When my boss suggested Hal's as our next stop, I immediately thought. Nothing good can come out of the name Hal's. Hal's sounds so ... Dive barish? Country? Old? I would never name my kid Hal or Hank or Butch for that matter. Then again, this is the girl who wanted to name her first boy Skylar in the 7th grade.
OK before this launches into a diatribe against non-sexy names. I must say, Hal's is a mighty sexy place. High ceilings, large piece of art, really buzzing even around 10. In fact, SO busy that we had to chill at the bar for a good 20 minutes. I had a vodka tonic which was amazingly strong. My boss told us that this was an industry hot spot back in the day and has been in AK since 1987. Wow.
For food we stuck with appetizers because we ate and drank back at Otis. We shared the rustic pizza, calamari, ahi and scallop sashimi, and hummus. I noticed a great dinner menu also - veal, roasted chicken, flat iron steak, etc. I'm definitely up for coming back for dinner. Even though the place was crowded, service was on point. We got our bread quickly and our waters stayed full and they always notice your alcohol level and offer to bring you another one.
The pizza was good and I haven't had pizza in almost a year so Mmmmmmm. Pizza. Cheesy cheesy pizza with yummy sausage. I really enjoyed the calamari but the highlight of the meal was the sashimi! The scallop sashimi tasted really fresh and sweet and went well with what I assume was ponzu mixed with a bit of sesame oil. It was more of a carpaccio rather than 'japanese style' sashimi. The hummus was meh. It was bright green :-/ I suspect there was a hint of wasabi in it because it was spicy.
Well color me surprised. Besides coming in the AK area for brunch one time, Venice really isn't my hood. I do start to appreciate the hustle and nightlife of Abbott Kinney and excited to come back and try Hal's dinner menu. Maybe even date a Hal.
Not really.
Pros: Lively scene. Crowded. Good food. Industry.
Cons: Too loud for an intimate date.
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