New Restaurant Mistral To Open in Princeton This Spring

A new restaurant, Mistral, is expected to open in late April at 66 Witherspoon St. in downtown Princeton, serving small plates seven days a week both indoors and on an expansive outdoor patio. 

The cafe-style restaurant is the creation of elements co-owners Steve Distler and Executive Chef Scott Anderson. Anderson was recently named a semifinalist for the James Beard Awards Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic. 

"We wanted to open up a more casual style dining," Anderson said. "Food being as interesting and inventive as it is done here, but we wanted it to be a little more accessible, whether it's to the college crowd, luncheon crowd, and whatnot." 

The menu will feature small plates, ranging between $8 to $18. Each will be perfect for sharing. 

"A lot of people say, 'Isn't that tapas?' Anderson said. "Absolutely not. Small plates and tapas are completely different animals."

He explained that tapas come from the word 'top' and evolved from people in Spain drinking wine or sherry midday- to avoid fruit flies, they would put small plates over the tops of their glasses. 

"What (tapas) are is very small portions of food to snack on midday," Anderson said."We call them small plates, because they are going to be small plates, but they're not going to be tapas size, they're obviously a little bit bigger than that."

Mistral is expected to have about 48 seats inside the restaurant and about 40 seats on the patio, Distler said. The restaurant will be open for both lunch and dinner.

The restaurant does not have a liquor license, but will have a 'food bar' where customers can belly up for a meal. 

Anderson will help open Mistral and temporarily do double duty both there and at elements. Once a chef is hired at Mistral, Anderson will return to elements.

The space Mistral will occupy has been transformed from three garage bays into a restaurant with walnut floors and white wood walls. 

"It's almost like a Provence barn/Nordic barn style, open, big beams," Anderson said. 

Mistral's menu will be seasonal with a focus on fresh, locally grown ingredients, he said. The menu will offer cuisine inspired from many different cultures, including Japanese, Chinese and South America. 

"Lots of different cultures eat in family style or sharing style plates," Anderson said. "In America, we like to borrow a lot of things from a lot of cultures, this will be no different."

elements began offering items from Mistral's menu a couple of weeks ago, including House Cured Pork Lomo, Grilled Octopus, Dark Meat Chicken, Fennel Salad and Bronzino

"Scott has proven to me that the Princeton community will enjoy eating octopus," Distler said. "In fact of the six things there, I think that's been our most popular item." 

He continued, "With the Food network and Bravo and Top Chef, clearly there's so much more interest in interesting dining and quality dining than there's ever been before, so it's keeping with the community that we're able to bring new and different types of food to the area."

Mistral has a general manager, who will soon hire employees to staff the restaurant. Anyone interested in applying for a position is encouraged to stop by elements, located at 163 Bayard Lane in Princeton. 

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