H.H. Cotton's
201 Avenida Del Mar
San Clemente, CA 92672
When the temps start climbing into the triple digits, we look for any excuse to head to the beach cities to get a little relief. As our first heat wave of the summer was searing itself into South OC, we just happened to have plans with our great friends Tom and Daniele to meet up, catch up on all of their big news, and of course, have dinner out somewhere. Since we are food bloggers, or in Tom's case a recovering food blogger, it's always a spirited discussion on where we are going to eat. They must have liked my suggestion of going towards the coast and giving H.H. Cotton's in San Clemente a try.
Once we arrived at this seaside paradise, the twenty-degree temperature change was very noticeable. I had not been in this bustling area of San Clemente in quite a long while. It immediately reminded me of Manhattan Beach, but on a smaller scale. We were not the only ones in OC who had the great idea to beat the heat inland and make a beeline for the coast. In this area of Del Mar, there are numerous restaurant options; Nick's, Avila's El Ranchito, Beach Fire, and The Cellar, all of which were packed on this Friday evening.
We had very wisely made the dinner reservations at H.H. Cotton's beforehand, so we only had to wait about five minutes after our arrival time of 730. We were sat deep inside the deceptively large restaurant, which is where the air conditioning seemed to be working the best. H.H. Cotton's had a real Jimmy's Famous American Tavern feel to it, with the reclaimed wood all over the space, the rowdy bar near the front door, and the darkened dining room.
One thing that is certain from dining here, they are proud to be part of the San Clemente community. Not only do they have the names of San Clemente streets proudly displayed inside their booths and a large city map projected across the back wall of the restaurant, this place is actually named after one of the two founders of this beautiful city, H.H. Cotton. He's Hamilton H. Cotton to be precise, and he led a very colorful life, which included being the builder of his self-named estate, which we all know better as the Western White House, which not only was the home to President Nixon but also hosted FDR during his trips to the west coast.
The restaurant H. H. Cotton's is a joint effort by four local families. Their vision for their restaurant is to provide a family-friendly atmosphere, a place where locals come to celebrate milestones, and others come to partake in the full bar while watching local sports on one of the five TVs scattered throughout the restaurant. The menu, like their Chef Jason Gamble, draws inspiration from a multitude of places he's lived, including New Orleans, Hawaii, and California's Central Coast. Intrigued, we made our selections, and while we waited, we listened non-stop to our good friend Daniele's ongoing stories that we had definitely heard before since she had posted them all on her Facebook wall since the last time we had seen her. Here are my thoughts on the food we had this evening.
We were supposed to have two appetizers on this evening, but our server only put these Thai BBQ Wings and Drums ($14) in for us so the poke would have to wait until our next visit. I'm usually partial to the spicier buffalo variety of wings, but this sweeter Thai sauce was nice for a change. The wings were very meaty, with a tender, not overdone chicken underneath. The sauce was not too sticky which made these very easy to eat with your hands.
Daniele had heard that it was National Fried Chicken Day on this particular Friday, so she really wanted to get in the mood of the day by trying out the Fried Chicken and Waffles ($21). She raved about this plate. She loved the fried chicken, which she called nearly perfect. The waffle was also good according to her, and she loved the sweet and savory feel to this plate. We finally got a respite from listening to her drone on and on about things while she ate this. The silence did us some good. I thought the portion size of this did not warrant a price tag over twenty dollars, but that's just my opinion.
Katie did not know it was fried chicken day but unwittingly participated by getting this Bird's the Word Chicken Sandwich ($14). This I actually did try and it was a very good chicken sandwich. You can get this either grilled or fried, and it comes with arugula, tomato, caramelized onion, and the unusual curry aioli. The bun was nice and soft, the chicken tender, and the curry aioli added a good flavor boost to this sandwich. Katie chose the side salad to go along with her sandwich instead of the fries. It was a pretty basic, but fresh side salad.
Tom finally broke the chicken juggernaut that we had going here at H. H. Cotton's when he ordered this BBQ Spare Rib Plate ($18). This came with five pork ribs on a cutting board, along with coleslaw, a half an ear of corn, and a cheddar biscuit. Let's start with the ribs. They were dry and tough, and they definitely needed the sauce that they came out with to make them go down easier. I did not get a report on the corn, biscuit or coleslaw, but Tom did finish them, which is a good sign.
When I saw the description of the Chili Verde ($17) on the menu here, I veered towards it thanks in part to the inclusion of cheesy grits. I have been craving them since Lillie's Q closed almost two years ago now. With the inclusion of the grits, this was a chili verde with a southern slant. Also included in this was some shredded pork shank, salsa verde, cotija cheese, pickled onion, and of course those grits. This plate was good, but a little disjointed. The pork was delicious, but not enough of it in here, and it was in too small of pieces. The grits were done well but felt a little out of place here with the salsa and the cotija cheese. About three-fourths of my way through this, I had found the corn tortillas that came with this as they were hiding alongside the bottom of this rather large bowl. Not sure why they needed such a large bowl with the portion size that this came out with.
What this meal taught us this evening is that they do chicken rather well at H.H. Cotton's, but the other proteins kind of fell flat. Both Tom and I would get something else next time, as I have my eye on one of their four burgers. I understand the higher price points at beach city restaurants but felt they could have offered bigger portion sizes, especially with mine and Daniele's meals. Service was definitely spotty, to say the least. As mentioned our server just plain forgot about our poke appetizer and was not too quick when refilling or taking drink orders, and left us to fend for ourselves for long stretches of time, especially when it came time to pay the check. Beach casual is to be expected though, and luckily we were not in that much of a rush since we were catching up. even with these few hiccups, we would come back and give them another try if we were in the area, and wanted an opportunity to cool down during one of our summer heatwaves.
Out of five memoirs, (because the Western White House, which H.H. Cotton had built is where Richard Nixon came to write his memoirs after his presidency ended), five being best to zero being worst, H.H. Cotton's gets 3 memoirs.
For more information about H.H. Cotton's, head to their website here: https://www.hhcottons.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment