That’s true.
Probably my only true, deep complaint, is that I wish they were open later, but oh well shrugs.
Waterloo and City was one of the first restaurants I ever ate at in Los Angeles.
Part of me wonders why they departed the space. Was Collins just tired of running that particular place?
Given his rapid turnaround into launching two other places of relatively high acclaim it seems like Waterloo couldn’t have been struggling financially?
I think that while they were doing good business there, the pressure of always having to do good business at that volume and at that level may have been wearing on Collins and Tomazos. I can’t remember what the rent was, but I do remember my jaw dropping when someone told me, given the neighborhood and the former family restaurant that filled that space for decades.
For this level of restaurant dining, we frequented W & C the most by far for the reasons I mentioned above - I think so did so many others. I really enjoyed the charcuterie there but found that they would often be out of certain ones - regularly. And that if we didn’t get there early enough, we’d be shut out of other dishes as well. Looking back, I am guessing this was a sign that Collins would probably operate far better at a smaller venue.
Well…that seems to bode very poorly for HH… didn’t realize that space was so incredibly untenable long-run.
What fucking restaurant city are you from ???
For points of comparison of course.
And that ain’t no fucking joke.
Copenhagen.
Please open a smorrebrod shop.
Olson’s doesn’t have it?
Thanks for the rec - new to me - but let me qualify my request. Please open a smorrebrod shop somewhere in the Westside-proper. I have run into a fair number of Scandinavians around here, yet hardly anything Scandinavian for food seems to be able to sustain itself for long.
I think smorrebrod would do very well here if given proper exposure - traditional or otherwise. The next big thing?
One can only hope. I’m not sure why it’s not more popular haha
My original sentiments completely maintain themselves about Hatchet Hall. I stopped in last night for a bit of comfort, and it was delivered by the fuckton.
The cooking is so good at this place that it defies explanation. A simple wood grilled chicken leg in salsa verde and grilled lemon juice was just ridiculous. I don’t know that I’ve ever had chicken so simultaneously juicy, yet firm, like good steak, perfect char, perfectly rendered fat… so simple, but so god damned flavorful. It should not be as good as it is, and yet it is.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BB8nPGWE0Cp/?taken-by=compulsiveaesthete
Peanut butter pie was just so damn decadent and awesome…somehow elevated peanut butter and chocolate into something beyond the already transcendent combination.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BB8niTsE0DS/?taken-by=compulsiveaesthete
Why doesn’t it get more press? Because it’s an expression of local Los Angeles food that doesn’t necessarily defy any traditions, or produce ultra-Instagrammable eccentricities? Or is it because cooking of this magnitude is something everyone in “the know” wants to keep to themselves?
Perhaps it doesn’t seem like much, and yet, the details of every dish are so well done…I don’t know of anywhere else currently executing quite on this level. There is a special magic in the cooking, in the space, in the ornate dishware, and the dim lighting, and the oddball wine, and the killer cocktails… Hatchet Hall is truly unlike anything else; a top 5 restaurant in LA for me easily, in fact, going purely off of “how good does the fucking food taste?” I think it’s #1.
Cocktail shots for your viewing pleasure (but really you should be drinking wine at the place; I was treated to several wines on the house, and don’t have shots, but I have never had wine so perfectly paired with chicken…nor have I ever had a wine paired with peanut butter pie, but in both instances they were so perfect that I got a glimpse of the godlike level that somms are trying to achieve with wine pairing at the best restaurants in the world, and having eaten at a few of those, I can say I have never had better wine pairings with food than at Hatchet Hall.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BB8nslFk0Dl/?taken-by=compulsiveaesthete
https://www.instagram.com/p/BB8n05Gk0Dz/?taken-by=compulsiveaesthete
https://www.instagram.com/p/BB8n8IQE0D9/?taken-by=compulsiveaesthete
i cant front the yelp photos look damn good… would tear that up.
Took my best friend to Hatchet Hall for his birthday. God damn. #1 restaurant in LA for me right now, completely cinched. There’s always somewhere with some kind of fire, some kind of magic in their cooking that is ineffable, and incredible, and whatever that is, Hatchet Hall is possessed by.
Pork Belly Gratons
https://www.instagram.com/p/BCPQSXIk0Ey/?taken-by=compulsiveaesthete
Endive, Apple, White Cheddar Salad
https://www.instagram.com/p/BCPQi6KE0FN/?taken-by=compulsiveaesthete
Kalbi with Peanuts in a Sorghum Sauce
https://www.instagram.com/p/BCPQwVxk0Fb/?taken-by=compulsiveaesthete
Octopus with Treviso, Runner Beans, and Aioli
https://www.instagram.com/p/BCPRCSiE0Fx/?taken-by=compulsiveaesthete
Wood Grilled Artichoke and Lemon Aioli
https://www.instagram.com/p/BCPRHz2E0F6/?taken-by=compulsiveaesthete
Hangar Steak and Bone Marrow
https://www.instagram.com/p/BCPRmc3k0Gj/?taken-by=compulsiveaesthete
Chicken Liver Toast and Pickles
https://www.instagram.com/p/BCPSA2Sk0HK/?taken-by=compulsiveaesthete
It’s gotten to the point where I am not sure I need to describe each dish. The tag on Hatchet Hall’s instagram is “What is an American restaurant?”. Indeed, I believe Johnathan Gold got it wrong when he said Otium is the most ambitious restaurant in LA currently, as he has yet to visit Hatchet Hall for some reason. Not only is the cooking absolutely remarkable, waves of hedonistic flavor pulsating through the core of every dish, but the subtle combinations on the plate, the composition of the dishes in concept, and the curation of the menu itself defy definition. At first glance one imagines Hatchet Hall a rowdy Southern American eating hall of some sort, but diving beneath that surface one finds a deep conversation about what it means to serve American food. Feasting on this bevy of plates I could feel the soul of the city, vinegar sauces reminiscent of late night Thai escapades, Korean cut shortribs in Sorghum that conjure up memories of the first time one experience great Korean fusion at Kogi, horribly hedonistic chicken liver done in a way no one else is doing it…where are you? It feels like you’re at a big backyard barbecue with a bunch of neighbors…your mom is charring up some chicken, your korean buddy brought kalbi, but the guys down the street from Minnesota are pouring some kind of syrup on it, some guy from Atlanta is pouring white cheddar sauce all over the freshly picked produce the Westside girls in yoga pants brought to the party… no one really fucking knows what’s going on, but it’s really relaxed, and really ridiculously awesome.
And if it was just an awesome, wild place with incredible food that would be enough to recommend it a million times over, but in a profound way the food here calls into question exactly what it means to call a restaurant American, to call cuisine American; there seem to be no limits, but there is no finer place to be a philosopher, or a gourmand than Hatchet Hall.
I’ve only been once a while back when it first opened, but I think about that stupid fizzy wine cocktail with peanuts a lot. I loved it. It was so bizarre but worked so well for me. I’ve had friends try it since based on my recommendation and report back that they returned the drink, unable to finish it. But what do they/I know?
I also think about those rolls. And ham. And the ham on the rolls.
Anyway, glad to hear that it’s still going strong. I shall go shortly.
Thanks for the report @Aesthete. I’ll have to give them another try when I have time.
I did enjoy the Octopus and of course their Pork Chop last time (thanks for the rec). Those were amazing. But there were too many misses the last time I went. Maybe I ordered wrong.
I will definitely try the Steak and Chicken Liver Toast you’re recommending here. They look great. 
I was looking forward to more of that ham but they had a few ham problems last week so we had no ham. Call first.
One problem was the slicer was broken and anotherwith distribution - a fire, I think, at one of their purveyors.
I need to get here
I am getting to a point of going weekly to Hatchet Hall. The food is simply on another level.
Scallops & Grits
https://www.instagram.com/p/BCjumjhE0Gm/?taken-by=compulsiveaesthete
Pork Chop with Peas and Carrots + Country Gravy
https://www.instagram.com/p/BCjudqwk0GV/?taken-by=compulsiveaesthete
Funnel Cake, fresh fired, with Whipped Goat Cheese and Blueberry Compote
https://www.instagram.com/p/BCjuySUk0G4/?taken-by=compulsiveaesthete
The pork chop did need to be refired as the firs tone I got was overdone, but the second one was perfectly pink, and easily the best pork chop I’ve ever had in terms of pure meat quality and prep. Unreal.
All of the food remains so fucking good I find it hard to justify eating anywhere else.
I don’t know but a good plate should be balanced in terms of meat, vegetables, spieces, sauces etc. The pork chop just looks like one large piece of meat with hardly anything else which at least for us is very boring (even if it is excellent meat) and one of the key things for example for a excellent tasting menu where a good chef would understand not just to have as one of the last savoury plates one larger piece of meat which unfortunately happens to often.