Lemon Hill

No wait on a Wednesday night at 6:30 in deplorable weather, although as the evening passed more tables in the dining room filled up and the bar was quite lively by the time we left.  Our waiter said that weekend waits have been 45-hour but that 5pm is a good time to get a table, or after 10 - they serve food (although not all of it) until 1am.

The space is great, if you were familiar with Aspen or Lucky 7 there is not too much of an architectural or atmospheric departure, the interior is very warm, good lighting, good music (albeit slightly loud in the dining room area).  They've left the open kitchen and have put some booths in the dining room.  I will say that I miss the very quirky ladies room that had the antique telephone table in it, but the renovation is nice.

PULL THE LADIES ROOM DOOR SHUT UNTIL IT CLICKS, LOL.

I went with my friend N. and we each had a cocktail, she had a whiskey cocktail - Blues something that she said was delicious and I had a gin cocktail called The Fairmount Project - so good. $10 and $11. The beer list is substantial but nothing local other than Pikeland Pils (Sly Fox) and loads of stuff from MI and WI.  I did not peruse the wine list other than to notice that most on offer are served by the glass.  After my cocktail I drank Sprecher Winter Brew, very good.  12oz P Pils $5, the Sprecher was $6.

We shared small bites and starters:  Glazed pecans (bacon and peppadews) which were amazing, Pastrami chicken wings, Flatbread of the day, Roasted tomato soup with blue cheese popovers, and house made beer cheese.  The food was great.  The pastrami wings refer to a method rather than an ingredient, they are dry rubbed and then brined - they had great flavor but the texture of the meat was off, imo probably from the brining process, and I like a saucy wing, which these were not.  The flatbread was great and tasted as our server said "like a well-made hotdog" if you got a bite with all of the ingredients and this was accurate.  Pickled veggies and peppadews abound everywhere.  The soup was phenominal but I was slightly disappointed in the popovers, I wanted them to be crispy and they were not - the blue cheese was good though (it was like a tiny blue cheese brioche sandwich floating in your soup).  The beer cheese was delicious, like fondue, with breadcrumbs and pickled onions and peppadews.

The menu is small, but varied - the entrees look enormous - highest priced entree was $28 for Pacific Steelhead trout which (all Portlandia chicken references aside, lol) is basically spear-fished by native indians, given counselling by a trained fish psychiatrist, and then flown on tiny magic carpets directly to the restaurant.

The service was excellent and friendly - all questions were answered thoroughly and well and patiently; this greatly appreciated after a recent rotten service experience at La Calaca Feliz.

It was not as $$$$ as I was anticipating, N. had the cocktail and 3 beers, I had the cocktail and 2 beers and it came to $120 including 20% grat.

Highly recommended.