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| - Basis for my starred ratings (which skews heavily to the food or drink):
1 star: Never again.
2 stars: Poor food, poor experience, extraordinary measures in order for me to come back.
3 stars: Average, nothing really special, nothing particularly bad.
4 stars: Very good, would definitely return.
5 stars: A favorite, one of the best.
How much do I miss Chef Stephen Jones here? A lot. Since coming here from the first week it opened to my last visit last night and from every visit in between, something's gone missing from this place.
None of the food we had last night was bad. The cocktails here are still very good and might bump it up to 4 stars, but I can't quite yet.
We ordered deviled eggs and boudin balls for appetizers. The deviled eggs were filled with a bacon jam that was dry, inelegant at best. But it all tasted fine together. The boudin balls were filled with appeared more to be pulled pork than boudin. I've had amazing boudin in Washington DC at DBGB Kitchen and some great boudin balls in New Orleans - these fell way short. But again, tasted fine.
We got the chopped salad. it was huge. Almost too huge. It is a heavy, heavy salad. It's a riff on the chopped salad from The Gladly/Citizen Public House. Dried corn for nice sweet crunch, lots of fregula for some chew and weight, avocados, romaine, heirloom plum tomatoes. The dressing was a little heavy and every was just a tad . . . heavy.
Wife got the handmade pasta with some vegetables in a marinara sauce. It was on the soft side of al dente, just shy of being overcooked. But, as with everything else we tasted, it tasted "fine."
This place has lost its pizzazz. The service was great, there was a loud bachelorette party going on but that's not a regular thing, and the food was, unfortunately, nothing to write home about.
We miss the old Blue Hound. Hoping they can bring back some of the magic.
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