New Canaan’s Elm restaurant recently reopened after a complete interior renovation and a revamped menu that left fans of the popular restaurant wondering, “Why?” But as Chef Luke Venner explained in our recent visit, the restaurant has matured a lot since opening in March 2012 and so has its chef.
“I’ve matured as a person,” Venner explains. “I think a lot of chefs, as they age, they fall back on tradition for things from their childhoods, their food memories. And you stop trying to reinvent the wheel so much and you start to fall back on what you really adore, what your memories are. I think that all comes into play with the new menu.”
“I tried to look at it as, if I can’t make it better, don’t change it,” he explains, but there were certain dishes that felt tired to him. “The branzino was something that we internally grew very bored of,” he explains. However, he also understood it checked a very specific box for customers, as a clean, gluten- and dairy-free Mediterranean option. So he and his team really evaluated the dish and asked themselves: Can this be more satisfying? Can we make the flavors bolder but still have it be a clean, healthy dish? “That is something I am really proud of,” he says of the result. “We really got there.”
Venner and his team went through the same process on a number of other dishes, including the lobster pasta, which he now describes as “a little more grand, a little more fun.” They also added new dishes, like deviled eggs, grilled artichokes with anchoy mayonaisse and Duck Bao à l’orange—which Venner describes as “somewhere in between a Peking duck and traditional duck à l’orange.” He is also happy with the new Veal Milanese, which he says is “kind of a brontosaurus dish, but with a lightness to it that I like for the season.’
It’s important to note, especially since Elm has such a loyal following, that there is no need for concern. Many of the old favorite menu items are still available—including the burger, the kale salad, the burrata, the mussels, the tuna tartare and other staples.
In the same way Venner was evaluating and working to elevate the menu, they were also considering the restaurant’s interior and how the needs and preferences of both the customers and staff have evolved over the past 10+ years.
“We have a lack of private dining in this town,” Venner explains. And, while customers liked the chef’s counter, it was only an option fo smaller groups of 12-14. “That magic number is like 18 to 24, when you get into showers and corporate events,” he says. By closing the new heavy, metal curtains, half of the restaurant can be transformed into a private dining space while also allowing part of the restaurant and the bar to remain open to regular customers.
The new layout also allowed for better flow for staff and additional bar space for customer—both immediately noticeable when you look at the new location of the hostess station.
While the Elm we all know and love is still recognizable after the renovation and refreshed menu, the tweaks that Venner and his team have made are testament to the saying that with age comes wisdom. The “new” Elm is a more thoughtful, more mature version of its younger self.