thrillist

Replacing someone is tough, especially when they're fake-married to January Jones and no longer have any recollection that they're actually an assassin expected to blow up the biotechnology conference they're attending. Doing their own replacing without the help of Aidan Quinn, Saltbox Dining & Drinking.

After recently acquiring The Se, Kimpton Hotels is ousting Suite & Tender in favor of Saltbox: a 175-seat, bi-level resto/ "gastro-lounge" with the upstairs acting as the grubbin' space, and the base level housing the classily appointed "Saltbar" with a marble-topped booze dispensary and meandering lounge interspersed with tiled pillars that look like the bodies of emaciated diamondbacks, which are all but extinct since the Big Unit departed in '04. Centering the sustenance around "social plates", the former chef of LA's BLVD 16 will be plating numbers like 16 short rib grilled cheese with Manchego and sauce piquante, whole fried bass served as build-your-own tacos with Antonio's Salsa/ cranberry beans/ slaw, and a pairing of coffee-braised pork belly with bacon biscotti called "Bacon Cappuccino", commonly ordered by people who heart theirs exploding. And because booze makes people loud enough, they've brought in Hush Cocktails to tweak classics like the peach tea-infused bourbon/ lemon/ honey/ egg white/ peach bitters Bourbon Peach Tower, the Kill Devil (La Favorite Blanc Rhum, demerara sugar, green chartreuse, angostura bitters, and a floating lime lily pad), and the Mental Ward that features lime, molasses, and pomegranate, then goes a little crazy on the bourbon.

Happy hour deets are to come, and they're only rocking dinner service to kick things off, but mid- to late-October will see them rolling out lunch and eventually brunch, though the start of that is basically Unknown.

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