From the category archives:

The Buttonwood Grill

Buttonwood Blog: From William Penn to Burgers & Beer

by Village Insider on February 16, 2012

Pull up a stool, here’s a little local history with your beer.

The corner where the Buttonwood Grill stands was once part of the vast William Penn land grant. In 1700, Penn sold 500 acres of what was to become the village of Lahaska to James Streater. Over the next century, this land was subdivided many times for family farms, homes, and businesses. In the mid-1800s, Joseph Shaw built a stone tavern on the corner of Old York and Street Roads which became THE spot in central Bucks county for locals and travelers. Fast forward 120 years and dozens of owners later, proprietors Matthew and Mary Hartigan named the tavern the Buttonwood Inn after the old Buttonwood tree that still welcomes people at the door.

To honor its legacy and our 50th anniversary, we’re bringing back the Buttonwood name to the historic building. Since the food and drink offerings have changed somewhat since the 19th century, we sat down with Jim Perillo, Peddler’s Village Restaurant Director, to find out what’ll be on the menu when the restaurant opens in a couple of weeks.

VI: What kind of food and drink menus did you come up with for the new Buttonwood Grill?

JP: The new menu is geared toward local taste; a beer-centric menu with a serious focus on burgers. Expect a nice selection of craft beers and great comfort food with a progressive twist.

VI: The menu has a featured section called “The Butcher’s Burger.” What’s that all about?

JP: We set it up so you create your own burger. Pick out a style of burger and sides from six choices: traditional Plain Jane, Mediterranean, Cheeseburger, Buffalo Blue Cheese, Southern Onion ‘n Bacon, or SW Border. Then, choose what kind of burger you want: our proprietary Butcher’s Grind, turkey, salmon, bison, or black bean/quinoa/feta.

For the beef burgers, we’re grinding our own proprietary mix of choice Chuck, Brisket & Short Rib fresh every day. It’s a medium grind so the burger stays soft and very juicy. These are all half pounders—we won’t be playing cards with hockey pucks on the grill! Plus, we’re grilling them old school on a flat top and serving them with a steak knife straight down through the buns, which are griddled brioche rolls. And you can choose your burger “Between the Buns” or “Naked.”

VI: What other comfort dishes will we find?

JP: There’ll be made to order, individual-sized, thin crust pizzas fired on stone and served on boards. We’re taking a fresher approach, using greens and seasonal items. The burgers and pizza will be offered all day but lunch will have some sandwiches and dinner will have larger plate entrees.

We’re also offering The Fish Market menu every day at dinner, where you can choose from 2-3 fish specials and select the way you like it—grilled, blackened, or seared with your choice of seasonings and sides.

VI: What are you planning for dessert?

JP: We’re making some classics—tiramisu and a flourless chocolate cake with a s’mores twist and and a pint of apple crumb ala mode. All desserts will be made in house. Also, our fresh house baked potato Focaccia will be on the table for lunch and dinner–half tomato pie, half plain.

VI: What can we look forward to for breakfast?

JP: Breakfast will be a down & dirty breakfast—a good, solid, comfort breakfast– from corned beef hash to omelets and eggs Benedict and great pancakes that we’ll change seasonally.

VI: What’s up with some of these menu names like “The Meathead,” “Plain Jane,” or “The Twisted Greek”?

JP: We want people to have fun with it so we’re lighthearted on the menu, but completely serious with what’s on the plate. When I go out I don’t want to go somewhere pretentious, I want to relax and have great food.

VI: Sounds like the menu will really complement the beer or is it vice versa?

JP: We’re planning a broad range of beer so that the food and brews complement each other. We’re opening with 20 craft beers on tap and 50 types of bottled beer. We’re excited about our Buttonwood Growlers and our mix ‘n match take out program.

Thanks, Jim. Next week, I’ll be talking with General Manager David Zuckerman about the Growlers and craft beer program that will make the most devoted beer geek, or even William Penn, smile. (The founder of Pennsylvania was also the first United States Brewmaster.) Stay tuned…

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Buttonwood Blog: A Conversation with TAG Galyean, Master Designer

by Village Insider on February 1, 2012

Excitement is growing at Peddler’s Village as we get ready to open the Buttonwood Grill, our new restaurant honoring our history and celebrating our 50th anniversary. As opening day draws closer, we’ll be sharing a behind the scenes look at everything from the redesign and reconstruction to the new food and drink menus from the people who are directly involved with the transformation of this restaurant.

TAG Galyean

We recently caught up with TAG Galyean, AIA, who is designing the new interiors. Galyean is an award-winning architect and designer with more than 30 years of architectural, landscape and interior design expertise in the hotel, restaurant and luxury resorts industry. The West Virginia native’s work was most recently honored in the 2012 Forbes Travel Guide selection of Five Star hotels, restaurants and spas. Galyean designed four of those chosen to win the coveted Five Star designation. He is responsible for the planning and architecture at The Greenbrier Spa (West Virginia) and is the master designer at The Broadmoor resort in Colorado Springs, Colorado, which is home to three of the Five Star winners — The Broadmoor Hotel, The Penrose Dining Room and The Broadmoor Spa. Galyean is the founder and master design conceptualist of The TAG Studio, a group of resort design specialists nationwide. www.tagstudio.com

VI: How would you describe the design concept for the Buttonwood Grill?

TG: The Buttonwood Grill is not a theme restaurant. The restaurant design is simply warm and welcoming, friendly and calming; just a comfortable place to be at ease with family and friends. The bar will be more traditional and more present, a kind of place where people will want to be.

VI: What design elements are you using to convey this?

TG: We’re aiming for authentic Bucks County with some energy. We’re using barn siding in the entrance way and on the exposed bar, also the reception area is tiled with a natural tumbled slate. The carpeting will look and feel like an old nubby sweater. The color palette comes from the stone walls that you see in the Bucks County countryside with earthy tones of tans, muted reds, browns. And, the Buttonwood tree at the front entrance is a color inspiration for the grays and silvers of its trunk–it’s the link into the natural environment as soon as you walk in.

VI: What would you like guests to experience or how would you like them to feel when they are dining at the Buttonwood?

TG: We would like people to feel like they belong here and that they want to linger and enjoy themselves. We are using design elements that won’t be chaotic or compete with your companions for your attention. We are mining a number of elements that Earl Jamison already had here in the Village, for instance, we are using the walnut bar from the Spotted Hog on the Buttonwood’s back bar. And we’re recycling items that were already on property such as slate for the reception desk and a bench that will be in the reception area. We have selected some old black and white photos of the local area from the archives of the New Hope Historical Society for the walls throughout the restaurant.

VI: What are some of the unique challenges of this space for you as a designer?

TG: In designing anything, what you don’t do is just as important as what you do. As in music, it’s the spaces between the notes that are also an important part of the composition. Over my 40-year career, I learned where to make the effort and where not to, which is important as we transform this space from the former restaurant concept. For example, in the tavern room, the consensus was that the stone was too contemporary but we did not want to remove it so we just did something very simple–added some crown molding which changed the feel of the stone.

Thanks, TAG, see you on opening day! Next week, we’ll talk with Director of Restaurants Jim Perillo, who is leading the culinary team creating the new food and beverage offerings.

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