Town Hall

Town hall is the “chief building where business is transacted, often with a public hall for meetings.”  Well, this SOMA restaurant  is definitely the town hall of food where the public should have all their “eatings.” (Yeah, Yeah).  I’ve tried a few times to get a reso here and finally made it last night.  The atmosphere is simple and understated with elegant, multi-single bulb chandeliers that complement the brick walls.  This unfortunately does not provide for very good acoustics, which would be my only complaint.  It was quite loud.  Now, for the important stuff.

I started off the evening with a pony-up to the bar and a Dirty Martini (as I do).   ( Mental note:  cute guys hang out at the Town Hall bar, could be a place to meet Mr. Mogil.)  Menu time.  Um, what the f do I order? There’s too many seemingly yummy things.  In typical Traci fashion, I chat it up with the server to get the 4-1-1 on the food.  Most of the time he or she will tell it like it is, especially at a place as nice as this.  Our waiter, who looked 12, talked up the étouffée, double beef dish (which actually sounded pretty good – I mean it was served with tater tots, how can you go wrong? Too bad I don’t eat beef).    

I was dining with colleagues tonight and we each picked an app which were the following: Cornmeal fried oysters, Herbsaint spinach purée, Hobbs bacon and preserved lemon.  This was my choice.  The oysters were served in the shell with the yummy spinach puree.  I could’ve had a hundred of these.  Next was:  BBQ shrimp, Worcestershire sauce, garlic herb toast. Sounds simple but was so delicious, proven by the fact that all three of us kept dipping our bread in the sauce over and over again. I could’ve taken a bath in that sauce.  Finally:   Duck prosciutto, pomelo, Upland watercress, balsamic reduction, Paesano virgin olive oil.  I love my prosciutto because it’s pork and salty.  I don’t think I’ve ever had the duck version. It’s way heavier.  I wasn’t a fan.  My wine choice was a 2009 Gary Farrell Sav B. I really enjoyed it.  You can’t usually go wrong with a Sav B, and this one was just the right crispness and went well with our entrees. 

All the apps

After much deliberation, I ordered the Alaskan Cod, espelette chili, poached oysters, leeks, spinach purée, oyster chowder jus, which was pretty tasty.  I have to admit I was so blown away by the apps that my main didn’t compare.  Don’t get me wrong, it was awesome, but those apps were just so good.  My friends ordered the buttermilk fried chicken, Anson Mills grits, collard greens, bacon gravy and the Seafood étouffée, Louisiana shrimp, scallop, rockfish, crispy rice, scallions.  I have to admit I only had one bite of the chicken and I thought the crispy skin was a bit dry.  The collards were pretty damn good though.  I didn’t try the étouffée, but my fellow diner said it was good.

Now dessert time and of course, three more dishes.  Against my better judgment, I ordered something I don’t even like:  butterscotch.  And rightly so I liked mine the least.  The three dessert choices were:  coffee and donuts:  warm brioche donuts, Blue Bottle coffee ice cream, chicory streusel; butterscotch and Chocolate Pot de Crème; and warm Date Upside Down Cake with butter pecan ice cream, sherry gastrique.  You had me at dates.  I love anything date flavored and this did not disappoint.  I’m not going to lie, the coffee and donuts def hit the spot as well. 

Coffee and donuts

If you are not full from just reading this you should be.  I would like to write more about how under-rated pastry chefs are, but this is already too long.  Town Hall:  3.5 Stars.