Birthday surprise

Afternoon everyone…..

Most of you reading this post already know what the 510 in my silverd510 means. For those of you who are fairly new to my posts, it stands for 5/10 which is May 10th also known as my birthday.

So today is my birthday….

Due to a family christening my girlfriend has a prior commitment today. So she took me out for a surprise dinner last night. All I was told was that our reservation is at 5:30.

It ended up being at a place named PH Steakhouse in Chester, New Jersey. It’s a highly recommend steakhouse which was on my list of places to eat at. I actually tried to book a reservation several months ago, but it was booked solid.

The building that PH Steakhouse is located is over 200 years old. To be exact it was built in 1810. It has been many things over the years a stagecoach stop, prep school, hotel, tavern. It’s an immense building consisting of 18,400 square feet.

No of the original structure of the building has been altered in any way. Obviously they have run updated power, and plumbing over the years which were absent from the original building. Many of the original furnishings are still there, old sewing machines, a grand piano and regular stand up piano. There is artwork on the walls over 150 years old. All of the woodwork is original just refinished over the years.

There are many different rooms on the main floor. Which has seating for up to 150 people. The room we were seated in has ten tables of four in it. I will share some photos at the end.

It was purchased by Steve Bussel in 2020 and turned into PH Steakhouse. Per his words, his vision was to have everything first class and high end. They only serve USDA Prime beef. For this type of high end restaurant the prices were fairly reasonable for what you get.

The menu has many seafood options as well which are delivered fresh daily. They have a short but very diverse wine menu which has several high end and hard to obtain vintages.

Here is what the place looks like from outside….

The second floor is a hotel with eight luxury sweets. All have a living room, bedroom and bathroom. Chester is a town people visit, it’s a very old historical town with tons of antique shops, small family owned boutiques, handmade chocolate shop, handmade ice cream shop, a candle making shop, plus more. There are farms all over the town still in use and fully operational.

Chester is a very upscale town, with most houses costing well over a million dollars. There are strict building codes in the town to preserve the historical look of the town. So you won’t see any of those McMansions in Chester. Wood shutters, mostly brick houses with copper flashing and gutters.

I could go on, but I’ll get back to my birthday dinner…

We started out with an adult beverage. We both had a Long Island Ice Tea, which is my go to drink of choice. They were quite tasty and went down rather nicely. Jennifer was driving so only one for her. Don’t worry I made up for her short comings putting a few extras down for her.

Appetizers were next to order. Jennifer chose French onion soup as a starter. I chose fried calamari. Which was done a little differently. They crush in house dried Italian cherry peppers into the flour mixture to give it a little kick. It’s just a light kick barely noticeable but nice. There were a few fried up slices of cherry peppers on the plate as well which were a nice accompaniment. It was served with an in house made pesto dip instead of the typical tomato sauce. A very nice flavor.

Here they are….

For our main courses….

Jennifer ordered a six ounce filet mignon which comes with smashed Yukon gold potatoes with garlic and a vegetable medley. I chose a 20 ounce porterhouse steak which came with the same. Both steaks were cooked to perfection, perfectly seasoned and extremely tender.

Here they are….

I wasn’t going to do a desert, but my girlfriend insisted since they had one of our favorites. Which is creme brûlée. The presentation was very nice, and the top shell of it was very thick which is exactly how I like it. It had a toffee flavor from being torched. Good decision on her part.

*It was a great night out, and a great birthday surprise….