Hog and Hominy

This is the second restaurant of business partners Andy Ticer and Michael Hudman, who set up “Andrew Michael Italian Kitchen” prior to this. Hog and Hominy is a casual restaurant that showcases US southern cooking, mixed in with Italian influences. The dining room was all hard surfaces with a low ceiling, contributing to deafening noise levels. I struggled to keep up a conversation with my dining companion just a couple of feet away. The decibel reader on my phone app clocked in at 116 Db at peak, and virtually never flickered below 100 Db. Although the USA has laxer legislation than many countries, 85 to 90 Db is generally considered an acceptable level for prolonged exposure. In the USA 115 Db is considered acceptable only for a maximum of fifteen minutes. The staff here should, in principle be wearing ear protectors, so the decision to actually play music here seems particularly ill-advised.

The menu offered a section of starters, then “small plates”, then pizzas. We were advised to order one starter, two small plates and one pizza each, which turned out to be absurd advice. Both starters were vast, the size of main courses in most restaurants, and we noticed that the pizzas going out were pretty much full sized too, so we cancelled the middle courses except for a salad. The wine list didn't bother to list vintages, presumably since that should have been useful and required a modicum of effort. It ranged from $36 to $128 and had labels such as Sinopie Chianti of a mystery year at $36 for a bottle that you can find in the high street for $15, Bortoluzzi Sauvignon Blanc of unknown vintage at $52 compared its retail price of $22, and a pleasant Lionello Marchesi Coldisole Brunello di Montalcino (which turned out to be 2010 when I asked to look at the label) at $85 for a bottle that will set you back about $37 in a shop. 

Poutine was introduced as a southern US dish, which I am pretty sure will come as news to Canadians, especially those from Quebec. It was a pleasant, comforting mix of French fries and cheese curds topped with a gravy, which in this case was made from pork (13/20). A dish called ‘puffball” was really a puffed up pizza dough ball flavoured with garlic, with some ricotta, sugar snaps, Calarbrian chillies, lemon, brown butter and mint on the side. The garlic bread was fine (12/20). A salad of lettuce was just that, plus a few slices of radish, served with a decent dressing (11/20). The pizzas were quite good, made in a wood fired oven, though they were nowhere near as good as those we had eaten at Desano in Nashville the night before (12/20). Even after cancelling the additional suggested dishes and skipping dessert, we were entirely unable to finish. I am all for generous portions, but this was crazy. 

Our waitress, called Madison, was very nice, and the bill came to $83 (£65) before tip. If you ignored the staff advice on how many dishes to order and shared a modest bottle of wine, and chipped in a generous tip to fund the ear protectors that the staff need, then a typical cost per head might be around £65, which seems to me altogether too much for what is appearing on the plate here.