In Brief: Uneven food, ok service, atmosphere not for everyone
The Black Bottle has been on our list of places to try for quite some time. There was a short period of time before it quickly became so popular that there was always a wait. We finally tried it tonight. The service wasn’t fast, but our server was attentive when she did come and was quite nice.
We ordered three items: the smoked chicken and sun-dried cherry flatbread; the saffron risotto cakes with pomodoro; and the potato and prosciutto wheels. Given that is sort of a small-plates/tapas style place, I was surprised how generous the portions were. These three dishes were more than the two of us could finish. The flatbread and potato and prosciutto wheels were quite good, the risotto cakes were somewhat bland and the pomodoro sauce didn’t really help. So the food was overall on the plus side, but not a gaurantee.
The environment is downtown chic: steel, concrete and exposed brick. I actually dig these kinds of places, however we were stuck in the back room where it 10 degrees warmer than the front room and 20 degrees hotter than it was outside. So warm that it became unbearable quickly and we had to leave prematurely.
The crowd in the restaurant was extremely skewed toward the 20 something hipster set. Again, not usually a problem, but the noise level quickly got out of control and being surrounded by bored youngsters talking on their cellphones gets old quickly.
I think this place might be a good late lunch or early dinner kind of place, but if you are over the age of 30 or married, you might want to give it a pass during peak hours.
