{"id":249655,"date":"2016-01-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-01-01T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/huddled-in-hillcrest\/"},"modified":"2016-01-01T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-01-01T08:00:00","slug":"huddled-in-hillcrest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/huddled-in-hillcrest\/","title":{"rendered":"Huddled in Hillcrest"},"content":{"rendered":"

Por Dr. Ink<\/p>\n

There is some serious grub flying around Salt & Cleaver<\/a>, mostly in the form of gourmet sausages served on house buns over beds of organic greens. But if you\u2019re on a booze crawl, the establishment feels like more of a drinking spot rather than a restaurant, given its inviting central bar, wood and brick walls, and towering chalk board listing the week\u2019s craft beers.<\/p>\n

\"Drinks\"<\/a>Aside from a few industrial design twists, Salt & Cleaver is Fifth Avenue\u2019s answer to a European pub. Both the staff and patrons are upbeat and unpretentious.<\/p>\n

The mood was especially convivial on a cold, rainy Monday evening, when the windowed garage doors that are normally open to the front patio were rolled down, sealing in a larger-than-expected number of customers occupying nearly every stool at the bar.<\/p>\n

\"Fries<\/a>Bad weather really does equate to better business, provided the place greets with a certain level of coziness inside. And a flat screen showing the Denver Broncos playing the Cincinnati Bengals fueled the intimate spirit in the room, mainly by the majority of Broncos fans.<\/p>\n

Happy hour affords you $2 discounts on all tap beers and wines by the glass, plus a dozen or so enticing cocktails that extend to a handful of others under the category of \u201cRespect Your Elders,\u201d should you come knocking for a classic Manhattan or Sazerac.<\/p>\n

After shaking off our wet umbrellas, my partner who eschews light, wimpy beer, settled in with a rich, smoked stout by Societe Brewing Co. called The Bellowsman. He approved of its chocolate and coffee notes, which I found somewhat soft-bodied when stealing a sip.<\/p>\n

\"Screen<\/a>I ordered a stone fruit mule made with Tito\u2019s Vodka and a comforting measure of apricot-peach brandy that added subtle sweetness. The other components were perfectly balanced \u2013 ginger beer, bitters, and lemon. Served in an icy-cold copper mug, it ironically warmed me from head to toe and actually brought relief to a mild sore throat.<\/p>\n

Food isn\u2019t discounted, but prices are reasonable and the selection is too tempting to pass up. On past visits, I\u2019ve taken nose dives into the deep-fried \u201cbig daddy pickles\u201d and chicken-mango sausage. This time around we went straight for the \u201cbacon & bleu fries,\u201d priced at $8.50.<\/p>\n

Splayed across a cookie sheet, they were covered in green onions, big bacon pieces, blue cheese crumbles, and blue cheese b\u00e9chamel sauce. What we thought would serve merely as a bar snack turned out to be dinner.<\/p>\n

In addition to weekday happy hour, Salt & Cleaver offers various daily specials such as $4 wells on Mondays; $8 beer flights on Tuesdays; and half-price bottles of wine on Thursdays. For further details, inquire within, and you\u2019ll likely end up making this your one and only stop for the night.<\/p>\n

\"Screen<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Dr. Ink There is some serious grub flying around Salt & Cleaver, mostly in the form of gourmet sausages served on house buns over beds of organic greens. But if you\u2019re on a booze crawl, the establishment feels like more of a drinking spot rather than a restaurant, given its inviting central bar, wood […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":912,"featured_media":249656,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"Huddled in Hillcrest","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11547,11551,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-249655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-news","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/912"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249655\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}