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| - Citizen Public House is a great addition to the Old Town dining scene. I love seeing restaurants crop up in that part of town that aren't just catering to the bar scene and making the food an afterthought. My girlfriend and I made reservations for Friday night expecting Bernie Kantak's new restaurant to be packed. Much to our surprise when we arrived, the place was pretty dead with tons of open tables. We purposely arrived early to enjoy a cocktail at the bar and even though we could have been seated right away, we pressed forward with our original plan.
At the bar, I ordered my usual cocktail while the GF ordered a sangria off their cocktail menu. We also ordered an order of the bacon fat heirloom popcorn from the bar snacks menu. My cocktail was perfectly made and my GF loved the sangria. The popcorn took forever to come out, but when it was delivered they also brought out an order of the calamari compliments of the chef. The popcorn was a little bit burned and we both thought it could have used some salt, which was surprising since we thought the bacon fat would have provided that flavor. The calamari was perfectly cooked and not greasy in the least. I enjoyed the pickled fennel on the side, but my GF isn't a fan of fennel, so she didn't try it.
After we finished our cocktails at the bar, we moved to a table for the main event. In an unusual move for us, we skipped wine and stuck with beer and cocktails, but I did eye some good finds on the concise wine list. For our appetizer, we ordered the sausage of the day, which was a beef based sausage with a cabbage casing. It was very unique and we both really enjoyed it. For our main courses, the GF ordered the AZ B.L.T. and ordered the Pork Tender Loin. The B.L.T. had tons of perfectly crispy bacon on it, but we both agreed that it was really good , but not great overall. The Pork Tender Loin, on the other hand, was excellent in my opinion. I loved the figs and the sweet potato-chevre strudel. Of course, you could put chevre on anything and I would like it.
When it was time for dessert, we knew that we had to try some of Tracy Dempsey's latest creations. We normally split dessert, but decided to each get our own. The GF got the cookies and milk and I had the chocolate toffee bread pudding. The cookies are delivered in a bag that you can take home, which is great because you probably won't down the generous serving of cookies in one setting unless you're sharing. My GF was quite happy to take home a little bag of cookies to enjoy later. My bread pudding was awesome and I wish I could have purchased a gallon of the Maker's Mark ice cream to take home with me. I'll definitely be craving this dessert in the future.
The atmosphere of the restaurant is a little austere, even for my taste. It just seems like they could a little bit to make it a little bit more warm and inviting. Service, while extremely friendly, was a little bit uneven throughout the night starting with the snacks at the bar taking a long time and continuing with confusion over what tables plates should be delivered to. Keep in mind the restaurant has been open for only a week, so these are things that can be worked out.
We were really surprised to see the restaurant so empty on a Friday night, so I hope more people give it a try. Citizen is a really good neighborhood restaurant that has the potential to be great. We look forward to trying it again to see how it improves and evolves. I'm really hoping it's a successful staple in Old Town for years to come.
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