I find this simultaneously an obviously, irritating way to sell drinks and goal I desperately want to achieve.
Since I didn't know about having to get there early for a burger I made reservations for 9. We ate anyway.
Before I tell you about Swift's there are a couple of terms that need to be defined:
Hipster: (from dictionary.com)
a usually young person who is trendy, stylish, or progressive in an unconventional way; someone who is hip.
Gastropub: a pub that specializes in serving high-quality food, generally prepared in an unconventional way.
Swift's Attic is a hispter gastropub. Someone one asked me if Austin was a hippie city. I said "No, it's a hipster town." It's staffed by hipsters who wait on diners that carry Michael Kors bags and wear expensive shoes. Very much a new Austin hangout. An upscale bar that serves food presented in a way that's outside the mainstream.
I like the interior, which is shabby-chic-meets-1920's-speakeasy. But, there are quite a few places in the city with this theme.
Anyway. Since we missed the bulletin on how to get the Big Ass Burger we went with something else.
Looking at the menu, the prices are all over the place. From a $9 crab special to $90 for a 28 ounce Heartbrand Texas Akaushi New York Strip. Everything is combined in interesting and clever ways. Grilled butternut squash is served with granola, a cranberry emulsion, sage chips and a pumpkin seed sauce. Braised goat shoulder comes with ricotta gnocchi, a fig and tomato ragout and pesto.
I had the Haute Country Shrimp Boil. Wild gulf shrimp, sausage-corn sofrito (a Spanish style sauce consisting of minced herbs, veggies and other stuff.), new potatoes, rouille (olive oil with breadcrumbs, saffron, garlic and chili pepper.) and preserved celery.
Each of the elements was executed really nicely, but it didn't exactly come together. The sofrito is delicious, but the strong flavor and rough texture overwhelmed the shrimp. The rouille was very good, but didn't really mesh with the celery.
It was so close. But many of the flavors just sat on top of each other without cooperating.
My dining companion went with the scallops. Seared with salsify (a root vegetable from the daisy family), carrot pepper coulis and a pickled peppercorn chimichurri (a sauce from South America made with parsley, garlic, vinegar, olive oil and chili pepper.) The results were the same. The scallops were done gorgeously, but the sauce just sat there and didn't bring out any flavor in the shellfish. The coulis was great, but was too much for a delicate scallop.
Dessert was the same way. A Commander Crunch is dark chocolate mousse, chocolate soil (another term for cookie crumbs), chocolate tuile, (crunchy chocolatey bits), chocolate ice cream and blueberry bubbles. The mousse had the best texture I've ever experienced and very little chocolate flavor. I liked the texture blends, but with so little chocolate to go with the blueberry tang it wasn't the experience I was hoping for.
On to the martini. Everywhere we go I order the same thing, dry martini with a twist bartender's choice on the gin. This wasn't my favorite. I think the ice was melty when they shook the drink, because it was watery. It wasn't smooth all the way to the bottom.
I do want to experience the Big Ass Burger, but that's going to require some forward planning, possibly sending some friends down to get the table and sandwich spoken for so I can arrive later.
Swift's Attic was, hmm. It was good, just not great. It's not going to spring to mind when someone asks me where to get some good eats.
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