In case you haven’t noticed, downtown Freehold has been undergoing quite a renaissance in recent years. Newcomers have been fixing up, restoring and re-landscaping its wonderfully large supply of big old Victorian homes - set on big lots with nice old trees – and bringing them back to their former glory. And the trend-setting newcomers, as they usually do, have been fueling a renaissance of cute little boutiques and some very trendy fine dining establishments in the downtown area and the immediate vicinity.

Metropolitan Café on East Main Street is just such a place. On a recent mid-week visit – normally a mighty slow night for fine dining – the place was packed…and every seat at the bar was taken too. The hip, NYC club-like atmosphere was part of the reason, for sure. And the crowd itself made up an interesting cross-section of “new-Freehold” residents for us people-watchers - including a surprising number of men in sharp suits and ties, lots of  young folks that were hip-looking too, but in a different way -  more than a few couples sipping their martinis and a few family groups too.

                While we waited for our table our group of five, comfortably seated around a coffee table just off the bar, shared a delicious bottle of Delectus, and the time flew by. A major charm here is the excellent and reasonably-priced wine selection – both by the bottle and by the glass. While this is ALWAYS good, it’s an especially good thing here, since it can be a real challenge to match the wines to the highly eclectic food menu, which they aptly describe as “diverse…with pacific rim flair.”

                Here’s what we sampled: For starters, we ordered “sweet ‘n spicy calamari and shrimp” – crisply fried, as promised, and tossed in a Chinese-style and nicely spicy and garlic-y sauce. Very different and delicious…and, I’d bet, even better had we gone the martini-route, which seems to be another specialty here. We also added three kinds of sushi – a bit mooshy, I have to say, since I like a tiny bit more crunch to the rice – but very tasty, and it disappeared in another flash of chopsticks.

                For the main course, daughter-in-law ordered more sushi: So much for my mooshy opinion! Her spouse decided to try a something from the pasta section – shrimp ravioli in what I’d call a “spicy vodka sauce, with an oriental orientation.” It was certainly different – and quite good. Number-one son felt he had to try the “Asian Romanian Steak” – a nicely grilled flank steak with a soy, sake and herb marinade, served with stir-fried vegetables and wasabi mash. Mrs. Hilton went with the shrimp tempura and I – darned if I know what I was thinking – had the least likely and, as it turned out, the least delicious item on the menu, I suspect; sole stuffed with shrimp and crabmeat. It was OK, but I really should have gone for the pacific-rim gusto. In any event, we were all too stuffed to sample from the very interesting looking dessert menu. Drat! Another time, for sure.