Dining: Adelphi restaurant goes local with menu switch
Marriott's Garden to put emphasis on healthy foods from this region
It's easy to miss Adelphi's Garden restaurant — located just inside the entrance of the University of Maryland University College, as part of Marriott's Inn and Conference Center. The restaurant serves mainly staff, faculty and conference center visitors.
But it is open to the public, and they might be interested to know that a new chef and new menu are bringing change to this classic American-fare establishment.
The new initiative, known as the "bread and butter" menu among Marriott chefs, began with specials to try out the new items last week. The new menu itself will replace the old one fully in September.
The Garden restaurant has been with Marriott for more than 20 years, said Inn and Conference Center General Manager Mike McCarthy, although it wasn't as noticeable until the university erected its newest building for University College in 2004. At that point, a contract change allowed Marriott to put up its own sign, which gave the inn and its restaurants a little more visibility, McCarthy said.
The restaurant is currently a white-tablecloth, fine-dining establishment, but its new menu moves it in a more casual direction, McCarthy said. Marriott's current approach, in line with new "green" initiatives to try to use organic and local produce when available and cost-effective, will remain reflected in the menu.
But some dishes will change. For example, a lemon sole entrée ($14 lunch, $21 dinner) — pan-fried with jumbo lump crab and a thyme beurre blanc — will be replaced with a seared salmon fillet served with a warm potato-green bean salad and mustard vinaigrette.
In terms of sandwiches, a portabella mushroom grilled panini ($9) with sautéed red onion, smoke cheddar and roasted pepper and chive hummus will be replaced by a non-grilled portabella, fontina and avocado sandwich on lighter ciabatta bread, Malfatti said.
The bread itself is being upgraded, as the restaurant will switch to the Virginia-based Gold Crust Bakery. And the restaurant plans to begin roasting its own turkey and using that meat for its Marriott club sandwich ($9) as well as a new roast turkey BLT sandwich.
Some of the standard salad dishes will remain, such as the Garden side salad ($5) and the Caesar ($7, with $4 to add grilled organic chicken, or $5 to add grilled shrimp). But new additions will include an iceberg "wedge" salad with blistered tomatoes and blue cheese, as well as an Asian chicken salad and an antipasto chopped salad.
Being a Maryland restaurant, the Garden will certainly keep its crab cakes, currently offered as a dinner entrée ($26), sandwich ($15) and lunchtime starter, served with an asparagus slaw in a mustard crème sauce ($10). But some entirely new items, including cheese or chicken quesadillas as starters, a Cobb salad and a whole-wheat pasta dish with shrimp and seasonal vegetables, will add freshness, variety and an updated taste to the menu.
By keeping the best of the old and changing the rest to reflect a more modern, lighter take on classic East Coast American cuisine, the Garden will likely not remain a "hidden" gem for much longer.
Garden Restaurant
3501 University Blvd East, Adelphi
Phone: 301-985-7300
Hours: Breakfast: 6:30 a.m. to 10 a.m.; Lunch: 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.; Dinner 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. daily
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