HERBS & RYE Update

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Three items eaten last night: cappicola flatbread, Alsatian flatbread, and fried calamari. We weren’t fans of the cappicola — containing as it does sliced Italian meats (good), Italian slaw (okay), cherry pepper aioli (nice), and crispy shrimp (too much). One ingredient less (the shrimp) would improve things immensely.

The Alsatian — more of a riff on the classic Alsatian tarte flambee — containing good bacon chunks sprinkled atop crispy flatbread dotted with rosemary goat cheese crema (rather than fromage blanc), pine nuts(?), shaved onion and balsamic drizzle. Like the cappicola, it might benefit from a little subtraction, but otherwise was damn tasty.

Fried calamari — small, barely coated and lightly fried, these are a joy unto themselves, but the advertised hot cherry peppers and crispy prosciutto were barely there.

The chef’s overloading of ingredients bespeaks his prior association with that master mangler of too much — Todd English — but the kitchen is trying hard here, and deserves some leeway as it finds its sea legs.

To be continued…

4 thoughts on “HERBS & RYE Update

  1. “The chef’s overloading of ingredients bespeaks his prior association with that master mangler of too much — Todd English – ”

    You need not say more, Mr. ELV. I totally understand, and hopefully by the time I can make it there Herbs & Rye will have let loose of the ball and chains from Mr. “Olives So Lousy They They Don’t Even Taste Like Olives”.

  2. After a Valentine’s visit we would proclaim this place a great stop for an artisan cocktail and maybe a flatbread (we will never know as the pizza oven was broken.) The sausage bombs, over-wrought runny sausage in an egg roll, were a dud. The steak was decent, but it had cooled before it was brought to the table, causing the heavy gorgonzola to coagulate. The waiter was fantastic and apologetic about the extremely long wait between courses, but it could not make up for the kitchen’s misses. They ran out of mashed potatoes and offered fingerling potatos instead. How about mashing those? And, before the band starts and they hit the stage lights, it is so painfully dark in the dining room that they literally hand out flashlights so you can read the menu. Throw a few intense spots in the unused can lights, whip out a couple white tablecloths, delete at least five things from every recipe, and serve the food on time. With the location, history, cocktails and old-Vegas ambiance, this place is waiting to bloom, but unless they make changes, they will wait a long time.

  3. “What a breath of fresh air” Herbs and Rye was just that .this was our second time in ( first time was grand opening ) and I would have say it was ten times better ( not saying our first time was bad) the staff was extremly nice and informative about the menu. The cocktail in this place are the very best we have had in this town and the menu lay out for the cocktails was very unique and diffrent. The meal we had was amazing from the caprice salad to the gnocci it was all very tasty. This is definitly a new spot for my wife and I .

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