Clutch

The nice weather, sunshine and ass-kicking I got at the gym yesterday zapped all my motivation to cook--but ignited my  desire for a few drinks on a cool outdoor patio somewhere.

Clutch (no website--really?), a relatively new bar/grill in the neighborhood, fit the bill.  A former gas station or car wash or something engine-related, Clutch keeps the car-theme going through the menu (starters are "first gear," etc.).  Corny as hell, but the ambiance is cool (tons of art, paintings, photos, vintage signs, etc. all over the space; big patio overlooking a nice people-watching stretch of sidewalk) and the food is good--not great, not really "special," but good.

They take the time to make some things from scratch (which, seriously, all restaurants worth their salt--ba dum BING!--should be doing...anyone can order food-service, pre-made snacks and deep fry them.  i don't need a restaurant to charge a premium for their ability to lower a basket into hot oil).  Last time we went I got the skewered chicken appetizer (plenty of food for a main, if you don't need a starch) that came with two house-made sauces:  a shallot salsa blanca (ok, rather flavorless) and some jalepeno-lime-goodness, spicy, creamy, herby, intense sauce that the server insisted had no cream in it.  How that is concocted, I don't know, but I want to bathe in it.

Getting back to the point, it's the little things like this that make Clutch a little more than just a standard bar/grill to me.  Their fish tacos are sauteed tilapia with wine, garlic and herbs, not generic fried whitefish patties (although i might have liked a more imaginative topping than shredded iceberg--spicy cabbage slaw?); the chicken wrap had a nice balsamic glaze thing going on; their salsa has a hell of a kick to it.  The draft beer list isn't that exciting (and Oberon at $6 a pint strikes me as a little high...but the $2 PBR pints made up for it), but the table next to us was drinking Costa Rica's Imperial, so their bottle list might have more interesting choices. 

I don't want to over-talk this place though--nothing on the menu is especially interesting or exciting, and the menu is pretty small, and I'm so sick of the same old bar appetizers (wings, nachos, skins, cheese fries) that there is a lot of potential here that they aren't capitalizing on.  I believe they are capable of doing a lot more, a lot better.  And service can be slooow...but if you're lazing away an afternoon or evening enjoying the weather and the view, I don't really mind. 

Worth a stop, and worth choosing over Twisted Spoke across the street (whose food has been WILDLY inconsistent lately, and whose service borders on nonexistent), at least once to try for yourself.