five-star restaurants,” Elizabeth Stea said. “We do a lot of private parties, especially corporate events, on and off site. We can provide all the rentals, all the staff including bartenders.”

The restaurant is available for any function in the evening including birthday parties, gourmet clubs and cooking lessons. “Often adults will combine a gourmet dinner with cooking lessons,” she explained. “Because we are a BYOB restaurant, we’ve had groups bring in blenders and make exotic drinks. It’s a lot of fun.”

Marmalades is open Tuesday through Friday from 7 am to 7 pm; Saturday and Sunday from 8 to 3. Credit cards are accepted. For questions or catering call 445-9913.