Salt & Rind: The Best Thing We Almost Missed
Waterbury keeps doing this thing where you look around and realize it has assembled a cluster of restaurants that rivals what you'd find in cities three times its size…without anyone ever making a big announcement about it.
Salt & Rind has been open here for three years. We had no idea. That's on us…and it's the kind of oversight that stings a little when you finally walk in and realize the place is exactly the kind of neighborhood restaurant you're always hoping to stumble on. We had dinner with friends who were raving about it last week, so we knew had to get there.
One visit was enough to understand what the fuss was about.
The place is tiny, maybe 35 seats, give or take, and tucked back from the main drag but humming in a way that suggested word has gotten around to everyone except us.
We lucked into a couple of stools at the bar, which turned out to be the best seats in the house. Owner Britt Thompson was working behind it, and this is a woman who was clearly made for front of house…warm, funny, genuinely engaged, the kind of person who makes you feel like the bar stool was always yours. Her business partner Luke Williams popped out of the back here and there to chat, and both of them together give the place its personality.
The cocktail program is serious in the best way…the bar in front of us was lined with a collection of specialty bitters that told you what their priorities are. I made my typical cold weather move with the Brown Butter Bourbon Old Fashioned: washed bourbon, black walnut bitters, simple syrup on the rocks. Classic, perfectly executed, hit the spot. Mike had the Coconut S&R…reposado tequila, lime, house coconut syrup, orange bitters, black salt, dehydrated lime. His was was considerably more adventurous and equally good.
The menu is a fascinating hybrid…Asian-influenced dishes alongside seafood-heavy New American, organized into sections called "Drinking Snacks," "Oysters & Sea," "Sashimi, Salads & Soups," "Homemade Muffin Sandos and Tacos," and "Dinner/Supper." It's one of those menus where you somehow just keep pointing at things.
Deviled Eggs at Salt & Rind
We started with the deviled eggs…a classic preparation with pickled shallots, paprika, bacon crumble, and scallions, and they were genuinely exceptional.
Then came the Raclette Potatoes, which deserve their own paragraph: roasted fingerlings with crumbled bacon, Spring Brook Farm raclette, Cabot cheddar, house fire rub, lemon crema, pickled shallots, and scallions. It's a lot happening on one plate, and every bit of it worked. We couldn't stop eating it.
We also tried the mysteriously titled Chef's Snack: sea scallops with Mornay sauce, parmesan, herbs, and a Two Sons baguette for dragging through the whole situation, along with a roasted beef tenderloin sandwich on house-made sourdough English muffin with horseradish cream aioli and dressed greens. It was filling and fabulous, and big enough to take half of it home.
Raclette potato craziness
We still have far too much of the menu to work through…the sashimi, the banh mi tacos, the roasted oysters. If this place were just slightly closer to home, we'd probably be there weekly. Fortunately or unfortunately, Salt & Rind is in Waterbury.
Go soon, and get a seat at the bar if you can.
