Hotel Herman was started by a couple of guys that wanted to have a hotel and restaurant but fell in love with the restaurant part and ended up with no room for a lodging. As our server said it’ll become a hotel “maybe when we’re all rich!” They serve a number of small plates that are easily shared and recommend that you order several per person. The service is efficient and friendly creating a nice vibe in the place.
This moderately sized place has numerous tables along with a long bar and they need them all. Popular and fairly fast, as their name would indicate. Very attentive and efficient service made it a pleasant place but the noise level was moderate. We started with the bone marrow which was excellent, three large bones-enough to share. We also had the chicken liver pate, on the waitress’ recommendation and it was smooth and tasty but nothing new. The pistachios added a nice crunch but it really could have benefitted from a topping of jelly. Oddly it didn’t come with nice toasts but they did have cornichons and mustard for the table.
A larger, slightly elegant place located in a store front labeled for an electronics store. Inside is a stark white room with nice windows on one side but no art or decoration adorns the wall which gives it a sterile feeling. Our particular waitress embodied that sterility but others seemed more animated. The wine list is marked up more than others, however the foods are well priced and mostly very good.
This is a smaller place where the menu changes daily. Their dozen 2-3 tops are constantly full and they offer a larger picnic table for larger parties. The kitchen is on one end of the room and you could see the guys coming in with supplies from their butcher shop which is located a couple of doors down. The plates are smaller and most are designed for sharing.
A big and POPULAR place – and with this goes all the usual – noisy, crowded and mixed service. A very happy crowd, though, and the plates are huge but mostly brown. The seating is close enough that there is across the table talk with others glad to show off their plates and offer opinions but with so many people the service timing was way off and they would walk right by your empty glass with water pitcher in hand. All of the service personnel were so friendly though, it was hard to take offense.
A moderately sized place, if you count the large patio in the back. They have also added a room next door but it does not yet have a license to sell wine so it hardly counts yet – but soon. It is known for its vegetables some of which are harvested from the garden at Joe Beef and others are purchased from local farmers. Either way they stress fresh and seasonal.
