Mistral

The Restaurant

Mistral occupies the downstairs floor of 66 Witherspoon Street in Princeton — directly beneath Elements, in the same converted townhouse, opened in 2013 by Scott Anderson and his long-time business partner Joe Mooney as the more flexible counterpart to the upstairs tasting room. The dining room runs about seventy covers across a main floor with hardwood, exposed-brick walls, a long zinc-top bar at the front taking walk-in dining, and a smaller back room that handles private parties of up to fourteen. The lighting is warm-amber, the music is at a deliberate background level that protects conversation, and the kitchen is partially open along the back wall with a four-seat counter directly above the pass.

The menu is small-plates by design — Anderson and Mooney's stated working principle is that the dishes should be smaller than entrées and larger than tapas, calibrated for a table of two-to-six to construct its own tasting from twelve-to-twenty plates across the menu. The format encourages a long evening of ordering in rounds rather than the formal three-course rhythm of the upstairs room. Signature plates across recent menus have included a smoked-trout rillette with rye crisp, a hand-cut beef tartare with cured egg yolk and brioche, a salt-cod fritter with green-garlic aioli, a wood-grilled octopus with romesco, a hand-rolled cavatelli with brown butter and sage, and a chocolate-budino with olive oil and Maldon salt that has been on the menu since opening.

The wine programme is the same cellar that supplies Elements upstairs, with about ninety bottles available by the glass or carafe — Loire whites, Burgundy reds, Northern Rhône Syrah, a generous Champagne-by-the-glass programme that handles a celebratory table without forcing a full bottle. The cocktail card is short but careful: a Mistral martini with kombu-cured olives, a smoked-mezcal old fashioned, and a seasonal sour that the bar team rotates weekly. For a Princeton meal that wants Elements-grade cooking at a more flexible price point and tempo, Mistral is the answer — and for many Princeton regulars, the room they choose more often.