A Little Bit About a Lot of Things

It was fate when I saw Foundry on Elm’s coupon-I had been meaning to get over there for quite some time. Located in the heart of Davis Square, it’s best to take public transportation because parking can be rough. I worked with David Flanagan a lifetime ago- I know what he’s capable of, and couldn’t wait to see what his new place (he’s part owner) was going to look like. One thing for sure, the bar was going to be outstanding.

When I first walked in, I loved the decor. There is a 40 plus foot bar along the left side of the restaurant, with tables in the bar area in front-which is separate from the dining area in the back. There are red leather banquets and a semi private kitchen (what I mean by that is that it is windowed off by frosted glass). I liked the vintage brasserie feel it has. The one down side was that the two top tables were pretty close together. It was packed for a Tuesday night, there was a wait and you were hard pressed to see an open table. Any time you have to sit at a two top, in between two tables that have already been sat, that you have to decide who’s table you are going to stick your rear end into when sitting down. We get in fine, although it would have been nice for the hostess to pull the table out to get into the banquette side.  The only reason I mention the closeness of the tables is that we happen to sit next to a 400 pound man who has to get up and use the rest room and has to awkwardly navigate himself in between their table and ours, and it was just awkward and uncomfortable. We sit and order the calamari to start. Crispy and light, really tasty. It comes with fried lemons and a basil aioli. The waitress brings our drinks and there’s a big chunk of something floating in it. I tell the waitress and she looks at it extensively, almost not really wanting to believe me. The noise level is pretty loud and we wait a considerable amount of time for our entrees.

I order the Creste de Galllo Pasta ( $15)  butternut squash, walnuts, sage, brown butter, parmesan. The pasta was great. I loved the brown butter and sage flavors–they were subtle, the sage didn’t hit your right away. The squash gave it a nice sweetness. The walnuts could have been a little better, they were a little dried out. Overall, a really great dish-the portion was so large that I couldn’t finish it (and maybe I was saving room for dessert too).

I end the night with the Brownie Sundae ($ 7) vanilla and chocolate ice cream, caramel and chocolate sauces and pecan praline. Excellent choice. The brownie was moist and dense-love it. We were missing our server quite a bit, there were a few occasions when we were looking around and she was no where to be found-quite honestly I was expecting better service. I’m looking forward to going back and giving this place another try, there were a lot of things on the menu that looked good.

Foundry on Elm

255 Elm Street, Somerville, MA 02144

Phone: (617) 628-9999

Hours of Operation: Monday – Saturday: 11:30am – 1:00am, Sunday: 10:00am – 1:00am

www.foundryonelm.com

Tags: pub