2022_09_New_Jersey_Monthly

You have to make the decision
to come here,” says
Hirsheimer. “So for someone
who chooses to make
the trip and spend their time
and hard-earned money, we
say, ‘You’ve got the table. Enjoy
yourself!’”
RUSTIC
ELEGANCE
Opposite: Dining
in the old train
station’s former
waiting room.
Right: Pork
schnitzel piled
with a sprightly
chicory salad.
This thoughtful yet playful mindset
is at the heart of Canal House Station,
where fresh, seasonal ingredients are
transformed into dishes as delicious
as they are Instagramable. This should
come as no surprise. Hirsheimer ran two
restaurants in Illinois before shifting to
magazines in the late 1980s, first at Metropolitan
Home and then as executive
editor of Saveur, which she cofounded
in 1993. Hamilton helped her father,
Jim Hamilton, open Hamilton’s Grille
Room in 1988 and served as executive
chef there before moving on as recipe
tester, food stylist and writer for Cooks
Illustrated, Martha Stewart Living, and
then Saveur, where, as food editor, she
and Hirshheimer began their professional
relationship.
They opened Canal House in 2007 as
a studio in Lambertville for cookbook
development and food photography.
“We were working on other people’s
projects, making beautiful cookbooks,”
says Hamilton. “Then we thought, We’re
really good cooks, with lots and lots of
recipes of our own. Why don’t we do our
own cookbook?”
Which they did. Their Canal House
Cooks Everyday won a James Beard award.
Meanwhile, they moved their studio upriver
to Stockton and then to Milford,
where they purchased the defunct trainstation
building in 2017. “The building
kept telling us it needed to be a restaurant,”
Hirsheimer says.
The 50-seat Canal House Station
opened in 2019 for breakfast, lunch and
Sunday dinner. After nine months, it
shifted to takeout due to the pandemic,
reopening for dinner in 2021.
With our dinner, we enjoyed toasted
croustades, one topped with a garlicky
fava bean mash finished with preserved
lemon peel, the other with whipped
goat cheese, olive oil, black pepper and
minced chives.
The second course was a pillowy
PARTNERS
Clockwise from
above left: chef/
owners Christopher
Hirshheimer (left)
and Melissa Hamilton;
duck confit
with cassoulet
beans; the women’s
Canal House Station
cookbooks.
Photographs by REBECCA MCALPIN
SEPTEMBER 2022 NEW JERSEY MONTHLY 121