Spot on.
Frankly, he is useless nowadays. In terms of informing what I try, Besha wins by orders of magnitude.
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Gold nowadays is less a restaurant critic and more a restaurant essayist.
In many ways, his “reviews” read more like he’s trying to justify, or perhaps live up to his Pulitzer, instead of just critiquing a restaurant. Which, last I checked, is what the LAT is paying him to do. Though I could be wrong on that.
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I really wish they could have kept both SIV and Gold. They are so completely different there should be enough space for both types of column’s
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Even if Gold is more of an essayist versus a critic, I still think you’re right; he spent so much time talking about leftovers that it is really odd. I would have been fine with his typical second-person narrative style waxing about lard-crusted pork chops, and chicken liver simmered in balsamic over thick country toast, etc… there seemed to be so much to write about the feeling of the restaurant itself, but all he could muster was writing about his kitchen.
I didn’t need him to tell me it’s a great restaurant; I was just looking forward to reading something poetic about the fantasy of fat, bourbon, etc… ah well I guess; can’t get everything you want.
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(edit. the above also quotes helper monkey)
i find this sort of criticism (of criticism…how meta) really cliched. you don’t like gold’s writing, that’s fine. but
speculating over whether or not he’s doing his job is just…i don’t know. it makes me yawn so hard moths fly out of my mouth. is it really the READER’S job to decide
what the WRITER’S job is? isn’t the writer’s job to, um, write well?
let’s be honest: jonathan gold’s job, like every other writer for a newspaper or any for profit publication, is to put
asses in the seats. more asses, more advertising revenue. full stop.
and points off for a) singling out besha rodell, who not only couldn’t write her way out of a paper bag, but would also fail miserably to write interestingly about what said bag tastes like; and b) not seeing the irony in consistently telling us how wrong and irrelevant gold is while not noticing his name comes up here all the time.
i read the view, and it was pretty much like most of his. and if you can’t tell what he thinks of the restaurant, and what the food is like and how good or bad it is from reading about the leftovers, etc., man, check your comprehension.
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Unapologetic Gold fan here. To me, he is one of the great treasures of Los Angeles, cliché intended. In a broader sense, I appreciates the ambiguity of his critiques (nothing worse that following the lead of an effusive review and becoming disappointed upon arrival) and the various points of view that he employs. Do I agree with everything he writes? Certainly not. But aside from Ryan Sutton, he is the only restaurant critic today that still continues to make me think critically about the places I dine in the most enjoyable way.
And I had zero problem understanding that he enjoyed Hatchet Hall. Like, at all.
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Me too. But sometimes, like the Hatchet Hall review, he bewilders me.
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Here is what I ate Monday night, @Aesthete:
Chop Steak
So rich and meaty. I love the fried oysters and watercress. And I love that it isn’t too tart from capers or whatever, like at a lot of other places.
Oh yeah, nice, that is an awesome dish. Like a kind of refreshing tartare.
It must be super popular because they were thinking of taking it off the menu months ago, but it’s stayed on. I can only assume because it was too big of a customer hit haha
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Kind of OT, but Ryan Sutton is a pretty fun guy. Too bad he covers NYC. I inadvertently came across his review of Vandal and have always had it stand out in my mind, perhaps because it was one of the few negative reviews I have ever seen in Eater.
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Celebrated a good friend’s birthday at Hatchet Hall a few nights ago, interesting ordering because his significant other is vegetarian, and he wanted to go for fish over the red meats. One of the more unusual meals I’ve had at HH as a consequence.
The marvelous benne seed rolls have been replaced by heartier tehachapi wheat yeast rolls, and they’re significantly more expensive as they are $8 for 2. We got a double order. The tehachapi wheat comes from a California heritage grain project ( About the Project - Tehachapi Heritage Grain Project ). The terrior of that wheat felt immensely present in the profile of the hot rolls. Perhaps the best compliment one can give them is that the price feels justified when you get one of them in your mouth. They don’t really need butter, but it is really exellent butter, tinged with honey. Maybe it’s good that they’re pricey, or else one might be tempted to order a dozen and scarf them down before they cooled.
Along with the rolls came some red peanuts roasted with garlic, olive oil, herbs, sea salt, and chilis. Sort of upscale bar nuts, and interesting to have with the meal, they were rather scrumptious. Garlicky, salty, just a touch spicy; a bit too easy to eat by the spoonful if one were so inclined.
Next up were two salads. The first was simply titled lettuces on the menu. It was the epitome of a straightforward salad being three whole heads of baby lettuce dressed in a zippy garlic dressing with bread crumbs and parmesan to add a touch of texture and funk. No reinvention of the wheel; one dining companion thought it was too simple, but the other felt it was difficult to find a sort of classic, simple salad presented with careful sourcing of something like basic lettuce, as opposed to deconstructing it or giving it a crazy twist. In any case, it was quite refreshing, and as a fan of lettuce, I enjoyed it for what it was.
The second salad was more adventurous as it was composed of mustard greens, and contained funky white cheddar dressing and a mishmash of apples, fennel, and candied pecans. This was a rather wonderful salad being not overly heavy with the dressing, but certainly distinctive. The astringency of the mustard greens and perfume of the fennel set against a strangely comforting flavor of apples and cheese was highly effective in creating a sensation that was truly splendid on the palate.
I suppose the kitchen wanted to give us a breather with the salads before bringing out the cornbread, which was probably the correct move. The cornbread at Hatchet Hall is a thick disc with one of the most gorgeously crisped crusts I have ever had acting as a shell over a moist, utterly delectable interior filled with cheese and studded with jalapenos, flamboyantly topped with salt, pepper, and more of that spectacular butter. The corn itself was also prominently displayed as the jalapenos and cheese were actually fairly subtle. The textural contrasts between the crust and the rest of the cornbread were excellent’ despite the divine soft texture it did not fall apart, nor was it mushy and yet it almost seemed like a souffle inside. This was quite possibly the best dish of the night, and easily the best cornbread I have ever had; the table concurred.
Interior:
And then we moved into mains. Striped seabass was served whole, stuffed with a melange of chiles, and topped with a mess of grilled calamari. It was a rather intense dining experience in terms of combatting the bones involved, but overall quite satisfying. The fish was quite tender, as was the excellent calamari. I’ve never experienced calamari as a companion directly with fish outside of a stew type of dish before, but it worked surprisingly well by giving different textures. There was also a decent amount of olive oil that melded with the chiles to produce a kind of chile oil that was completely addictive, especially with hints of the grilled lemon juice and pinches of coarse salt. It was, in the end, a rather nice dish, but I think I am not sure if it lived up to the magnificence of, say, their pork chop.
Of course, one MUST get sides at Hatchet Hall. Of note is that they have increased the sides priced by 30-40%, they used to all be $8, and now they are all $11-$12. A tad disappointing, but not unexpected closing in on two years in business and only getting more popular, but still, it made one long for the old days a bit.
Sweet potatoes were prepared with brown butter, date vinegar, rosemary, and pecans. Not quite as grand as the sorghum-laced baked yams I had on my prior visit, but still rather excellently prepared. Luscious texture that made the sweet potatoes themselves feature strongly in the dish, yet well supported by the rich brown butter and rosemary; the date vinegar cut through it just right and the pecans provided an enjoyable crunch to the dish. Really nice.
Baby broccoli was grilled with garlic and chiles, then served with tonnato and bottarga. One of the best broccoli dishes I have had in a long time, just absolutely kickass in every way. The char, astringency, addictive garlicky spice from a typical prep you see at most places that do some version of this dish, but blasted into another stratosphere by the wildly potent tonnato, and some of the best bottarga I’ve ever had. It sort of reminded me of a broccoli tuna casserole I had as a child, but the infinitley better version of that concept. The chiles were also fairly hot for the style of cooking, which I found to be exceptionally effective in amplifying the flavors of the dish. Totally stunning.
Most unfortunately, the broccoli was followed by the first serious misstep of a dish I have encountered at HH. Red beets were served with ginger, mint, and molasses breadcrumbs. The beets themselves were quite good, but there was an imbalance of ginger here (and I love ginger). I didn’t get the concept of the dish, but it tasted like eating beats and gingersnap cookies, which simply didn’t really work at all, and the mint was borderline nonsensical. A rather shocking failure amidst an otherwise splendid meal.
Finally, baked antebellum white grits spiked with a ton of white cheddar and some chives. About as simple as it gets, but just wonderful. Awesome toothsomeness to the grits, perfectly melded with the cheddar. Simple, yet elegant; remarkably lovely.
I was keeping my drinking to a minimum as my companions are both sober. Cocktails have been leaning more intense at HH, the Ol’ Waylon being a prime example with mezcal and wheat whiskey just barely lift by loganberry and suze. Real stiff, but not bad with the rich foods; however, I went back to the house Mezcal Negroni with grand byrrh, and found it somewhat better for a second drink (this is now off-menu, but they can still make it easily, highly recommended as it is my favorite version of a negroni from anywhere).
We were too full to get dessert, and boxed up a number of dishes. I would say overall it was another rather lovely meal at HH. However, having a totally failing dish (beets), and seeing the price increases on the sides did marr it a bit. I hope it was only a minor misstep as opposed to the first signals of a total downhill slide. My dining companions were extremeply pleased with the meal overall, even the vegetarian, despite the beets. It is also true that there continue to be new dishes that are exceptional, and so good they are worth going to HH for such as that cornbread, the wheat rolls, the broccoli, etc… Perhaps the beets were the inevitable result of constant menu change and the restruant maintaining an ethos of pushing their limits, they simply went a touch too far there. I, of course, look forward to seeing where they go at this point.
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a lot of those dishes seem too sweet for me; i kinda
think “honey butter” is disgusting.
i think beets and mint go well together usually.
sounds like the vegetables here are darn good, and
i’m totes up for a cocktail called “ol waylon.”
Grew up in Houston off the wayside drives
Son of a carhop and some all night dives
Dad drove a stock car to an early death
All I remember was a drunk man’s breath
Ain’t living long like this
Can’t live at all like this,can I baby?
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Geez, that’s depressing.
$8 for 2 rolls?? OUT
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the cornbread looks incredible.
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well bob, i can’t top that.
but i can try to boil it down:
“this time will be the last time.”
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Went tonight. Really excellent, I love eating here. Highlights tonight were the cornbread, broccoli, and beef fat potatoes. Pork chop was pretty great too.
But that cornbread is just absurd. Outrageously good.
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Awesome, glad I’m not the only one who liked it haha
having read aesthete’s glowing reviews, and needing to eat somewhere near the airport, i suggested
to the others hatchet hall.
i dug the place. we went on a monday, and it was fairly hopping. i used the postings here as an ordering guide,
and was rewarded by rewarding eats and drinks.
the mustard greens salad and pork chop were excellent, the cabbage darn good, and the cornbread
was freakin’ psychotic, although i wish the butter they served with it would perish from the earth.
it is quite possible the carrots were the best thing on the table. and like dennis the menace, i (usually) fucking
hate carrots.
had a couple o’ cocktails, and they were swell – the ol’ waylon and a mezcal negroni. i preferred the negroni, but i’m a bitter betty from way back.
i’m going to assume there was tons o’ butter and salt in the food, but it tasted reasonably light for what it was.
i’d totes go back.
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