Palomino Dungeness Crab Sliders
I don’t know which shocked me more: That Palomino is closing or that Crave is replacing this downtown mainstay. I mean, shouldn’t there be a mandate against sub-par suburban chains moving into an urban area? But that’s another story… I have many a fond memory of Palomino from my working-girl days at Target. It was the scene of most of our business lunches, at which everyone ordered the same thing: The Chopped Salad. Although I hadn’t been to Palomino in ages—is it just me, or is the place trapped in the late 90s?—I thought it’d be fun to have one last hurrah before the restaurant says farewell on December 12.
I’ve been twice in the last month. The first time, the service was so slow, the Chopped Salad not nearly as fresh and delicious as I recall, and the place so dead (which made said service all the more disconcerting) that closing suddenly seemed like a brilliant plan. But then, a few weeks later, I found myself back at the bar for late-night happy hour following a show at the State Theater. This time, our server was fantastic, my dirty martini perfection, and the crowd happy and festive—just how I remember it.
