Blood & Sand

A group of my friends had planned a dinner for last Friday night. We intended to go to Small Batch, but arrived at 6:30 to find there would be an hour-long wait.  (This is especially frustrating because, when we called to ask about reservations, they said they didn't take them. When we arrived, there was a table just our size - seven people - that was all set up with no one to eat at it. Upon further inquiry, we were informed that it was reserved for a party later that evening.)

One of our group is a member at Blood & Sand, so called over there to see if we could get in. We could, so down the street we went.

The cocktails are as delicious as you've heard, but there are so many places to get wonderful craft cocktails these days that I'm not sure it's worth paying a membership fee - unless you need to get a group of 7 seated at 6:45 on a Friday with 5 minutes' notice.

[Aside: Other places where you can get killer cocktails without the added fee: Water Street, Reed's American Table, Taste, Juniper, The Crossing, Grapeseed, The Block....]

As for food, there was one thing we tried that might make it worth the membership fee, and that was the Truffled Tater Tots. Delicious!  As my friend B commented, "these are nothing like the ones I remember out of my freezer from when I was a kid!"  S and I shared Truffle Gnocchi as a second appetizer, and I got the Berkshire Pork Loin sandwich as a main course.  Gnocchi was good; sandwich was just okay.  Dessert was a scoop of hazelnut gelato for me and lemon-lime sorbet for S.  The sorbet was a bit tart for S, so we traded.

It was an enjoyable evening, especially since it was all so last-minute.  Great that they could get us in, but on the whole, probably not worth the price of admission.