J & S

S&J/Y&B

Men of the Hour

 

L & A

An Inconvenient Seat

It was a successful turnout for the first Supper Club outing – maybe a little too successful for the establishment, but I’ll get to that later. Let’s focus on the good points. The atmosphere at Holeman and Finch was casual and comforting, with the details evoking sort of a “step above your regular fish-n-chips pub,” which was not at all in contrast with its menu. My understanding of what the owners are going for is that convivial, beer drinking, elbow rubbing atmosphere you’d find at a similar establishment in the UK, and I think they accomplish just that. And so, it’s a fair warning that I offer to our blog readers about the seating. Don’t go here thinking that you’re going to walk in where the hostess will greet you and escort you to your private dining table. While there is a hostess, and there are several private tables and booths, the main seating you’ll find is either in the bar or at the communal table. Also, they do not take reservations. We had a group of 10, and so the communal table was out as it was already mostly occupied. So, we congregated around the bar area, which has seating around the bar itself, a couple of high-top tables, and a couple of ledges along the side and back walls that accommodate about 5-8 people each. As the bar and high-tops had also already been claimed, we sat around the ledges and pulled up stools so that we could talk to each other while enjoying the food and drinks. It was a bit inconvenient for a group our size, and initially disconcerting, but we managed to make it work once we put our table expectations aside and realized that this is a place you come to when you just want to eat, drink, and be merry in traditional public house fashion.

H&F Entrees

Overall the food at H&F was really enjoyable. As most of you know by now, I am half-way into a 28 day hiatus from drinking alcohol. One nice woman, albeit sight-impaired, who I was trying to explain my alcohol hiatus to appropriately asked me, “Are you going into rehab or something? You do look a little bit like Sandra Bullock.” Hmm, not exactly, but food has become my only solace in these dark times.

I tried two of the entrees: the polish sausage with sauerkraut and the carbonara pasta. The pasta was definitely my favorite. It was topped with a quail egg and came with some of the best pancetta I have ever had. I’m not a big fan of sauerkraut, but I’m told by other reliable sources that it tasted excellent and the sausage had a nice spicy kick to it. Overall, I would love to come back, eat the pasta, and get wasted at the bar.