This is certainly good news for SS and beyond. Stopped by 8407 earlier today and they were holding a "mock opening" for family and friends, but officially the doors open tomorrow for lunch - which I believe is 11:00 AM.
Anyway, the place looks great. They have done a fabulous job with the renovation.
The downstairs has a full bar, a lounge and few tables. The upstairs also has its own bar and this is where the formal dining room is located. Walking around upstairs I certainly felt like I wasn't in SS. But then I looked to the west and couldn't miss all the construction at the subway and I was quickly reminded, yes I am in SS. But that's OK. The windows are floor to ceiling and are a great addition. It's a great view to keep your eyes on the construction and to watch life go by in our unincorporated city.
The missus and I will be there tomorrow night to test drive the food.
We'll let you know how it goes. Here are a few pics till you can get there yourself.The downstairs bar is to the left, the downstairs lounge is directly below and the other is the upstairs bar. No one will go thirsty at 8407 - that is for sure.
15 comments:
SoCo, please inquire if you can scan and post 8407's menu.
Thanks.
It's now available on their website. Check out:
http://8407kb.com/menus.html
And don't forget, when it was Nicaro Pedro often seemed open to experimenting with non-meat dishes that weren't on the menu.
SoCo,
Thanks for posting the menu, but unfortunately it is very unfriendly to vegetarians, much less vegans. The only thing I saw that folks like me could eat were the roasted olives.
If there is veggie stuff off the menu, I'm fearing it will be hit or miss, as in, they happen to have it that particular day.
That's too bad. I guess I'll only go their for cocktails and olives (so I may as well just get a martini) and people watching.
Hi Springvale Roader,
This is Ann (Nancy's NetSocial Secretary) and I wanted to follow up with you after I spoke with Nancy.
Currently Pedro is preparing organic farm vegetables such as braised mammoth judion beans. He also does prepare other vegan/vegetarian dishes as an entree plate to order.
Rita, our pastry chef, will have a daily fruit sorbet. We are serving a red currants sorbet tonight- no eggs, no dairy.
At lunch she recommends the entreé salads (the bacon is an added item so it can be left off) or you might enjoy the House Made Potato Gnocchi with roasted wild mushroom and Parmesan coulis.
Hope that sounds tempting :)
Ann,
Does that sound tempting? Let me put it this way: I think I know where I and Mrs. Springvale Roader will be eating this weekend.
See you soon,
SR
We went last night - had a lovely meal, and had a better experience than most restaurants we've been to on day 2.
We liked the: special lentil soup and the ribeye (which was huge). The scallops were ok, my oldfashioned could have used a bit more mixing, but the desserts were great - we loved the strawberry rhubarb crisp and chocolate torte.
Glad to have them in town!
I'm sure SoCoBlogBoy will post a lengthy review of 8407 after we eat there a couple of times. But I wanted to weigh in right away. We had dinner there on Thursday night and it was terrific!
The space is beautiful top to bottom, and very comfortable. I can't wait to hang out in that lounge.
The food was very good, especially for the first night. We had just a few quibbles which we shared with our server (the incomparable Rich) who passed them along to the kitchen. The house made mortadella and local cheese were wonderful. The fried oysters were good, but needed more of a kick in the batter and to be more crispy. And the kimchi scallions on the side were great, we wanted more.
I had the gnocchi and they were fabulous. Without the parmeson couli, this would be a dream vegan dish. I was super tempted to get the roasted vegetables and giant beans, another vegan treat. I will get that next time. SCBB got the duck which he can tell you about. We finished with 3 kinds of house made icecream, all dreamy.
I love the fact that you can go in at any time and have a sandwich for a very reasonable price or go more high end.
So so so happy to have Nancy, Pedro, Rich, and the gang back in town!!
We had dinner at 8407 last night. Here is my review, especially for you vegans and vegetarians out there:
First off, the place looks great. The lighting is low, but not oppressively so, and the decor is fashionable yet mellow.
We ate upstairs, and while right now the view is the homely Metro construction site, there is still something romantic about watching a train pull into a station. I look forward to the final product.
The staff was friendly and very professional. When our bread and butter arrived and we informed our server that we did not eat dairy, he graciously brought us olive oil instead. As for the bread, it was excellent. It is made by a local bakery, "Upper Crust Bakery." Once again, having such good bread in a restaurant demonstrates how sorely DTSS needs a high quality local retail bakery. Whole Foods and Panera just don't cut it.
On the advice of our waiter, my wife and I both ordered the 8407 Pimms Cocktail, which is mixture of Pimms and gin and cucumber and mint and ginger. This was a great choice for both of us. My wife likes sweet, "girly drinks" (her words, not mine), and I'm a bourbon drinker. Somehow, this cocktail straddles both worlds. I highly recommend it.
The waiter knew we were vegans, and worked with us. We started with the lentil soup, which was delicious and contained carrots and celery and onion, and little chunks of eggplant, set off with a nice helping of cardamom. The kitchen left out the yogurt, and voila! vegan soup. We also had the roasted olives, which were very nice, but this poor slob could not tell the difference between roasted and non-roasted olives.
For vegetarians, there was an gnocchi dish, but gnocchi usually contains dairy and eggs, so that was out for us. Instead, we threw ourselves on the mercy of the chef, and he prepared for us a very tasty dish of sautéed greens and baby carrots and turnips and sprouts (radish, I think, which was inspired), and mammoth judion beans. Like many vegans, we love beans, and we’d never had judion beans. They were a real treat. If we had any complaint, it is that the dish was too small. Maybe we’re just voracious, but my wife and I really love to eat, and we could easily have eaten two portions of that meal (especially them beans!) Our other complaint was our fault alone: we forgot to order the beets made with greens, coriander, and pistachio. Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it? I wish I could tell you all about it.
For dessert we shared the mango sorbet, made in-house. It was delicious and a very generous serving; more than enough for two people.
I washed that down with Chambord. A note about the cordials. I ordered the 1.25 ounce glass for $8. For just $1.50 more, 8407 will sell you 2 ounces. That’s not a bad deal, and I would have done it, but I’d already had the cocktail and some wine, and we were heading to the AFI for a movie, and I didn’t want to get sleepy during the film (“Greenberg,” with Ben Stiller. Smart and sometimes funny, but depressing as hell).
Bottom line: 8407 is a great and welcome new addition to DTSS. Think of it as the anti-Ellsworth Drive restaurant. A place for grown ups and lovers of good food and drink. True, it’s not a tiki bar (or better still, a tiki bar/bakery), but it will do just fine.
Just stoppped by for a drink on Friday, so I don't have an in-depth review (thanks to the previous posters). But, I enjoyed my first visit very much. Nice atmosphere, simple and elegant, and a much-needed alternative to the Quarry, McGintey's, Jackie's or (shudder) the Piratz Tavern for a drink and a snack.
I was glad to see the earlier comments about the great service, particularly the flexibility of for vegans, etc. I'm not a vegan, but that's great to hear. And, we experienced that kind of service, just in the lounge. We ordered cocktails that weren't on the menu, which gave our bartender pause, but she was gracious and honest, and handled our drink orders well. (and the drinks were good)
Like previous posters, I think 8407 is a great addition to the SS scene. I'll be back.
This is Ann (Nancy's NetSocial Secretary) and I just wanted to say THANKS! We're so happy you enjoyed dining with us.
Springvale Roader - you are an amazing food writer :)
I'm off to twitter but I wanted to give you folks the first heads up -
The 1st Garlic Chives of the season arrived today ... yeah Spring!
We went to 8407 for dinner and enjoyed ourselves so much that we went back for drinks and appetizers a couple days later. Everything was great both times. We're so happy to have a place like this in DTSS! The menu has a wide range of dishes, and it's by far the best place to get a drink in the area if you don't feel like sitting in a basement (QH). We're definitely going to become regulars.
Hi Ann,
Thanks for the kind words. Would you name a vegan entree after me? :)
I stopped by yesterday for a bourbon and saw that you keep fresh mint on the bar for mojitos. That's nice, but next time I'm ordering a mint julep, just in time for lazy summer.
SR
A group of 8 of us called last minute on Friday to see if they could get us in for lunch. They said they could take care of us and they absolutely did. Had a great table upstairs for all us. Repeating what others have said, they've done a gorgeous job inside - looks amazing.
We couldn't help ourselves though, most of us went with the amazing dishes we knew before (pulled pork, lamb bolognese) - just as incredible as always. Next time I promise I'll try something new ... I think ;)
Thanks for all the comments. Certainly a good start for 8407. I'm waiting to dine there once more (have had dinner and lunch) to write a more detailed review with pics. Pedro and Nancy seem to be picking up where they left off at Nicaro.
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