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| - Located in Old Town Scottsdale, this gastropub has been one of my favorite restaurants due to their superb ingredients, consistency, originality, and service. The location is easy to miss on the street corner, and strangely I haven't had problems with parking in the amount of times I have been here.
They open in the late afternoon and dim the lights once dinner hours kick in. The interior is underscored by a full bar in the middle surrounded by rows of tables and booths dressed in white tablecloths and small candles. Even though the atmosphere gets loud later in the evenings, the venue is a nice date spot or small gatherings.
For appetizer, their Original Chopped Salad ($12) is a must get. The firm couscous, fresh arugula, corn, aged asiago, and smoked salmon was a delicious combination that gave pop and texture in every bite. I highly recommend it.
Among the entrees, I top two dishes are the Smoked Duck Breast ($28) and Roasted Buttermilk Chicken ($20). The Smoked Duck Breast comes with two thick cuts of duck breast served tender and medium rare. The pieces were very soft to cut into with refined seasonings to go nicely with the sweet potato hash and braised greens. I wished the sweet potato could be a tad sweeter for a change of pace, but the greens were fresh and delicious to couple with the succulent duck.
Kudos to the chef, I'm not sure how the Buttermilk Chicken came out so tender and full of flavor! It was served with corn-butter bean succotash, roasted Brussels sprouts, truffle oil, and pecorino Romano on top. The thick cut was grilled and impressively moist with a refined buttermilk flavor in the backdrop. It was simplicity mixed with complexity. This is a dish for those who do not like to take risks, but it's also one that will impress both foodies and non-foodies alike.
The Fair Trade Short Ribs ($30) came with coffee rub, dried cherry BBQ sauce, roasted parsnip puree and seasonal veggies. The ribs lacked a desired smoky flavor, but it was nevertheless complex and cuts at the touch of knife. The ribs were moist, and the tangy and zesty cherry BBQ sauce gave it an added dimension. The parsnip puree round out the flavors to go in-between the meats.
The Lamb Burger ($13) came with Serbian lepinja roll, pickled cucumber-onion tzatziki, and fries with house-made ketchup. The lamb was tender, super moist, with a detectable seasoning and good lamb flavor. The soft rolls held the burger together nicely, but for a dish this good, the fries could come with a few innovative dipping sauces other than ketchup.
For dessert, I was not all that impressed with the Choco-Chile Bread Pudding ($10). The chili flavor could be more pointed to add to the scoop of tortilla ice cream and dulce de leche. The quality of the bread pudding was rather stiff, flavorless, and one-dimensional. I wished the bread pudding could have more flavors embedded, so it does not create a distinct separation between dull and rich flavors. Since the bread pudding came highly recommended by the server, I got the sense that dessert is not really their specialty.
Service was very friendly, responsive, attentive, personable and knowledgeable. My meals were always nicely orchestrated, and the servers were extremely knowledgeable about the menu. One time I had a two year old at the dinner table and they were very accommodating with everything he needed.
However, I wouldn't recommend this place for large groups. I tried to organize a large dinner and the person on the phone was not friendly and required a hefty minimum for drinks. Her requirements were quite unusual since I had organized many other dinner events at other restaurants in the past. Other than that, there's plenty to like about this place. I'd be happy to return to try their Happy Hour menu and other items such as the Grilled Cheese Sandwich and Mac n Cheese.
Thanks to fellow Yelper Kurdy S for finding this place!
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