St. James Social is a hotel and restaurant combination that offers a new and modern take on things in the restored original 1883 St. James hotel.  Annalisa and Cody Bermel bought the building in May 2022 and they manage, bartend and do whatever is needed along with their 2 daughters.  .  The first floor is a large space with a lounge area, curved bar counter with seats and tables for dining.   The two story room is filled with wood, brass, chandeliers and mirrors along with artwork to give it an urban yet comfortable feeling.  Upstairs they have a 8 rooms and on the roof is a small lounge area for hotel guests.  The kitchen uses local ingredients when available, which for this short growing season are amazingly abundant.   One of their specialties is pizza and Tuesday they dedicate the menu to their artisan Neapolitan style pizzas.  They have a sourdough crust with more on that later. Thursday through Saturday they offer the Chef’s menu with more plated options and a fewer number of pizza varieties.   Sunday is brunch only.  The service is great and the vibe is too.  We really enjoyed our evening there with some long time friends.  I would highly recommend a meal and maybe a stay here when you visit the lovely town of Bayfield.

Set-up

 

Food

We started with a Classica Margherita Pizza that was topped with fresh mozzarella, fresh basil, and olive oil with a tomato base.  It’s a thin crust bottom with a well raised edge that is crisp and can hold the ingredients.  The sauce was tasty accented with good cheese and very fresh basil.  It would make quite a meal for one.

 

The Caesar Salad was enough for 2.  It contained Northcroft Farms romaine lettuce, shredded parmesan, Coco’s crostini, cherry tomatoes, red onion and house Caesar dressing.  The leaves were nicely dressed and the croutons were slices of baguette rather than cubes.  Our friends gave it good reviews.

 

One of our friends ordered the Sun dried tomato and mushroom risotto which was made with Arborio rice, sundried tomato, onion, garlic, parmesan, mushrooms, Reach Oyster mushrooms, Lionsmain, locally foraged chanterelles, and red pepper romanesco with steamed asparagus on the side.  He was nice enough to let me taste it and it had a good consistency with lots of cheese on top.

 

Oyster Mushroom bruschetta was made with Reach Oyster mushrooms, garlic, Italian parsley, sherry, Bates sourdough baguette, shaved parmesan and arugula.  This was also someone else’s order and there was a healthy pile of young argula on the plate.  The toasts were well filled with mushrooms and cheese and she said it was good.

 

The Filet Mignon was an 1855 Farms 8 oz. filet with a brandy green peppercorn sauce alongside steamed Grasshopper Gardens purple cauliflower, roasted carrots and wilted local greens.   It came with a dinner salad.  It was cooked a more medium rare than rare but was fine with a good crust on the meat.  The brandy peppercorn sauce tasted more creamy than peppery but it paired with the meat.  All the vegetables were nicely cooked to just tender and were well flavored fresh ones.

 

We all split a piece of the flourless chocolate torte from Ashland Baking Company.  It was served with vanilla ice cream, bourbon caramel sauce and sliced fresh strawberry.  Ashland Baking Company is primo and this torte did not disappoint.  Intense chocolate flavor with great texture was nicely enhanced with the ice cream, sauce and berry.  A fine, rich dessert.