Canal House Station, a Milford farm-to-table restaurant a block from the Delaware River, is home to two of the most esteemed chefs in the state.
But this week, it gained another honor. According to USA Today’s 2025 Restaurants of the Year list, the modest-but-mighty spot is one of the top 44 places to eat in America.
To assemble the list, food writers across the country nominated restaurants that excited them, restaurants they would recommend to friends and family, and restaurants they’d return to again and again.
“We can’t even believe it,” said co-owner and chef Christopher Hirsheimer. “It’s a tremendous honor and we’re humbled by it.”
What makes Canal House Station stand out
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Co-owners and chefs Hirsheimer and Melissa Hamilton are some of the biggest names in the New Jersey culinary world, operating the James Beard Award-winning Canal House publishing venture, and culinary, photography and design studio. In 2020 and 2022, they were also James Beard Award semifinalists in the best chef in the Mid-Atlantic region category.
Hirsheimer is co-founder and former executive editor of Saveur, a gourmet food and travel magazine. Throughout the magazine’s 25-year-history, it brought home 23 James Beard Journalism Awards.
Hamilton is the former test kitchen director and food editor of Saveur, and has worked in the kitchens of Martha Stewart Living and Cook’s Illustrated. She is also the co-founder and first executive chef of Hamilton’s Grill Room in Lambertville.
Despite Hamilton and Hirsheimer’s credentials, diners won’t find tiny, pretentious fare at Canal House Station. They’ll enjoy American favorites, untethered to trends or gimmicks, in comfortable surroundings.
‘It’s just a delicious feeling:’Canal House Station owners receive James Beard nomination
Inside the cafe of the restaurant, guests are greeted by a bright interior flanked by an open kitchen. There they see Hamilton and Hirsheimer at work and guests at farmhouse tables. The layout is dotted with colorful details like Canal House cookbooks, aprons and fresh produce.
“The uniqueness is that the owners are actually cooking, and we do and touch everything,” said Hamilton. “It emphasizes this feeling that you’re coming to our house. There isn’t a thing that goes on here that we haven’t had a part in making.”
The fine dining area of the restaurant evokes the circa-1870 history of the Milford rail station. Dark woods meet tall windows that allow natural light to peek through, surrounded by artwork of the Delaware River region.
What to order at Canal House Station
How we did it:Inside look at how USA TODAY chose its Restaurants of the Year for 2025
Farm-to-table fare isn’t a marketing ploy at Canal House Station, which is only open on Fridays and Sundays. Hamilton and Hirsheimer have only been cooking what’s on farmstand shelves since before Canal House cookbooks hit bookstore shelves more than a decade ago.
“Farm-to-table is more than our philosophy – it’s a practice,” said Hirsheimer. “People talk so much about farm-to-table but we always say, ‘Where else does the food come from?’”
Many cherish a time when families gathered for Sunday dinner. At Canal House Station, that tradition is revived noon to 7 p.m. Sundays from Hamilton and Hirsheimer’s memories, making it one of the only restaurants in the area to serve the meal.
“Our family always had Sunday dinner − that is so ingrained in me,” said Hirsheimer. “This is real for us and comes out of our own experiences.”
The prix-fixe, five-course $95 feast changes every week depending on what’s available from local farms. However, dishes that have appeared on past menus include these:
Beef with carrots on buttery potato puree: It doesn’t get more classic than this dish, which is one of Hirsheimer and Hamilton’s favorites dating back to their childhoods. Made with carrots sourced from Phillips Farms just down the road and tender, slow-cooked boneless chuck flap beef, it’s a “rich and pure” dish, said Hirsheimer, made with red or white wine − whatever happens to be left over − just like how Mom would have made it.
‘Loose’ ravioli with honeynut squash and ricotta with lemon: Not sure what loose ravioli is? You shouldn’t. Hirsheimer and Hamilton came up with the dish, which consists of homemade pasta sheets draped over various fillings, as the chefs serve it in different forms nearly every other month. “We find it to be so sensuous instead of a tight ravioli,” said Hamilton. “It’s a luxurious way of tucking fillings into sheets of pasta.” But this version is a beloved one, as it consists of honeynut squash also sourced from Phillips Farms as well as lemon to give a zest to the ricotta.
Looking back:Canal House Station opens in Milford
Canal House Station also serves Local’s Spaghetti Night 4-8 p.m. every Friday. “It’s a real community experience and it has a casualness and fun-ness to it,” said Hamilton.
The $40 homestyle meal includes spaghetti Bolognese, garlic bread, baby Romaine salad with lemon Parmigiano dressing, and the Bent Spoon’s tiramisu ice cream.
Like Sunday dinner, spaghetti nights at local firehouses and churches live in Hamilton and Hirsheimer’s memories, which inspired the women to create the offering for locals looking for an easygoing night out.
“When I was a young woman and didn’t have two nickels to rub together, someone would make a big pot of spaghetti served next to a candle in a Chianti bottle,” said Hirsheimer. “Like Sunday dinner, the food, the meal and the event relates to one another and has a context.”
See last year’s list:USA TODAY’s 2024 Restaurants of the Year
Details: Canal House Station, 2 Bridge St, Milford; 908-995-7200, canalhousestation.com.
Book your reservation now on Open Table.
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Jenna Intersimone has been a staff member at the USA TODAY NETWORK New Jersey since 2014, although she’s a lifetime Jersey girl who considers herself an expert in everything from the Jersey Shore to the Garden State’s buzzing downtowns. To get unlimited access to her stories about food, drink and fun, please subscribe or activate your digital account today. You can also follow her on Instagram at @seejennaeat and on Twitter at @JIntersimone.
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