Hatchet Hall - Holy Fuckk

[Aesthete]

I made good on my promise and returned to Hatchet Hall last night. For me, easily my #1 place to dine in LA. I think my only complaint is that the portions are so large. As my dining companion remarked, it would be nicer to be able to eat just a few bites of each of the magnificent dishes. I doubt they will be offering a tasting menu any time soon though, but I hope that in the future perhaps a lengthy tasting menu of Low Country cuisine will be a possibility, and not just French/Italian/Japanese etc… But my wild dreams don’t impinge on the awesomeness of the food, but just force me to wake up with schnitzel and game hen in the fridge the next day =)

Ham and peaches were spectacular. The peaches were exactly right in terms of ripeness. The incredible ham was smokey and salty perfection. The tang of the date vinegar made everything “pop”. Simple and awesome.

More ham with beautifully fresh crab on the hoecakes. My hoecakes were not dried out but just a tad crispy and showing off the sweetness of corn really pleasantly. A wonderful dish. I hope they start serving stacks of hoecakes at brunch haha

Sweetbreads were served in soft polenta that were similar to grits but offering more of a saccharine element. Hunter’s sausage gravy was ladled over it. A heavy dish, but also heavenly. Some might like their sweetbreads a bit crispier, but for me the main thing I enjoy about sweetbreads is when chefs get them to a kind of meat custard consistency as was done here. The gravy provided an earthy, smokey component and the sausage chunks added a toothsome contrast to the delicate sweetbreads and polenta. It was not fussy, of overly complicated, but it was scrumptious dining. My friend barely eats chicken breast and was won over by the sweetbreads here, so that is saying something.

I was craving the rabbit schnitzel, so I had that again. It was even better. I have no idea how they make schnitzel this good.

Another old favorite I haven’t had in a while was their simple whole game hen. Perfectly moist, tender meat with gorgeous seasoning. I think the only chicken I have had that compares to this is the stuff at Isaan Station. But here they serve with the pan drippings and a bit of salsa verde as well as a grilled lemon and there is something utterly sublime about the simplicity of eating chicken enhanced mainly with more chicken. I have paid $50-$60 for worse chicken at more famous places though for sure. If you have not had the chicken at HH, you are denying yourself a glimpse at how God must eat her chicken.

Finally, a plate of okra. I am pretty picky with okra, but they really got it just right. With pickled garlic, calabrian chiles and mint it took the okra to a place I had never even considered okra going before: fermented, pickled, spicy, chewy, crunchy, earthy, bright, acidic…all at once! Very addictive.

We couldn’t last to dessert =(

We had a lot of great wine but I just had them pour whatever was good. Later in the old man bar I had some of that hopped rose in a can and thought it was unusual and awesome. Served with chilled glasses as well, I love retiring to the dark room with the live fire after dinner. Ahh… it is not just the food, but the total experience that makes Hatchet Hall my favorite restaurant in LA (perhaps the world at the moment if I really think about it) to dine at.

[tailbacku]

I really need to get over there

[set0312]

how much does this run?

[Aesthete]

I am not sure. I don’t recall how much the alcohol was but it was $138 and we tipped $40. I am going to guess around $115 for all the food including. Tax and tip.

It fed 2 people and I took home easily enough for a 3rd person.

I usually feel like I am underpaying given the quality of cooking.

[Bigmouth]

You had me at “meat custard.” Outstanding!

[westsidegal]

i agree that the okra is exceptional.

[Eljeffy]

Went this Saturday night for fourth time. Pictures (my first) will be posted on weekend rundown. Ordered one smaller plate, hoecakes with country ham and crab salad;two main-sized plates, the game hen and the rabbit schnitzel; two veg, okra and blue lake beans; and one dessert, the ice box cake. This was the third time we’ve had hoecakes, and they have been different each time. This time they were taco sized. This made them less thick and luxurious, more charred/burnt, depending on your taste, but more amenable to eating as hand food, wrapping the hoecake around the combo of crab salad and country ham, and blending all the flavors as one. The times before, when they were topped with salmon candy they were large pancakes. More variable texture with added thickness and char plain yummy and not so much a matter of taste. This (the larger one) is my favorite version. I will ask about the hoecake size before ordering next time, at least to set my expectations. Both versions were delicious. The game hen was the star of the evening. My wife said it was the best fowl she had ever had. It was up there. Great skin texture and doneness, meaty and moist flesh: we sucked the bones shamelessly. Okra was the first okra I would order again that was not deep fried or in gumbo. No stringiness, no bitterness.
Beans were real good beans, nothing off the charts, but real good. Rabbit schnitzel as before, wonderful crunchy, meaty, but a much smaller portion. To pick a nit, their portions are pretty variable, even for the same dish. Dessert was a newbie, the icebox cake. Essentially, tiramisu with a coffee flavored cajita type syrup. Very good, but I missed the chocolate buttermilk tart.

I know this is gettin long(or is already there) but want to add that the waitress recognized us, and since we had gone to a group historical low country dinner there and we mentioned it and asked if Chef would repeat it for a different group or have a low country tasting menu(@Aesthete) we were invited for a kitchen tour. We asked Chef if he would repeat experience; he said no (very nicely) but said he wanted to do a Colonial Virginia thing. If any of you FTC’ers think this is appealing when dining at HH, maybe mention it! Currently, this is my wife’s favorite restaurant in LA.

[Aesthete]

After a miserable 4th of July I went home to Hatchet Hall to be comforted as it is now my second home essentially.

At this point any further review might be pointless, but to me food doesn’t taste any better than the food here.

We started with some of those magical benne yeast rolls, which may be the best rolls I have ever eaten. I have been to 2 and 3 Michelin level places that didn’t serve bread this good for my palate. Somewhere between crisp, and soft, with a wonderful sweet/savory balance. They don’t require the butter, but it’s damn good on them.

I don’t really like tomatoes that much, but the tomato salad with tonnato sauce, bacon and pigeon peas is ludicrously good. The tomatoes are sweet and have a kind of luxuriousness to them. The cherry tomatoes have a great “pop” of acid juxatposed against the bite of the pigeon peas, and the tang of the tonnato. Holyyyy fuckk was this good. Almost like a deconstructed BLT amped up to 11/10 flavor levels.

Cocktails are always grand here. They will even make you something with egg whites and a giant ice cube if you want =D

For the first time I got lamb at HH. I was thrilled. Spectacular blackberries. The sourcing that Jack Leahy does at HH may be the best in the city. The lamb itself was cooked perfectly to my tastes. Rare with a great crust. A judicious use of coffee in the sauce also added some fascinating dimensionality to the dish. Not since the lamb shoulder chops at Chi Spacca have I enjoyed lamb this much. They are planning a large format 32oz lamb dish soon as well, which should be oneiric.

Whole trout with bacon, and bread-stuffed tomato was extraordinary. Everything quite simple, but with flavor bursting forth from every element. Perfectly done trout, no pretense. I don’t think I have ever had better trout than this.

Vegetables, to me, thanks to the sourcing, taste just incredible. Summer squash with pistachio pistou were ethereal. Squash cooked just right, not soft, or hard, a bit of bite that showed off the flavors of the sqash itself wonderfully. Wow.

Blue Lake Beans with sherry, bacon, and crispy onions were classic, but to me, just purely delicious. It’s not complicated or new, but the sourcing of the ingredients makes it still feel above average to me; it is the kind of greatness that is easy to overlook because the sumptuousness that is the result appear so simple. Perhaps it is simple, but sometimes great art is about knowing what to leave out.

They will even mix mezcal and strawberries for you if you are a total heathen such as myself.

Dessert always sort of lags behind the other dishes, but then again maybe the palate was just fatigued. It was lovely. The black tea whipped cream on the brown bettery was delicious. I just thought the peaches maybe needed a bit more cooking, however, it was still very tasty. We still greatly enjoyed the melange of peaches, blackberries, and brown bread. You can’t mess it up too badly with the awesome sourcing, it just felt a little bit lesser than the other dishes for some reason.

Still, just a spectacular meal. The sourcing of ingredients really plays heavily into how good the food here is. It is obvious how much I love this place now, so hopefully the photos speak even louder than my words.

[CiaoBob]

Agree - that tomato dish is totally beyond belief.

[tailbacku]

how much was this meal?

They sure love to put bacon in everything. smart.

[Aesthete]

Well to be fair I was in a bacon-y mood and sort of ordered that way haha

There were 4 total cocktails. With tip it came out to $195 for two. cocktails were roughly $65 of that so would’ve been $130 for just the food.

[tailbacku]

that sounds pretty reasonable. And damn, you guys have big appetites. That’s a lot of food for 2 people!

[set0312]

how could one man’s fourth of july be so miserable @Aesthete

[Aesthete]

Yeah I guess we were starving. I usually end up taking food home. Similar amount at last meal and I took home several boxes of food haha

Still, not bad at all imo

[Aesthete]

Black out drunk family members. That is all.

[Aesthete]

Apparently I forgot to post a few photos from a Hatchet Hall meal somehow.

Some cheese puff crackers were surprisingly nice, sort of like luxury cheese its I suppose, but more pastry-like.

Fantastic plate of oysters, very fresh, shucked perfectly, minimal accompaniment, and very cheap at happy hour.

Great, thick-cut ribeye, very simply prepared with some good salt and olive oil.

Lovely asparagus dish as well, but I forgot to get a photo of it, at least a decent one it seems haha.

This was a much more simple, toned down meal where I focused on alcohol, but I figure the shot of how they do a ribeye was worth posting.

[set0312]

@Aesthete if one were to go to this restaurant for the first time, what would/should one get

[Aesthete]

Whatever GM Johnathan Strader tells you to

The menu has been flipping constantly of late so hard to pick out standards.

The main thing is the chicken liver toast and the benne yeast rolls.

After that, whatever version of their pork chop they are doing, and have it cooked rare.

Other than that the menu changes so often it’s actually sort of hard to say.

[tailbacku]

cooked rare? is that because they overcook their pork so you have to ask for it rare to get med or med rare? Or is it because you think rare is the perfect temp for a pork chop? I personally like my pork chops med rare+.

[Aesthete]

Nah, I just think that their pork chops are sourced so well that they taste unbelievable rare. I usually don’t go rare for pork anywhere else.