I laughed when Salt of the Earth's ambiance was listed as "Hipster" on Yelp. But yes, it oozes hipster. From the waiter's shirts (NaCl. Haha! Chemistry!) to almost every member of the staff having sleeved tattoos. From their chalkboard menu to their cafeteria-like seating. The chalkboard was cool, but weird since you have to crane your head over the people sitting next to you to see some of it. I did not like the seating. For a meal that added up to almost $100, I'd like my own table, comfortable seats (we sat on wooden blocks), and the feeling of not being in middle school. It looked like the upstairs section had individual seats, but that section is reservation only, and we couldn't get one until 10pm that night.
Service: Our waiter was nice. It seemed like he was in a rush most of the time...so that, paired with the awkwardly open seating, made for a meal that wasn't intimate at all. I could barely hear my friend's words, I was freezing, and the waiter also forgot to give us water half of the time.
Duck pate: For appetizers, we got the duck pate, which was easily my favorite part of the meal. And, it was a huge block of pate for only $6, which I thought was an amazing price. It came with apple slices, smoked onion puree, and a peach jam. The sweetness of the apple, onion, and peach offsetted the saltiness of the pate amazingly. My only complaint is that the cauliflower in the giardiniera was way too vinegar-y and tasted pretty nasty. Also, they only gave us 4 TINY overly toasted pieces of bread to eat the pate with. We asked for more and the waiter irritatingly said that they only order enough bread for the amount of servings of pate they serve (what???). Anyway, he came back with 2 more pieces, and said that he had to do some serious wrestling with the chefs for them. I ended up feeling guilty for making him get us bread. Then again, are they being serious? It's bread. It's not like we were asking for more pate.
I got the veal. It came with salt cod, fennel, this lemon puree and sweetbread. I agree with a previous Yelp reviewer -- in attempt to be ultra fancy with their ingredients, they ended up putting way too many on the plate that weren't exactly compatible. Every bite was a workout -- I had to cut a piece of veal, a bit of cod, mix it with the lemon and sweetbread, and finally take a bite. Everything ended up tasting the same to me afterwards. The cod was my favorite part. They were super crispy and salty, which made up for my bland, almost over-cooked veal. Nonetheless, it was a generous serving.
My dinnermate got the rib-eye, which he loved. His dish was much simpler than mine. It came with these mushrooms that were out of this world.
For dessert, we got the pineapple upside down cake. The cake was a little dense, but it was great and flavored with pineapple juice. It came with ice cream and nuts, and fresh whipped cream. Yum!
Overall, I thought the experience was disappointing. The service and the ambiance was not what I expected for a meal that was fairly expensive.
The menu changes weekly.