Slowly, the new Swyft pizza inn unfolds

KENT — The renovation of the former Kent Apothecary at the corner of Maple Street and Main Street took more than a year, but the work appears to have been well worth it. 

The interior is completely transformed; it’s virtually impossible to mentally reconcile the former country pharmacy’s interior with the understated, Asian-inspired dining room and kitchens (there are three cooking areas there now) at Swyft, the “pizza and beer” restaurant that opened on Friday, Dec. 8.

The quotation marks are there to indicate that this is not really just “a pizza and beer” restaurant. The chef owner of the eatery is Joel Viehland, known in the area as the founding chef  of the popular Community Table in Washington, Conn. Viehland is nothing if not fastidious. He knows where every ingredient at the new eatery has been sourced. The flours are either locally grown and milled or imported from Italy. The mozzarella cheese is hand-stretched at Swyft. The tomatoes, for now at least, are imported Italian San Marzanos.

His goal is to find nearby vendor/farmers to eventually supply him with as many of his culinary building blocks as possible. This was the model that worked so well at Community Table and he’s already off to a good start at Swyft. He is working with Rock Cobble Farm in South Kent to raise beef and dairy cattle, for example. He is looking for a farmer in the area who can provide him with hot-house grown tomatoes. 

Viehland is also fastidious about protecting the identity of the owner of his building (listed in town records as 3 Maple LLC) and the owner of Rock Cobble Farm. 

Suffice it to say that there is a benevolent business angel who has worked with Viehland to create not only Swyft, which is downstairs at 3 Maple St., but also Ore Hill, which will be a fine-dining restaurant in the upper space. The debut date for that restaurant has not been set yet. 

That business angel was largely in charge of the renovation of the building and the outside landscaping, all of which were done by top    international professionals. Yvette Adams was in charge of the interior. An interior architect with offices in Singapore, New Zealand and New York City, she was the designer for the luxe Aman resorts in Tokyo and Kyoto, Japan, and the Amansara resort in Cambodia (and now she can add the Swyft “pizza and beer” restaurant in Kent to her resume). 

The exterior landscaping plan was by sought-after British designer Arne Maynard.

None of that really matters, though. What matters is the pizza and the beer. The dough for the pizza is lovingly and slowly coaxed into existence by Viehland; for those with gluten concerns, this is dough the way the stomach wants to eat it, fermented over time rather than turbo-charged with the “super gluten” used by many commercial bakers. The pizzas are cooked in a wood-fired oven, in the Neapolitan style. 

Expect the menu offerings to be limited and to rotate every week or so, a formula that was successful at Community Table.  For the opening week, the offerings included four “red” pizzas including on the one hand a classic understated Margherita ($14), made with San Marzano tomatoes and house-made mozzarella; and on the other end of the seasoning spectrum the Al Diavolo ($17), with soppressata,  tomato, house-made mozzarella and hot honey.

The three white pizzas were fairly exotic, with the South Kent ($16), with potato, pancetta, kale, ricotta and garlic; the Rhode Island ($16), with clams, pancetta, pecorino, white sauce and arugula; and the Calabria ($17) with ’nduja (defined on the internet as a spicy, spreadable pork salumi), eggplant, sweet peppers, baby mustard and pecorino.

The non-pizza entrees last week included sea bass ($37) with salsa verde, roasted peppers, eggplant, fennel and tomato; rabbit Milanese ($24) with cardoon gribiche; the Swyft burger ($17) and a roast chicken dish and a pasta dish.

The beer at this “pizza and beer” restaurant includes 12 craft beers on tap (including several choices from the nearby Kent Falls Brewing Co.) and bottled beers from all over the world and all over the beer map (from Budweiser and Bud Light to the Belgian Oud Beersel Kriek). 

There are side dishes. There are desserts (a Meyer lemon sorbetto, a warm citrus cake with spiced yogurt).

There is a fire every evening in the historic stone fireplace, uncovered during the renovation. The tables are wood, clean and comfy, reminiscent of the kind one might find at a very high-end Japanese noodle bar. The bar counter is plenty deep, with enough room to have a pizza and a beer there. 

After the restaurant opened last week there was a rush of people making reservations. This is somewhat worrisome to Viehland, who wants people to feel they can just drop in. 

“Large parties should always reserve, at any restaurant,” he said. Swyft isn’t especially large, although a group of six or eight people could be accommodated. But best of all is to simply stop by and see if there’s room at the bar or at a table.

“People need to feel like they can just come in, that they don’t have to wait to get a reservation,” Viehland said. “Otherwise, this isn’t going to work.”

Take-out is also available. 

The restaurant is open Tuesday through Saturday from 5:30 to 10 p.m. Eventually there will be lunch and brunch. To find out more, go to www.orehillandswyft.com (where there is also information on the history of the building and the original owners, the Swift family).

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