After much ado, Andy Ticer and Michael Hudman’s second joint venture Hog and Hominy does not disappoint.
Hog and Hominy doesn’t take reservations, so at the urging of fellow food writer Pam Denney, we arrived on the early side — about 5:15 p.m. on a Tuesday. And she was right; slowly but surely the new hotspot on Brookhaven Circle filled up, until diners were hovering around the bar, waiting to take our table. If our meal was any indication, they likely found it worth the wait.
We started with some snacks: popcorn, arancini, and poutine. The arancini, fried balls of risotto with a pickled cabbage filling, dusted with freshly grated Parmesan, are not to be missed.
Poutine, a Canadian classic made with neckbone gravy and shreds of tender pork, combines three knockout ingredients — French fries, gravy, and cheese curds — you don’t see plated together often around these parts. The glutton in me wanted more cheese curds (always, more cheese curds) but I’ll defer to Andy and Michael on the proper proportions. And lest you think the dish sounds too rich, a drizzle of chili oil kept the otherwise hefty fare from being bogged down.
