The Missus and I had the divine–and exceedingly rare–pleasure of an actual dinner out without Little G rolling Lightning McQueen and Tow Mater all about the place. We chose the Iron Horse Grill, a cozy, tasteful joint located inside the old Pleasantville train station house.

Located smack in the middle of the village, Iron Horse Grill wears its train past proudly; the name itself is a reference to the train that first rolled through P-ville around 1846. It’s not hard to envision the old waiting room, people seated along a long wood bench that takes up almost the entire western wall. A miniature electric train adorns a shelf near the entrance. You can see the trains fly by out the window, though you can hardly hear their rumble.

Entrees run around $28-30, and Iron Horse was still pushing a winter menu over the weekend–root vegetables, , braised meats, hearty soups, full-bodied wines.

The room was surprisingly packed for 6 p.m. on a Saturday, but never got uncomfortably loud.  

The Missus had the duck with spiced yams and I had a Chatham cod over potatoes with a beet coulis around it. Unfair as it may be, we always end up comparing suburban restaurants to those in the city. Iron Horse kind of invites such comparisons, with its classy decor, ambitious menu and not inexpensive checks. The Missus thought her meal was city-level in terms of ingredients and presentation, and a bit lacking in terms of flavor. I thought the cod was a tad bland, even for cod, but the beet coulis brought it to life.

We finished off the meal by splitting the warm pecan tart, which was good, but we both agreed it needed a little more “glue” to hold the crumbly dessert together.

The service was perfectly professional; I liked our waitress’s shamrock tattoo on her hand, and when she wasn’t sure whether the Pinot Noir or Sangiovese had more heft, she deferred to another staffer who really knew her stuff. A second waitress kept her cool when the woman seated next to us–some crabby 60-something biddy–went through a ridiculous litany of order specifications that would’ve driven the mellowest of servers nuts.

By our count, Iron Horse falls somewhere between good and very good.