Fat Hippo - 71 Clinton St.

[weinoo]

Just imagine the pressure opening a restaurant at 71 Clinton St. It's a hallowed space after all, and it started a mini-revolution here, as well as opening up Clinton St. to a host of restaurants, some good and some not-so-good. We had given the place a week or two to get its feet wet, and decided to give it a try last night...thankfully, it's only a short walk away.

We didn't try much of the menu, only a shared app and two entrees....here's what we thought. The hot and sour sautéed calamari was delicious - nice and spicy and literally some of the tenderest squid we've had in a long-time. Melt in your mouth tender, with rings of both red and green chili peppers perking it up. A small portion, but at $6, who's arguing?

To follow, we shared the hamburger (seemingly a bargain at $8, with lettuce, tomato and fries) and the entree called Trailer Park Chicken Sampler, which was chicken 3 ways - a beer can roasted half breast, that was nice and moist, a Southern fried drumstick, which was mammoth and had way too much coating, (unfortunate, because the leg itself was nice and moist) and smoked thigh meat, which actually was chopped and incorporated into the delicious sautéed collard greens, bright and tasty as opposed to being stewed forever and olive green.

The hamburger would've scored very high if only the roll/bun had been better. My guess is that the roll comes from Falai Panetteria, as it's actually a rosemary focaccia bun, and too dry for the burger, which was quite tasty and juicy. And the fries were, well, not even forgettable...they were awful. Greasy, limp and everything a fry shouldn't be - and as I've whined about before at other restaurants, why is it so hard to make a good french fry? Pick up the Les Halles cookbook and figure it out, dudes.

The service was wonderful, for right now it's BYOB (and right across the street is a bodega - Anchor Steam at $2 per), and they're open till 2 AM during the week and 4 AM on Friday and Saturday nights. If they can tweak up the food a bit, it'll be a nice addition to the neighborhood at very gentle prices.

[RossyW]

I'm ready for the "(Adjective) (Animal)" craze to die

[weinoo]

Okay - I did a return visit. I actually think it might have gone down in quality...my pork chop, requested medium and promised to be cooked so, was as dry and tough as an old shoe.

The service was still great, though.