Details.
If a chef pays attention to details, it shows all. When a chef is lazy, it tells volumes.
Homemade pickles, flakes of Kosher salt, balanced coleslaw.
Gritty greens, under-seasoned chicken, rancid hot sauce.
Civilization, 1511 NW Second Street, sports localized ethnic food with a hipster ambiance.
The restaurant’s lunch menu showcases cuisine from India to Mexico to Africa and more.
No matter where the food is from you have to know when to get it.
The lunch menu at Civilization is well thought out and executed even better, but as 5:30 p.m. rolls around, disaster strikes.
Dinner options are limited to locally-made dishes with names and prices that boast excellence.
They fall short.
Dinner started with what were supposedly “famous” onion rings according to an ever-pushy waitress.
Beer battered grease laden onion rings were not my idea of “famous.” The accompanying sauce popped with black sesame seeds and a sharp garlic taste.
Chicken Piri Piri, a broiled ginger-lime chicken, served with rice and Ifisashi, collard greens in a peanut sauce which I thought would tickle my Southern sensibilities.
The chicken was a combination of charred and undercooked with a light lime taste and very little seasoning.
Plain rice sadly sat next to a granular mess of peanut butter and underseasoned collard greens.
The waitress, in between sales pitches of organic sodas, brought bottles of homemade hot sauce to liven up the meal.
One bottle bubbled and hissed. I should have known better. The smell of sour papaya habanero hot sauce immediately attacked my nostrils.
Lack of seasoning, nasal chemical warfare and a $25 dinner aside, lunch was a completely different meal.
As soon as I saw “Water Buffalo Burger” my inner cro-magnon club-wielding caveman needed it. Now.
And then there it was. A massive meaty amoeba blanketed with melted white cheddar cheese.
The burger was wedged between homemade pickled cucumbers and onions, rosy red tomatoes and raw red onions.
Beside the lean buffalo burger were perfectly browned and salted potato wedges with a sprinkle of parsley.
The “Blackened Shrimp Platter” is served with clarified butter, cole slaw with the same black-sesame base as the onion rings’ dipping sauce, potato wedges, blackened shrimp and fresh slices of avocado and tomato.
The shrimp was seasoned with paprika and lots of black pepper.
Coleslaw is an art in the south, and the coleslaw and Civilization strikes a balance of sweet and tart.
It takes attention to detail to bring a meal together.
Lunch and dinner at Civilization are totally different meals.
It is details that define a meal, either way.
