22nd
SENATE: First Impressions
SENATE finally opened at 1212 Vine Street this past Friday after a 4-month delay due to issues getting a liquor license. It was worth the wait! Although the restaurant does not have a website yet, you can visit their linked-above Facebook page or just stop by. The ensuing is my take on the place after visiting both Friday and Saturday evenings.
SENATE is a big step for Cincinnati offering affordable, fancy street food into the wee-hours of the evening. Their kitchen will serve until 11PM Tuesday-Thursday and until 1AM on Friday and Saturday. This is a big departure from most restaurants in the city that seem to shut their doors early regardless of the day of the week. It still doesn’t solve the problem of trying to find something to eat on a Sunday here, but I can’t ask just one restaurant to solve world peace and fill my stomach more than 5 days a week.
I didn’t know what to expect going to a much-anticipated restaurant’s (which does not take reservations) grand opening on a Friday evening with seating only for 48, so I prepared for the worst. I thought that I would have to wait for at least an hour or two for a table arriving at 5:45PM but strangely(?) we filled the last 2-top around 6:10PM. I can’t imagine that its a “restaurant thing” so I’ll have to blame the “lack of craziness” on being a “Cincinnati thing” since a similar restaurant opening in Chicago would have had a line out the door. Regardless, I guess this was a good thing for a patron like myself.
(Image credited to SENATE’s Facebook Page)
SENATE is gorgeous inside and looks like what I’d expect a lovechild of Paul Kahan’s avec and The Publican in Chicago to look like! This may not be too far off from the truth as Daniel Wright, the chef, used to work at Kahan’s Blackbird. At SENATE, Wright’s wife Lana runs the front of the house. Details are not missed here. The walls are a combination of exposed brick and rough-sawn medium brown paneling. The bar back is constructed from reclaimed shipping crates turned on their sides for wine storage.
Detail is paid to even the restroom doors; they are flush to the hallway and do not interrupt the flow of the hallway, only marked with debossed M and W and simple pull handle.
What about the food? That’s a story to tell, but first we’ll talk about the drinks! SENATE offers 8 craft Belgian and American brews on tap. Unfortunately by 6PM on their second day, three of them were already tapped including one of my favorites La Chouffe — so I settled for the Chimay. They also offer a number of specialty cocktails which look quite good, although they were missing the Pisco for the “75” that I wanted to try. Instead I ordered the Pineapple Flip since I’ve become a fan of flips recently and couldn’t wait to try their rendition. The drink was quite palatable although it was a bit unbalanced. I would have hoped for a bit more tequila and a bit less pineapple juice in it. I’ll give it another shot though since it could have just been a bad mix.
The Food! SENATE set out to deliver fancy street food, and delivered in every sense of the word. Their menu is broken down into a number of sections: bites, street & savory, plates, hot dogs, sidekicks, and sweets:
On Friday, a fellow foodie and I ordered the pbj&f - peanut butter, cherry jam, brioche, and foie gras torchon; poutine - french fries, local cheese curds, beef shortrib, gravy, and the grilled cheese - braised pork belly, caramelized onions, fontina and avocado. Sadly, we devoured all three before I could take pictures of them, although I do believe some may be available on the Facebook site.
Before visiting, I had especially high hopes for the pbj&f (somewhat reminiscent of Hot Doug’s Foie Gras Dog) which may have partially lead to my disappointment in this dish. It was interesting to try but just didn’t deliver. I think it may have been a little light on the foie — I really couldn’t taste it over the strength of the peanut butter and jam — something that’s normally NOT a problem with foie gras. I will try it again for good measure on one of my subsequent visits.
The poutine was the winner of the evening, which seemed to be ordered by every single table around us as well! It was the best I’ve ever had - bar none. Everything was perfect about this dish, and fortunately it wasn’t too heavy / oily as are often the problem with previous poutine endeavors. I think this will be come, if not already, one of their signature dishes.
The grilled cheese also delivered, and followed as a close second to the poutine. The “insides” could not have been better prepared - from the pork belly to the fontina and avocado. However, I would have liked to see something a bit more creative with the bread — put it on whole wheat or french — don’t stick leave a sandwich like this on buttered white. Maybe its just the Californian in me, but who knows.
After dishes like these, we couldn’t help but order one of the sweets Aside, strangely the desserts were the only two items on the menu priced with a decimal point ($7.50). My waiter was kind enough to ask Daniel about this who responded by saying that they were priced that way to see if people would notice. Daniel, I guess you now know that at least one persnickety individual did. We settled with the warm pretzel beignets & creme anglaise:
Yes, they were served in a paper bag, which I loved. What a great idea! I don’t ever recall being served a paper bag before at a classy establishment — I loved it. (This reminded me of Graham Elliot’s service of popcorn instead of bread for some reason.) Outside of the bag they weren’t too much to look at but were delightful to eat:
I don’t think i’ve had too much experience with creme anglaise before since I had though that it would be sweeter, but really loved that it wasn’t. It was actually quite cool and refreshing — which was a great pair with the warm & sugary beignets.
Moving to Saturday, I returned and took a seat at the bar. Again, the restaurant wasn’t too crowded although I snagged one of the last seats around 6:15. This time around I ordered the trailer park dog - bacon wrapped beef hot dog, american cheese, coleslaw, crushed grippos, brioche bun; tomato+mushroom tart - chanterelles, arugula, manchego & mustard vinn and a side of truffle fries. The dog & fries came out first:
The aptly called trailer park was a deserving epitome of everything American, and I provided a fitting end as it went down in large, 24-year-old-American-sitting-at- a-bar-by-himself-sized bites. If you’re looking for something that’s uniquely Cincinnati and “very American” this may be it. I’ve never had this exact combination of ingredients in my mouth all at the same time before, but I liked it. I’m not sure what else to say.
The fries were quite good and well seasoned (being doused with truffle oil to boot) but were on the large size for me as I tend prefer a bit thinner sliced ones. Also, I will say that the portion of fries was a little on the small side. If you notice in the picture, the bottom of the pint glass is filled with paper, and not fries. For $4 I would have liked to see a few more.
Next came the tart:
This was also one of my favorites, ranking right up there with the poutine from the night before. Hidden from view, a thick slice of tomato is encased in phyllo dough and then topped with chanterelles & manchego, then arugula and drizzled with the mustard vinn. I’d go as far as to call this their rendition on insalata caprese — having all of the correct ingredient groups and then some. I really liked the warmth of the tart paired with the cool arugula and mustard vinaigrette. A wonderful dish!
As you can tell from what I’ve written this far I’m a huge fan of the place. However I do have to note some service deficiencies that I observed while seated at the bar. I must preface the following by saying that I think this is mainly due to opening disorganization, and I expect (or at least hope) that it will get better in the following weeks.
It seems that the bartenders had an exceedingly difficult keeping orders straight and were disorganized in general. Getting an initial drink took about 15-20 minutes on both occasions, but after that it got a bit better. On more than one occasion I was given food that wasn’t mine as well. Also, I thought it was a bit odd that I had to give a credit card to open my food/drink tab while I was seated (and had no intention of going anywhere until I was gorged.) They also seem to have some supply issues as a few of their menu dishes were unavailable and ran out of many beers quickly. I’ll hope this means they’re just overwhelmingly popular and underestimated the amount of traffic — and will be corrected soon.
Small hiccups aside, I have to say that SENATE is raising the bar in Cincinnati, and will hopefully even exceed my initial impressions as the team wears-in. I was pleasantly surprised with both experiences and highly recommend a visit! With that I would like to offer these high marks:
Food - 26
Decor - 27
Service - Rating Deferred*
*I’ve opted to withhold my service rating until a later date because I believe the restaurant is still figuring out how to work like a well oiled machine. I’m hoping that what I would give the restaurant today is not reflective of the service a month down the road.
Regardless of service, I will be back again soon (probably Friday?) to continue working through the menu. Who’s interested in going? - I promise to be more civil in my hot dog consumption if you come along…
