I wanted to spend a little more time with Trisha before she dropped me off at my hotel for my conference. I looked for some places for dinner on Eater and on the Michelin guide and we both thought Coolinary looked good. They didn’t have a reservation available indoors on Resy, so I called them and no problem.
I started off with a Sea & Smoke cocktail which is made with mezcal (which is of course why I picked it), Giffard Banana liqueur (never heard of this one) from Brazil, grapefruit which was charred and prominently shown in the glass, all topped with a bit of sea salt foam. It was a nice cocktail, didn’t get a lot of banana.
For starters, we ordered the Parker House Rolls, Deviled Eggs, and definitely passed on the oysters (we didn’t bother to ask where they were from, but with all the warnings about Vibrio vulnificus infections, we steered well clear of them regardless). The parker house rolls were very soft and salted with some maldon salt and were served along with a the honey butter which was delicious. Trisha and I ordered the deviled eggs (Matthias was a hard pass) because we don’t get them often (Andrea is most definitely not a fan). They were nicely prepared with the filling very smoothly textured and topped with a bit of fresno pepper. I did find the filling to be anything special and I actually missed the texture of more pedestrian deviled eggs, but the fresno pepper did give it a nice little kick which I enjoyed.
For my main, I ordered the Saffron Seafood Stew, Matthias ordered the Southern Fried Chicken & Waffle, and Trisha ordered the Iberian Durok Pork Collar. I also ordered one of their specialty martinis – Old Tom’s Bees Knees made with 100 Proof Barhill Tom Cat Gin, lemon, honey, and bitters. It was not as alcohol forward as I though it would be since it was 100 proof (and I prefer more spirit forward if the spirit is good). I thought my seafood stew was good, pretty much what you would have expected. Matthias fried chicken & waffle was quite delicious thanks to each of the constituent parts, the chicken, the waffle, and the syrup, all being very good together. Trisha’s pork was surprisingly delicious. It was perfectly cooked with it still quite pink, but not undercooked at all. This was topped with a mustard chimichuri which made for a surprisingly fantastic dish.
We were full, but we couldn’t go without getting some dessert (several of them looked quite interesting). We went with the Maple Bourbon Banana Pudding Cake. This of course had brûléed bananas, toasted coconut ice cream, and candied pecans all set atop a moist banana cake. It was good, not something particularly ambitious, but we (and mostly me in this case) ate it all.
All in all, it was a nice meal. Casual vibe, pretty full, including the bar, even relatively early on a Wednesday.
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