Marriott's Archives serves up-to-date fare while honoring Trenton's history

By SUSAN SPRAGUE YESKE

When the Trenton Marriott at Lafayette Yard opened more than seven years ago, it was welcomed as the first new hotel in the city in decades.

Since then it has been embraced by businesspeople looking for a site for meetings and lunches, by tourists visiting the city's historical sites or traveling across the Delaware River to Sesame Place in Falls Township, Pa., and sports teams competing at the city's stadiums.

Whatever their reasons for visiting the brick hotel poised a stone's throw from the Delaware, they need to eat, and have embraced the Marriott's Archives Restaurant and Archives Lounge with equal affection. Any night of the week you might find locals in the bar, watching a ballgame and ordering snacks; on weeknights they frequent the dining room as well, says Edward Busch, director of operations.

During the week, he says, you can always find businesspeople there.

"At lunch we see a lot of state workers and hotel guests," he says, while locals and state workers come in for dinner.

The food is American cuisine, he says, "simple and fresh." The menu, designed by executive chef Phillipe Marquez, is "a nice combination of things any business traveler or guest can enjoy."

While any chain hotel has a stamp of sameness, Archives puts local touches on the menu with its "Mayor Palmer Burger" (3/4 pound Angus burger with American cheese and bacon on a kaiser roll)and Old Barracks Onion Soup.

Situated near the State House and in the heart of the city's most historic area, the Marriott participates in the annual Patriots' Week celebration of Trenton's Revolutionary War history each December with a ball or other major dining event. Add to that the restaurant's participation in the current two-month Trenton 1784 Celebration, which marks the 54 days that year when the city served as the U.S. capital.

Through Dec. 24, Archives will offer a $17.84 lunch and a $17.84 prix fixe dinner. Lunch will include soup, salad and dessert, and dinner will be salad, entrée and dessert. Busch promises it will be "a lot of food" for the price.

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