Dining rooms paneled in knotty pine are lighted with an eclectic collection of chandeliers; tables with white tablecloths and napkins are set with a picnic candle with ugly orange shade and paper placemats imprinted with a map of the Pine Barrens.
Unfortunately, the cuisine does not match the setting, although there are flashes of inspiration. The best flash is a complimentary whipped cheddar cheese spread assertively laced with horseradish and served with sesame bread sticks and foil-wrapped wheat and rye crackers.
A small crock of baked onion soup ($2.50) was a delicious wine-touched broth filled with sauteed onions, bread and capped with melted mozzarella, Parmesan and Swiss cheeses and decorated with a sprig of fresh parsley. Charleston she crab soup ($2) was a tasty bisque generously filled with lumps of delicate backfin crabmeat but as pasty as wallpaper glue.
Shrimp deJonghe ($4.95), a tasty appetizer, was a remarkable serving of fully 20 (I counted them) medium-sized shrimp baked with crumbled crackers in mildly-flavored garlic-butter. Scallops provencale ($4.25) was a large serving of dry, overcooked bay scallops touched with garlic, red pepper, butter and oregano.
A warmed loaf of buttered sesame bread lightly touched with garlic ($1.50) was dusted with grated cheese. A salad of iceberg lettuce, grated carrots and red cabbage and a hint of sweet onion came in a good, lumpy blue cheese dressing.
Both entrees were disappointing. Individual beef Wellington ($14.95) was a flattened, overcooked filet wrapped in biscuit instead of pastry dough that had become soggy from sitting in a pool of thin red wine sauce. Two plump, sauteed soft shell crabs ($10.95) in white wine sauce were smothered in mushrooms and overpowered by an overly generous flavoring of wine.
