Just found a post I never posted from first visit end of March. I think it’s funny. Do you?
Are you an Elite Yelper?
Isn’t that an oxymoron.
Well, last week I sat across the room from Johnathan Gold at Hatchet Hall, so my original post about his snubbing of the place may be at a close at long last.
As usual, an utterly stupendous dinner.
I began with a Mezcal Negroni, which is one of my favorite cocktails in the city currently as it is made with gran classico and byrrh. It is warming, smokey, a touch sweet, mildly bitter. Beautifully balanced and delicious.
I moved into food fairly quickly with Baked Yams with a sorghum sauce, thyme, sea salt, and a massive amount of fantastic housemade butter. The texture of the yams was perfect, melting yet not mushy. The sorghum sauce impasrted a light sweetness that was not overpowering but greatly excited by the sea salt and the intense savor of the butter. Yet amongst the medley, the earthy yam flavor was pervasive. Absolutely extraordinary.
I ordered a half-glass of the new Hatchet Hall-Halycon Wine Collaboration Syrah and found it to be an elegant, earthy, and well-rounded Syrah that was easy to drink.
With the wine came the stunning Red Peas and Rice which are by far the greatest rendition I have had the pleasure of supping upon. Essentially a long and slow-cooked combination of heirloom ingredients: sea island red peas, carolina gold rice, and Benton’s smoked sausage. Every element is discernable, yet it combines into an ethereal, smoky, savory essence that is pure magic.
I had veal coming out, and I ended up deciding to get a funky bottle of Pinot Blanc from Alsace to compliment it. It turned out to be an excellent bottle of white wine with prominent, but not overpowering notes of stonefruit, but with a lively minerality that went spectacularly with the veal.
Finally, the newest item on the menu, a stunning Veal Chop adorned with madeira-glazed chanterlles, in a sauce of the same, and a bit of grilled lemon on the side. The veal is not milk-fed, but grass-fed and grain-finished out of Colorado, ethically raised, or about as much as veal can be ethically raised. This was the most expensive veal I have ever eaten at $80 for 10oz of meat, but it was the first time I felt I was actually eating something discernable as veal. It presented itself as a texture almost like high-grade tuna but maintaining the crust of a great steak, and the toothsomeness of a ribeye. It had a delicate flavor closer to pork than beef, and a faint note of grass and almond to it. I immediately understood why I had a white wine to pair with it. It was a unique and wonderful experience. Aside from the gustatory bliss, I was happy to experience the reason that people talk about veal as something distinct in the realm of beef-eating; I felt enlightened in a small way after having this, which is a joy of its own type when eating a great meal.
I can’t wait to see what Gold thinks of this place, but it will remain one of my very favorite restaurants to eat at in the world regardless.
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I wonder if they got a bump in business after being featured on Insecure. It was nice to see them get actual credit for a lovely backdrop.
–Dommy!
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That’s a nice meal right there. I really like Hatchet Hall. I think the place has a distinct point of view. It should definitely be getting a lot more love than it’s had so far.
No kidding. But soon it will most likely get the Gold treatment, and apparently it’s been appearing in TV shows, so it’s well on the way.
I am not sure how I will feel about it becoming difficult to actually get a seat in the place.
OTOH, tons of people clearly disagree and find nothing special about the food at all.
I’ll eat there as long as they’re open as the POV of their cooking seems directly aligned with my palate.
I wonder how Tominga’s Mardi is though.
I’ll take a hard res over a shuttered restaurant.
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True enough.
Maybe Gold will hate the place… but in the end, it won’t matter. The local community seems to have embraced the place, and they have enough business to sustain themselves without critical attention, so I don’t see them shuttering any time soon. People still come in asking what happened to Waterloo and City though, which I find interesting…the neighborhood seems to be one to embrace local places once they find out about them though.
awesome report… dope looking Alsace as well
Yeah, it was a great bottle. Next time I am there I want to get their bichi from Mexico though.
Even with the departure of Maxwell Leer the wine program has stayed pretty interesting for the most part.
Their Halycon collaboration is also remarkably tasty.
I believe it is the same one.
I had that same bottle at a place I shouldn’t name publicly, but we were having pizza and Jesse Barber was there with his wife, and opened up that very bottle and gave me some. I think I traded them some sour beer for it. Mexican wines not being more available here is a travesty as they are some of the best wines in the world imo. That bottle is awesomely smoky, and tangy.
One year, 28 days later, my initial post is no longer true, as Johnathan Gold reviews Hatchet Hall:
there goes the neighborhood!
Hmm, I can’t decide what I think he thought of this place. Doesn’t seem to be glowing necessarily, but there is praise. Hatchet Hall does do incredible things with vegetables though…
Yeah, it’s an odd review.
Despite taking about the ribeye mostly he still recommends the pork chop hah
It really is. I agree with you Hatchet Hall is very very good. And I think Gold really liked it. But why can’t he can’t just come out and call it a great restaurant? Why spend all that space writing about the fucking leftovers? Almost any place with great food will produce great leftovers - well, maybe not sushi mori but you get the idea. Weird.
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This is why I prefer the **** system so it’s very clear how the restaurant as a whole is rated. That ship has sailed but I still don’t like it.
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That’s why I’ve always had a problem with J. Gold’s reviews. Half the time you have no idea how good the restaurant is, or even if it’s good at all, and the other half he just lists the menu, usually in second person.
"…you will order the fish maw soup, and you will order the beef tendon soup, smelling the funk from the kitchen.
You will see a plate of roots and tentacles being carried past your table, so you ask the waiter for an order. He will try to dissuade you, but be persistent, it is not on the English menu.
You walk into the warm summer night with a full stomach and eyes still streaming from spice. It is good to live in Los Angeles, you think to yourself…"
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