Tag: gastropub

Havin’ a Hankerin’ fer HEARTHSTONE

Hearthstone is very zeitgeist-y. This is neither a compliment nor an insult, just a statement of fact.

Everything about its menu is designed to appeal to those who know just enough about food to want something better than Claim Jumper and Panera, but not so snooty, well-heeled and demanding that they are willing to spend $200+ dinner for the really good stuff. In this respect, it is very much like the newly opened Therapy: an amalgam of middle-brow, consumer-friendly signifiers (pizzas, small plates, pastas, burgers, etc. etc.), all designed and executed by good chefs, not a bunch of accountants.

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Eating Crow at DAVID CLAWSON

David Clawson opened the David Clawson Restaurant on October 1, 2014 and I’ve been avoiding it like the plague ever since. The reason for my evasion is simple: I have loathed the Henderson/Anthem area of Clark County with every fiber of my body for twenty years. So unpleasant do I consider the entirety of the Southeast quadrant of our humble burg that I would rather be sentenced to a lifetime of eating Slim Jims and Hostess Twinkies than endure the mind-numbing, soul-killing drive up or down Eastern Avenue to expose my sensibilities to the commercial wasteland it celebrates.

Henderson/Anthem is so generic, pre-fabbed, cynical and craven it makes the Strip look venerable and historic by comparison.

It is a collection of monochromatic developments centered around franchised businesses with nary a place to walk or ride; an amalgam of residences and businesses with all the charm of a Subway sandwich shop. There is no place to walk; there is no place to drive. It is a community without any sense of one,  formed for one and only one reason: to make housing and strip mall developers rich.

Get the point? I hate the place. I only go to  Henderson/Anthem at the point of a gun. (Or to go to Valley Cheese & Wine)

Until now.

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