Still, there's big potential for this project from the newbie chefs. A plate of four undercooked beef and pork meatballs ($7) was positively flooded with wet Point Reyes blue cheese, and a puddle of chunky ketchup tasted only of tomatoes. It would be wise to go easy on the paint-peeling-strong hand-ground mustard served with pretzels. Like the overpowering ginger in the pie, there was way too much garlic in the chunky tomatillo salsa ladled atop an appetizer of buttery toasted Full Circle baguette slices ($5). If Humble stumbles, it's in balancing ingredients. Periodically, you'll score with lovely chocolate cream and coconut on graham cracker crust, or banana cream. An especially wise choice is peach-almond on buttery crust, though if you enjoy lots and lots of ginger, an apple combo brings it in powerful wallops. Try it with a homemade ginger-melon soda splashed with Champagne ($6).ĭessert, naturally, is pie (all $5), topped with vanilla ice cream if you like. Two enormous brick-red smoked Bavarian sausages ($13) hide dots of cheese inside their wrinkled skins, goosed with gorgeous sauerkraut brightened by caramelized onion strings and grated apple. Sausage saluteĪ salute to Oktoberfest should stay on the menu all winter long. In a pretty touch, tiny purple and white flowers decorate the mozzarella rounds atop thick ribbons of chilled basil fettuccine tossed with tomato chunks and a whisper of balsamic syrup ($12). Like the chicken, baby back pork ribs ($15) encourage finger licking, glazed in homemade sauce, while two big pork chops ($16) get sugary support from fragrant baked Gravenstein apple compote. Breadcrumbs and pungent rosemary give a crunchy coat to oven-fried chicken ($13), served cold with a tangy bean salad and a cute little cornbread muffin that's pleasantly unsweetened. We also enjoyed pepper pots ($12), vegetables, rice and cheese stuffed inside bell peppers then baked to puffy, steamy goodness.Ĭan polenta ($12) be called pie, blended with lots of cheese and formed into terrific, chewy flattop muffins as it is here? Strong, savory flavors shine with a woodsy topping of shiitake-red bell pepper ragout that suits the season. Potstickers ($6) work better, the noodle pouches plump with juicy lamb and ginger in sweet soy. It can be heavy, as can fry babies ($6), thick pasta pockets stuffed with vegetable cream cheese for dunking in honey-ginger sauce. Lasagna pie ($10) is a quirky favorite of cheese and vegetables in pesto-slathered pasta dough. On one visit, it's pleasing, presented as three baseball-size pastries containing lamb, vegetables and mashed potato alongside green salad in sweet vinaigrette plus sliced pear, honeydew and peach. Shepherd's pie ($13) is often on the menu. Some dishes unevenĬonsistency also wavers, although with such good intentions coming from the clattering kitchen it's difficult to grumble. Like home cooking, some dishes can be unsophisticated, and this isn't the place to complain if tater tot pie is perhaps an idea better chuckled over than eaten. It won't be fancy, it will be filling, and with few exceptions, it will be satisfying. It leads to anticipation as guests pick up a paper menu: I wonder what will be for dinner tonight? Essentially anything that can be stuffed into pastry is fair game, with a short lineup that changes weekly. Norwitt, who was previously a bread baker at Petaluma's Della Fattoria, leaves most of the cooking to his fiancee and co-owner Miriam Lee Donaldson, supported by his sister, Brook McCann, and her husband, Dan McCann. The kitchen is unassuming, viewed from the restaurant's primary booth, and contains a freshman team of cooks. And if the bar is busy, he'll stay late, often serving until 2 a.m. Want to join the party there? Norwitt happily trots over full meals, serving 14 seats at the bar and a dozen at the lounge tables. The later it gets, however, the more the bar intrudes, with guests overheard colorfully narrating presidential debates shown on a TV above the bar. Most of the time the rowdy partnership isn't too distracting, and on one visit there were children enjoying a homemade pretzel ($5), a thick, chewy twist the size of dinner plate. It shares an open doorway with the Black Cat Bar, an alternative lounge with live music and a flurry of tattered bras hung from the ceiling, which can be admired from Humble Pie's front tables. An old record player spins scratchy vinyl an LP stand is decorated with a jar of tomatillos, a few squash and that night's pies. In a 19th century building overlooking the railroad tracks, it's a tiny no-frills space of black-, pink- and blue-speckled vinyl floor, pale blue walls accented in black window trim, and a mishmash of old black-and-white photographs.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |