by Andrew Coppolino for the Waterloo Chronicle
October 14, 2020 – There’s a new restaurant in St. Jacobs that is in fact a very old restaurant: the historic Stone Crock has just reopened with a new vision from the Fat Sparrow Group.
Inside, the Stone Crock bones remain but with a minimalist-décor approach that purges the bric-a-brac and tchotchke that cluttered the Waterloo County esthetic — the idea of a “stone crock” — and took it off course.
As for the food, while it’s a moot point given the pandemic, among the biggest changes has been the eradication of the buffet, a food bastion of the 1980s. To some this will be a heresy; to others, like me, not. With or without the lurking COVID-19, it’s a smart update by owner Nick Benninger and fellow Sparrows. On the menu is eight sections, including shareables, entrees, sides and dessert; about two dozen dishes are German or Alsatian. To sip, there’s cider and warming gluhwein, a delicious mulled wine, as well as wines and beer.
Benninger has always liked beignet-type deep-fried pastries, so, accordingly, among dessert items there are the eponymous drop doughnuts, the fetschpatzes or “fat sparrows” with a wine-caramel sauce. Tasting morsels, these birds.
