Darby’s at the Market, Nampa
Chris Butler / cbutler@idahostatesman.com Darby’s restaurant in Nampa serves a plank salmon with baked potato.
A restaurant that kicks off its big-city high heels and slips into more comfortable small-town shoes is one way to describe the refashioning of Nampa’s Market Limone into Darby’s at the Market. Where Market Limone was all high-style and aspiration, Darby’s is low-key and casual. Even the name above the entrance seems to proclaim in a blocky font that this newly opened restaurant has none of the filigreed, uptown pretensions of its failed predecessor.
You’ll see the difference as soon as you walk through the door: Where Limone’s expansive main-floor once held gleaming shelves of exotic olives, artisan cheeses and chocolate truffles, Darby’s now holds an almost cafeteria-like arrangement of tables and chairs (although those chairs are the high-backed, white leather chairs Darby’s inherited from the sell-off of Market Limone).
The menu, too, has replaced the dramatic with the down-home. Out with Market Limone’s truffled risotto and cream vol-au-vent; in with Darby’s smoked prime rib and garlic mashed potatoes.
“We’re a meat and potatoes place” says Trudie Thawley, Darby’s general manager. Thawley, her assistant manager and her chef all come from ranching backgrounds. She says Darby’s reflects that rural sensibility: “We’re family-oriented, warm, homey.”
The bacon potato soup ($2.95/small) I had for lunch only a week after Darby’s opening certainly hit the warm and homey mark. Made from scratch and served on a paper doily with a side of saltine crackers, it was simple and satisfying. The BBQ prime rib sandwich ($8.95), with diced bits of smoked meat in a sweet-but-not-too-cloying sauce, was equally good. So too the rich, house-made pumpkin cheesecake ($5.95).
Also on the lunch menu are several salads, sandwiches, burgers, fish and chips, and an array of appetizers that push, just a little, Darby’s meat-and-potato envelope. Listed alongside the buffalo wings, beef sliders and sweet-potato fries are coconut prawns, oyster shooters, and salmon risotto balls.
The dinner menu contains a noteworthy share of fish, fowl and vegetarian choices as well. There’s cedar planked salmon, shrimp scampi and smoked chicken or crab fettuccine Alfredo. The hit at our table turned out to be the vegetarian portobello frito ($10.95), a kind of old-school eggplant parmesan with red sauce and cheese, but substituting a large portobello mushroom for the eggplant.
The bigger draw at Darby’s, though, must surely be the smoked meat entrees. Smoked in-house by Chef Preston Hoyte, the dinner menu includes smoked tri tip, smoked meatloaf, smoked pork chops (which aren’t currently smoked in-house) and smoked prime rib. In addition, you’ll find regular, unsmoked sirloin, ribeye and New York strip.
The prime rib ($19.95/12 ounces) I tried was only faintly smoky, if otherwise just fine. The ranch beans were unremarkable, though, and a very plain iceberg lettuce salad served communally in one of Market Limone’s stylishly asymmetrical bowls had me yearning for just a dollop of that former restaurant’s epicurean ambition.
Still, Darby’s is brand-new. On my two visits it was obvious the restaurant needed time to refine its menu and more thoroughly train an unseasoned waitstaff. But if it succeeds, there’s potential here: Those smoked meats; the in-house bakery; the honest, from-scratch soups; and a commitment to an all-Idaho wine list are all good signs.
Despite that, your personal take on the transformation of Market Limone into Darby’s at the Market will likely depend on which side of the foodie fence you stand. For those hungry for more innovation and variety in the Canyon County restaurant scene, Darby’s probably won’t taste like a culinary step forward. But for those hankering for down-home comfort food in a casual setting, Darby’s may prove to be a positive change – and a more natural fit for Nampa.
For the full story go to The Idaho Statesman: http://www.idahostatesman.com/foodanddrink/story/970746.html
