Dinner last night at Northside Social was a mixed bag, but with enough positives to ensure a second visit.
The renovations to the space are impressive. Although I enjoyed Murky Coffee, it seemed to have a dingy "I've been sitting at this table with my laptop for five days straight" sort of feel. Northside Social, on the other hand, is bright, clean and much more welcoming -- with a wood shelf on the right holding loaves of bread for sale and tiered platters of cookies on the counter.
My husband had the Amish Chicken Salad (green goddess dressing, frisee, pistachios, tarragon, apricots on oatmeal stout bread - $8). His response was "it's okay, I guess" and then proceeded to polish off the sandwich. I think he was hoping for a more traditional chicken salad, but I thought the combination of ingredients (especially the apricots) resulted in a tasty twist on a classic sandwich.
I ordered the Spring Vegetable Salad -- or at least that's what I thought it was -- the online menu only refers to a Roasted Winter Vegetable Salad (frisee, pistachios, green goddess dressing, grilled tofu - $8). I was . . . well disappointed. For $8 I received something slightly smaller than your average side salad. Instead of grilled, the tofu was presented in two raw, slightly marinated cubes. It tasted fine, but I'll certainly think twice before relying on their salad choices for an entree selection.
We also split an order of the House Made Ricotta (extra virgin olive oil, cracked black pepper, sea salt, local honey, Italian feather loaf crostini - $9) based on a recommendation from the woman who took our order. We agreed that it was delicious and I tried to argue that I should get 3 of the 4 pieces based on my mistake of ordering the salad for dinner. The creamy ricotta contrasted beautifully with the honey and the olive oil. My only gripe would be that $9 seemed a bit high for 4 small pieces. But I also acknowledge that I probably wouldn't complain about the price if I were eating at a restaurant that didn't require you to order at a counter and pick out your own plastic utensils and paper napkins.
I had a glass of wine (not to say that size doesn't matter, but I was satisfied with my pour) and thought the prices for wines by the glass were more than reasonable. I also noticed that they had some interesting beers on their list including Prohibition Ale which we recently purchased from Screwtop around the corner. In addition to our dinner order, we bought a loaf of bread (when asked what type it was, the woman at the corner shrugged and said it was a mix between white and wheat) and we were the happy recipients of two Dark Chocolate White Chip Cookies which accidentally slipped off a platter while my husband was ordering. I'm not a fan of white chips, but these cookies were fairly decadent and delicious.
So we've decided that Northside will be a great place to go for brunch after yoga class, a lazy weekend lunch, or to grab a glass of wine while waiting on a reservation at Liberty Tavern or Eventide. I'll also probably stop in for a loaf of bread from time to time. But I'm not sure whether we'll head there for dinner again.