The inviting, airy interior at Mamaroneck’s Maple & Rose
Photos by Ken Gabrielsen
On the upper end of Mamaroneck’s main thoroughfare sits Maple & Rose Café, an all-day eatery serving locally sourced fare — with a few standouts dishes — in a cheerful dining room. The brainchild of Matt Gorney and Ryan Hart, who previously had a catering business under the same name, the Café debuted April 2019.
The corner space — lined with oversized windows that admit tons of natural light and filled with rectangular wooden tables — is a minimalist’s dream. Across from the seating area, half the space is reserved for a takeaway coffee bar (serving well regarded Intelligentsia Coffee) that offers traditional options for a caffeine kick alongside homemade pastry. Some options are more successful than others: The matcha latte is well-made and balanced, but the kale-and-goat-cheese muffin fell a bit flat, with its overly earthy flavor.
For lunch and dinner, a straightforward, pared-down menu showcases a curated selection of sandwiches, salads, vegetables, and main dishes. The breakfast offerings are similarly simple, with a few updated twists, from steel-cut oats with butter, maple syrup, and steamed milk to four varieties of scrambled eggs, including a particularly mouthwatering smoked-salmon-and-labneh rendition.
Later in the day, there are some hits that fly high and others that are less impressive. The majority of the side dishes, including fried Brussels sprouts with hunks of bacon and red wine vinegar, as well as crispy sweet potatoes with leeks and manchego, are bold and savory; of the main plates, the sockeye salmon with Brussels sprouts and ginger vinaigrette is rich and flavorful, while the roasted half-chicken with delicata squash and salsa verde is decent. On the other hand, the rigatoni al forno with tomato sauce and fontina is a bit boring (though not unpalatable), and the short rib, cut into square medallions, leans toward the dry side, yet the flavor is there. If you’re looking for a something light, there are a few worthwhile salads: The kale, a particular star — made with crunchy roasted carrots, clothbound cheddar cheese, and a lemon vinaigrette — is both refreshing and tangy.
During lunch, the oversized windows that surround the seating area work their magic and create a bustling, energetic ambience. At dinner, that brightness — natural light now replaced with bulbs from the ceiling — is slightly less enticing. All day, too, the service falls just short of the mark: Sure, the staff are polite and certainly capable, yet there seems to be an overall lack of interest in the small details that can make hospitality particularly appealing when done right. The service is, however, efficient, and the kitchen seems to be running full speed ahead, turning out plates with little wait time, avoiding the service stumbles that so many new restaurants face when first opening.
Maple & Rose is the type of restaurant that thrives in a suburban town — an ideal place for a casual lunch with a friend or a quick Tuesday-night dinner accompanied by a glass of wine or crisp cider. And while a meal here will most likely not leaving you dreaming about it for weeks to come, it just as likely will not disappoint.
Maple & Rose Café
690 Mamaroneck Ave
Mamaroneck
914.222.4151
Daisy Melamed Sanders is a freelance fashion, food, and lifestyle writer based just over the border in Fairfield County.
