Mark’s Score 8.9
I have been waiting a long time to visit Maurice. Onancock is some distance from home, so I don’t visit very often. I had heard many good things about Maurice and over the past two years, every time I was in Onancock, it was closed. Finally, the stars aligned and on my last visit they were open, so my long-anticipated meal at Maurice had arrived.
Maurice has one of the more interesting restaurant backstories on the peninsula. It is owned and operated by Sean Thomas. Thomas has an unusual background, for a restaurant owner. A native to the eastern shore, he spent years in theater and performing arts in New York and Chicago before returning to the Onancock. He opened Maurice in 2019. The culinary philosophy of the restaurant seeks to combine small-town eastern shore with a cosmopolitan theatrical food ideal. Thomas and Chef Kitchol combine traditional eastern shore ingredients with Asian and urban culinary concepts, making Maurice a sophisticated fusion experience.
It was the peak of tourist season, but early on a weekday when I visited, it was past noon, so I was surprised to find only one other car in the parking lot. The restaurant is situated in an old farm house with a pretty garden and back buildings. I wandered around the pretty little court yard before going in. Though they had been opened for an hour, I walked into the foyer to find no staff. I waited for a few minutes and then a very charming and busy waitress burst through the kitchen door, she saw me standing at the entrance, and then brought me into a beautifully appointed atrium dining room. She disappeared then returned with food for the other guests, a menu for me, and an armful of water bottles that she placed on empty tables. It quickly became apparent that she was the only front staff on this particular day.
I ordered the crispy chicken club with truffle fries and a Peach Bellini to wash it all down. The waitress scurried off again, and a few minutes later brought me the most beautifully presented Bellini I had ever seen. She then scurried off to place more water bottles on other tables. Fortunately, the dining traffic was light, so in spite of being short on staff, my lunch quickly arrived. Maurice is supposed to be “theatrically influenced” so I appreciated the presentation of the dish, it was sophisticated, simple, and elegant. As for the food itself, the brioche bun was light as air, the chicken lightly breaded and cooked to a perfect color and texture. The truffle fries, were almost perfect. They were a perfect golden shade, but I thought they could have stood another 30 seconds in the frier.
In the end, I think Maurice was worth the wait, and I have nothing but admiration for that overworked waitress. But even though it was well past opening, they seemed surprised to find customers at their door. I’ll be back though, if for nothing else, for another Bellini.
What else is there to do in Onancock?
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