Edwin Montoya had grown weary of having to turn away diners at tiny Appetit Bistro, the 30-seat Port Chester French eatery he runs with his brother-in-law and chef Edi Rivera; it was January of this year when he first considered opening a second restaurant to alleviate the problem (one, of course, any restaurateur would be happy to have).
“I wanted to go more upmarket with the new place, a bit more formal than the bistro,” says the Port Chester native.
And thus was born Capers, a Mediterranean restaurant focused on Italian, Greek, Basque, and Moroccan ingredients with 50 seats in the main dining room, plus about 30 on the patio. It’s in the location that housed Café Mirage for more than a decade and less than a five-minute drive from Appetit Bistro.
“What I love about Port Chester is there are so many different restaurants and cuisine types,” says Montoya. “The village is a great destination for dining out.”
For starters, there’s pan-seared foie gras with white-corn polenta, octopus carpaccio, a trio of flatbreads, delectable smoked-duck spring rolls, plus a raw bar.
Red snapper with sheep’s-milk ricotta gnocchi, grilled quail in a lentil ragù, veal paillard, and rack of lamb with Israeli couscous are among the mains.
Chef Rivera will oversee the kitchen at both restaurants.
The décor by Christopher Cintron Designs of Stamford is clean and simple, with lots of browns, tans and whites, plus steel piping along the edges of the ceiling. The building had been a gas station in a previous incarnation, so Cintron, not wanting to fight the building’s original identity, worked to keep an industrial feel.
“The tough part about a new restaurant in a village like Port Chester is it could get lost if not for a built-in following,” explains Montoya. “Fortunately we have one — from New Rochelle and Mamaroneck to Greenwich and Rye, we have many loyal customers.”
Capers Restaurant
531 N Main St
Port Chester
914.481.8833
