Thursday, October 4, 2012

Our review of The Hamilton – Food and Venue

The Hamilton


Website | Twitter | Facebook


Food


At a live show you are often greeted with your typical bar food, not at “The Hamilton Live”! There is a broad menu of burger sliders, seafood, pizza, salads and yes – Sushi. The quality of the food is high and the portions are generous, as you would expect from all the restaurants in the Clyde’s Restaurant Group.


At my visit to “The Hamilton Live” we ordered the barbecue shrimp, the Fire Cracker Roll, The Blanc Boursin pizza, and a cheese board.


I first ordered the barbecue shrimp. It was glazed with a sweet and smoky chipotle barbeque sauce and it came out on a bed of lettuce and was garnished with cilantro. The shrimp was perfectly cooked and had a nice texture. I would say the dish was more tangy than spicy and the barbecue sauce definitely tasted homemade. It’s a good dish and definitely worth trying if you like good barbecue shrimp.


The Hamilton - BBQ Shrimp

BBQ Shrimp



Next, I tried their sushi. I can be a bit picky when it comes to sushi and I wouldn’t expect a live music venue to do it very well. I was pleasantly surprised by the Hamilton Live. The Fire Cracker roll that I ordered was stuffed with fresh jumbo lump crab meat and tempura shrimp and the outside of the roll was coated with tempura flakes to give it a nice crunch. It was delicious and I loved it! I found out later that they brought in Jason Zheng as their Executive Sushi Chef who worked in such notable sushi restaurants in NYC like Sapporo East, Blue Ribbon Sushi, Sursur Lee’s Zentan Restaurant. He was a great acquisition on their part!


The Hamilton - Sushi

Sushi w/ Tempura Flakes



They have a fair amount of options for pizza but I was immediately curious about the Blanc Boursin. I have had Boursin cheese many times but never on a pizza. It is very soft and creamy cheese and usually Boursin has garlic and herbs blended into the cheese. Thinking back now, I am surprised I have never encountered Boursin on a pizza before. It melted well and the flavors worked very nicely with the pie; truly a great innovation for pizza. The strong garlic and herb flavor really complimented the balsamic reduction’s sweet and tart flavors. The crust was crispy and well cooked.


The Hamilton - Boursin Pizza


I finished off the meal with “The Hamilton Live’s” cheese board. This is one of those instances I spoke of above, where the portions are generous. The cheese plate had large hunks of Humboldt Fog, Point Reyes Blue and Pineland Farms Cheddar. They served it with white bread, raisin walnut bread, and an assortment of jams. I particularly liked the Point Reyes Blue with a dab of jam on it to cut the sharpness. This cheese board was a great value and I definitely recommend it.


The Hamilton Cheese Plate


You can get a very nice meal at the Hamilton Live while checking out a great show.


The Venue


The Hamilton - Music Stage

To get to the concert venue you have to walk down lighted steps behind their back bar in the ground floor dining room. As you enter you are greeted by a lively neon sign that reads “The Hamilton Live”. You immediately walk into a concert scene that can only be described as yuppie professionalism with a real down to earth feel. “The Hamilton Live” gives you the feeling that you are still in a political town but you are far enough away to (almost) feel like you are in a rock n roll city.


Large black and white posters of Marley, Hendrix, and Dylan line the walls, greeting you as you look for a place to sit. An eclectic mix of rock art posters are scattered around this 550 person capacity room.


There are two bars at opposite ends of the room but don’t worry about waiting around for your next drink because there are a bevy of servers to take your order. “The Hamilton Live” servers work on a different model from your traditional restaurant. They utilizes what is called “team service” so any server you see can take your order or refresh your drink. I noticed as I was almost done with a drink a server was there with perfect timing with another round.


If that wasn’t enough, “The Hamilton Live” is one of the few venues in the district to use TabbedOut. How many times have you left your credit card at a bar or left you tab open? With TabbedOut you can pay your tab easily with this apple or android app on your phone.


Music


The Hamilton - Music by Perpetual Groove

Perpetual Groove



I got to experience the often lauded acoustics of “The Hamilton Live” firsthand. The venue may be large but you get the intimate feeling that the bands are playing in your living room. The opening band, Tauk, played an hour-long set featuring the transformative sounds of experimental rock/jazz fusion. Their sound is upbeat yet mellow, funk yet pop, and just loud enough without being overbearing. They ended a wonderful set with a pitch perfect instrumental performance of none other than “I Want You” from the Beatles Abbey Road album.


The main act, Perpetual-Groove, definitely lived up to their namesake. Over a two hour set, I don’t think there was more than 10 seconds without a hard charging beat accompanied by a groovy baseline. These guys from Athens, Georgia really know how to liven up a crowd. Midway through the second song a couple of brave souls took to the dance floor. Not to be outdone, it seemed like everyone in the building hit the dance floor at the time. The band played a roaring alternative rock version of “Get Down Tonight” by KC and the Sunshine Band.


I had to ask myself, am I still in a stuffy political town where everyone (including me) wears suits every day? I am, but in The Hamilton Live you can feel like your old college self … at least for a few hours.


The post Our review of The Hamilton – Food and Venue appeared first on Cloture Club.


No comments:

Post a Comment