Elaine’s Tap & Table

Looks like their out of business now. Have been closed now for almost 2 weeks, sign in the front door says «closed».

I will be brief. I am a CIA graduate and the gm of a restaurant myself so I know what I’m talking about. The chef knows what he’s doing. Perfectly cooked calamari, steak cooked correctly to medium rare, good mashed potatoes, kids and I loved the fresh made French fries, pasta carbonara a little too peppery, but good and the prices were very reasonable. Very nice selection of beers. Our waitress was acceptable. Only complaint is the overly salty bacon. I hope they change it. It is 5 min from my house, we will go back. It was clean and modern. We were greeted quickly, and with smiles.

We’re new to the area and the menu and photos posted here looked good. My wife had the American Dip and I had a burger.
The burger itself was your typical frozen diner burger patty and the bacon was like reheated shoe leather. The French Fries were freshly made and tasted good.
The soft pretzels looked interesting and were kind of ok but we’re really missing something stand out. The cheese sauce was completely tasteless.
The waitress was very nice but the place was totally empty. I hate to rail on a local business but I felt this place had real potential and really failed to live up to it. I didn’t taste any of the other food but I feel using frozen premade burger paties is indicative of what is probably going on with the rest of the food.
Save your money and go buy some meat at Adams.

This place is super solid ! Great staff, amazing beer taps in your own table, nice menu with good specials. Decent prices. Open for late night food until 11 pm. What’s not to like? Don’t get the cheese plate– one time it was disappointing but the majority of their food is solid and drinks are very good.

I dislike giving a restaurant a review after a single visit. That being said, Elaine’s earned all of its two stars quite well on our visit. And maybe two stars is generous. Another review where I depart from the collective wisdom of other Unilocalers… butI feel fully justified on this one.
The big problem here is what I’d call culinary confusion. We sampled a few dishes — and all of them were problematic. The «6 minute egg» appetizer, which looked to be a riff on a Scotch Egg, was OK — but was served with a lamb «confit,» which was dry and flavorless. If it was actually prepared as confit, the reheat on it killed it completely. The wedge salads (and yes, I’m going to complain about a salad — because I think it’s at the core of the problem with the restaurant), which we ordered with blue cheese dressing, arrived bathed in a very tart vinaigrette and with some cubed blue cheese in a metal container. The net effect — no real discernible blue cheese flavor, since the vinaigrette completely overpowered it. My main, a shrimp risotto, was toothsome and reasonably well prepared — if under salted, generally forgettable, and short on shrimp (I think there were 4.) My companion’s main — a «fish and chips» — was fairly terrible. Under seasoned, somewhat soggy, and just plain disappointing. To the restaurant’s credit, when we made our displeasure known they struck it from the bill and asked if we wanted something else. Handled well, but damage done.
So, I am having a hard time reconciling Elaine’s ambitions (the menu is priced where my expectations were set quite high) with their delivery. Very, very unimpressed.

A great start for an upscale beer and food restaurant. The chef is quite inventive, and does take a few chances with his dishes. The bottom line is that we would recommend this restaurant to any of our friends. Now for the details of our experience. Given it was a cold winter evening, we opted for a table in front of the fireplace, which could not have been better. The other tables also have a view of the fire, or are in an attractive open room setting (this was not bad at all, but it could be been made more cozy.) The beer list was extensive, with very broad selection of beers: (from the common-​place, e.g. Bud Lite to some more unusual, e. g Ithaca Gorges Smoked Porter). The tap tables are a nice touch if you are in the mood for beer, and have a group. Back to the restaurant, our server brought out a tray of warm breads with an oil and olive dipping sauce, which was excellent. We ordered a Caesar salad as a starter, this was one area of the chef’s inventiveness. It was a 3 inch slice of Romaine, with dressing, topped with a slice of Gorgonzola and two white anchovies, with this being on top of a toasted slice of baguette. I loved it, although it was definitely not what I expected. We were also served a house salad (a wedge of iceberg with a tomato vinaigrette dressing) which was quite nice. For our entrée’s we had grilled salmon with a baby purple potato gratin, over Arugula and the «Fish and Chips». The salmon is an excellent choice, nicely cooked (it was not at all medium rare, but good non-​the-​less). The «Fish and Chips» are not traditional at all. For the fish, a White Bass was used, which while breaded lightly, did not give the usual large flakes of white fish you would expect, also it was a complete, but filleted fish, which meant there is also the head and tail, not typical. We found the flavour to be good, just not what we expected. For dessert we had the Porter Brownie, topped with caramelized marshmallow with a side of vanilla ice cream. This was an excellent end to our meal. As an aside, this new restaurant is a great improvement to the previous establishment. There are many interesting possibilities on the menu and it was hard to pick just one.

Pretty pricey entrees but the Pork Duet was delicious! Sweet potato flan was a nicely inventive side dish.
There’s a full bar, great wine selection. The guy behind the liquor & wine, Al, recommended a couple of great rieslings.
The place also has 3 tables with beer taps in the middle of each. You rent or pre-​pay for the key and you have beer AT your table. Not a bad idea!

I was very excited to check out the newly renovated Elaine’s. I want to be honest about this because I think there’s a lot of potential but there’s a few things wrong, easily fixable.
Familiar, but sparkling clean and fresh, the bar looks an absolute treat — quality, big screen TVs everywhere, feels roomy. First though, dinner. We hit the dining room which was empty but for one other couple. It was later in the evening but a little cavernous feeling, not intimate. Again, very fresh and sparkling dining room, but the fireplace was the only cozy thing about it. No table linens, instead woven modern placemats. The lighting seemed to try to be intimate, but the cold fluorescent pot lights were very off putting in a room which was trying to create some atmosphere. Everything in the dining room feels hard-​edged, from the clonky (but beautiful) floors to the unpadded chairs. Weird, padded squares of «art» on the walls served as the only other concession to coziness in the large room other than the fireplace. This is the biggest problem with the dining room, and I know a restaurant is about food, not décor, but there has been a lot of effort put into updating it so I think it’s fair to talk about it. There’s a cafeteria-​like feeling to the room, where every diner can see everyone else’s faces and plates, can hear every scrape of other chairs and click of the waitstaff’s heels. Some pony walls separating the room into more intimate sections would go a long way into making it feel more private and intimate.
I was a little shocked at the prices, they were much higher than anticipated. From (IIRC) about $ 9 — $ 14 for apps, low $ 20s to low $ 30s for entrees, not terrible but the average entrée looks about high $ 20s. I admit I was expecting lower prices for a place with a beer tap on the sign. The raw bar had been cleared away already. That’s ok, it was a quiet night. Service was friendly. A full wine list with small descriptions of each, nice. My margarita (I always order one wherever I go as a first drink so I can compare bartenders) left a lot to be desired — it was unbelieveably small. I mean really. I’m no lush and I wasn’t expecting a fishbowl but it was small. Also bitter, not good. The «salad» is something called a «wedge salad» and really. for the kind of money they’re charging for entrees, omg. It’s iceberg lettuce cut into a wedge with some unasked-​for dressing on top, I think it was french dressing. We weren’t asked for our choice of dressing, don’t know if there is a choice. I’m not expecting a miracle but a wedge of iceberg with dressing — Oh boy. Moving on. We ordered the mussels in a tomato broth — this chef knows how to make mussels and an amazing broth. Wonderful crushed grape tomatoes, fresh herbs, if you like mussels this is an absolute treat. Couldn’t put it down fast enough and asked for a spoon to dole out more broth. Bread plate with olives, olive oil and balsamic for dipping was nice — dense bread, husband loved it, I thought it was fine. For dinner I had the Porter Glazed Steak $ 22, with roasted potatoes and greens. Beautifully done steak, it was a nice cut and perfectly executed. The potatoes and roasted greens were fine, not outstanding. Oddly plated in straight rows, with a row of greens on the left, a row of sliced steak in the middle, a row of potatoes on the right, all of which made me laugh. Worth $ 22, yes. Except for the travesty of a «salad», my dinner was good. Husband had chicken fra diavlo, $ 22 (IIRC) a spicy roasted chicken garnished with chili peppers and potatoes. It was hot! He loved it, the sauce was flavourful despite the heat. Worth $ 22? I personally don’t think so because chicken is cheap, but husband was happy. The portion was generous and we both had leftovers to take home.
By this point it was starting to feel odd in the dining room with the waitstaff pacing, it was only around 9 and the bar was populated so I didn’t feel like we needed to hurry but ok let’s have our coffees at the bar, it’s nice.
It was indeed nice, my irish coffee was expertly made, delicious and pretty with a snowflake pattern shaken on top of the froth. Uncomfortable barstools with no padding and every single one of the TVs had the same football game on. Really there’s several TVs do they all have to show the exact same thing? Again, too-​bright fluorescent pot lighting for a bar, needs a dimmer switch.
Between dinner, drinks and tip it was over $ 100 for two.
I feel like the new Elaine’s is suffering from the same thing Gentleman Jim’s was when we used to go there — while what we ate was pretty cheap relative to the rest of the menu, the food isn’t good enough to be priced as high as it is, and the atmosphere isn’t high end enough to make me want to pay $ 30 for an entrée. I don’t want to pay over $ 20 for a wedge of iceberg lettuce and potatoes which are «fine». We’ll go again in a couple of months and see if they’ve settled into a groove. Still, worth checking out and supporting, I think.

Before my review I would like to point out something to everyone. There are three 2 and 1 star reviews on 1÷5÷13. Two of them are from people who had NO PREVIOUS REVIEWS! Go see the 15 filtered reviews, 12 of them are by people who have NO PREVIOUS REVIEWS! The problem with Unilocal is that it is way too easy to create an identity and review a place 20 times. Now for my review. They did a nice job renovating this place. Interior is somewhat dark and cozy with a stone fireplace, some stone on the walls, a large rectangular bar at the rear, and tables at the front near the windows. There is a separate dining room off the the side as well. They have around 20 beers in tap, most very good micros. They also have a tap table where you can pour yourself as the night goes on. This sounds dangerous… The food is ‘New American’ I suppose. I had shrimp risotto which was incredible. It came with a side of grilled vegetables. My wife had the half of a roasted chicken. Very good and served with delicious fresh mashed potatoes and steamed bok choy. Kids got pasta which was perfectly cooked and had incredible home made sauce. The service was a little spotty but everyone was very friendly. I highly recommend. To be accurate, I give this place 4 stars but put down 5 due to all the bogus reviews. This place was the former «Gentleman Jim’s».

Tried a new restaurant on Rt 44 in Poughkeepsie– just what the area needed, pork duet was amazing, service was surprisingly polished for what I was told was their 1^st month open. Creative cocktails is an understatement. Al the bartender seemed to be some sort of working manager was quite knowledgeable and very attentive and professional. I will be back very soon… did I mention there really are beer «taps» in a few «tables», in the bar area? Awesome! Can’t wait to try more of the food and cocktails!

Excellent food. Great atmosphere. Wait staff went above and beyond. This place has the best beer selection in the area. And, two words: Tap Tables.