The Pillar House in Newton: An eye-opener of a 'sleeper'

It is always a joy to come across a restaurant which to you is a "sleeper" - it's been there for some time, you have heard of it, but for some reason or another, you have never stopped by. The Pillar House, Newton, proved such a restaurant to us. The three story early classical revival Pillar House stands gleaming white inside a swirl of cloverleaf's in the Lower Falls, between Rte. 9 and the Mass. Pike where Rte, 128 and Rte. 16 cross (exit 16 East on 128 South is the handiest path for strangers). The address is 26 Quinobequin Road.

There are some things that recommend the restaurant to you immediately. It is closed on Saturday and Sunday. While the fact that a restaurant would close on what is normally the busiest night - Saturday - is not positive assurance of its aims, that fact does say a great deal about what the management seeks to do.

The house itself was built nearly 150 years ago, is a handsome structure and has been modernized and redone with restraint and good taste. An upstairs lounge is comfortable with the quiet good looks of oak and red leather and turned cocktail tables. Four dining rooms seating about 200 offer individual distinction. Chandeliers are custom made; linen is blue on blue. The ala carte menu offers more than twenty entrees plus three additional changeable choices for each day of the week. There are as many appetizers and, again, as many desserts. With lobster Savannah and sautéed calves sweetbreads Eugenie, there is an echo of an old, main line Boston restaurant, which is natural, since the whole place has the feel of Boston of an earlier time. In spite of the multiplicity of rooms, the restaurant is spotless, there are fresh flowers sprinkled about, glass globes on candles always look as though they have just been polished. The cared for rest rooms offer cloth hand towels. Waitresses are neat and well groomed; their service is as professional as any we have had from "non professional" women.

The wine list is exemplary; both in what it offers and in prices. We have been told that prices are soon to be posted upwards to more accurately reflect replacement costs. Even with that fact, serious wine drinkers will be interested to know that the list now offers a '64 Salon Segur, '64 Mouton Rothschild, '66 d'Yquem, a '61 Charmes Chambertin, a '55 Lynch-Bages and a '59 Eschezeaux (Domaine Romanee Conti) -just to name some of the more obvious examples - all for $20.00 or less. The wines are properly served.

The food we sampled ran from good to excellent with only minor discordant notes. To touch upon the discordant notes first: The perfectly handled sweetbreads under glass ($5.75) were served on toast points and slices of very good ham. The sauce they were bathed in was not as elegant as the rest of the presentation, more a bland medium white sauce than anything else. The dish otherwise was rich and excellent. An excellent ice cream puff was frozen too hard to be perfect. Salads are respectable tossed salads, fresh and chilled, but perhaps not as imaginative as this menu would suggest. However, a salad of the day is also offered as well as a Caesar salad ($1.25 extra). A relish tray of celery, carrot sticks, radishes and olives is offered along with a small tub of whipped cheddar spread and crackers, so you can see I'm touching on a minor flaw -still, iceberg lettuce is the most uninteresting of salad greens and I think this class of restaurant can serve others. A baked Virginia ham with brown raisin sauce ($4.25) was a generous serving of fresh sliced ham, the sauce excellent. Another simple dish, Yankee pot roast ($4.25) was also excellent, with a flavorful sauce. A serving of lamb chops ($6.25) was pink as ordered, of good quality.

Here again, I think this restaurant's kitchen could come up with a mint sauce of its own, rather than serving the mint-apple variety available in supermarkets. Broiled Cape scallops ($5.75) were nutty, small flavorful, not overcooked. Judging from just one sample - a family style chicken with noodle - Soups are serious and well made. String beans almondine, cauliflower au gratin were fresh and still crisp. Clams casino (six, $1.90) are well served and well handled, though I like my bacon crisper. Artichoke hearts vinaigrette, four on a bed of lettuce with a thin slice of tomato (1.00), were a good serving though the excellent, vinegary-garlicky dressing was perhaps too pungent for the name, but I was glad I ordered it. The bread basket is a welcome one. Rolls are good, breads excellent, pecan rolls superb. Desserts run to the kind dessert lovers love: Deep dish apple pie with ice cream, baked Indian pudding with ice cream, strawberry shortcake, cheese cake, ice cream puff, sundaes and parfaits and others not so caloric. It's indicative that when we ordered an ice cream pie with strawberries (it turned out to be a light and airy type, really good, 95 cents), the waitress cautioned that at this time of year the strawberries were frozen. It is so nice to be told. Prices run from about $7.50 for a larger filet mignon ($6.75 for the smaller) to about $3.75 for chopped sirloin with mushroom sauce. Daily specials run from filet of sole stuffed with lobster and mushrooms hollandaise (about $5.25, Wednesdays only) to New England boiled dinner (about $4.25 Thursdays) to roast sirloin of beef with bordelaise sauce (about $6.25 Fridays).The Pillar House is open Monday through Thursday from 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. for lunch until 9 p.m. for dinner. Dinner is served until 10 p.m. on Friday. Major credit cards are accepted. Reservations are definitely advisable. All liquors. Please note the cautionary "about" before prices in this column. Restaurant prices do change, and at the moment we understand menu printers are jammed with work. Often restaurants will use temporary price increases.

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