Dinner at Buttermilk Channel

I bet you were wondering if I was ever going to update this again. The answer is yes. Sorry for the hiatus - it was a busy week.

But this week brought lots of yummy food that I want to tell you about. I'm afraid this will be long, Alex, but hopefully your eyeballs can handle reading this much. I will break the week up into individual posts.

Last Saturday, I met up with TNTE club at Buttermilk Channel. After a false start a couple weeks ago, we finally made it here to try out the chicken and waffles. Buttermilk is on the south end of Court Street in a lovely corner space with bright clean windows. Decor is minimalist in the homey way not the modern. One whole wall is exposed brick and the back wall is dominated by a HUGE framed mirror. Tables were covered in white linens and then topped with paper. Our table was the family table in the middle of the room and was without linens. The family table will seat up to about 12 or several smaller parties. We were a party of seven and a family of three was later seated at the end of the table. I loved the feel of the place.

The food, however, wasn't as good as we had anticipated. It was all done well and tasted good, but seemed to be lacking that "oh wow" factor that makes you want to come back to a place for a second meal. I don't think the fried chicken could have been cooked any better - it was crispy and juicy - but it lacked flavor. The batter had no seasoning, not even much salt. A little bland. It was served with an excellent maple syrup reduction that was good with the chicken but made it messy to eat with hands. The cheddar waffle that came with the chicken (1/4 of a whole round waffle) was also nice and crisp but didn't really make me want more. We also had an order of braised short ribs, and these proved to be excellent. We also liked several of the appetizers - bacon & maple roasted almonds, goat cheese & sweet potato croquettes, squash & ricotta tart (this was my favorite item of the night), and spice-rubbed baby back ribs. I actually think these small bites and appetizers were the strong point of the menu. I would go back for a tapas-style dinner, but I would probably skip an entree. Dessert was okay but I would skip it next time. Overall, Buttermilk Channel is good but you have to want to go there as it is not close as other places and it is somewhat on the pricey end of the spectrum. I do like that they use many local suppliers for sausages, bacon, cheese, etc.

I'll continue the rest of the week in the next post.