BWW Reviews: The Circular Restaurant and the Iberian Lounge, Hotel Hershey

Hershey, Pennsylvania is a popular tourist destination for many Americans, especially the chocoholics among us, but it's a particularly common getaway for Philadelphia, Maryland, New Jersey, and New York residents who can make it a weekend getaway. Although the town Milton Hershey built is notable primarily for chocolate, it's also the home of some particularly fine restaurants.

Without doubt, the best show in town outside of the Hershey Theatre is at the Circular at the Hotel Hershey, and at its adjacent cocktail lounge, the Iberian Lounge. The Hotel Hershey itself is one of the most luxurious hotels in America, and its food outlets do not disappoint in that regard. Executive Chef Ken Gladysz is a Culinary Institute of America graduate formerly with the Four Seasons hotel group; Chef de Cuisine Aaron Fowler bears the same credentials. Cher D. Harris, the hotel's pastry chef, is the 2014 champion of the Ladies' World Pastry Championship in Rimini, Italy, and is now preparing to compete in the U.S. pastry championships.

It's Chef Harris' job to see that the entire hotel is stocked with pastries and desserts, a substantial number of which, not surprisingly, are chocolate, but her passion is sugar design, one of the most challenging areas of pastry competition. She also enjoys working with wedding cake design and with plated dessert presentation. Harris notes that "it's a challenge to balance some of the dessert plating trends with what an average diner really enjoys seeing. Deconstructed desserts can't be too deconstructed; you want to watch how many items are on a plate. And we've added a molten lava cake, which I didn't originally want to do because they're very commonly seen now, but people love them." Her favorite desserts at the Circular include its chocolate soufflé.

The Iberian Lounge is an excellent place to have either before-dinner drinks or after-dinner ones; there is an extensive Scotch collection, international wines, including from Pennsylvania wineries, available by the glass, and, in keeping with Hershey's theme and traditions, there are chocolate cocktails - a Hershey's Kisses signature chocolate martini, the Hershey's Special Dark martini, a white chocolate raspberry martini, and the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup martini, which includes a peanut butter rum in the mix. We ordered a Special Dark martini and a cosmopolitan. The cosmo was generously sized and generously flavored without being weak. The Special Dark, with three types of chocolate liqueurs as well as chocolate vodka, served in a glass rimmed with Hershey's Syrup, quite honestly goes down far too easily to be good for anyone, and tastes exactly like more. A twelve dollar price tag may be the one thing stopping the impulse to turn any event into a three-Special-Dark-martini time. If you're full after dinner, consider one for dessert.

The Circular is exactly that - round, with a magnificent panoramic view of the adjoining hotel grounds, Hershey Gardens, and the countryside around them. Sunset views are stunning in good weather. And the food is equally so. The signature appetizer, cocoa-dusted scallops (astonishingly, a reasonable $12.00), brings three large, tender, perfectly cooked scallops, dark on top with cocoa, but neither sweet nor bitter, the cocoa merely complementing the inherent sweetness of the scallop itself. Sweetness is accentuated with butternut squash, balanced with black garlic and maitakes. The lobster bisque is a heady dish (again, astonishingly, only $8.00), not heavy or overly creamy, but a surprisingly deep, strongly flavored lobster stock is at the heart of the soup, which is garnished in the soup plate with lobster and leek relish. Salt-roasted heirloom beet and fig salad is full of sweet bites tucked within slightly bitter greens, while candied walnuts and pomegranate vinaigrette add crunch and tang to the plate. It is just larger than might be expected, and, with the lobster bisque and another appetizer, would make a perfect small plate collection if one prefers that to entrees.

Dry-aged New York strip steak was properly cured and perfectly cooked; in our case to just rare rather than medium rare, delivered exactly as ordered. The Circular serves a fine béarnaise sauce, but if one prefers a heavier "steak sauce" on their meat, the house's Circular Sauce is exactly to-order, lighter and fruitier than the commercial ones, nicely balanced, and requiring to be sold for diners to take home (why isn't it?). The day's market catch, halibut, was also perfectly cooked (the last one this writer saw so perfectly cooked was done at one of Gordon Ramsay's restaurants in London). The crab salad adjoining it was delicious but unnecessary with such a fine piece of fish. The purple cauliflower on the side was attractive, but not special; however, the parsnip puree accompanying the fish was marvelous - light, sweet, and everything that is wonderful about that humble but delicious root vegetable. More of it would only be better. The wine list boasts a Coppola Riesling that complements the halibut, and many of the other seafoods, as well as a fine selection of other white wines for those who prefer drier ones.

Side dishes are available for the grill items, such as the steaks, but are worth considering for other entrees as well. They are generously portioned; expect to share them, unless you are making an arrangement of vegetarian dishes, for which any of them would be fine. Salt roasted heirloom carrots are tossed with hazelnuts and ricotta salata in a deeply nuanced interplay of sweet and salt. Mixed Chester County mushrooms - the nearby region is the capital of mushroom growing in America - feature trumpet mushrooms, oyster mushrooms, and cremini among others, and would be an entrée themselves served over toast (the Circular's staff is not only well-trained but highly accommodating, so expect this to be possible). Black truffle macaroni and cheese is a heady mix, fragrant with earthy truffle flavor, but just possibly a trice too mild in cheese flavor for some, including this writer.

With brilliant disregard for the quantities of food already tried, this party attempted desserts as well. Sun dried warm plum cake, recommended to the table by Chef Harris, was delicious - tart rather than sweet, served with a roasted banana ice cream that was creamy and pleasantly not sweet. A sake foam lent a pleasant but unobtrusive counterpoint; it was likely unnecessary, part of the current over-plating trend of desserts with a few too many gastronomical elements, though its appearance did tie elements together. The chocolate soufflé, previously mentioned, was warm and intensely chocolate, and not sweet at all, but bittersweet; sweetening it was a process of pouring on the bourbon vanilla sauce. Although not noted anywhere on the menus, it is also really scrumptious accompanied by the roasted banana ice cream from the warm plum cake - that last advice coming from a not-so-big-fan of bananas.

The menu is accompanied by a well-chosen and appropriately priced wine list. Many restaurants of equal caliber have more extensive lists, but appropriateness is more important than massive selection. Local wines, as with the Iberian Lounge, are available.

The Circular at the Hotel Hershey, Hershey, PA. Visit www.thecircular.com, or call 717-534-8800. All major credit cards are accepted.

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