Will Webster House rule downtown after the Performing Arts Center opens?
Tonight, noted architect Moshe Safdie — the architect who designed the beautiful new Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts (and the ill-fated West Edge development, but let’s not talk about that) — hosted a cocktail reception at the Webster House for 100 guests, including architects and local bigwigs like philanthropist Shirley Bush Helzberg.
But the second-floor Library lounge, just off the Webster House Restaurant, was oddly quiet. This bar is often packed after happy hour officially kicks into gear, thanks to the new menu that new chef Matthew Arnold recently introduced shortly after he took over the kitchen last month. It’s a great menu and easy to create a satisfying meal pretty inexpensively from a terrific $7 steak burger topped with Swiss, cheddar or blue cheese or the $10 bowl of shrimp and grits made with country ham and red eye vinaigrette.
My favorite dish on the menu is the plate of panko-and-cornmeal-dusted fried green tomatoes served with a dollop of tasty house-made tomato jam. (Vegetarians, be warned: This jam contains bacon fat as an ingredient.) Eat a burger and share the tomatoes and you’ll be full for the rest of the night. But you need to act fast: The happy hour at Webster House runs Wednesday through Saturday from 4:30 to 6 p.m.
